Page 56 of Platinum Pressure

We talked for almost an hour. We all laid out everything. After the talk, I went to shower with the guys and check in with them. In the locker room, it felt like old times. We caught up, and I apologized for giving most of them the cold shoulder. Like I explained to Eddie and Lay Low, I didn’t want to talk to anybody until I felt like myself again. When I walked out of the training facility to the SUV, I felt like the last of the pieces were finally falling into place.

Coming home to the woman I loved was the highlight of my day. She was on the couch, with her laptop in her lap as she typed away. For a moment, I stood a few steps away from her, admiring her beauty. She hid her hair under a bonnet. Her skin glowed from the light of her computer screen. She wore one of my shirts and a fuzzy pair of socks. She had a focused look on her beautiful features while she snacked on what looked like a bag of sweet and salty popcorn.

“Hey, beautiful.”

“Hey, handsome.”

I leaned over to press a kiss to her lips. She scrunched her nose after our lips parted.

“You stink.”

“I do?” I smelled my armpits, my breath, and my clothes, and they all seemed pretty normal to me.

“Oh my God. What is that smell?” She covered her mouth and stood up. She scurried to the bathroom, where I could distinctly hear her throwing up. With a quick detour to the kitchen, I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and then headed into the bathroom.

Meadow sat with her back against the wall as she looked up at me with teary eyes. I wet a towel with warm water and joined her on the floor, keeping a safe distance from her.

“Is it the cologne I put on after the training session? I won’t wear this shit ever again if it’s upsetting your sense of smell this bad.”

“I don’t know what it is, baby. Can you just shower and hold me?” She took the towel out of my hands and wiped her face and neck before tossing it onto the counter.

“Yeah. You want to join me and tell me how your meetings went today?”

The suggestion put a bit of pep in her step. I helped her up onto her feet and waited as she rinsed her mouth out in the sink. She took the bottle of water but didn’t drink it.

“My water got cooties too?”

“I don’t care how clean Laurie gets these rooms. I don’t want doo doo particles in my mouth from drinking bathroom water bottles.”

The laugh I released came deep from my belly. “You’re hilarious, man.”

“I’m serious.”

“That’s why it’s so funny.”

She placed the collar of her shirt over her nose and held my hand as we climbed the staircase to the bedroom.

“Anyway. The meetings were long and tiresome but filled me with so much joy at the same time. Like the work I’m doing to make my practice the best in the state will bring so much reward when everything is complete. I can’t wait.”

“What all did y’all do today?”

“Mostly lawyer mumbo-jumbo—contract proposals and networking. I had to introduce myself to many people who did business with the previous owners. A lot of them couldn’t believe someone as young as me had acquired such a large business. A few of them backed out support, but I don’t care. I only want to align myself with people and businesses that hold themselves to the same code of ethics I do.”

“Right.”

While I turned on the shower, I listened to her talk about some things she had fun doing today.

“I stopped by Miss Nette’s on the way home. She said she saw our pictures on the internet. She also said she was extremely proud of everything I was doing and couldn’t wait to fully support me when we reopened officially under the new name and management.”

“I’m gon’ have to get her some tickets to a game.”

“Yes! One when the weather isn’t too hot for her. She will wear long sleeves in a hundred-degree weather.”

“Old people’s body temperatures are so wild.”

“That’s what I’m saying. My girl needs the perfect weather.”

“Which scent do you want on me?” I held out two bottles for her to sniff.