Israel looked up with a frown as the door to his office opened without the person behind it bothering to knock, and his frown immediately disappeared as Bria walked inside.

"Look at you. Always mad." She closed the door behind her, and Israel stood up from his seat to meet her halfway.

She had a new hairstyle-bohemian box braids, courtesy of her older sister. The braids were so neat and fit her small face well. They were long too, reaching the middle of her ass.

She was dressed in a light gray fitted set; tights and a cropped tank top from Waydamin, along with black Chanel slides and the matching purse. She accessorized her look with an anklet, bracelets on each wrist, and stud earrings.

Israel loved how Bria could always make the most simplest outfits stand out like it cost thousands. Her beauty alone could do it, but the way she dolled herself up really put the cherry on top.

"You look so beautiful mama. Let me get some." He leaned his head down, and she tilted hers back to give him a light kiss so that her lip gloss didn't linger on his lips.

"Thank you honey bun. It's late. Why are you still here?" She fixed her top after feeling like she'd have a nip slip, walking past him to get to his fridge.

"I'm workin'. I thought I was picking you up in the morning?" He followed behind her, watching her grab a cold Dr Pepper.

"You were, but I came early because I haven't been able to fall asleep 'cause I hate sleeping alone. So it's time for us to go home." She turned to face him after twisting the cap off of the bottle, and a slow grin spread across his face.

"Why you look this pretty just to go to sleep?" He chuckled, moving her braids over her shoulder.

"I always look good. Act like you know." She shrugged. Israel smiled since that was true, and then he went back around his desk to log out of his computer.

Bria waited for him to finish shutting down his office for the night, and when he joined her outside the door, he locked it behind them and then grabbed her hand.

"Good night, Mr.East, and Bria." The newest receptionist waved to them both, and Israel gave the woman a head nod while Bria waved back at her with a smile.

"Have a good night Nina." Bria told her as they stepped on the elevator, feeling Israel wrap an arm around her shoulders as Nina returned a smile.

"Yo' employees love me so much. I came in when Davion was leaving and he gone ask me if I wanted him to order us something to eat. Like boy, you just clocked out, go home." She shook her head, checking the time on her phone to see it was a little after nine.

"I think they just glad somebody else other than Jada is here now. They ain't fuck wit' her." He said with a small laugh; they definitely favored Bria over her and that was for sure. He did too.

"You had so many red flags to leave that girl and all it took was some coochie from me for you to do it." She shook her head as the elevator doors opened, making him laugh again.

"Israel!" As if they'd spoken her up, there Jada stood on the lobby of his building, being held back by a security guard.

"Ouuuu," Bria said under her breath, watching as Jada managed to get out of the guard's grip to approach Israel and Bria.

He pulled Bria behind him because he knew how Jada was, and Bria was smaller than her so he wasn't sure if she'd be able to defend herself and he didn't even have the energy to break up a fight right now.

"Who is this bitch?! This the reason why you can't answer your damn phone?" She yelled across the lobby, her voice becoming louder the closer she got to them.

"I won't be too many bitches, girl." Bria grabbed the rubber band off of her wrist to tie her hair in a ponytail, just in case.

"Bitch fuck you! Israel tell him to let me go!" She was stopped in her tracks as the guard grabbed her again, pulling her towards the front doors to get her out of the building.

Israel's mug had returned to his face as he grabbed Bria's hand, pulling her towards a private side exit to avoid Jada because he knew she'd still be outside the front of the building, waiting on them to come out.

"Don't pull on me like that Israel. I can walk fine." Bria took her hand out of his grip, frowning at the way he was basically dragging her.

"My bad. I'm irritated. I'm sorry." He apologized, softening the frown on his face as he stared down at her.

"And that's fine but you was hurting me. Chill. She didn't do anything." She chuckled, returning to her place on the side of him as they continued walking.

"Just her presence be aggravating me. Like it's nine o'clock, what the fuck is she doing up here this late?" He shook his head, pulling his keys out of his pocket.

"Stalking her baby daddy and legal husband, duh."

"You are so unserious." He shook his head again, and Bria laughed, walking through the door that he held open for her.

"Fuck you and this bitch, Israel!" Jada smashed a bottle on top of his head, temporarily knocking the balance out of him as it broke into pieces.

Bria recognized the bottle as the complimentary wine he usually kept in the lobby, but didn't dwell on it for long as all of her attention went towards the punch she threw at Jada's face, hearing the bone in her nose crack.

She didn't say anything as she continued to throw her first as hard as she could while Jada struggled to keep up at her pace. She didn't look pregnant at all, but Bria still made sure to stay away from her stomach and only aimed directly at her face.

"Aight Bria you good. Let her go, B." Israel grabbed her waist, forcibly pinning her arms to her side to keep her from swinging at a bleeding Jada.

"I told you I wasn't gon' be too many bitches and I meant that. Watch yo' mouth with me for it get you hurt." Bria didn't even fight for Israel to let her go, allowing him to pull her away.

Israel ignored the throbbing pain pulsing at the back of his head as he guided her to the car, hearing security coincidentally began to run over to where Jada was. He had half a mind to fire the entire night shift guards just for letting that fight even begin.

"You can let me go now. I can walk fine Israel." She repeated the same line from a few minutes ago, grabbing his arms because he was so close to irritating her too.

"Bria I'm not in the fucking mood man. Keep walking."

"I don't care about what kind of mood you in. I didn't do shit to you so let me go. You're hurting me Israel." Now she was irritated and ready to swing on him too, and she was trying to prevent that.

He let her hands go after realizing that she was crying, and Bria reached up to wipe the tears from her face. She then turned around, walking the very small distance to his truck on her own. She was so mad, she hated fighting.

She climbed into the front seat of his truck, unintentionally slamming the door behind her. She would've walked but it was so dark outside and she was already scared of everything under the sun as it was.

"I'm sorry. I ain't mean to make you cry mama." Israel apologized after getting in as well, hoping he hadn't triggered anything by holding her as tightly as he had. He didn't meant to do that either.

"Take me home Israel." She sniffed, listening to him sigh in a sense of defeat as he pressed the button to start up the engine.

The ride to her house was quiet and fairly quick; he didn't even cut the radio on, which is something that he did every time he got in the car. Bria continued to cry silently to herself, and when they got to her house, she let herself out.

"You don't want me to stay?" Israel asked her before she closed the door, and she shook her head no, then let it shut.

Israel watched as she covered her arms to shield herself from the cold as she walked up to her front door, using her key to let herself inside without looking back at him.

She waited until she head the loud exhaust of his truck down the road, and once the sound disappeared completely, she walked out of her house and locked the door again.

Then, Bria went to her Mercedes. She started the ten minute drive to Santana's house with tears still streaming down her face, repeatedly wiping her eyes to keep her vision clear enough so that she could see the road.

When she got there, she sat in her car for a few more minutes to prepare herself to possibly be rejected by him, to be told to go back home in case he really was through with her. She honestly didn't care, she just wanted to hear his voice.

Gaining some courage, Bria knocked lightly on the door, knowing that he was awake because she knew that he didn't fall asleep until around two in the morning. It was like a pattern too, he'd turn on Princess and The Frog a few minutes after two-even though he claimed to hate it so much-and be out like a light before Tiana could cook Gumbo with her father.

"What you doing h-," Santana cut himself off when he realized that she was crying, his frown vanishing from his face.

He wrapped both of his tattooed arms around her neck to give her a hug, and Bria broke down on his chest while her body seemed to instantly relax under his touch. She loved him so much.

When he realized her cries wouldn't be dying down anytime soon, he pulled her inside of his house and locked the door behind them.

"C'mon Bri Bri. You know the drill. Jumping jacks, let's go." He instructed, folding his arms across his bare chest.

"I-d-don't want to..I just w-want a hug Tana." She sniffed, barely able to get her words out through her cries.

"Jumping jacks, now." He repeated, and she pouted, but began to do them anyway. Her cries calmed down by the time she started her fourth jumping jack, and her breathing started to slow back to its normal rhythm.

"There you go. Breathe mama. You in control of your emotions, not the other way around." His voice rasped as his dark brown eyes lowered to lock on hers. She sniffed once more, dragging her palms down her face to dry up her tears.

"Yo' face so pretty. You don't do that crying shit, you know that's gon' mess it up." Santana told her, and she smiled at the same speech he gave her almost every time she cried.

He sat down on his couch in the living room, gesturing for her to follow suit. She saw Martin playing on the large flat screen TV, and the contents it took to roll a blunt sitting on the coffee table.

"I miss you Santana." She put her hands in her lap, folding her legs on the side of her.

"I miss you too. I been going crazy without you, actually." He resumed his previous task of stuffing his blunt with ground up weed.

"Why haven't you texted me back? I even used Text Now." She told him, expecting him to at least crack a smile, but he didn't.

"I'm tryna stop missing you. That wouldn't have helped nothin'." He stated blandly.

"You haven't slept?" She ignored his statement that actually hurt her feelings, taking notice of the way his eyes were rapidly blinking-which is what he normally did whenever he was sleep deprived.

"Stop reading me." That got him to chuckle, and a small smile spread across her lips.

"What happened to you? He hurt yo' feelings or what?" He curiously asked, tucking his backwood under some weed to start rolling it.

"He grabbed my wrists." Her smile faded, and Santana turned his head to look at her with a scowl forming on his face.

"He didn't mean to. I fought his girl and he was trying to calm me down after it was over, I guess. I asked him to let me go and he ignored me the first time, and I started crying, so he listened. He wasn't trying to hurt me but it just took me back, y'know.." Bria trailed off, rubbing her left wrist with her right thumb.

"Ain't nobody coming back to hurt you, B. Ever." He assured her, and Bria looked down at her hands that were in her lap as her eyes stung with more tears.

"You need to tell him you not ok with that Bria. If you don't set boundaries, how he supposed to follow 'em?" He rubbed his hands together to dust the excess weed from his fingers, and then he reached over to grab her hand.

"I just-I don't wanna teach somebody else my do's and don't's all over again. I want him to just know, like you." She sniffed, trying to stop her voice from cracking.

"You can't expect a nigga that's known you for two months to already know what I had to learn over three years." He told her.

"I know. I wish it was that easy." She paused for a moment, playing with his fingers. "You missed our three year anniversary, by the way." She looked up to meet his gaze.

"Do it count if we ain't together?" His voice lowered, and her heart melted at his sad tone.

"I'll always choose you Tana. Over anybody." She laid her forehead against his, and his eyes closed for a few moments.

"You left me. I understand why you did, and I don't blame you for it. But know that I did not choose him over you." She spoke quietly, watching the way his eyes darted side to side to search hers.

"I felt like I wasn't enough for you. He got more to offer t-,"

"No he does not Santana. You are enough. If you ain't enough for nobody else, I want you to know that you are more than enough for me. You're more than enough, baby. You do so much for me to where you don't even realize how much it means to me."

"You're there for me every time I cry-even now, after I did you wrong. You got me out of my depression, you helped me step out of my comfort zone. You made me realize I'm strong enough to go against anything and anybody. You showed me that it was ok to trust. To love. To believe."

"You showed me, me. You taught me how to love me, and how to love you. And I love you now, I loved you yesterday and I'll love you forever, even if you have to tell yourself not to love me back. You've been more than enough to me. I couldn't pay you back even if I tried."

Santana laid his face in the crook of her neck, and she wrapped her arms around him when she realized that he was crying with her. She could count how many times Santana had cried to her on one hand, without needing to use all five of her fingers. These were her favorite moments; when he became vulnerable for her.

He wasn't afraid to cry to her because he knew that she had his back the same way that he had her front. Nobody could ever change that; not even them.

"I love you more than anything Bri Bri. I just want what's best for you mama. I would never leave you for the hell of it. You know that, right?" He stared at her with red eyes, and she nodded her head.

"I love you more." She wiped underneath his eyes to dry his face, then leaned forward to press her lips against his. They had to have made out for more than a few minutes, making up for the time they'd missed over the last five days.

They'd stop for a few seconds to catch their breath, and then they'd go right back to locking lips. The kiss didn't develop into anything further either, they just explored each other's mouth as if it was their first kiss all over again.

"I love you so much." Santana moved her braids out the way to kiss his favorite spot on her neck, and she rubbed the back of his head as he did.

"I love you." She mumbled, intertwining her fingers with his, now sitting in his lap. She laid her head down on his shoulder, feeling her eyes become heavy the longer he rubbed the small of her back.

"You'll go to sleep with me tonight?" She asked softly.

"You all I was waitin' on." He said back, and she smiled, beginning to doze off.

Santana stood up while she remained in his arms, walking towards his bedroom so that they could lay down. He put her down first, and took off every piece of clothing she wore. After doing the same to himself, he laid underneath his covers with her, with his bare body against hers.

He listened to her heartbeat, slowing his breathing down until it matched hers. And it didn't cause him to lose his breath either; it felt just right, as if they were supposed to have the same heartbeat.

It took Santana no time at all to doze off.

These the last 3 updates until I complete the book in my drafts frfr. Unless, of course, somebody pay me again. Then maybe I'd be generous or something idk 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻💯💯💯💯💯💯