Pep wasn't a stranger to prison walls, she got incarcerated for drugs, unlicensed firearms, and simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time but she knew Tash would never survive even the tight squeeze of the handcuffs on her wrists. Also, Pep's mind was no stranger to overthinking and weighing out situations and their possible endings, she currently sat in her home office with her elbows firmly planted on her wooden desk and her palms on her temples.
"What's the plan?" She was on a conference call with her partners and they all seemed to be annoying her.
"I don't know." She confessed.
"That's unheard of," Tye chuckled.
"You can laugh all you want because you're not the one in the situation, Tatianna." Pep mean mugged her phone.
"Bust down Thotiana!" Tash stepped into the room right after Pep concluded her petty statement.
"Hey baaaabbyyy!" Cam shouted into the phone.
"Hey Cami Bear! How's my baby daddy?" Tash sat on the desk in front of Pep allowing her to rest her head on her thigh.
"I'm fine, babe. How are you?" Cam's smooth voice rang through the phone's speakers.
"Tryna get this one here to actually stop overworking her mind." Tash chuckled.
"Next person chuckles, ima pop off." Pep mumbled onto Tash's thigh.
"I'll talk to y'all later." Tash waited for their goodbyes before disconnecting the call.
"Did you come up with anything?" Tash played in Pep's dreads.
"Not one single thing! They take everything for a joke and it's irritating." Pep pouted.
"Aww, they not taking daddy seriously?" Tash held in her laughter.
"No! I don't know what to do," Pep sighed finally feeling the weight of the situation. "I need to protect you guys. I can't allow my girls to go back to the street, I can't allow them to go back to the kind of life they once knew."
"The pimps they used to work for didn't treat them good, they didn't provide them with any rooms and they didn't pay them well. That's why everyone wants to work for me because they get treated well." Pep stared at the wall.
"We can solve this," Tash eased herself off of the table to sit in Pep's lap. "Together."
"I can't allow you to get caught up in this." Pep's facial expression hardened.
"This isn't the time to shut me out. I'm already caught up in this." Tash held onto Pep's face. " I have a plan but you have to promise me that you won't shut me out."
Pep stared at Tash, she knew she loved her. She knew that the world revolved around her and not the sun and she also knew that she was as delicate as a flower in Winter time. She was fickle, her emotions blew up as if she was a walking time bomb keeping Pep on her toes at all times. Pep watched Tash grow into a woman, a woman she could trust and rely on and a woman she wanted to be there to watch carry her kids.
"I don't wanna leave you." Pep held Tash tightly against her whiskey filled body.
"Then don't." Tash whispered. "I love you."
Tash heard Pep whimper and her heart clenched, she was scared but she didn't want to show it. She knew Pep would do anything to protect her but she didn't want to know what the anything entailed and she didn't want it to come down to the anything. They spent the rest of the day in bed, initially they had planned to have sex but ended up falling asleep in each other's arms naked and on top of the covers. They haven't had sex in awhile and even though Pep hardly thought about it, Tash was draining it for everything she could. Her ideas ranged from Pep being too distracted to her being unattractive, they usually always had sex anywhere and anyway they could.
