Nouveau

Chapter 22: Honesty

Tremaine

"And five, six, seven, eight....

Hit one, two, three, four. Step five and six. Pop it seven, eight. Swing one, two, hair three and four. Together five, out six, slide seven, hit eight. Over one, two, body three, four. Knee five, up six, sit seven, pose eight."

"That's bananas." Mackson was watching Laive run through some counts with the choreographer at Tremaine's tour rehearsal. "She's fearless when she's up there. It's almost like Laive's a different person. She's sexy, sultry, and full of confidence. But any other time, she seems laid back and quiet...innocent even."

Tremaine was too caught up in the way L had just slung her hair with her legs in a wide stance, sliding her hand up her thigh, with the mic in the other.

Mack watched the way Trey was zoned in on Laive, and pushed his shoulder. Snapping out of his trance, Tremaine slid his palm down the center of his face.

"That's a damn shame."

"What you talking about now?" Tremaine asked.

"You would've heard me if you weren't gazing."

"Gazing at what?"

"Really? You still doing this?"

"Doing what Mack?" Tremaine raised his eyebrow.

"I must say, I do admire your effort to stay consistent."

"Gone head, you about to say something crazy."

"I don't know if me saying you're into her is.." Mackson held up quotation marks, "something crazy."

"We back on this again?  I told you it's-"

"I heard you, but I'm not listening. You're eyes just told me everything. I get it. You're protecting her."

Tremaine clasped his hands together and he still wouldn't say anything.

"I won't say nothing." Mack assured him.

"You think other people think we-"

"Nah, you don't give her that type of attention when a million people are in the room. Only when it's just y'all two. You didn't even notice that I walked in and start talking to you. That's how focused you were."

Tremaine placed his hands on the sides of his face and held his head down, "I'm losing my damn mind."

"I know you enough to know better Trey. People just think you're being a perfectionist when it comes to Laive, but the way you snap on me about her, and the way you just looked at baby girl...she's a soft spot for you."

"I'm trying hard as hell Mack. She's just so damn-"

Tremaine shook his head. He couldn't think of any word that would justifiably describe Laive. The girl was just different. The pull she had on him when he wasn't around her, drove him crazy. When he recently left for those three weeks, he checked on her almost every day. They hadn't even been intimate with each other, but he knew he cared about her.

That scared him.

"...Have you even started mentioning the contract to her yet?" Mack inquired.

Tremaine had been speaking on the fact that he wanted to be in love, but he wasn't sure if he was ready. Being honest with himself, he really wasn't all the way in with Laive. But L never pressured him to be either. She wasn't interested in being boo'd up or being around him all the time. Hell, Laive wasn't even comfortable taking pictures and being in videos with him. He would never post them unless it was music related, but she wouldn't even let him add her to the camera roll on his phone. To add insult to injury, Tremaine wasn't allowed to follow her on her personal Instagram or Snapchat. Laive had blocked him and he genuinely felt some type of way about it.