Bria stood behind Santana with her arms around his waist, her head laying on his back as he talked to some of the men he knew in the neighborhood. She was starting to hate being 'outside'. She just liked to shop and cuddle with her boyfriends now.

Speaking of, that's all she seemed to do lately. She'd been with Santana for the last few days, either at the mall or at his house watching movies together and smoking. They'd been on two dates during the three days she'd been with him, and were supposed to be on one right now but Santana stopped by a block party over an hour ago and they were still here.

"Nigga that's six, gimme that shit." He picked up a handful of cash after rolling a set of dice, taking a diamond watch that was on the betting ground as well.

"Here mama." Santana held it over his shoulder for her to grab, ignoring his friends complaints of him rolling a win for the third time.

"Tana it's time to go. Look." Bria gestured with her head towards two men who seemed to really be upset behind his third win, probably assuming that he was cheating.

"Y'all niggas good or what?" He pulled his cargo pants up, and Bria groaned in annoyance as he pushed her further behind him.

"Nigga that's almost thirteen thousand gone 'cause you steady cheatin'." One of the men pulled a gun from his waist, approaching Santana.

"Tana don't do it please. Let's go home." Bria pleaded with him, not wanting him to cause a shootout to erupt through the party because she knew he was down for it.

He glanced behind her to see her small frown before turning his head like it was on a swivel to analyze his surroundings. Then he looked down at the gun the man was holding, feeling his own mood quickly change from his prior playful one.

Santana put his hand down on his wrist that held the gun, head butting him to momentarily knock him out in order to get the gun. Once he had it he used the same gun to thrust across his face, watching the man go limp on the ground.

It happened so fast, it seemed like all Bria had done was blink before the man was knocked completely unconscious.

"You a stupid motherfucker to play with me while my girl right here. I'ma get up with you. Yo, get him out of here." Santana gestured with the gun again before tossing it on the ground.

Bria watched as somebody handled Santana's request, but didn't get to watch for long once Santana guided her away from the crowd who became a bit rowdy in result of his actions.

She remained quiet as she held his hand, letting him lead the way back to his car. It took them less than a minute or so to get there, and Santana gazed around at his environment once more while helping Bria inside.

When she was in, she watched him hold off on doing the same to make a phone call outside of the car. She figured he was probably getting that man with the gun handled, as promised.

"You aight mama?" Santana got in the car a couple minutes later, pressing the button to turn the ignition on.

"Mhm. Thank you for not making a scene." She chuckled, watching him pull his seatbelt across his chest.

"Don't thank me. All I did was postpone it." He pulled off from the street, and she shook her head at him while putting her seatbelt on as well.

Bria pulled all of the money out of her purse that he'd just won, beginning to count it to see how much it was. She low-key loved when he gambled or played dice because he had a true talent for obtaining the winning prizes, whether he cheated or not. She didn't care either way.

"How much you win mama?" He glanced between her and the road, and she smiled at how he made it seem like she'd actually won it.

"A little over twelve thousand. It's mostly big bills. Let's go to the bank real quick." Bria told him, putting a rubber band around the money.

"I needed to stop there anyway. Get that bag out the back." He pulled into the next open outlet, which happened to have a Chase branch with a drive thru ATM machine.

Bria took her seatbelt off and turned her body around, grabbing the small black duffel bag that was behind her seat. She opened it after sitting back down, seeing all of the cash that was inside.

"I done told you about riding around with all of this on you Santana. You don't listen." She frowned at him, watching him slide his card into the ATM machine.

"I just picked that up last night B. Chill." He grabbed a few of the stacks inside, starting the long process of loading them into the machine for it to count.

"It don't matter. You could've got robbed at that party or even now while we at the bank. I don't know why you have all this money if you don't use it to pay people to get shit like this done for you." She fussed at him, as always. She swore she was his mom.

"Gimme yo' card ma." He held his hand out, ignoring everything else that she said.

"You get on my nerves Santana." She took her debit card out of her wallet, giving it to him to put in the machine.

"I done heard that before." He chuckled, putting the rest of the cash into her account. He gave her the receipt when he was done, shaking his head at the frown on her face.

"Thank you." She put it in her purse along with her debit card even though she was mad at him.

"What's mine is yours. You ain't gotta thank me." He put the empty bag back in the backseat before pulling off from the bank.

"What you tryna do today? You wanna go get ice cream? Or fro-yo?" He rubbed her exposed thigh, trying to lift her mood back up.

"We can get some and go to the drive in?" She looked over at him, and he nodded with a small smile, passing his phone over to her.

"Book tickets for Spider-Man so we ain't gotta pay when we get there." He told her, and she typed in his passcode to unlock it, going to safari.

While she booked tickets for the drive in movie theater online, Santana went through the drive thru at Meechie's Fro Yo shop because they had both soft serve ice cream and frozen yogurt.

It took them a little less than ten minutes to make it to the theater, although the movie didn't start for another half hour. They ordered snacks at the concession stand, and then parked in a good spot where they'd be able to see the projector screen nicely.

"Nah man, eat yours Bria." Santana moved his frozen yogurt cup away from her just as she reached for it, making her frown.

"So I can't have none? I'm the one who made it for you anyway." She continued frowning, holding her own near empty cup.

"Man." He blew out an irritated breath, giving her his cup of vanilla yogurt that had sprinkles and gummy bears in it.

"If you gone be mad then I don't w-,"

"Bria get this damn cup." He cut her off before she could finish, and she laughed at the way he rolled his eyes.

"Thank you daddy." She turned his head to give him a kiss, smiling once his hand wrapped around her neck. She was surprised she didn't have a permanent bruise there from how he and Israel were always grabbing on her.

"Come sit over here." He pushed his seat back to make some more room, and Bria climbed over the middle console to get in his lap.

"I like this dress mama." He held it down for her while she made herself comfortable on top of him.

"It's the one you picked out at the mall a while ago. From Macy's, when we bought that mirror for your living room." She ate a spoonful of his yogurt after situating herself.

"Mm. It look tight on you. You getting fat." He rubbed over her thick thighs before tugging at the fabric of the dress.

"I know. I took a pregnancy test yesterday and it was negative so I think I'm just eating good. And I had my period earlier this month so shut up." She said, knowing that he was hinting at a possible pregnancy.

"Youn want my baby?"

"Don't start with me Rakeem." She took another bite of the yogurt before feeding him one too, wiping the excess from the side of his mouth.

"Niggas can't dream?" He chuckled, putting his hand on her stomach.

"You can but keep those dreams to yourself playa. I'm too much of a bad bitch to be a mom right now. Maybe next year. Or the year after that. Or, ten years from now."

"Shut up." He flicked her bottom lip, then leaned forward to kiss the same spot.

"I got something for you." He then told her, reaching into his pocket to pull a box out. He popped it open, showing her the ring that was inside.

"Early birthday gift." He added, watching her admire the double heart ring that had both of their names engraved on the band.

Bria wasn't the type of girl who liked those big flashy chains or the diamond rings with the huge rock in the middle. She liked small and dainty pieces, and this ring was perfect. The diamonds shined so nicely even with them being so small.

"It's sooo pretty baby. Thank you." She held his face, leaving multiple soft kisses on his lips.

"I love you. What you think about locking in with me?" He spoke against her lips, searching the brown eyes he loved to watch her reaction. Her expression slowly dropped, turning into one of confusion.

"Why now?" She asked out of curiosity, her eyebrows furrowing. "Why not a month ago? Or six months ago?"

Santana's eyes left hers, and he rubbed his hands down the fabric of his jeans as he tried to actively think of an answer to her question; an answer that could properly explain his feelings.

He'd never been good with words. He always tried for her though.

"I feel like I'm losing you to him." He told her, trying to avoid her gaze until he could get his thoughts together.

"Santana I'm n-,"

"I know, but it feels like it. And I don't know why it took another nigga coming in for me to realize what I got with you.. I'm sorry. I never been good at this shit, B. That's why I never speak on us 'cause I feel like I don't know what to say when it come to you. You everything to me." His eyes found hers again, his gaze softer than normal.

"Sometimes I wonder where we ah' be if I would've stopped being a bitch and just made you mine when I first realized what I felt for you, but I can't go back and I'm sorry for that too. I can do this shit the right way now though, if you let me." He told her, rubbing her hand that he held.

"Look, I ain't asking you to let him go. I know you love 'em, it's whatever. I can still make you mine though. I don't give a damn about nothin' you got going with him as long as you keep it a secret from me." He added to make this conversation less serious, and it worked as far as he could tell from the smile on her face.

"You know I've been waiting a longggg time for the day that Mr. Big Shot Santana got the balls to finally speak his mind without me asking. And you did it. Look at my baby." She wrapped her arms around his neck, making sure not to drop her ring that was still in the box.

"Thank you stink. I love you so much, I've loved you forever and I'll love you forever. No matter what. I'm sorry that my love life is all over the place right now. You always right in the middle though. You gon' always be my baby and my best friend, for life." She kept her arms around him, using the back of her hand to wipe her face.

"Don't cry mama. What you crying for?" He wiped her tears too, listening to her sniff before she covered her face completely.

"You and Israel are so okay with this but I'm not because I don't know how to make it work without it going sideways. I don't ever wanna lose you Tana but I love him too and I know you not gone wanna be with me eventually."

"I love you. I'm not going nowhere, I promise. I ever broke a promise to you Bri?" He reassuringly kissed her forehead, using his thumbs to wipe underneath her eyes.

"No. I love you so much." She sniffed again, finally taking her ring out of the box to put it on her right hand.

"I love you too. I'll talk to him, aight? See what page we on. That way you know it ain't no bad blood." He chuckled, in disbelief at his own words but he'd do anything for her.

"So pussy whipped. Y'all need serious help." She smiled through her tears, grabbing a napkin from the glove compartment to dry her face all the way up.

"I'm not gone say you right but I ain't gone say you wrong either." He smirked before looking down at the ring on her finger. "It look better than I thought. That shit small as hell but it was a few bands."

"I love it. You could've got me a ring pop and I would've still loved it-and I probably would've used it for extra flavor for that dizzickkk." She licked his cheek, getting her head mushed back with a laugh which made her laugh too.

Bria covered her mouth as she yawned, using her other hand to pour herself a glass of cold strawberry lemonade from the pitcher she put in the refrigerator this morning. Israel's chefs really had her on that drink, bad.

She took the cup back to the bedroom with her, seeing Santana leaned over his side dresser as he rolled a blunt with his phone between his right ear and shoulder.

Pulling the cover back, she climbed underneath in her naked glory and kept her cup of lemonade in her hand.

"Shut it down and kick everybody out. Yo if any of my shit is missing, y'all niggas not going home 'til everything is found and I put that on my life." Santana left his unfinished blunt on the dresser, standing up to head in the direction of the bathroom.

Bria could still hear him fussing as he washed his hands, but he came back a minute later with a paper towel between his fingers and his phone in his dry hand.

"You so mean. You always yelling and threatening somebody." Bria watched him get in the bed with her, scooting over until he was right up under her.

"They always doing dumb shit. How hard is it to keep bitches from going at each other? Like what the fuck is the point of me hiring guards if they don't do they job? Now I gotta pay to get my stage and shit fixed." He tossed his phone somewhere behind him, totally forgetting about the blunt he was previously rolling.

"Who fought?" She asked, no longer in the loop about what went down at Xotic as of lately since she quit a little less than two weeks ago.

Although she turned down the half a million dollars from Israel-which she regretted just a bit-she did end up quitting the next day after running it by Santana.

There was no point in stripping being her main source of income when Israel and Santana dropped plenty of money on her like it meant nothing to them. Hell, her rent on this year's lease was now paid in full, and her car note was now paid off as well.

Her sister's rent was good for a year too, so all the money she got now was just for fun. Plus, her birthday was around the corner and she just knew they were about to show out for her and make her already happy bank account even happier.

"Is you even listening to me?" Santana got her attention by grabbing the bottom of her face.

"It's are," She corrected him. "And no. Sorry. I was thinking about my birthday and now I'm tired as hell." She chuckled, laying her head down on his shoulder.

"Oh but let me stop listening to you for even a second and now all of a sudden I hate you and want you to die." He shook his head, and Bria laughed at how spot-on that was.

"Exactly pooh. You get it." She put her leg around his body, ignoring him rolling his eyes as she moved as close to him as she could get.

Well now what