At Her Best.

Twenty-Five.

Within hours I was back to looking like the bad bitch I was. Mason spared no expenses, he laid out the finest and made sure I received top notched services. My hair was laid, I had a fresh manicure and pedicure, my lashes were next to perfect, and I was currently receiving one of the best foot rubs known to man while sipping a glass of champagne. Oh, I missed this type of living.

"Well don't you look relaxed." Mason laughed. "I gotta head out to the club soon but I was hoping we could have breakfast together on the balcony."

I nodded and excused myself from the fantastic gentleman who was working wonders on my feet. I've only been at Mason's for a night, and I was already warming up to the idea of him and that third leg he called a penis. Jamal was giving me princess treatment, but I knew I had to pull away from all of this pampering soon. I was dead serious when I said I wanted to do things differently, and enjoying the fruits of Mason's labor wasn't helping that change.

"How'd you sleep?" Mason asked as he pulled a chair out for me. "Did you even sleep?"

"Barely." I answered, gazing around at the beautifully decorated breakfast that was laid out. "I was up thinking."

"May I ask about what?" Jamal asked, pouring orange juice into a glass. "I mean, if you don't want to share that's fine too. No pressure."

I smiled. "No, it's okay. I was up thinking about how I plan to move forward. I met a lady in prison that basically changed my life. She made me realize a lot of shit, you know? And I don't want to waste another second of my life doing anymore dumbass shit."

Mason nodded and began eating a very enticing looking blueberry pancake. "Sounds like you had an intervention. What's your plan?"

I bit into some toast and gazed aimlessly around the breathtaking sight before me. "Well, I wanna keep on going to therapy at the prison. I really like the lady they assigned me to. It would be nice to see the ladies there too. I also wanna get my own apartment, an actual job...and maybe enroll back into college."

Jamal raised an eyebrow but smiled shortly after. "Wait a minute, who the fuck are you? Where's the Raja I know?"

I laughed. "She's still in there. She's just doing things differently now. After that fiasco with my brother and Astra, I don't want no more parts of a fast lifestyle. It had its perks, but you know what they say, the higher you climb, the faster you fall. I've learnt my lesson. I realized that I was never happy living that life. I was just telling myself that I was because of the money and privileges it brought."

Jamal sat back in his seat. "I'm glad you can admit that. You know, I've always wondered what made you go down that path. Keisha told me you were doing amazing in school, that you were the smartest person she knew. She said that you were the one pulling her along when she was failing. And then you just up and quit college. What happened?"

Fuck. I bit my lip to stop the tears from coming but that only made shit worse. I haven't put my mind back to college in a minute. I could have sworn I was passed what caused me to leave that institution. But just having this conversation with Jamal and thinking about it showed me how much I'm really not over everything that happened.

"Oh shit." Mason exasperated. "Raja, did I say something wrong? That was a stupid question, I'm sorry. We don't need to talk about it. We don't have to talk about this. Let's move on."

I was crying like a baby once again, but Mason's tone of voice made me laugh as well. He was trying so hard not to upset me. I thought his consideration was so adorable. Mason was extremely candid and vulnerable with me yesterday when we were in that interrogation room. Now it was my turn to give him something raw and uncut.