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THREE DAYS LATER and the limo pulled up to Roni’s condo entrance. Brax, on the backseat, was on a conference call. “Hold on,” he said to his managers on the call. Then he phoned Roni and told her to come on down: he’s on another line. Then he continued his phone call.

But when he looked up and saw her coming out of the lobby in her skin-tight gown and her up-do, Brax stopped talking and watched her walk out. He’d seen her in gowns before. He’d seen her hair in up-dos too. But somehow he’d never felt so enamored with her the way he did in that moment. “I’ll call you back,” he said to his managers while they were talking mid-sentence, and ended the call. His driver had already gotten out to open the door for her, but Brax beat him to it. He got out himself.

Roni wore a satin-white pencil gown that made her lithe body look like perfection in motion to Brax and her black skin look like a vat of smooth, milk chocolate. Her gorgeous, thick, naturally-curly hair was in an up-do that highlighted her long, thin neck, and those shades she loved to wear no matter day or night made her look so cool to him that he felt insufficient when she came next to him.

But to Roni, as she gave Brax the lookover too, there was nothing insufficient about him. He wore a black tux, which was normal wear for him, but his usually sexy-messy hair had been freshly done into a conservative cut that suited him. And it made her smile. Brax was hardly conservative, but the Chamber of Commerce, whose board he chaired, was very conservative. “You’re going to fit right in,” she whispered to him with a smile as he took her hand. “Me, on the other hand,” she started saying.

“You never fit in,” Brax admitted, finishing her sentence for her. “You always fit out. That’s why I love your stubborn ass,” he added, leaned against her, and they both laughed. And then they looked into each other’s eyes in a momentary stare that had the valets and doorman elbowing each other. The heat between them was undeniable.

Ever since they declared themselves friends with benefits , they had yet to utilize those benefits other than passionate kisses. It was as if they were both afraid to go all the way there again. They were still afraid that too much of a good thing could become too much for both of them and ruin their relationship. Neither one of them fully understood why they felt that way, but they both felt that way. “Stay you,” Brax added, “and we’ll be fine.”

Roni looked at him. It wasn’t lost on her that he said we’ll be fine, and that oneness with him made her smile. He left the country on business the same day of that limo accident and he had just arrived back a few hours earlier. Although they’d talked on the phone constantly in his absence, it was the first time she’d seen him since the accident. Tim was out of the hospital, and had submitted his resignation before Brax could fire him, and Margo had only stayed overnight in the hospital for observation. She was still badly shaken by the accident, but otherwise okay. But Roni had never felt closer to Brax than she did in that very moment standing there. And Brax felt the same toward her.

He assisted her into the limo, he got in on the opposite side, and his brand-new driver, hurrying behind him, closed the door behind him and got in behind the wheel. And they were off to the annual Victorville Chamber of Commerce Awards.

Roni, who was seated in the middle, and Brax, who had moved to the middle to be shoulder-to-shoulder with her, took her hand, rubbed it, and then held it by sitting it on his lap. She could tell he was staring at her. She looked at him.

“I know you don’t like these functions.”

“No, I do not,” Roni said firmly. “I always feel like a Tesla in a room of Elon Musk haters.”

Brax laughed. “But I appreciate your attendance at every function. Although I never give you a choice.”

She laughed. “No, you do not.”

“The family will be there,” he said.

Roni let out a hard exhale.

“Mom and Dad says ever since you’ve been back in Victorville you haven’t come to see them once. They wonder why.”

“You know why. Your brothers are fine, and even your Dad I can take to a point, but the way your mother goes on and on about all those things my mom used to do for her gets on my last nerve every time.”

Brax frowned. “She remembers all the happy times she spent with Miss Bea. Why would that get on your nerves?”

“She was the nanny and the maid. Which with four rambunctious boys and a duke’s daughter as her bosses, and the biggest house in town to clean up, it was a job fifteen people should have been doing.”

“Mother didn’t want strangers all over her house.”

That explained nothing, but Roni kept going. “Everything your mother talks about whenever I’m around is basically all about how my mom worked herself to death. As if she actually believes that all that hard work she was doing for her meant that my mom was living it up like she was. And all that she was like family to us just . . . Who wants to hear that?”

“She doesn’t mean it in any offensive way, Veronica.”

“I know she doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean it’s not offensive.”

Brax looked at Roni. Roni could tell he didn’t understand what she was trying to say.

Especially by the next question he asked. “So what are you saying? You don’t want to sit at the family table?”

Roni rolled her eyes. Everything she said had gone right over his privileged head. “No, it’s fine. I’m just . . . I just don’t like these kinds of get-togethers.”

“But you do it for me.”

Roni looked at him and nodded. “Yes. I do it for you.”

They exchanged a quick glance between them. And Roni nodded again. “I’m glad you chose me to be by your side tonight. I know you have many young ladies to choose from.”

“Not really,” said Brax, squeezing her hand and rubbing it across his pants, which effectively rubbed it across what Roni could feel was his aroused penis. “Not when it matters.”

His words and his rub warmed Roni’s heart both ways. But he continued staring at her. “Mother really offends you, doesn’t she?” he asked her.

“When I was little and I used to go to work with my mom, Lady Millicent used to always call my mother girl. Girl, come here. Girl, do this. My mom was older than she was, but she used to call her girl. Calling a grown woman girl because she was poor and a domestic worker just never sat right with me. It used to remind me of that Maya Angelou poem.”

“A poem? What poem? Still I Rise ?”

“That’s probably the only poem you’ve ever heard she wrote. Isn’t it?”

Brax smiled. It was. “What poem?” he asked.

“ When I Think About Myself .”

Brax shook his head. “I don’t think I know that one.”

Roni smiled. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Just hold the commentary and tell me what it said.”

“It said, ‘ Sixty years in these folks’ world. The child I works for calls me girl. I say, ‘yes ma’am,’ for working’s sake. Too proud to bend, too poor to break. I laugh until my stomach ache. When I think about myself .’ That’s what it said. But when I was little, every time I heard that poem recited in school or at some Black History Month program, I thought about how your mother used to treat my mother. And how my mother used to always smile all the way through it. But I could see in her eyes she wasn’t laughing at all.”

Brax was touched. “Veronica, I had no idea.”

“I know you didn’t. I’m not blaming you. And I know Lady Millicent didn’t mean to be offensive.”

“But she was,” said Brax.

Roni wasn’t sugarcoating it. “She was in my view, yes.”

Brax looked at her. “What about in your mother’s view?”

Roni shook her head. “No. Whenever I talked to Mom about it, she’d just say Lady Millicent got her ways , and leave it at that.”

Brax squeezed her hand.

Then she smiled. “But let’s not ruin the mood of the night for you because you’re looking mighty smug like you just know you’re gonna win businessman of the year.”

“The truth?”

“No, lie to me.”

“I think it’s ridiculous I’m even being considered for any award at all, considering I’m the chairman of the board. It smacks of corruption to me.”

“It smacks of Victorville politics to me. My advice? Just give it back if you win.”

Brax looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Give it back? Over my dead body!” Roni laughed. “That would be your advice. You stay in your lane, young lady, and I’ll stay in mine. You just shut up and dribble, no, arrest people,” he added, and they both laughed at that.

Then Brax’s look turned serious. “I heard you called Donte and told him to assign a bodyguard to me.”

Donte Reynolds was the head of security for Brax’s company. Roni was surprised that he would have told Brax about their conversation. She assumed he knew it was not to be discussed. Although they both were African American and had a bond she thought, she also realized that his loyalty would aways be with Brax, not with her.

Now she had to own her shit. “I phoned him and suggested it, yes.”

“He said you demanded it.”

“That’s his opinion.”

“He’s no drama king. You, on the other hand.”

“Shut up and dribble, no, get on people’s nerves.”

Brax laughed.

“I just think a man of your stature should have more protection than you have, Brax. Real talk.”

“I’m going to take your own words and throw them back at you: I can take care of myself. Real talk.”

“Alright, alright, I’m through with it. I tried. But I know your stubborn ass, so I don’t know why I even bother.”

“Speaking of drivers,” Brax said.

Roni looked at him. “Who was speaking of drivers?”

“Harry Bellamy,” Brax said to his driver, “meet Veronica Ross.”

Harry glanced through the rearview mirror as he drove. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Roni responded.

“You’ll see her a lot,” Brax said to Harry.

“Yes sir.”

“He’s my new driver,” Brax said to Roni.

“I assumed as much since you mentioned drivers and since he’s driving your new limo.”

“And my new bodyguard,” Brax added.

Roni looked quickly at Brax. “What you say now, Willis?”

Brax laughed.

“Really?” asked Roni. “He’s your driver and your bodyguard?”

Brax nodded. “Really. You looked so worried about me in that hospital after my accident, I figured it was the least I could do. Not for myself. I still know I can take care of myself. But if it’ll ease your worried mind--”

“Oh it will, Brax,” Roni said heartfelt and then hugged his neck. “It will.” Then she looked at him. “What on earth would you do without me?”

Brax was ready with the response. “Rest. Have some peace. Relax. Not worry.”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” she said, as she playfully pushed him.

He grinned. Then their look turned serious. “It’ll be okay,” he said. “ We’ll be okay.”

Roni nodded. Although they still had the weirdest, shakiest, unpredictable relationship she’d ever had. “I know.”

Then Brax kissed her with what was supposed to be a sweet, quick kiss that turned into a long, lingering, passionate kiss.

Harry Bellamy glanced at them through the rearview. He had been wondering what kind of relationship those two actually had. He wasn’t wondering anymore.