TLWM: The Hate Experience

\VIII/ Loyalty

Tuesday/September 15th

     After Prince dropped Ace off at school, he went to his office in Paisley Park. There were a few calls to make and a meeting with Beverly. She told him Edna, his head housemaid, was all set to start taking Ace to school in the morning. Prince was pleased but at the same time liked taking Ace to school on his own. He didn't really want to hand the duty off to someone else.

Raven didn't feel like interviewing a bunch of potentials for a nanny gig, and Prince didn't feel like doing much of anything these days so he went along with the idea of asking Edna. Thankfully, she was delighted to take on the role.

When Prince went home that afternoon, the sweet aroma from the kitchen made his mouth water. On the countertop he found a cake with "I'm sorry" doodled on it. It gave him a small closed-mouth smile.

"Hi, my love."

Prince turned and saw Raven approaching him. In red lingerie and stilettos, she looked like a doll, like perfection. His eyes had never seen a woman more beautiful. His heart was jumping in joy when she laid her hands on his neck.

"Come upstairs and then we'll have cake," she said winking before spilling a giggle on his lips. "I love you, baby."

He took her sweet kisses. "I love you too."

She took his hand and led him to the bedroom.

Up there, there wasn't any awkward dialogue in the foreplay. Prince fell under Raven's spell and let her love him. Before deception painted her in black, she was his blue angel, and it felt like that again. After he came inside of her, he didn't want to let go.

For the second evening in a row, Prince was at his dining room table having dinner with Ace and Raven, listening to Ace go on about his day in school. Moments like this were the ones he kept close. Sometimes he stepped out of it just to admire it.

"Daddy!?" But Ace always brought him back in. "You should'a saw all the books! Oh my goodness, it was so many! And oh! I took one!" Ace jumped out of his seat, ignoring Raven's demands to stay put, and ran towards the living room.

"Look at his plate," she complained. "He's hardly eaten."

"He's just excited," Prince excused with a grin.

"Too excited. He needs to eat."

Ace came sprinting back and threw the book on the table.

"Hey!" The corner of it hit Raven's plate.

"Sorry, Mommy," Ace said climbing back in his chair as Prince grabbed the book.

"Are You My Mother?" he said reading the title.

"Mommy, Miss Wizzy say you have to read it to me when I go to bed. And Miss Wizzy read to us a funny story about a cat with a hat and Miss Wizzy-"

"Wizzy?" Raven questioned. "Why do you keep saying Wizzy? That can't be her name. You mean, Miss Richards, silly?"

"What?" Ace questioned. But then he just kept going on and on about Miss Wizzy's storytime.

"Ace, that's enough, my love. Let's take a break from talking so you can eat, okay?" Raven pushed his food closer to him. "It's getting cold."

"But I want to tell you everything that happened."

"I know but maybe during bath time. Right now, you need to eat. How else will you grow big and strong?"