After the listening party, she had two full days of rest and time with her family before she had to work again. Off to Los Angeles for a video shoot. She had already rehearsed previously, so all she had to do was run through the routine with her dancers and crew before recording.

It took two long days to get it down, but it was brutal. She was an intense dancer who used all of herself in her moves. Most considered her one of the best female dancers out there, comparing her to a young Janet Jackson or the late, great Aaliyah, or even Ciara. She had her mother to thank for that, dancing at a young age and being surrounded by it all her life.

A perfectionist at heart, she made sure all her dancers were up to par as well. The video was for one of her favorite up-tempo songs, "Bring the Pain" which was a love song, but it was not all sad like people wanted her to feel. The song and video would drop soon.

But after that, she was pooped and headed back to St. Louis  

Staying home with her family as much as possible was her new goal. There was a lot more to do to promote her new album, so she knew she would be out on the road soon. Whatever she could do from the comfort of her home in St. Louis, she did. Any interviews she could do virtual she did, and there was a lot of promotional work she needed to do.

Her manager, Telly, short for Donatella, set up a few live appearances she needed to do and tried to accommodate her want to stay home. Autumn was at that age she needed her, but she did not want to drag her child out on the road with her. She hated it, and it was not a good life for someone that young.

Meanwhile, Sheila thought it would be a good idea for her to do things while she was in town. One of her biggest fan bases was right there in her city.

One day she visited a dance school and taught them a few moves from her upcoming video. Afterward, she took pictures and talked with the students.

Another day she talked to students at her old high school, University City High School, even though she never graduated and finished her last two years home-schooled. She did not grow up in the city, but U. City as they called it was two steps from the city. It's also the school Nelly graduated from, so if he could claim St. Louis, she could as well.

If it kept her in St. Louis and with her daughter, she would do whatever. Plus, she loved mentoring the next big thing from St. Louis. Waking up every morning in her own bed with Autumn just a few steps away from her room. She could sneak in at night and steal kisses, or sometimes climb in the bed with her and fall asleep, holding her. Or come downstairs in nothing but her oversized pajamas and flip-flops, head wrap still on her head, no make-up, and no perfection.

Best of all, home was just home.

"Do you remember meeting the guys from the baseball team at your listening party and one of them inviting you to a game?" her cousin asked her. Sheila lived at the house with her, so she could be at her beck and call. They were sitting in the breakfast room talking business up early, waiting for the rest of the family. She loved her little cousin and loved that she worked for her, but did not care that she was always focused on work. Even if that work was her.

"Uh..." She scrunched her face at her cousin in a stank face. Why was her cousin bringing this up? She had not thought about those guys. "Yes but, not after that asshole acted like an asshole. I'm good."

"No, but listen, not just attend a game. Better than that."

She rolled her eyes at her cousin and popped a grape into her mouth. Baseball was not her jam, there was no amount of money they could pay her to go to that game.

"Tika, you know how St. Louisans love their hometown teams. It's not like I'm asking you to go to a hockey game. This is a Cardinals' game. The Redbirds. You know, Fredbird. We bleed red."

"Okay, and?" She stuffed another grape in her mouth. Sheila was waiting for her mother to come down and cook breakfast as she did every day.

"Tika!"

"Sheila!" she snapped back at her. They could do that all day.

"Stop being a spoiled, whiny brat. I'm not one of those other little young assistants you've bossed around for years. Don't let the thicker-than-blood shit fool you."

All she could do was respect her cousin for doing the job she hired her for. Maybe she would last longer than the others.

"Okay, what?"

"Can you at least consider it? They want you to throw out a first pitch."

"A what?" She scoffed at that. "What the hell do I look like throwing a pitch? I have never in my life pitched a ball. Ask my father, he tried it. Even back in elementary school, I was not getting all dirty playing with balls and stuff."

Sheila giggled at that. Her little cousin was high-key a freak.

"Well, you know, I do play with other balls now. Can't no one match my freak." She laughed at her dirty-minded cousin. "No, but for real. Why are you trying to get me to embarrass myself? If you want me to go to a game, wave to some fans, dance a little, do my one-toe-step thing, and sign some autographs, I might give that a try. But how is throwing a ball good for my brand?"

Sheila was back to looking at her phone, scrolling down for something. She pulled up what looked like a video and put the phone in front of her face.

"Look, you will join the ranks of Megan thee Stallion, Simone Biles, I don't know, lots of other people."

Seemed like her cousin knew less about baseball as well. She did not recall Sheila being athletic either, she was a bookworm. Smart as heck and always buried in books and doing school projects. She was shocked when she agreed to come and work for her.

She watched the video of Megan and could see why there was a hoopla. That woman was stacked and she was not built like that. She did not have her height, nor the junk in the trunk. Slim with curves, and enhanced breasts, or else she would have been near flat-chested. She bought her implants after she had her daughter at age twenty-one, and they were perky and taut, but not overly huge. No one suspected she had them, they assumed they grew larger after she gave birth.

The video was cute. If she tried something like that she would make a fool of herself.

"It's good for the city. Show everyone you're all about St. Louis."

"Well, I am that...ask my tattooist, but child!" That was simply a saying. She had no tattoos and was a little scared of the needle.

"Mommy!" Autumn ran into the breakfast room in matching pajamas like her, as well as her head wrap, and jumped on her lap. "I'm hungry."

She missed mornings with her little cuddle bug. She wrapped her arms around Autumn and kissed her cheek a dozen times.

"Have some of my fruit until your Gran comes down and makes breakfast." There was an entire array of fruit sitting out on the table: oranges, apples, bananas, grapes, and pineapple. When her mother started in the kitchen, there would be egg whites, whole wheat toast, and turkey bacon to cook.

"I want cereal! Cinnamon Toast Crunch."

She scrunched her face at her daughter. "That is so bad for you. Please tell me PopPop and Gran don't let you eat that."

"Yes!" She reached into her bowl and took one of her grapes.

And all her life they made her eat things you feed old people, like oat bran or Raisin Bran or egg whites and turkey bacon, greens, twigs, and berries it seemed. She guessed she should thank them for not getting her addicted to sugar at an early age, but why now let Autumn eat whatever?

"I'll make lil bit a bowl of cereal," Sheila said, getting up and going over to the pantry.

"No, I got it."

She did not see anything wrong with having a sugary cereal sometimes, as long as she was not eating it every day. Let a kid be a kid. Even though her parents had her eating healthy all of her life, her auntie, Sheila's mother, made sure whenever she was over there she tasted the good life. So it was not like she was lacking, it was all about balance.

After she finished breakfast with her daughter, Sheila gave her more details about pitching at the baseball game. It was throwing the first pitch at one of the home games. It was not something she ever had on her bucket list. Once Sheila told her parents about it, they were the ones to encourage her to do it because they were big-time fans.

So there it was, she was going to do something sporty.

"Do I get to practice or something? I'll go play catch with Autumn outside."

"Girlll, I don't think that's enough." Sheila laughed at her, a plate of her mother's breakfast of whole wheat French toast, topped with fresh berries and organic turkey sausage. "Uncle Max, you need to help your daughter."

"Oh, she's going to need more than what I can do. Why don't you get one of the pitchers to help? They have a hot new young one that's been shutting it down."

She shook her head at her father. A bunch of misbehaving little boys? The guys that thought a little money and their looks gave them the freedom to treat women like trash. She had a few football players and an NBA player on her roster, but nothing serious. All they were interested in was using and abusing.

She wanted little to no interaction with any of those baseball players. Especially that hot blonde. They were just like any other athlete, they thought the world revolved around them and that girls should fall all over them.

Not her. She was unlike any other girl.