Nothing to Lose (BWWM)

Thirteen

"Is it big? Has it got a games room? Has it got a huge garden? Will I have my own room?!"

Imani chuckled as her son bombarded her with questions. They were sat at the small dining table eating dinner and she had just asked LJ about moving to Vincent's house. "What was wrong with sharing a room with me?" She asked, feigning shock.

"Sorry mom, but I'm a man and men need their own rooms." Imani shared a look with Vivica before they both burst out into laughter. "So is it big? Has it got a games room? Has it got a big garden and will I have my own room?" He repeated, forking a huge amount of spaghetti into his mouth. "Zak has his own room and he's always talking about how he can do whatever he wants in there."

"Yes, it's big. I think it has a games room. The garden is enormous, you'll be able to go on lots of different adventures and yes - you will have your own room." LJ grinned excitedly.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" He exclaimed, rushing to finish the rest of the food on his plate.

Vivica placed a hand on his arm, stopping him from eating any more. "Honey, slow down, you could give yourself a belly ache."

"But I wanna go to the mansion!" He protested. "Don't you want to go mom?!" He questioned innocently.

As her mind flashed back to what had happened between her and Vincent just before she had left, she was torn. Part of her wanted to go to finish off what had been started and the other part of her wanted to stay away to prevent that from happening again. "Whatever you want to do, honey, I want to do."

"Well then let's go!" 

Imani smiled at him. "Luke, all you've got to do is wait till tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'll come and pick you up from school-."

"I'm coming too." Vivica added and Imani turned towards her, giving her a perplexed look. "I'm not letting my baby near him until I can make sure that he won't treat him like the damn monster he is."

"He's not a monster." Imani responded, her face softening. Vivica raised an eyebrow at the comment. "Difficult, that's all he is."

Her mother scoffed, taking a bite of her food. "You keep defending him, baby."

Imani didn't argue. She instead kept her mouth shut and pushed her food around the plate. 

Hours later, she found herself preparing for bed whilst on the phone to Melisa. LJ had decided to sleep with his grandma before they moved into the new house and so Imani didn't have to worry about being loud. Melisa was describing how Marco had arrived in the office 'looking' for Vincent - a horrible lie as everyone in the office knew that Vincent hadn't been in since before the accident. Melisa had caught on to his game and asked him what he was really doing there to which he replied that he was looking for her. 

"Then he started trying a whole bunch of lines on me. He was really laying it on thick." She said, making Imani shake her head. Marco and his corny lines. "As good looking as the guy is, you would think that he didn't need such dumb lines to get a girl to go out with him. It kind of put me off. Do I really look like the kind of girl to fall for such lines?"

"So when's your date?"

There was a moment's silence on the phone. "Saturday night." Imani couldn't help but laugh.

She knew her friend would give into Marco's charm. No girl hadn't so far. He had a way of making a girl feel as if she was the only girl in his world when in fact he probably had a string of them chasing after them. Imani didn't feel the need to inform Melisa. She knew the 29 year old could handle herself. "He's a good guy, I'm sure you're going to enjoy yourself."