Page 201 of Own It

Mylo was less talkative, trying his best to break free from the officer and get at the man.

“Mylo, stop!” I yelled, catching his eyes when I heard the policemen attempting to cuff him while saying he was going to charge him with resisting if he didn’t chill.

Mylo relaxed physically once his eyes landed on me, dropping his head and allowing the officer to lock the cuffs around his wrists.

The two men led Mylo and his opponent to separate trucks, thankfully, and I stood there, feeling people stare at me, and unable to look back. Returning to the table, I grabbed my purse and retrieved my iPhone, dialing Rakim.

“Yeah? You good?” He picked up in the same way he always did.

“Mylo got arrested!” I screamed, and Rakim was silent for a moment.

“What? Where you at?”

“I’m at Third Street Promenade at Cabo Cantina. He drove me, so I have no way home, but they just took him and⁠—”

“Okay, relax. I’m on the way.” Rakim ended the call, and I sat at the table, taking some cash out to pay for what had been ordered, even though we’d only eaten a little of the appetizer.

As time passed and the crowd waned, I felt relief hit me when a hand landed on my shoulder that belonged to Rakim.

“I already paid,” I told him as he helped me stand and handed me my purse.

I noticed he was double parked as we hit the corner and thought that was bold as hell for such a high traffic area crawling with police. Deciding not to say a word since nothing had transpired from it, I got into Rakim’s car with his assistance, and then we were off.

“What happened?” He frowned, checking his phone as if he were waiting on Mylo’s call.

“Some man walked up while we were eating and basically said he was upset his favorite ho, meaning me, was out of commission, then he pointed to my stomach.”

Rakim shook his head, irritably.

“Let me guess, Mylo beat his ass.”

“You know your friend.” I caressed my stomach. “I feel horrible. He shouldn’t be getting into shit over me and my past.”

“That type of shit is ya past, right?” Rakim glanced at me just before entering the freeway.

“Very much so.”

“Then don’t feel bad about that shit, Téa. For one, that was some pussy shit he did. Secondly, Mylo is a grown ass man. He chose to do what he did,” he schooled.

“I just hope he isn’t mad at me.”

“He won’t be. Mylo ain’t like that. If anything, it’s the nigga who made the comment’s fault.”

I simply nodded, praying that what Rakim was saying about Mylo was in fact true because, sadly, I was starting to like Mylo a lot.

* * *

ANOTHER TIME…

As I sat on the couch, flipping through yet another streaming app for something that would catch my attention, the doorbell sounded off.

Setting the Fire TV Stick down, I ascended, padding to the door to peer through the peephole. Seeing Mylo, I damn near broke a fingernail trying to hurriedly unlock the door.

Since he’d been arrested, I hadn’t heard anything and felt weird about reaching out to Rakim to inquire on Mylo’s current state. For some reason, even though Rakim knew Mylo and I had been intimate recently, it still felt awkward to act so cavalierly about me possibly dealing with his homeboy while pregnant by his brother.

“Oh my gosh!” I almost pounced on Mylo, hugging his neck, and thankfully, he hugged me back.

“I see I gotta pop up on you because you definitely wasn’t about to hit me up.” He walked in, only releasing me from our embrace once he was over the threshold.