How to Stay Out of Prison: A Modern-Day Woman's Guide

Chapter 20

Nixon~

What in the fuck was happening?

I heard the door shut behind Lyric, and as much as I loathed to leave Dina alone in my apartment, I knew that I had to go after her. So, I grabbed Dina's jacket off the couch, then threw it at her. As it slapped against her chest, I yelled, "You have two minutes to get your shit and get the fuck out of my house before they never find your body, Dina!"

"Are you serious?" she asked, actually offended. "Let's talk-"

I had one hand already on the doorknob. "If you've ruined what I have with that woman who just left here, I will fucking ruin you, Dina."

I didn't bother to wait around for her response. I flung the front door open, then ran down the hallway to chase Lyric down. The elevator doors were shutting, but I could still see Lyric frantically pushing the buttons through the closing gap.

"Lyrical!" I yelled, but it was too late, the elevator started to descend.

Luckily, the stairwell wasn't too far away, so I slammed open the door, then hit those stairs running. I ran down twenty-five flights of stairs, and the only things that kept me going were adrenaline and fear. If Lyrical made it out of the lobby, then I was going to lose her. I also didn't care that I was barefooted because there was no way that I wasn't running after her.

Christ, this couldn't be happening.

It'd been years since I'd last seen Dina, much less slept with her, so I never would have thought that Jackson's warning deserved any consideration. It wasn't like I'd been a great guy to her back then. Hell, I wasn't even that great of a guy now.

What Dina and I had back then had been very casual. I hadn't ever treated her like a girlfriend or a potential wife. We fucked. End of story. Regardless, I supposed that woman scorned thing was true because that shitshow back at my apartment was all jealousy and unwarranted revenge. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Dina had probably been planning on laying out on my bed in her lingerie, hoping to entice me. However, when she'd heard a woman's voice in the living room, she had decided to change up her plans and fuck my life up.

I also wasn't a complete idiot. This shit looked bad, and I realized that. I also knew that the scene upstairs looked worse for someone with Lyric's deep seeded self-esteem issues. Now, while in my eyes, Lyric was perfect, I could only imagine what she'd thought looking at a perfectly built Dina Rivers. It didn't matter that Dina was fake as hell, either. Some women just couldn't help but compare themselves to other women, and with Lyric feeling like she was shaped like a pear and undesirable, I knew that, in this moment, Lyric was convincing herself that I belonged with someone that looked like Dina.

After what felt like a lifetime, I finally pushed open the stairwell doors, then raced towards the elevators. I looked up to see the numbers had hit the lobby already, so then I started scanning the room, then noticed Lyrical striding towards the front doors of the lobby. She'd had her right hand on the door handle when I reached her, grabbed her arm, then dragged her into the nearest corner.

I had to give it to her; the girl was scrappy. She was fighting my hold with everything that she had. "Let me go, Nixon," she seethed, her eyes blazing with pure unadulterated hate.

"Not until you've heard me out, Lyrical," I snapped. I could admit that it looked bad, but I deserved a chance to explain. She couldn't just assume the worst, then storm out of my life.

All my life, I'd never given much thought to the women that I'd slept with because I'd always been upfront about my intentions. I hadn't ever led them on, and I had always tried to be respectful, if not detached. Dina had been no different, even though I had slept with her longer than my other hookups. I'd never been afraid of a woman dumping me or walking away from me because I'd never cared before, so this was a first and a last, I hoped.