"I'm staring at him
But I forget to pick my face up off the floor
We're in a crowd, but it feels like we're alone
Oh my god he just looked at me
And I just wanna tell him something that he's never heard
But my lips won't let me tell him
I would say this but
Maybe, maybe in another life
I could be the girl who walks up to the guy
And tells him, tells him how she feels inside
But, not tonight, no not tonight
What if he walks towards me
While all the blood is rushing right to my brain
What am I gonna say, what am I gonna say
I may stop breathing and freeze 'cause
That's the story of my life
Wouldn't it be crazy
If he felt, how I felt, overwhelmed and terrified"
- Elle Varner

Bailey |

"It's basically like that one show, Married At First Sight. You ever watched it, Bailey?" Jade asked while spinning around in the floatie she's on. The girls and I all decided to come enjoy the sun in the pool while the guys are seeing Jerrell's father off. He'll be back with his wife and the rest of his people at the end of the summer when Jerrell and I have our official marriage announcement and housewarming celebration.

"No. It sounds interesting though."

"It is, but your situation is obviously way different. You guys aren't doing this for love, it's for business." Essence spoke while floating on her back.

"It's still a marriage though. You can't expect to be all business with someone twenty four seven when you're married to them." Camille added in.

"That's true. Are you expecting more out of this marriage, Bailey?" I drummed my fingers on the side of the pool while letting my feet sway in the water. I've been trying to answer that question for myself for the past few days now.

"I mean, this definitely isn't how I imagined myself getting married would go. I'm going into this fully open and transparent. I hope to grow a connection with Jerrell. Something that's deeper than just business. He's who I'll be spending the rest of my life with, but I've also been preparing myself for if it goes the other way."

"You're such a hopeless romantic. I love it! My cousin would want to treat you right." I smiled at Essence and drunk some more of my mimosa that Jade made for us.

"Boo! This shit look boring." I looked back, quickly matching the voice to LJ. I rolled my eyes and leaned back onto my elbows.

"This can't be y'all idea of a pool party." I heard Jerrell say as the sound of Ella Mai's voice was cut short and replaced by Lil Wayne. I knew it was Jerrell that did it. He's always complaining about my music being too soft. He's already created two playlists onto my Spotify account.

"Bailey, where the hard liquor at? Y'all out here off this rich wine." Tone called out.

"Check the kitchen inside the pool house." I looked over at Camille, watching as her eyes followed LJ as he went into the pool house behind Tone.

"Cam?" She looked over at me and started laughing when she seen the look on my face.

"What? He's fine!"

"My brother? Ew." Essence fake gagged while sipping on her drink.

"Yes, your brother is fine as hell." Cam retorted while sticking out her tongue. I laughed at the two while downing the rest of my mimosa. By now the guys were walking out of the pool house with a couple bottles of alcohol.

"Bay? This grill is gas right?" Jerrell called out, using the nickname he officially gave me the other day. We've grown closer during the past three days that we've been sharing a room. We haven't done anything sexually or anything remotely close to it. We haven't even kissed yet, even though I've been thinking about it a lot. It's just that I'm an early riser and he's a light sleeper, so we spend close to an hour in bed every morning just talking.

"Yeah. I've never operated it though. Richard can help you with it." I responded in reference to the butler.

"I can work a grill, Bay. Tone, go get some meat and shit from the kitchen. We about to turn this shit up."

"I want some ribs!" Jade yelled out. I looked over at Jerrell, watching closely as he pulled out foil and lined the inside of the grill. I pulled my feet out of the pool and stood up, making my way over to him. He smiled over at me and continued what he was doing. I made sure I was watching everything he was doing, taking a general interest in how this grill actually works.

"You want me to tell you what all I'm doing?" He asked while looking over at me. I smiled and nodded my head. "Come here." I walked closer to him and he wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me in front of him. He started going over the basics of the grill, showing me how to work it.

"I know y'all did not walk out here with plain meat." I heard Cam's voice which grabbed both Jerrell and I's attention. We looked over at the guys, seeing them carrying out meat still in the package.

"What the hell were we supposed to do with it?"

"I don't know. Season or marinate it maybe. Just a wild guess." Essence sarcastically responded. I laughed while pulling away from Jerrell.

"Sit it on the table. I'll prep it." I let them know while pulling out some metal trays. I went over to the pool house kitchen and pulled out all the seasonings I would need as well as veggies and some seafood. It didn't take long for the girls to join me in the pool house, bringing all the meat with them.

"Let's get this food seasoned and prepped properly. These niggas can't do shit on their own." Essence complained while walking over to me.

"Essence, how old are you?"

"Eighteen. I'm the baby of the crew, but don't let any of that fool you. I'm the tech person, a vital key to this organization." I pursed my lips while looking between Essence and Jade. I figured that when Jerrell meant his crew he was only talking about the guys, but the girls are assets too. I should be figuring out how to incorporate them into the business side of things.

"I know this is a little premature to bring up right now, but I think it'll be a good idea for you all to join me on the business side of things. It helps balance out the risk element of things. I know I don't know you two that well, but Jerrell considers you his family and our marriage is to merge our family businesses. I don't know the first thing about being in the field, but I know how to run a successful business. We still have time to discuss it I just want all three of you to consider it." I spoke while looking over at Cam so she could know I was including her as well.

"We're down. The boys club gets exhausting, but again it's up to Ju. I don't really know what's going to be the immediate result of this merger as far as our living arrangements and our roles. When are you and Rell going house hunting?"

"Next week I believe. If my father is deported this estate will immediately be seized by the government, so I have to be completely moved before I go back to school." I'm not sure how long my father's trial will be, but if he signs a plea things will be moving way faster than anticipated.

"Well we'll definitely talk more on this subject then. For today I want everyone to just relax, especially you Bailey, and have fun." Cam spoke up while giving me a knowing look. I sighed and reluctantly agreed. Today I'll go with the flow, no second thoughts about it. I have to try and let loose for once.

Jerrell |

"Nigga, Bailey is fucked up right now!" Ju laughed while passing me the blunt. I've been keeping my eyes on Bailey all day because she's never drank any hard liquor before. Luckily she's not a sloppy drunk. She's just been dancing around and jumping in and out the pool. Once we got the food cooked we all started drinking and chilling out. Her and the girls have been playing games in the pool, dancing, and going crazy with trying to create different mixed drinks.

"Hell, she needed this. She's been stressed out with all this shit going on with her dad. I'm just happy to see her having fun and actually warming up to y'all. I have to protect her innocent self at all costs." My goal is that by the time she's leaving for school she won't be stressing about shit. Especially not her trifling ass daddy. He's a good businessman, but a horrible person and I understand why my dad stopped fucking with him. I just want her to feel confident in depending on me as her husband.

"Jade will definitely loosen her up. Look at them." They were pouring a mixture of liquors and popsicles into the blender, making a mystery margarita. Essence doesn't drink, but we let her smoke with us and now she's passed out in the pool on a lounger floatie.

"They're going to be hungover like crazy tomorrow. Where's her friend at?"

"Over there in the cuts with LJ." Tone spoke while plopping down with another plate of food. "Aye, them girls can cook their asses off."

"Nigga, I grilled that meat."

"That's all you did. They seasoned it, marinated, made sides. They also put together these bomb ass shrimp kabobs. Hell I need to find me a girl. Y'all niggas taking all the wholesome women." Ju and I glanced at each other before bursting out into laughter. "Fuck y'all."

"Your problem is that you're out looking for a good girl and that's not how you find them. You gotta be patient and just continue working on you. Shit will fall into place." Ju explained to him, and it's right. Tone be too concerned with getting pussy, and of course he's going to get it easily because our names ring bells in the street. Once he realizes that these hoes come a dime a dozen and can't offer up more than pussy he'll be able to weed through them easily. I kept a couple in rotation, ones who I knew wouldn't catch feelings or fuck up my operation, but even now the more I'm around Bailey the more I can careless about getting random pussy. Shit is disposable, whereas what I'm building with Bailey is a forever thing.

"Easy for y'all to say." He mumbled while digging into his food.

"Rell, try this!" Bailey yelled while rushing over to me. I took the glass out of her hand and cautiously took a sip of it.

"This shit actually good. What y'all put in this?" I question while gulping some more of the drink. Bailey definitely not getting this cup back. She's had enough already anyways.

"We put everything in it." Jade responded while sitting the pitcher on the table and sitting on the arm of Ju's chair. I sat up and wrapped my arm around Bailey's stomach, carefully pulling her down into my lap.

"You good, Bay?" I spoke into her ear. I felt her shiver and it brought a smirk to my face. I knew she'd be tense as hell if she didn't have this alcohol in her system.

"I'm good. Everyone is so nice." She attempted to whisper, but everyone heard her.

"Ew, Tone! You're nasty as fuck!" Jade yelled out. I took my attention off Bailey to see Tone drinking straight out the pitcher.

"How I'm nasty? We all family. You could have easily brought me a glass if you didn't want me drinking it straight." I laughed and finished what was inside Bailey's cup.

"Let's head upstairs." I told Bailey while tapping her thigh. She nodded and stood up. I stood up and circled my arm around her waist. "We're going upstairs so I can sober hr up some. I'll hit the group chat to let y'all know what the plan is for tonight."

"How you gone sober her up, Rell?" Tone asked with a goofy smirk on his face. I waved him off and started leading Bailey towards the doors. I looked over at the pool, seeing Essence still knocked out. "LJ, don't leave your sister in this damn pool!" I called out, seeing him and Cam posted up by the door of the pool house.

"I got her lightweight ass. Go take care of your wife." Tone spoke while pulling out another pack of woods.

"Rell, let me get on your back." I stopped and bent down, letting Bailey jump onto my back. I used one of my hands to to grab ahold of hers, which were wrapped around my neck. With my other hand I grabbed ahold of one of her thighs to keep her in place. I walked into the house, seeing no one in sight. The pool is on Bailey's side of the estate, and she was right when she said no one comes on this side. Even with us have a kickback today I'm sure no one else heard us with how isolated her wing is.

"I think I'm ready to go to a real beach now."

"You sure, Bay?" I've been looking into beach house rentals so I can plan out her trip the right way. We'll need a couple days for her to get the full experience.

"Yes, and I want to get on a pedal boat, and do one of those tubing things down the waterfall. They are so cute. Wait, do you have your passport?"

"Yeah. Why?" I walked into our room and into the bathroom. I put her down on her feet and motioned for her to go to the toilet.

"Can we go to Bali?" She asked while stumbling over to the toilet.

"Bali? Why you can't ever think of something simple?" I watched her untie her bikini bottoms instead of just pulling them down and plopped down on the toilet.

"Always think big, Rell. Never minimize your dreams. Now is definitely the time for us to do it big because who knows when we'll have this much free time again."

"You're right."

"Yay! We're going to Bali! I can't wait to tell the girls you said yes." I should have known they pushed this thought into her head. My dad made us all get passports a few months back for business purposes, but we haven't gone anywhere out of the country yet. The girls have been nagging us about taking them somewhere, but it's not something that's high up on our agenda.

"Y'all can plan that shit then." She didn't say anything as she closed her eyes and continued releasing her never ending bladder. I walked over to the shower and cut it on, making sure the water was hot enough for Bailey. "Come get in the shower when you're done peeing."

"Can you help me take this off?" She was tugging on her bikini top so I walked over and untied it for her. She looks good as fuck, but I want her completely sober before I make a move.

"What do you want to do tonight?"

"We should do a movie night in the media room."

"Alright. I'll set it up while you're in the shower. Call me if you need anything." I walked out the bathroom and made my way into her movie room. The guys and I were in here all night last night playing the game. I sent a group text out, telling everyone to meet up in here while walking over to pick out the movie lineup.

I pulled out both the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as both the Creed movies. I set up the projector and loaded the movies into the que. Ju, Tone and LJ walked in with their arms full of snacks and drinks. Ju dropped the case of waters on the floor and quickly claimed his spot on the couch.

"Where the girls at?" I questioned while walking over to the closet to grab blankets for everyone.

"Washing their dirty asses. They've been in and out that damn salt water pool all day." Tone complained while stretching out on the bottom couch. I tossed blankets at all of them and walked over to grab a couple bottles of the water. I need to make sure Bailey drinks plenty of water for the rest of the night to get majority of the alcohol out her system. I don't want her being hungover tomorrow. I claimed my spot on the couch, making sure there was enough space for me and Bailey.

"You know they done talked Bailey into planning a trip to Bali."

"That shit already sounds expensive."

"Hell, it is. If she's still talking about it after she's sobered up then I'll take it seriously. This summer is dedicated to catering to her and making sure she gets to explore outside of this estate." We continued talking until the girls finally came in, looking fresh faced and noticeably more sober. I pulled the blanket back so Bailey could see the empty space next to me. She stretched out next to me and I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her into my chest. It feels good having someone to be with like this. I used the remote to turn off the lights and start the movie.

"The shower help you feel a little better?" I spoke lowly to her.

"Much better. I feel like a new woman." She responded while scooting her body closer to mine. I pulled her on top of me and turned so I was laying on my back.

"That's better." I spoke while kissing the top of her head. She looked up at me, a wide smile on her face.

"Today was really fun for me. Thank you."

"Anything to see this smile."

"Can y'all shut the fuck up while the movie is on? Damn." We all started laughing at Tone's grumpy ass, but quieted down to focus on the movie.