You Don't Know Me Like That (4 page)

I
couldn't believe Bryce still hadn't called me. Usually, when he got mad, he cooled off after a couple of days, but so far, hadn't called me, and I wasn't about to pick up the phone and call him.

Even Sheridan noticed Bryce's stank attitude as we walked down the hallway on our way to lunch. Even though Sheridan and I had made up, I didn't share details about Bryce's and my relationship like I used to, so she didn't know what had happened between us.

“Girl, what is his problem?” Sheridan said when she saw Bryce side-eye me and keep moving.

I was dumbfounded that he was still trippin'. He had dropped me off at the house after dinner without saying a word to me. I had tried to talk to him on the way home, but he had just turned his music up louder.

“He's trippin' because he took me out and some guy fans wanted to take pictures.”

Sheridan laughed. “He ought to be used to that by now.”

I shrugged as I discreetly turned around to see if he really was going to walk off without saying a word to me. He was now at the end of the hall laughing and joking with his boys. Forget him. Two could play that game.

I turned back to Sheridan, ready to find the first guy I could to flirt with, when I saw Evian and Shay—my former
Miami Divas
costars—walking by us.

“What's up, Evian?” Sheridan said.

Evian turned her lips up and kept walking. She'd been upset with me since I outed her little cheerleading escort ring on my show. So while Sheridan and I had made up, Evian and Shay hadn't had two words to say to me.

They'd actually become distant from Sheridan as well. They'd told her if she was friends with me, she couldn't be friends with them. So junior high. Of course, Sheridan was like me; she didn't like anybody giving her ultimatums, so she basically told them where to go.

“I don't know why you keep speaking to them,” I said.

Sheridan shrugged, unfazed as she kept tapping on her phone. “They'll get over it,” she said.

“I don't care whether they do or not.” But I did care about Bryce, and he was straight making me mad.

Sheridan caught me glaring back at Bryce again and took my arm, leading me away. “That's who you don't need to be letting see you mad. Whatever y'all arguing about, he'll get over it. But in the meantime, rule number one, never let your man see you fazed. Thirsty chicks are so not the business.”

Sheridan was right. I followed her into the cafeteria without looking back.

We got our lunch trays, then sat down at our table, with our friends, Chasity and Ava. They weren't completely in our clique, but we did let them visit from time to time.

“What's up, Divas?” Ava said.

“Doing what we do,” Sheridan replied.

“Being fabulous,” I said, finishing her sentence.

Everyone laughed as we sat down and began eating. We talked about who was doing what with whom, whose girlfriend busted her boyfriend, who was flunking out and a bunch of other gossip, until finally, Chasity and Ava stood.

“It's been fun, but we gotta run,” Chasity said.

“Yep, killer test next period,” Ava added.

They waved goodbye and Sheridan and I finished up our meals.

“Hey, I talked to Valerie,” Sheridan said as she pushed her empty tray away.

“How's she doing?” While I hoped that I never saw the psycho who'd tried to kill me last month, I did feel bad about how everything went down with her. She'd started working with me at
Rumor Central,
and, in some kind of whack attempt to be my friend, she'd shared a little secret about Sheridan—that Sheridan's mom had given up a baby for adoption to keep the pregnancy from hurting her career. Of course, what was I supposed to do with some good dirt like that? I aired it on
Rumor Central
. At the time, I didn't know that Valerie was the baby Sheridan's mom had given up. Needless to say, Valerie was livid. Her parents were furious, and she got into major trouble, including Sheridan's mom temporarily pulling her anonymous trust fund. Valerie tried to get revenge on me by stalking me to try and keep me from discovering her identity. Luckily, Sheridan stopped that lunatic just before she tried to kill me. Valerie's parents had moved away with her, but Sheridan was keeping in touch with her.

“She's okay,” Sheridan replied. “I just think she and her parents are happy that my mom decided against taking away her money.”

I took a final bite of my salad, then pushed my tray away as well. “Do you ever wonder if she would've been a geek if she'd grown up with you?”

Sheridan shrugged. “Not sure. It might've been kinda fun having a sister.” She started playing with her leftover food, and I could see sadness all over her face.

I could tell she was getting down, and I had enough to bring me down with the way Bryce was acting. So, I flashed a huge smile at her and said, “I'm still your sister.”

She smiled back at me.

We talked about some more random stuff, then Sheridan said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you those were some cool pictures you uploaded to Instagram.”

I shook my head. “Girl, I didn't have anything to do with that. That's all Jayla. She's been working for us for less than two weeks, and the girl has done more than the entire publicity team at
Rumor Central
.” The Instagram pictures Sheridan was talking about were some behind the scenes candid shots the station's photographer had taken the other day at Jayla's request.

Sheridan rolled her eyes. “That girl must have no life. All she does is sit up and promote you.”

“It's her job now. And she likes it. Who am I to knock it? Plus, it's paying off. Her blog post got picked up by
Seventeen
magazine's website.”

“Wow.”

“So, say what you want about her, but Jayla is all right by me.” I laughed.

By the end of the day, I was just all too ready to go home. I was glad to have the day off from the station, because I'd been working a grueling schedule, and today I was just going home to veg out in front of the TV.

Sheridan and I had just walked outside after school when I saw Jayla standing by my car.

“Jayla?” I said, surprised.

“Hi, Maya!” She grinned widely as she waved.

Sheridan didn't speak as she folded her arms and looked at Jayla like she was crazy.

Jayla came bouncing toward me. “I tried to call you.”

“Yeah, I left my phone at home today.” I was still trying to figure out what in the world she was doing at my school.

“Well, I just wanted to let you know about a few things I had in the works, and I was getting you set up on Pinterest and I needed your passwords.”

“What you need her password for?” Sheridan said, stepping to the side of me.

I laughed. “Down, girl. How is she going to update and upload my stuff if she doesn't know my password?”

Jayla just grinned at Sheridan, then handed me a piece of paper, and I wrote the password down. “But you really could've just called,” I said as I handed the paper back to her.

“I tried. And we really need to get the photo gallery up and running.”

“Well, you wasted a trip because I use the same password for almost everything,” I said, pointing to the paper.

“It's not a wasted trip because, remember, I talked about getting photos of you at school. So I just want to get some pictures of you talking to your friends on campus.”

I sighed. I so wanted to get home, but then I saw Bryce hanging out in front of the school with his boys.

“Cool. Let me put my bag in my car,” I said. I tossed my bag in the backseat. “Good thing I'm looking on point.”

Jayla grinned. “Oh, I wasn't worried about that. I knew you were always on point.”

My hands went to my hips, and I tossed my hair over my shoulder diva-style. “See, I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

She snapped a picture by my car, then we headed across campus—in the direction of where Bryce was standing. I wanted him to have a front-row seat to my photo shoot.

Sheridan followed, keeping her arms folded across her chest. We walked around, taking candid shots with Jayla's professional camera. I called Chasity and Ava over to get in some shots. Then a couple other of my friends. Of course, Bryce's boys came over, teasing me and flirting on the low-low. I put on a show, and, although Bryce was trying to act like he wasn't looking, I knew it was eating him up, especially when I asked several of his teammates to get in a picture. They all crowded around me, and the two teammates he couldn't stand got on both sides of me and hugged me while everyone else struck poses. That's when I saw Bryce storm off, and I couldn't help but smile.

After about twenty minutes, Jayla said, “Well, I'd better get going now. I want to get these uploaded tonight.”

“Okay, see you later.” I waved as she walked away.

“That girl creeps me out,” Sheridan said once Jayla was gone.

“Everybody creeps you out,” I replied.

“And she's so lame. Seriously, who gets all excited about picture taking and posting stuff about other people?” She shook her head like Jayla thoroughly disgusted her.

“She's a tech geek. Plus, I told you, we hired her at the station, so she's just doing her job. I'm not knocking her.”

Sheridan stood watching Jayla as she pulled out of the school parking lot. “Unh-unh. It's just something about her. And I'm not feeling you giving her your passwords. Let her be your spokesperson or something and update your stuff for you, but don't just give her an all-access pass to your stuff.”

“I don't have time to do all that stuff,” I said, heading back to my car. “She is just going in and updating everything. It's no big deal.”

“If you say so,” Sheridan said.

I smiled. “I say so. I'm out. Don't call me, because my phone won't be back on. Today is all about me.”

“When is it not all about you, Maya?” She laughed. “When is it not?”

I had to keep telling myself that over and over. But the jacked-up part was I found myself wondering if I really
did
have a boyfriend. Bryce hadn't talked to me in over two weeks now. I was trying to be patient, but he ought to know, Maya Morgan didn't hold out for anyone.

And, judging from the way J. Love was all up in my face, I didn't have to.

“So, tell me again why a girl as fine as you doesn't have a man,” he said, leaning in closer to me. J. Love was an R & B singer who had to be the hottest thing going right now. He was so fine, it was ridiculous. He had smooth chocolate skin, curly hair, and a body that was out of this world. He looked like a much finer version of Trey Songz.

I shook myself out of the trance his sexy voice seemed to be luring me into. It was no wonder he had passed Chris Brown as one of the top R & B singers. Between his looks and his voice, he was all of that. “I'm interviewing you,” I said. “Not the other way around.”

He grinned. “My mom always told me if you want to know the answer to a question, just ask. So I'm asking.” He grinned.

I couldn't help it; I crossed my long, Pilates-toned legs, making sure my thigh was peeking out from the slit in my pencil skirt. “Well, I don't know where you got the idea that I don't have a man.”

He leaned back, disappointed. “Of course you do.”

“I do.” I paused. “Well, kinda, sorta. We're on the outs right now.”

“In my book, that means no. So I need to know how I can get in.”

I had to push down the butterflies turning backflips in my stomach. “Mr. Love . . .”

“J. For you, it's J,” he said, cutting me off.

Oh, my, God! He was so fine!

“J,” I said, pulling myself together. “I'm flattered, but—”

“Why don't you let me take you out?” He stared at me. Hard. Almost as if he were trying to put me into some kind of deep trance or something.

I wasn't about to let him intimidate me, so I stared right back. “Mr. Love, I don't mix business with pleasure.”

He turned back to his publicist, who was standing off to the side. “Yo, Cheryl, is this interview over?”

She nodded. “It is. They only had fifteen minutes.”

J. Love looked at his watch, which I had spotted right away was a Rolex Submariner. That watch was no joke. It cost $250,000. I knew because my mom had bought it for my dad for their anniversary, and he had made her take it back because it was “ridiculously expensive.”

“It's been twenty minutes,” J. Love said, looking up at me. “So it looks like you owe me five minutes.”

I couldn't help but laugh. J. Love was so smooth. I had to give him his props. The cameraman who was taping the interview winked at me as he cut off his camera and walked off. J. Love stood and walked right in front of me.

“Seriously, our business is done. Let me take you out.”

I was so tempted to say yes, but I really didn't want to do Bryce like that. Besides, there were a bunch of people standing around trying to act like they weren't listening, but I knew they were. I didn't want these busters all up in my business.

I stood, coming face-to-face with him. “I'm going to have to take a rain check, Mr. Love.”

He put his hand over his heart. “I'm hurt.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a card. “But here's my private number. What time do you get off?”

“Actually, I'm done now.” I took the card, although I had no plans to use it.

We stood for a minute, just staring at each other, and I felt my mind drifting to Bryce. A week and a half. Almost two weeks since I'd talked to him. What if he'd broken up with me and I let J. Love slip through my fingers.

“Let's at least go get something to eat,” J. Love said. “I mean, my bodyguard will be there to protect me in case you try anything.”

I laughed. “Oh, in case I try something? I don't think so.”

“So, are you going to go or what? It's just dinner.”

I knew a man like J. Love didn't have to beg anyone to go out with him, so I seriously was flattered. I checked my phone to see if Bryce had tried to call me while I was taping. He hadn't, and that made my decision for me.

“I guess I am a little hungry,” I said.

J. Love chose a nice, quaint Italian restaurant on South Beach. The food was delicious, and the conversation was awesome. J. Love was so funny. He had me cracking up all evening, and by the time he dropped me back off at the station, I was so glad I'd decided to go with him. He tried to kiss me at the end of the night, but I stopped him. I liked him, but didn't want to give him the wrong idea. I had a reputation to protect, so I definitely couldn't get down like that.

Still, he called me the next day and asked me to come to the mall with him to help him pick out a gift for his mother. Since I didn't have anything to do for a change and couldn't pass up a trip to the mall, I told him to come pick me up.

We hadn't been at the mall ten minutes when I heard someone shout, “Oh my God, is that J. Love?”

“And Maya Morgan!” the girl who was with her shouted.

J. Love smiled and pulled me closer to him as people started snapping pictures. He was hugging all over me, and I immediately tensed up. That's all I needed was for my picture to show up on some blog for Bryce to see. Luckily, J. Love's bodyguard jumped in before too many more people could take pictures.

“If you don't mind, my man just wants to shop today,” he said.

“Awww, I just want a quick picture,” one girl whined. “Please. He's my favorite singer in the whole world.”

J. Love nodded, and the girl jumped in between us.

“You two make such a cute couple,” the girl said as she wiggled in the middle of us so her friend could snap the photo.

“We do make a cute couple,” J. Love said after the girl had left and we'd resumed shopping. “Too bad you kinda sorta have a man.” He smiled and took my hand and led me into the Gucci store.

“Where is everyone?” I asked once we were inside the store.

“I just wanted to shop in peace, so I had them close down for an hour.”

“What?”

He shrugged like it was no big deal. Even I was impressed with that, and it took a lot to impress me.

The sales clerks stood off to the back, ready to serve if J. Love even acted like he was interested in something. I helped him find the most beautiful purse for his mother, then I picked up the flyest pair of Gucci shades I'd ever seen.

At the counter, I waited while the clerk rang J. Love up.

“Yo, throw those shades on there,” he told the clerk, pushing the glasses toward her.

“Ummm, that's okay,” I said, reaching to take them back. “I got it.”

“Yo, ma, let me get the shades,” he said, pushing my hand out of the way.

“I can buy my own shades.”

He laughed. “I'm sure you can, but it's the least I can to thank you for helping me out. You sure you don't want anything else?” he asked. He motioned around the store. “Anything in here you want is yours, and I mean anything.”

Now that was a dream come true. A super-rich dude giving me free rein to shop in the Gucci store! But I wasn't going out like that.

“No, I'm good. Just the glasses, and seriously, I can pay for them myself.”

“Would you be quiet,” he said, handing the clerk his black American Express card.

He handed me the glasses. “Thank you,” I said with a wide grin.

“My pleasure. I just wish you'd let me buy you something else.”

“I'm good.”

He stared at me for a minute.

“What?” I said.

He shook his head and took my hand. “You're a girl after my own heart. Not one of the chicks I deal with would turn down a shopping spree in the Gucci store.”

“Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not like all the other chicks you're used to dealing with.”

“Oh, I've noticed, Maya Morgan. I've definitely noticed.”

We laughed and joked the rest of the day. Thankfully, Darrell, his bodyguard, kept everyone at bay, so we shopped and enjoyed each other's company in peace. I could definitely see myself kicking it with him. But since I had a boyfriend, I had to settle for us being friends.

I actually was grateful to finally be heading home, since I was exhausted. I leaned back in the plush seat of his tricked-out Cadillac Escalade. J. Love was on the phone, wrapping up a call that had obviously stressed him out.

“Just get it handled, man,” he said into the phone. “I can't afford this. Not right now.” He ran his hand over his head. “So you got it taken care of? Cool.... I'll holla at you later.”

“Everything okay?” I asked once he hung up. He seemed really intense.

“Yeah, my attorney just saved my behind,” he replied, sounding relieved.

“What happened?” I shifted in the seat to get comfortable.

He hesitated like it had just dawned on him who he was talking to. “Let me be quiet since you're on that
Rumor Central
kick,” he said.

“For your information, I'm off duty,” I said. “And I don't mix
pleasure
with
business
either.”

He smiled. “I like you, Maya Morgan.”

“I like you, too, J. Love. So what's up? You seem really stressed.”

He exhaled and leaned back in his seat. “Drama with my boys. Some of my crew invited these chicks out up in Seattle, and next thing you know, they were facing some sexual assault charges.”

“What?”

“Oh, they didn't do it. But I can't have that kind of publicity. I just signed a major endorsement deal with Coca-Cola. Something like that could mess with my paper.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, they even arrested me,” he continued. “One of the girls tried to claim I was there. I wasn't even in the hotel.” He shook his head like the memory made him mad. “That's why I always have to watch my back.” He paused, looked at me like he was studying me. “I don't have to watch my back with you, Maya Morgan, do I?”

“Of course not,” I said. And I meant that. I was really feeling J. Love, and I definitely wouldn't have sold him out. “So, how'd you keep it out of the press?” I asked.

“I have a good lawyer. I had to come up off a couple of grand, but it was worth it to shut this whole thing down.”

“I'm glad to hear that,” I said.

He turned to face me. “Really, Maya Morgan?”

“Yes, J. Love.” I smiled.

“You know, you are a one-of-a-kind girl.”

“I know.” I snuggled up closer to him.

He hugged me. “And I'm going to do whatever it takes to make you mine. I got a feeling you'd be worth it.”

I looked up at him. “I am.”

He stared at me for a few minutes, then leaned in to kiss me. This time, I didn't stop him.