Free You Can't Help Who You Love by Tierra Hopkins Page B

said, dragging the word fine out.
    “Whatever lil nigga, I felt like you was peeking at me,” he chuckled.
    “Nigga, please, I was dressed and ready way before your slow, molasses in the ass.” I mushed his head. “Come take a picture with me. Matter of fact, that’s what I want to do today. Being that we just made it official, let’s go take some pictures. I’m convinced we will be together for a while, so we can make a photo album of us growing as one,” I said, smiling. I was happy and I wasn’t going to hide that I was.
    “Bet, let’s do it then.” He smiled back at me, winking his eye. He grabbed my waist and let me take two pictures, so I could send them to him and place it on my lock screen and wallpaper. He horseplayed the entire way to his car. I was really in a happy place and I couldn’t even deny it.

Dallas
    To say I was feeling damn good was an understatement. Money was flowing in left and right and I got a woman who down for the ride. Life was going hella good right now. I walked outside, hand and hand with my girl. She wanted to take pictures today, so who was I to tell her no? I opened the door to my black on black F150 and allowed her to jump in. “Thank you, punk,” she said, mushing me again.
    “Yeah whatever!” I replied back to her.
    “No music, let’s talk,” she said, popping my hand from the radio dial.
    “Talk about what?” I asked her.
    “Life. Just because we just made everything official doesn’t mean that us talking stops right there. I want to know your fears, what makes you happy. I want to know the whole nine,” she told me. If I didn’t know that I had a down ass bitch earlier, I knew I definitely did now. There hasn’t been another woman that has yet to ask me those questions. It made me feel like she really cared. So, I did what she wanted me to.
    “My biggest fear is dying broke.” The look she gave me was like ‘what you mean?’ So, I continued. “When I was born, I didn’t have nothing. As the years progressed, I didn’t have nothing.  All I had was parents who ran out on me. It’s just me now and I’m alone. Some often, I wonder why I work like I do. It’s because I never want to be that boy, well man now, that has worked hard as I have and have nothing to show for it. If I was to die right now, right here, at least I will die knowing that I didn’t live my life and work this hard JUST to pay bills. If I want to, I can go to any exotic place anywhere in the world. But, I don’t. Anyways, I just don’t want to die broke. But now that I have you, you’ve became my biggest fear. Losing you, I just wouldn’t be able to handle it,” I told her sincerely. She nodded her head, showing me that she respected what I was saying. Nobody knew how it felt to have basically nothing and to be clowned because you couldn’t keep up with the Jones’. Shit, when I was young, I went through it all, but I must say, that shit humbled a nigga.
    “The only thing that makes me happy right now is that I’m not how I was. I don’t attend church, but I thank the most high because He got me out of the bind I was in. He saw fit for me to be the way I am. You make a nigga happy too, ma. Believe that. I might be a dick and I know you still have the image of catching me in your bathroom with Danielle, but she just caught me off guard and I swear I’ll never place you in that position again. It hurts me to know that I hurt you. Yeah, I know I’m cocky as fuck and arrogant as shit, but I’m a real nigga before all that and I can admit when I’m wrong. I was wrong and I will spend forever trying to make it better. You got me feeling shit I never felt before and all I know is a nigga ain’t ready to lose it, not now, shit, not ever,” I told her, truly speaking from the heart. I never had a bitch put me in this place. But, Miracle wasn’t just some bitch. She was a woman, mature as fuck for her age, and I know she down to ride.
    She dropped the conversation, then