Page 48 of Tangled Hearts

Noir stepped out of the bedroom in a short silk dress that stopped at the middle of her light brown thighs. Her heels clicked softly against the polished floor as she turned around in a slow circle. “What do you think about this?” she asked, pausing so Cash could take her in.

Cash leaned back into the sofa, one arm stretched along the back, the other already settled on her ass once she was close enough for him to touch. His eyes traveled over her deliberately, no rush in his gaze.

“It’s fire,” he approved. “You’re gonna have every nigga in the club staring.” He kissed her leg through the satin fabric.

Her mouth curled into a smirk as she slid her fingers through the length of his hair, twisting a section. “Everything I try on, you say it looks good.”

“Because it does,” he said, kissing her thigh before leaning back again. “My stylist doesn’t miss.”

She kissed her teeth moving back to the rack of clothes.

On the table nearby, her phone buzzed for the third time in a row. The name lighting up the screen made her exhale sharply. Christian. She glanced at it, then flipped it face down.

“You’re not gonna answer him?” Cash voice seemed unbothered, though his eyes didn’t leave her.

“I’m not about to argue before I go out tonight,” Noir replied, settling against him. “He’ll be fine.”

Cash shook his head, his thumb sliding across his own phone. “You can’t run to me every time you get into it with him.”

“Cash…” Her warning held no bite. “I can go.”

“That ain’t what I said, pretty girl.”

“That’s what I’m hearing.” Noir started slipping out of the dress.

“Of course it is,” Cash scoffed. “You hear what you wanna hear ‘cause it’s easier than facing what’s real.”

Her hands paused. “And what’s real?” Her face bunched.

“That you want me.” His voice dropped, cockily. “Always have. But you don’t know what to do with that ‘cause you still stuck on him.”

Noir’s heart hammered against her chest. He wasn’t wrong, and that made her bristle. “You act like it’s that simple.”

“It is that simple,” he countered, eyes never leaving hers. “You love him, cool. I ain’t mad at it. But you feel me too, and we both know it. You just too scared to admit it ‘cause you don’t wanna look disloyal.”

Her jaw tightened as she slipped the straps of her shoes off with each opposite foot.

She did it more so to break eye contact more than anything else.

Inside, she hated how seen she felt. She wanted to snap back, but the truth in his tone sat heavily.

“You think you know me better than I know myself,” she muttered.

Cash leaned closer, brushing his lips against the side of her face before whispering, “I do. Been knowing you since you was running around the block with your little camera, swearing you was gon’ be famous one day.

I knew it then, and I know it now—you feel me the same way I feel you. You just don’t wanna choose it.”

Noir let out a shaky laugh, fingers twisting her skin. His words cracked something in her, but she masked it with bravado. “You talk too much shit, Cash.”

“And you run too much,” he shot back. “But I’m right here every time you circle back. Remember that.”

“I just got out of something,” Noir admitted. “Kinda still in it if I’m being honest. I joke about getting over one man under the next man, but I don’t really think that’s what I want.”

Cash shifted, pulling her closer. His mustache grazed the side of her face as he spoke into her ear.

“Shit, we ain’t gotta move fast. Let a nigga court you ‘cause you too pretty to half ass it. I want you to see what I’m about now… see if this some shit you want, ‘cause I’m a forever type nigga.”

Noir closed her eyes, letting his words sink in.

The steadiness in his tone was different—unrushed and patient like he wasn’t trying to trap her.

Only trying to show her something better.

It shook her a little. She wasn’t used to being given options.

With Christian, it was all or nothing. Love drenched in chaos and ownership.

With Cash, it was freedom laced with a pinky promise.

Her heart stuttered in the space between the two. And maybe that was the problem. Her heart had never learned how to beat for one man without keeping rhythm for another.

The truth sat heavy in her chest. Tangled hearts ain’t always broken… but they rarely come out clean.

Sometimes love was a wound that bled out slowly. Sometimes it was a balm that healed you while still leaving a scar. Most times, it was both.

Noir swallowed, whispering, “and what if I can’t give you what you want?”

Cash tilted her chin so her eyes met his.

“Then you can’t. But you gon’ know it’s ‘cause you ain’t ready…

not ‘cause I ain’t worthy.” His hand slid down her thigh.

“That’s the difference. A man who loves you good don’t make you question if you’re enough.

He makes you question if you’re willing to meet him where he stands. ”

His words cut through her defenses. And deep down she knew—Christian loved her, but his love was fire. Cash’s love, if she let it, might be water.

Her voice trembled even as she smirked. “You be saying all the right shit.”

His husky laugh broke the awkward air. “That’s ‘cause I mean that shit. Pretty words don’t mean nothing if a man can’t stand on them. I been watching you, Noir, since we was kids. I don’t want a piece of you—I want all of you, whenever you ready to give it.”

She leaned back against him, his palm anchoring her at the curve of her waist. Just for a little while, she allowed herself to imagine it…

what it would feel like to step into something softer.

But then her phone lit up again across the table, Christian’s name burning bright in the silence even with the phone face down. She could still feel him.

Her chest tightened, and she exhaled.

Tangled hearts always left you choosing. Sometimes between right and wrong. Sometimes between two kinds of love. And sometimes between who you used to be and who you still had a chance to become.

With her chest pulled tight, she forced herself to grin. “Go get dressed. I’m the only one putting on a show right now.”

Cash smirked, kissing the top of her head, before he disappeared toward the bedroom.

Noir plopped her body onto the couch after she tied her robe around her body. She sat in his place, scrolling absently through her phone, though her eyes kept straying to the notifications she wasn’t ready to open. Christian’s name was still there, still loud in her peaceful silence.

From the back, she heard Cash’s voice as he handled a call with his team.

He was in the big leagues now. Studio bookings, features he needed cleared, and deadlines that kept stacking up.

He was always moving. Always working. Watching him made her feel restless with herself, like she should be doing more.

His grind made her want to get serious about her own again, and she loved that about him.

By the time he came back, his sisters had already let themselves in.

The front door swung open before Noir even realized, and they walked in like they owned the place dropping their bags by the door like they’d done a hundred times.

Teenagers now. Fourteen and seventeen, but still loud and full of energy, still sweet.

“Noir?” the oldest, Binky broke into a grin. “Girl, I ain’t seen you in forever.”

Mook, the youngest chimed in, “Remember when you used to braid all our baby doll’s hair?”

Noir laughed, shaking her head as she stood up to hug them both. “Y’all still remember that? Y’all was bad little girls running up and down the street all hours.”

“We wasn’t bad,” Mook corrected lying through her smirk. “We was outside.” She wagged her tongue making Noir laugh.

“Where my ugly brother?” Binky asked, landing hard on the couch.

“Back there finding something to wear,” Noir nodded to the back of the condo.

Mook eyed Noir from her white polished toes to her pinned curls. “Where y’all going or was y’all having sex?”

“Mook!” Noir screeched.

Mook waved her off. “Girl, I’m fourteen… I know what sex is and what it means when somebody walking around naked.”

Binky hollered.

“Girl, I was trying on clothes,” Noir explained, brushing her dress down like she had to prove it.

“Mhm… that’s what my mama say when her little friend be over there,” Mook shot back, squinting at Noir.

“Mook, don’t tell too much of mama’s business. You know we don’t even do all that,” Binky fussed with her lips twisted.

“Noir ain’t nobody,” Mook justified.

Noir glanced between them. They were still bad as hell. She wanted to laugh, but she wasn’t about to play with nobody’s kids.

Cash stepped out from the back in a fresh white tee and ball shorts with his chain shining around his neck.

“Um, I thought you was getting ready?” Noir frowned. She already knew they were going to be running late for their dinner reservation.

“My mama called and said the girls was coming up to get some money,” he spoke casually.

“And is,” Binky agreed, holding her hand out.

Cash smacked her palm instead. “Let me see them grades first.”

Binky rolled her eyes but started pulling her phone out. “Boy, you sound like Mama. Always tryna check something.”

“That’s what I’m supposed to do,” Cash countered.

Noir watched the whole thing from the couch just soaking in how naturally he handled them. It was second nature. She remembered when he was younger, hustling just to keep food in the fridge and to help his mama with a light bill. Back then he didn’t have much, but he made sure they had something.