' 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗗 𝗠𝗘 𝗦𝗪𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡 ' › D. SWING

08.

"7 months had passed since me and Donald started dating."—

I had been working with a female vocalist signed to Uptown Records as a background singer by the name of Mary J. Blige, sitting in on her studio sessions and writing hooks for the artists as well as helping with the vocal arrangements. She was a huge fan of Jodeci and was always going on about how they should hurry and release their debut album. Each time I told her how much of a perfectionist Donald was and it had to be up to his standards before it could be brought to the label.

"So, what's up with you and Swing anyway?"

I glanced over at her with a shy smile and shrugged my shoulders slightly, "I mean, right now we're good. Very happy. He's doing his thing, and I'm doing mine. I was finally able to get a studio apartment out here and now I can start looking into a few local dance studios."

"Dance studios? Wait, you dance?"

I laughed at her facial expression while her eyes were wide with shock, "Yeah, girl! I didn't tell you?" She shook her head no and I continued, "Well, yeah. I dance. I've just never done it publicly before but with how popular dance is right now, I can earn hella' money."

"I know that's right. Cut me ten percent for being one of the first to know."

I laughed as she bounced her shoulders with her tongue hanging from her mouth, "Yeah, right. I'll think about it. But, let me ask you something."

"Yeah?"

She peered at me through the corner of her eyes as if she was skeptical or something. "You got a lil' crush on K-Ci?" She didn't say anything, only shifting her gaze from mine which practically confirmed it. My jaw dropped, "Oooh!" Mary held her hand up as if she was about to hit me and I backed away, smiling.

"Girl. Keep it down or I'ma tell Donald you wanna' eat his ass."

My smile quickly vanished as I looked at her, distraught. "Eat his ass?!" Just as I said it, Donald walked into the studio with his pager in his hand and a McDonald's bag in the other. His eyes fell on me, his nose scrunched slightly and his eyebrows tightly knitted together. "Uh...", I started but there was nothing to say. Shit.

"I hope you ain't talkin' about my ass", he said. Mary glanced over at him then at me, her cheeks puffed out as she attempted to hold in her laugh.

I began to walk over to him but he stepped back toward the door as if he was ready to make a run for it. I decided to stop my movements and stay still while talking to him, "Kinda'? But it's not like that."

"Then what is it like? Because you ain't puttin' your tongue or finger anywhere near my ass", he spoke firmly. "Why the hell you in here talkin' to a stranger about this kind of shit anyway? You must've lost your damn mind."

"She's not a stranger. Her name is—", I started but he cut me off.

"Do I know her?"

"No", I said.

"Then she's a stranger."

Here we go...

Mary realized how serious the conversion was getting, stepping in to help me, "I was honestly just joking with her about something and she repeated it. She didn't say she was going to do it. It wasn't like that." He stood there quietly for a moment looking at her before turning his attention back to me.

"Let's go. The tattoo parlor closes at midnight."

I nodded my head and looked over to Mary, giving her a quick hug and telling her bye before leaving out of the studio with Donny. He was in one of his moods again. For some reason, when he's overwhelmed with a lot of things at once, he gets tense and grumpy. During times like this, I just keep my distance and let him have his space. One thing he hates is someone bothering him when he's upset about something. You can't even ask if he's okay or try and talk it out with him. It's some kind of Libra thing. I've learned to just deal with it over the years, even though I didn't like letting him go through things by himself. It just didn't feel right.