occupied the studio, all talking amongst each other or watching Korin work. She stood before the camera radiating confidence and grace. For the third time this year she was shooting an editorial, the current one being for Essence. A magazine dedicated specifically for black women.

She grew up with Essence magazines neatly decorating her home's coffee table. Her mom had a monthly subscription and always raved about the quality of the magazine's content. Because of her mother, it was the first magazine she saw a woman that looked like her on the cover. She remembered it vividly – supermodel Alek Wek was the selection of the month. She was the woman that walked so Adut Akech could run. Sudanese women who proudly wore their dark skin, short haircuts and full lips.

Years later, Korin was being featured in the same magazine. It wasn't the cover but she was still just as honored to be thought of by the company. They were known for acknowledging black women who were making strides in the industry. In her eyes, she was doing something right and they wanted to let the world know about her and her brand.

"Can I get a quarter profile?" she slightly moved her head, earning a praise. "Perfect. Now hold it for me."

The photographer made a quick adjustment on his camera then held it back up to his eye. He snapped the shot twice and like the natural she was, she changed her pose to one just as flawless. One thing photographers always complimented her on was the fact she wasn't afraid to try a pose. She never kept it simple. She would try whatever and it allowed her to find what worked for her, and gave the photographer various shots to choose from.

It took a while to build up enough confidence to be experimental in front of the camera, but when she did, her career began to flourish. Not only did it heighten the quality of her photos, she earned points from photographers and made herself memorable. She now had photographers that recommended her for projects after working with her.

"One last wardrobe change and we're done." the creative director announced with a dance.

Korin handed her the bouquet of followers, "Can someone turn the fan up? I'm burning."

"Yeah of course."

"Thank you."

Korin traveled over to the rolling racks of clothes for her last outfit. The stylist waited until she was undressed to hand her the pieces she needed to put on. After the first year of having to change in under two minutes, Korin stopped caring who was in the room when she stripped. A pair of panties and a set of nipples shouldn't have been anything outside of the ordinary for anyone. Both sexes had them.

Once she was dressed, the makeup artist changed the color of her lipstick and switched her hairstyle. She went back out in front of the camera and gave a hundred and ten percent like she'd done all day long. Though she was tired from six hours of shooting, she kept her professionalism. She also had a fear of not being a fan of photos that were released after a shoot. It was why she made sure to keep high energy the entire time.

"Fabulous! And that is a wrap ladies and gentlemen. It's time to clean and go home!"

"Finally. I'm starving." Korin hastily swapped out the outfit for the clothes she arrived in — a brick red track suit.

"Go grab some things from the table before we leave." Jeffery suggested. "I know you were looking at those wings."

"You know me so well." she grinned.

On the long, clothed table were snack options. There were carrots, celery, finger sandwiches, containers of tuna salads, wings and loads of chips. She grabbed a salad, popped the lid and threw about eight wings inside of it. She picked a bag of nacho Doritos to go along with it and she was ready to go.

"It was so nice to meet you. I hope we get to work together again one of theses days." she shook the photographer's hand.

"Me too. Do you have a business card I can have? One of my good friends are looking for new models for their lingerie line."

"Um yeah." she reached into her purse, grabbing one. "I suggest using the number for a quicker response time."

"Definitely. Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you. You were a delight to work with."

"So were you. I hope to see you soon." she pointed while backing away. She reached Jeffery then gave him a kiss, "I'm leaving. I'll see you at the office on Thursday?"

"Yes ma'am. Nine o'clock sharp."

"Okay, see you Thursday. Love you."

She didn't waste another second inside of that building. She walked out of the door and over to her car parked in the very last parking space. Rather than leave immediately, she fetched her phone and dialed Brittney's number. It rung twice before Brit was on the other end.

"You've reached Brit. What can I assist you with Ms. Alexander?"

"Hey, what are you up to? I want to talk to you."

"I'm just getting back from the office so you have perfect timing. Come over and talk to me, babygirl."

"Alright, I'm on the way."

She tossed her phone down in the passenger seat, strapped on her seatbelt, and backed out. Brittney's loft wasn't too far away from the studio. She made it there within a span of twenty five minutes. Brit let her inside and she took in the new decor. It was completely different from the last time she'd gone over, but she liked it. Blush pink and silver were the main colors with a few splashes of brown.

"I like what you did in here. This feels more like you. That charcoal grey and green didn't match your energy, but this does. And it feels super cozy in here." Korin analyzed the place.

"Well thank you. I put in a lot of work."

"What made you change it?" Korin took a seat after she removed her shoes.

"Like you said, the energy didn't match. I never felt like I was at home. It felt like I was living in someone else's home and I pay too much rent to ever feel like that."

"Okay. I need to fix up my place but I'm claiming a house next so I'm going to wait."

"If you get a house you'll be the designated host. I hope you know that." Brit lit the candle that sat on the center table.

"I'm fine with that. I love being around everybody. We're always busy so when we can all be together it feels so precious."

"It does." Brit admitted. "Now, what did you—"

Brit was interrupted by both of their phones pinging twice. Brit had hers in her hand so she raised it to see who was texting her. It was Noelle in the group chat telling Brittney to get on Instagram.

"Was that the group chat?" Korin asked.

"Yeah." Brit sat down beside Korin. "Noelle told me to get on Instagram. I hope it's no bullshit going on."

Korin scooted closer so that she would be able to see whatever it was as well. Her DM request were flooded and she had a bunch of tagged notifications. She clicked on one of the tags, being led to Chad's page. He'd posted a video of her captioned, the only thing I need in this life of sin❤️ @britksteph.

She had no recollection of the video being taken. By her hair and nails, she knew it was around the time they chose to stop being strictly sex partners. Which was close to three months ago. Her cheeks began to burn as she watched it over and over, specifically listening to him call her pretty in the background.

Korin watched her friend nearly burst in joy time and time again with each time it played. She couldn't help but smile. Chazmon truly made her happy and Korin couldn't be any happier for Brit.

"He needs to come home right now dammit!" Brit groaned. She then went to the comments section and Giovanni and Noelle were nearly the first ones reading, happy for you brother and please get her pregnant! "I cannot stand Noelle bro."

"What did she say?"

"Please get her pregnant. Now she know I don't play them games. I'ma cuss her out later." she locked her phone.

"Noelle wants everybody she knows to get pregnant so she can be the auntie. She already know not to hit me with that bs."

"Don't worry I will. But I was going to ask you before I was interrupted, what do you want to talk about? You okay?"

Korin dramatically sighed, "For the most part, sure."

"Aht aht, I don't like that. What's going on?"

"To be honest I don't even know. It's like I know, but I'm not fully understanding."

"Just talk and maybe we'll find some type of understanding. Is this about you and Gio and what happened the other night?"

"Yes. So look, we went out to breakfast the other morning because we planned on going on a little activity date. But for some reason he got in his bag over me not wanting to share my potatoes with him. Therefore, I left him there and went home. Out of nowhere Asani shows up—"

"Wait a minute."

"Yes Asani. He showed up with what he called a thank you gift. He was barely there for two minutes but as he walked away from the door Giovanni appeared. He was being hostile with Asani then came in all aggressive with me. He broke the diamond necklace which was the gift and I put him out. He told me not to call him and I didn't. We didn't see nor hear from each other at all until the party where he chose to get disrespectful."

"Yeah, that was wild."

"After I left with him I just wanted to go home and cool off. You know I don't like being angry. It takes too much energy and I just rather not. But he refused to take me home. I don't know what he was on but he was pissing me off and I just wanted to smash his head in. I even ended up having a panic attack from being so frustrated and angry with him."

"Babe." Brit pouted.

"I told him all I needed was some type of explanation for why he'd been wyling all day. And he basically told me that it was because his mom put him in his feelings about being alone for so many years and that he doesn't one hundred percent trust me."

"What? Why?"

"Because a cheater doesn't look like a cheater until they cheat." she quoted his exact words.

Brit pursed her lips, "Well I mean...."

"It's true yes, but he's only looking at me that way because of his ex Brielle. She cheated on him with her best friend. But I'm not her. I'm not even built like that."

"Let's go back to the part about his mom talking about him being alone for so many years. What does that mean forreal?"

"His dad went to prison our freshman year of high school and his mom turned to drugs and left him shortly after. When he came to New York to play for the Mets, he didn't have his parents or any other family by his side. It was just him, and his friends of course, until recently."

"Oooh. And her bringing that up fucked him up. Damn, yeah I can see that but why try and piss you off?"

Korin shrugged. "I don't know. After he said that I thought he called himself trying to push me away, but yesterday I remember he kept wanting me to say whether I was breaking up with him or not. Like he was fending for an answer."

"Maybe he has abandonment issues. You don't think his mom triggered that, and seeing Asani made him feel like you were being taken away from him? You know when some people are triggered they don't necessarily have panic attacks or cry. They lash out."

"Yeah, it would make sense but he could have communicated that to me. He tries to be this big advocate for expressing feelings and talking, but he was being aggressive and passive at the same time. How was I supposed to know that he was hurting from the past? I'm not a psychic."

"Have you spoken to him? Maybe y'all need to talk again now that there's been a little time."

"I don't know if I want to feel how I felt that day all over again. Like it's been taking everything in me not to cry out of frustration and confusion. We were good the night before so I just felt so ambushed by him."

"Well then take your time. I would say just let him know that you need time so things don't get worse. Cause then he might really feel abandoned by you, you know?"

Someone started to drum on Brit's front door, interrupting their moment. Brit's eyebrows furrowed as she stood from the couch to go see who'd lost their mind. She wasn't expecting anyone other than Korin so whomever it was had a lot of nerve to beat on her door like that.

"While you see who that is, I'ma go make a call." Korin rose from the couch.

Brit nodded and continued for the front door. She pushed up on her tippy toes to look out of the peephole, but it was dark. They had their hand over it. "Who is it?"

They didn't respond and continued to make a beat against her door. For safety measures, she kept the deadbolt on and cracked the door. On the other side with a smile upon his face was Chazmon. She grew excited and forgot about the deadbolt, attempting to pull the door open. It made him laugh. She snatched the lock off as fast as she could then swung the door open, greeting her man with a leap into his arms. A hearty laugh escaped his mouth as he caught her and stepped inside of the loft.

She trailed kisses all over his face to show him how much she'd missed his presence. He didn't mind it. It made him feel good to know that she missed him just as much as he'd missed her. As much as he enjoyed being around his family, all he could think about was the woman he'd left back home.

"You took forever to come back. Was everything okay?" she asked after he sat down on the couch with her straddling his lap.

"Yeah, everything turned out to be cool. I just wanted to chill with my folks for a lil bit longer. No one was out of town so I got to see everybody."

"So your dad is all clear? Nothing's wrong?"

"Yeah, he's good. It turned out to be a false alarm. What about you though? You been cool since I've been away?"

"Other than having to sleep alone, yes. I've been good."

He gave her a kiss, "Good. You ready to get this conversation out of the way so I can open you up and break you down."

"Mm, don't talk to me like that." she bit down on her lip. "I'll say fuck the conversation and give me a break down for 200, Alex."

"Chill out." he laughed. "But forreal, you ready?"

"Yes. I'm all ears."

"Aight...First thing first. I came into this with every intention of getting to know you more and possibly spending the rest of my life with you. I never set out to play any games with you and I still don't have plans of doing so. Me not letting my walls down all the way was my way of keeping my heart protected. All the while it let me get to know all about you without sharing who I am or who I was before you. That isn't fair to you at all. You don't deserve only a part of me, you know what I'm saying. It can't be a hundred versus fifty.

"But I'm telling you right now that I care about you way more than I've ever expressed to you. From now on, you will know exactly how I feel about you because every wall has come down. We're both taking risks in this so it's gotta be a hundred percent on both ends. Yeah?"

"Yes. I'm with you." she nodded.

"Aight so like I told my folks, I'ma tell you. You're an amazing woman. One of the few in my life that I have endless respect for. I sit in here damn near every day watching you grind for what you want and make shit shake. You're always on top of things and pulling your hair out, but you make it look easy. You're always doing research on something to expand your knowledge then you come and teach it to me, and I really do love that shit. I've learned so much about the evolution of fashion the in past two weeks it's crazy dawg. Now you got me walking around analyzing the material of people's clothes like I'm some stylist...

"I never have a dull moment with you. You always have me at a ten and I thank you for that because niggas overthink sometimes and go to weird places. I can see you being one cool ass mother and that turns me on. There is nothing I care about more than family and you as a mother would be amazing. You have superb patience, you go hard for everyone around, and the way you care for people is admirable. You're more than I could ever want and I can see myself with you 'til the end, Brit. You show me more and more every day why we crossed paths."

Brit listened to him speak about her with the most serious facial expression she's ever seen him make. He made sure to stare into her eyes to let her know he meant every word and it brought tears to her eyes. She'd fallen in love with him even though he was guarded, but the person in front of her was something different. She could physically see that he'd opened himself up to her. And it wasn't just by his words. Even his body language had changed.

"I'm sorry." she apologized as he watched her wipe away her tears after he took a break from speaking.

"You good?" he rubbed small circles on her thighs.

"Yeah." she chuckled. "I'm just a cry baby. You can keep going."

"I'm going to tell you about my last relationship. That's cool with you?"

She nodded.