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“I’ll do a bottle of the Opus One ,” I ordered, not even having to look at the wine menu because I knew what I had a taste for, for the night.

I wanted something smooth, and rich. This bottle alone was $500.

I could easily pay for it, but I was sitting in front of a man that would feel disrespected if I told the waitress to split our bill, so everything I was ordering tonight was going to be on his tab.

Law knew the price of the bottle and knew that he would be taking care of it, but he didn’t even flinch when he heard what I was ordering.

He casually ordered an old fashioned, just like I knew he would.

We put appetizers in, and the waitress left, leaving just the two of us at the table.

“Alright, we can start now. Ima pull my phone out and take notes. What all you know about that nigga?” he asked, getting right to the matter of what we were here for. I was glad that he chose to keep it strictly business. Our personal problems wasn’t important right now.

I scooted up in the chair a little bit, thinking about where I should start.

“His real name is Reginold Brown. Everyone calls him Reggie though. He’s from Broward county.

Troubled kid, just like a lot of the clients that I take on.

I know he has a record jotting back to like thirteen years old, so you can’t even try to pull that trick in court with this being his first offense because it’s not.

He’s been getting in trouble with the law.

We had to really clean up his image when he signed with us a year ago.

Everything on his social media accounts were ‘rest in peace’ post to his niggas and just hood shit like that.

Guns, drugs, all that kind of stuff was on his profile, and we had him remove it.

Reggie has a lot of friends. You know that all my artist are damn near signed to the same label, so I know from the label executive Chris that when Reggie goes in for his sessions, he’s in there with at least twenty of his home boys.

If you sit, and talk with Reggie though, that boy is smart, and he articulates himself well.

I remember when I first met him. I asked him why he didn’t go off to college, and he laughed, telling me that he wanted quick money.

He has a good heart too. I remember him telling me how important it was for him to give back to his community, and the rec centers he wants to open.

He did a big toy drive last year for Christmas, and this past school year.

It’s the people that he’s hanging with that’s going to lead him down a world of destruction,” I shared with him, and as I was saying these things, his left hand was moving, using his fingers to key in important notes in his phone.

Law was left-handed, and he passed that down to Legend.

“I went on social media earlier. Him, and his niggas be throwing up gang signs. All of them got the same shit tatted on them. That young nigga in a gang, Ya. He exposing his affiliation right there,” he said.

“I asked him about that though. You know all of that was a part of the image control process when he first came over to us. According to him, that’s brotherhood.

He says that all of them are from the same hood, and they’ve known each other since they were in elementary school.

They name of the brotherhood is called ‘Lo-bro’.

It’s supposed to mean loyalty, and brotherhood.

As far as gangs signs, he said that’s not what it is, either.

It’s supposed to be a hand signal to represent loyalty, and brotherhood,” I shared.

“Man, do anything about them young niggas give that their good citizens, with a brotherhood to stick together, and do positive things in the world? Ya, they look like straight killers. Everything you just told me, the feds not buying that shit. It’s damn near twenty of them niggas, all throwing up the same set, matching neck, face, and hand tattoos.

They don’t look like no fuckin brotherhood that’s doing charity work.

They look like killas, dealers, and they apart of an enterprise.

That’s all the feds need,” he shot, and I got quite.

“So, how can you prove that Reggie is innocent then?” I asked.

At the same time, our server was coming back over.

She had my bottle of wine, and Law’s old fashioned.

She sat his drink down first. After that, she showed me the bottle, just so that I could confirm that it was the correct bottle.

Once I did, she used her wine key, where she opened the bottle right in front of me.

She poured just a sample pour for me, handed me the glass, so that I could taste it, and upon my approval, she poured more in the glass for me.

Because Law and I were in the middle of a conversation, he let her know to come came for our entrees, and she let him know that that was fine, and walked away.

“You think that nigga innocent? Keep it a buck with me. Don’t vouch for that nigga, just because you know him, and have a relationship with him,” Law wanted to know. I was holding the wine glass in my hand. I felt like I needed a sip before I answered that question, so I did just that.

“If his friends are out there robbing, killing, and whatever else, my honest answer is I don’t think Reggie is a part of that.

He’s hungry for his rap career. Now, if you ask me do I think that Reggie has always been innocent, then my answer is no.

He may have bodies under his belt. He may even have a bunch of other dirty work on his hands.

That’s my question though, Law. How will you prove he’s innocent?

Because if you can’t then this takes me back to what I said to you earlier when I told you not to take on this case.

The backlash will be too much,” I said, hating that I gave a fuck.

I would lose my fuckin mind if something happened to Law.

“Don’t doubt me. When it comes to your career, I never doubt you, so don’t do that shit with me-

“I don’t doubt you, Sevyn! If anything, I’m fuckin scared!” my voice raised a little bit, looking him in his eyes, needing him to know how serious I was being.

“To answer your question though, right now, the feds only have assumptions. You don’t put people behind bars based on assumptions.

You need facts, and facts is what I’m going to bring to court,” he kept it simple, and then he picked his glass up, so that he could take a sip.

The wine I was drinking was shooting right down to my pussy, so seeing the way he picked his glass up, and drank from what was inside, had my pussy pulsating, and I never wanted to be what was inside of his glass so badly.

The waitress came over with the appetizers, and once she sat everything down, we were ready to put in our entrees.

I went with the spicy rigatoni, asking for extra sauce because I liked mine to be very creamy.

Law ordered the porterhouse steak for two, but his appetite was huge, so I knew that he would clear his plate on his own.

To go with his porterhouse, he added roasted potatoes, and creamed spinach.

It was going to be so hard to not eat off his plate when his food came, especially with the creamed spinach.

During our years of being in love, it was always second nature for me to want to sample whatever it was that he was having.

I liked steak, but I just didn’t want steak tonight for my entrée, but I knew the second his food was placed in front of him, and he sliced his medium well steak, and I could see the juices pouring out of it after it was sliced, I was going to want a piece, but I wasn’t going to ask.

I understood that we weren’t on that kind of timing anymore.

While we waited for our entrees, and while we enjoyed our appetizers, I shared everything about Reggie to Law that would be beneficial to him in getting started with this case. While he ate, he still had his phone on the table, so he was multitasking by taking notes.

The food eventually came, and during dinner, we kind of took a pause on all the talk about Reggie, so that we could enjoy our meal.

I was about halfway through the bottle of wine that I’d ordered for the table, so I was feeling good.

My food was so good that I was damn near moaning with each bite.

Law had already cut his steak the way he wanted it, and I kept stealing glances at that, along with his creamed spinach, and roasted potatoes. I wanted to try his food so badly.

“Take it, bruh,” he let out, knowing me so well, that he knew I wanted to sample it. For Law to offer his food to me, that only meant that his love for me still ran deep because him, and our boys didn’t play about their food. The last thing they would ever want to do was share anything.

“I don’t want it,” I lied to him.

“Yes, you do. You keep looking over here. Take it,” he released again.

I chuckled, and I used my fork to reach over, and I stabbed it into one of the pieces of steak that he already had cut.

I placed it on one of the small, sharable plates that was sitting next to me, and once I sat it, I grabbed a little bit of the roasted potatoes, and some of his creamed spinach.

Once I had everything that I needed, I thanked him, and he just shook his head at me.

We finished our dinner in silence. I was stuffed, so when the waitress came over, and handed us the dessert menu, asking us if there was anything on the menu that we wanted to try, I simply let her know that I was fine.

Law did the same. She cleared the table from the plates, and we both finished all our food, so there wasn’t anything to pack up, and take for later.

I did have a little bit left of my wine, and we didn’t leave the table until I finished the bottle.