"Look at my lil sister going to work and shit," Khyren gassed as Sadé came down the stairs in her work clothes with a yawn. "Why you tryna out dress them people Fat fat?" he chuckled and she grinned, doing a spin so he could see her full outfit.

Sadé had been at her new job for about two and a half weeks now, this Friday would make her third full week, but every day when she left, Khy was already gone. He was off today, so he finally got to see her off.

"You want me to take you out for lunch? What time you eat?" he wondered, as she started making her tea for the morning. She usually didn't drink coffee unless she was running on empty. Tea always gave her a good start to her day, it kept her calm and relaxed.

"Aw Bubba! Yes please, I would love that," she smiled, pouring the honey in her travel mug. "I go for lunch at 1:45, then you have me for a whole hour," she nodded. "Where we going?" she wondered, grabbing the cream cheese for her bagel and her grapes from the fridge.

"I'on know, I'll figure somethin' out. But gon' head, don't let me make you late. Drive safe aight?" he stood up with a stretch and walked over to her, giving her a kiss on her forehead before going back upstairs, probably to sleep.

"I will, see you later," she smiled gently and finished prepping her breakfast before going to grab her car keys.

Kash was loving her new job so far, all of her coworkers were very accommodating, and they helped her out whenever she had a question. Her supervisor was nice, she barely saw him but when she did, he was always kind. There were of course people she didn't care for at work, but she didn't let them occupy her mind at all, it made work much more enjoyable for her.

Before she pulled off, she checked her phone for messages and saw one from Aryn.

aryn💜🤞🏾: dinner this weekend? imy friend 🥺
: of course. i miss you too lovebuggg 🥰

Both girls had started working, and they were feeling the effects, not being able to see each other as often, but they tried to make it work as much as they could, whether it be movie night, a night out or some good old retail therapy.

After that, she made her way to the office, shuffling one of her favorite playlists to get the day started.

"Morning," Sadé smiled to the person who sat in the cubicle across from her and they greeted her with a smile back.

She got settled at her desk, routinely cracking al her knuckles before getting to work. She chuckled at the thought of her dad and brother, they hated when she did it, or when she cracked any of her bones, they thought it sounded nasty.

"Good morning Ms. Bryant," a voice sounded.

"Good mo—oh, morning Wayne," she smiled as he leaned on the wall of her cubicle. Along with all the nice coworkers she had, there was of course the overly flirtatious one. She paid him no mind in that regard, but he was funny occasionally. He wasn't ugly at all, she just hadn't found herself interested.

"How's your morning been so far?" he asked, as she sipped her tea. "You look relaxed,"

"I try to start my day out that way," she nodded. "It's been good thank you for asking, how about yourself?" she wondered, just making small talk while she read her emails. She could tell the morning would be a little slow and she'd just be counting down the minutes until lunch with her brother.

After Wayne finally left her cubicle, she went and read her affirmations for the day. Since the trip those months ago, she found that reading or actually speaking some positive affirmations every day did good for her. They just helped her remind herself of certain things that she really needed to keep in mind.

As far as progress, Kash had been improving by her own standards. She rid herself of all the memories of her past relationship, she had no pictures, stuffed animals, jewelry or anything else that would remind her of what was. She hadn't cried in weeks, she was back spending her time out and about instead of holed up in her room and while sometimes she experienced little bouts of sadness, she could say that her happiness was in the forefront of her mind most of the time. She wasn't even worried about getting over the breakup anymore, all she cared about was returning to her old self and that was going very well.

Sadé was proud of herself. If you would have asked her months ago if she'd ever be the way she was her answer would be absolutely not, and while her breakup and the revelation that her ex was engaged was devastating, it wasn't the end of the world like she originally thought and it definitely wasn't the end of her.

"You a bad bitch, sis," she pointed in the mirror in the corner of her cubicle, and she laughed to herself, putting her headphones in so she could officially focus and start doing something productive.

"Hey! You going to lunch?" Wayne asked Kash as she took her purse out of her drawer where she kept it locked up during the day.

"I am, 1:45 finally came," she nodded, checking the mirror to see that she still looked good and didn't have to touch up before leaving. "I'm assuming you are as well?" she looked him up and down, seeing his jean jacket on his arm.

It was already August, and summer was finally coming to a close as September approached in the next week. She loved autumn and couldn't wait for the weather to change.

"Yes ma'am. You got plans already?" he asked, walking beside her on her way to the elevator to go meet Khy downstairs.

"I do. My brother came to take me out to lunch today," she smiled, glad she had an actual excuse, because she knew he was about to ask her to lunch with him and as nice as that was, she wanted to keep it very professional.

The elevator came and he boarded it with her—nobody else was on it, and she groaned internally as they were on the 19th floor.

"Why we on yo lunch date wit' yo' sister, my nigga?" Donny chuckled as they waited at the reception desk of Kash's office building.

"Because. If I would have took y'all ass home I would've been late and she'd be sad, I'm not tryna make her sad, duh," he explained and Siah shook his head. They were all smoking at Khy's, seeing as the shop was closed today, and for whatever reason Adonis wasn't at work. They were very high, when Khy realized what time it was, and made them get in the car with him.

Now, here they were, waiting for Kash to come out of the elevator. And once she did, Siah's eyebrows raised in confusion, seeing a man walking beside her. "Who he?" he nodded his head toward them, calling Khy and Donny's attention.

"I'on know but she look irritated," Khy chuckled. Donny nodded in agreement, and Siah could see it all over her face. Whoever it was she definitely didn't want to be talking to, and he didn't know how the guy didn't get that vibe from her. "Sadé!" Khy called, and her head turned toward them, making her grin widely.

She said something to the man and rushed off without waiting for a response, and as her heels clicked in their direction, Siah didn't miss the dude watching her every step, shamelessly staring at her ass. He wasn't even trying to hide it, in an instant—he got annoyed by it.

"Hi you guys! What a nice lil surprise, y'all came to see me," Kash said, making him look down, away from the strange man. "Why you look so irritated?" she asked him.

"This how my face always look," he quickly said and she looked him up and down before giving her brother a hug.

They made their way out of the building, not before Siah took one more look back, to see if he was still standing there watching Kash—and he wasn't, at least not where he could see.

"That is so good," Kash groaned as she tasted Khy's sandwich. They had been seated and were eating at a restaurant not too far from her office and Kash was making her rounds tasting everyone's food. "Siah, can I have some?" she looked over at him, since she was sitting right across from him.

"No," he chuckled, watching her face drop. "Why do you need my food? You got some," he pointed and she rolled her eyes.

"Obviously, I wanna know what yours tastes like, Siah. You can have some of mine," she cheesed, trying to persuade him.

"I'on want yours, cuz I got mine, you see how that work?" he smarted. Donny and Khy just shook their heads, continuing to eat while they argued. "Stop starin' at me, I'm not giving you none,"

"Kasiah. Just a little bit! It looks good,"she poked her lip out and he sucked his teeth. "Please," she cheesed again. "I know you wanna say yes, look at you!"

"Here, Sadé damn. Spoiled ass, don't ask me for no more," he fussed, as she took her fork to his plate.

"Thank you!" she danced a little bit while she tasted everything, "Ooh, I like that," she commented and he shook his head at her, continuing to eat his food. Even though he stood by what he said, she was extremely spoiled, and hated being told no, she was acting like her old self, and he was glad to see it. She wasn't sulking or quiet anymore, she wasn't to herself and on her phone ignoring everyone and everything, she was basically back to hyper old Kash.

He preferred her this way, arguments and all.

"Why you looking over here?" she jokingly bucked at him and he chuckled at her.

"Aint nobody lookin' at yo short ass, mind yo' plate and stay out mine," he said and in response she simply flicked her middle finger up at him. "I'm gon cut it off," he said.

"I wish you would," she immediately replied. "I'll bust them kneecaps, ugly. Anyway! Donny why you not at work?" she asked and they started a conversation after he laughed at her weird threat to Siah.

He pulled out his phone afterwards, and saw a text from a girl he used to mess with, nothing serious. She was asking what his plans were for tonight, and while he had absolutely none, he didn't feel like seeing her.

He'd been in a mood lately, if a woman approached him, or someone texted him wanting to link, in something he knew would probably end in sex, he didn't want to do it. It wasn't like he was jumping at opportunities to have sex before that, but usually after a while of him not having any he'd want it—but not now.

"Siaaaah," Sadé called, dragging his name out, making him look up from his phone. "You wanna split a strawberry shortcake?" she wondered. "I can't eat a whole piece,"

"I'on know if I want yo' breath on my cake, Dae," he smirked and she rolled her eyes with a smirk. He knew she was asking him because Khy was deathly allergic to strawberries and Donny hated sweet food. "Nah, we can, I'on care," he shrugged.

She nodded and flagged the waitress over, giving her the order, and he couldn't help but notice that she looked really good today. She never really looked bad, but something about her today was kind of different.

Before she could see him looking, he quickly went back to his phone, just so she wouldn't get smart with him like she loved to do.

"Drive safely. See you later," she said with a dazed smile, leaning on her doorway as Siah walked past her to leave.

"I will. Ima fuck wit'cha," Siah yawned as he left. He ended up going to the girls house—he had nothing better to do, plus he wanted to test a theory, and see if his body was behaving weirdly for no reason. He wasn't particularly into it, at least not as much as he usually would be and not nearly as much as she was, but she seemed to enjoy herself.

He got in his car, and headed back toward his house, trying to keep his mind clear as he usually did, but it was clouded and it had been for weeks. He couldn't shake the fog and it was beginning to bother him, because he genuinely couldn't understand.

Once he got home, he went straight for the shower and washed up before heading to the backyard, where he knew his dad was because of the lights on.

"Wassup, old man?" Siah yawned again, sitting in the lawn chair next to his. "Long day?"

"Hell yeah, Friday can't come fast enough I'm ready to sleep my life away," Tatum chuckled. "How bout you? How was your day off?"

"Straight," he shrugged. "Went out to eat with Khy and them," he said. "I brought you sum' back, I'on know if you seen it in the fridge," he jerked his thumb back toward the house.

"I saw, and I ate it already, thank you," he nodded. "You aight, Siah?" Tatum asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Kasiah wasn't surprised his father asked, he was always very insightful and noticed every little thing that was off when it came to him, or his mom. It was slightly frustrating that he never hide the fact that he was in a bad mood from his dad, if he didn't want to talk about it he had to explicitly tell him, or he'd keep guessing.

"Huh? I'm fine," he answered. "I just—I'on know, my mind gone" he huffed, not really sure how to articulate what was going on in his head.

As he went to try again, his phone buzzed in his hand, and he checked his messages to see one from Kash.

sadé✨: i got a new charm for my braceletttttttttttt 😛

He wasn't sure when she put that emoji by her name—because he didn't have emojis next to anyone's name except his grandparents and aunts.

: lemme see it
sadé✨: it's a crown, cuz ima princess 😌
: lmao who told you that?
sadé✨: 🖕🏾 ion like yo ass
: im cutting that shit off.
sadé: go head! i got two ugly 🖕🏾🖕🏾

"Do it got to do with whatever got you smiling at yo' phone?" he heard his dad say and Siah looked over at him to see him smirked. He hadn't even noticed he was smiling,

"I wasn't," he quickly fixed his face, and Tatum sucked his teeth. "Okay I was! What that got to do with anything?"

"You not that slow, Kasiah," his father straight faced him. "Whatever it is you in denial about coming back to bite yo' ass, you might as well accept it," he said. "I'on know what it is, but I know you, my boy,"

After a short silence, Siah readjusted in his seat, wanting to deny what his dad was saying even more, but they both knew it would be no use.

"How you know—well...what made you realize you liked mama?" he asked, turning to look at his dad.

"Liked her? That was uh... damn I was fifteen," he chuckled, reminiscing about his wife. "We was in ninth grade, and I used to go out my way to walk her home, even though she had all yo' aunties and uncles with her. At first I thought it was just cuz she was cute, you know lil niggas do anything for a cute girl," he pointed and Siah shook his head with a laugh.

"But after a week or so, it wasn't just 'Oh Vannah? She real pretty, Ima walk her home', it was like Vannah was everywhere, you know? I was looking for her in everything. She living in my head, I hear her name and I'm smiling, I hear a song it reminds me of her. It's little shit like that, she just occupied all my thoughts, I couldn't leave her alone," he shrugged. "It was all downhill from there," he joked.

"So you liked her first huh? She always told me you was obsessed," he teased and his dad laughed.

"Hell yeah, but she liked me too, I hope she ain't forget that part. She was always teasin' me, picking lil fights wit' me, tryna argue," he smiled fondly. "And I also knew because I got hella territorial, not weird and creepy, but your mama was a bad lil sum' in high school—niggas wanted her and I knew who, so if I saw them tryna run game on Vannah I got annoyed—hell I got mad most times," he explained.

Listening to his father, cogs started turning in his head ever so slowly, and the fog was starting to clear up but he wasn't sure what he saw was good or not.

"So—who got your mind gone?" Tatum asked, making Siah snap his head over to him again. "You not just askin' cuz you wanna know, Kasiah," he chuckled.

"I—um, that don't matter right now, I'm still tryna navigate that," he said and his father gave him a look before turning his head the other way.

That Friday, Siah was back at