Playtime Rules

Rule #28 Be Vulnerable

As soon as her friends left, she went back to JeVonte to stay at the mansion. They christened some more of the rooms in the house having sex in all the wild places.

"You think the Andersons will care if we had sex in their jacuzzi tub?"

They lay panting in the tub now.

"I'll have it cleaned."

"Or in the kitchen, living room, every single bathroom, and the den."

He laughed. "I'll clean everything before the cleaner comes in. That's on you."

"Me?"

"Stop looking so damn sexy."

She grinned and rolled over on top of him. "As if you can get less sexy, I think it's you, and these eyes." She kissed each of his eyes. "This nose. These lips. These freckles I love."

She couldn't believe she slipped out the L word.

He said nothing and stared into her eyes so hard she had to look away. She lay her head on his bare chest and listened to his thumping heartbeat. This was the strangest thing to her and she still did now know how to deal with it.

"Come on, let's go shower. We're not getting clean in this thing."

They showered in his bathroom, changed into loungewear, and sat outside and enjoyed the night air.

"The Andersons will be back in a week," he said to her. "I go back home."

"Do you have to?"

"Yes."

She bit at her bottom lip, afraid to ask him to stay at her place. She knew what he would say. He was too proud. She had to find another way to get him to agree to it. Once he moved back home with his parents, she could not spend the night, and he would not want to keep driving nearly forty-five minutes away from her place every single day.

Actually, if he came from work it would be only fifteen minutes, but she knew he would want to go home and be with his family.

She felt selfish she wanted to take him away from his family. That was not what she wanted.

"I'm thinking about making some changes to my business." She never talked to him about her work. All she told him was that she flipped houses. He did not know how much money she made doing it, or what exactly she did.

The one house in St. Charles was finished and ready to be listed on the market. The house she bought in Florissant was becoming a nightmare. Taking that loss scared her, and made her re-evaluate things. She needed to become more money-smart.

"What changes?" He kissed her forehead.

"I want to invest in businesses. Instead of flipping houses, flip businesses."

He chuckled. "Is that a thing?"

"Sure, it's not exactly called flipping businesses. But I want to invest in someone and help them grow their business, as I have done. I self-taught myself everything I know. With the internet and whatnot, read a book, or some blogs. Spoke with a few people, took a seminar...remember, I'm a college dropout."

"You're very brave doing this so young."

She looked over at him. "Have I told you how I got started with this?"

"I thought it was some secret what you do, that's why I didn't push."

She sat up in the chaise. "My parents left me their house and a nice insurance policy. Since they died together, at the same time, it was quite a bit. I did not want to live in that house, so I fixed it up with the money they left and sold it for a nice profit. I took that money and invested in a similar house nearby. Same thing, nice big profit."

"I wanted to go back to school, but why? I had made more money than most college graduates would make in their first five years out of college. So I kept doing the same and learned how to increase my profit. Worked with a group of constructors that did not take advantage of me because I'm young."

"You think it was easy? This little Black girl? I was hassled a lot. They just didn't know I am no pushover."

"I know," he smiled at her.

"When I say my parents were penny pinchers, I'm being nice. They also had a nice savings that went to me. I put that away and haven't even touched it in seven years. Let it compound in a high-interest-rearing account."

"So you..."

"I'm worth about twelve million dollars, JeVonte, between the invested money, savings, and all my properties."

He said nothing. She knew he hated hearing about her money, but if they were going to be together, he needed to know everything about her.

"The money hasn't changed me, J. I was always that bad chick, even in high school while my parents made me struggle. They were teaching me the value of the dollar. We got by on the bare minimum because they were saving for a rainy day. You know when that rainy day came?"

She paused, willing herself to stay strong.

"When they were driving on a highway and slipped on a rainy road. Died in a ditch, not knowing how much I loved them and needed them."

She wiped at a tear and he pulled her in his arms. She hated getting emotional like this and crying.

"I'm sorry babe, you never....never mentioned how your parents passed."

"I wasn't close with them, not like you are with yours. I wished I would have gotten to know them as adults, me an adult, understanding all the sacrifices they made for me."

He continued to rub her back and she was ready to let it all out.

"I felt so alone without them. Like, there was no one there to love me. I had Tamyra and thought she was that for me. So then I started looking for some kind of affection in men. Just using them...or they were using me. No emotions in it, because I did not care. They could not hurt me or leave me, because I did not care."

"Yan, you deserve better than that."

"I know." She snuggled close to him. "You won't hurt me, will you?"

"Baby, I don't want to."

"You won't leave me, will you."

"I'm here for you as long as you want me to be."

They fell asleep outside, woke up in the middle of the night, and went to bed. She had to figure out a way they could both be happy together.

A/N: This was a big deal for Yancy to have this moment. She is almost there with putting her feelings all out there.