Even though I don't look up right away, I feel him. His presence shifts the air, makes it heavier, like the sky right before a storm. A shiver runs down my spine, but I shake it off. I can sense he's here to handle our unfinished business, and I know he won't hold his tongue this time, not without our audience from earlier to keep him in check. "Why yuh really come back Jodie?" He's blunt, as always, and I can tell he's revving up for a fight. Him lucky. "I love Ms. Iva and I respect her for what she does, but dem neva send yuh gah school fi sell yam dung a market...Why'd you leave Kingston?" "I told you already, I'm using my PTO Knox" I dispose of the water into the grass, setting the wash basin up against the tank. He scoffs. "Liad, yuh done tell dah one deh already, betta yuh come up wid a next one." His eyes are daring, challenging me to come clean, but I can't. "Why you cyaa juss believe me? What's so suspicious about me needing time away from work?" I push past him, not yet ready to dive so deep into the unknown. He grabs my wrist, pulling me into his chest and trapping me there. The warmth of him seeps into me, setting off a fire under my skin. He doesn't ease up, but the pressure does something to me that I can't shake. I tell myself to take a step back, create some space, but I don't. I won't. "Because me know yuh, Jodie. Better than I know myself. I know you..." He presses his index fingers to his heart, his breath shallow as it cascades across my collarbone. "I thought we were better than this, I thought we could tell each other anything" I shake my head, my eyes closing as I inhale his scent, it's uniquely him. It's dangerous how familiar it is, how it makes my chest ache. I hate him for making me feel like this, I hate myself for wanting to be even closer than we are now.

"Ah yuh decide fi tek set pon mi enuh" I scream at him. "Yuh sick inna yuh head Sarai? Two ah we know seh ah lie yah tell" he retorts with a sinister smile. Shame ah kill mi... "You knew what I wanted from the very beginning, but instead you decided to catch feelings" he shoots back at me. Feel like seh him juss ah seh dis fi provoke mi. Cyaa believe I ignored all of this man's red flags. "Better if yuh juss liff up from yasso doh, cause mi have work inna di morning" Is he really kicking me out right now? "Mi hate yuh wid everything inna mi" I exclaim, as tears build up in my eyes. My response doesn't seem to faze him though, a deadpan look never leaving his face. "You know your way out" he says to me, moving from his spot on the couch and heading towards the stairs. In seconds, I hear his bedroom door slam shut behind him, and soon the house is dead quiet.

"Ye mon. Not even air itself cah come between we. Memba dat." ********************* Karissa Kizeah Thomas' life changed at the age of 16 years old when her grandmother passed away from cancer, leaving her to fend for herself. She pursued a career as a stripper to make ends meet but faced difficulties due to unfair treatment at the club and not making enough money. She then meets Kairon Javel McNabb, a 26-year-old self-made billionaire who owns multiple car dealerships. What are dramas that may arise between the two due to their vastly different backgrounds, with Karissa being a stripper and Kairon being a wealthy businessman?💸🤸🏽‍♀️ Find out more in Dangerously Attached. •Contains mature language / sexual content• 🎖️HIGHEST RANKING: #3 in Attached #1 in Jamaica #1 in Jamaican #1 in Jamaican Writer #2 in New Author #1 in Patois (Please note that this is the first book i've written and published on wattpad so if you have any feedback, please leave positive ones in the comment sections provided.)

"Move from in front a mi," I say. But it comes out softer. Weaker. More honest than I intended. I'd be on the first plane out of here tomorrow. Nothing that we've said in the past twenty minutes would matter once I am on that plane. We are tied to each other, and our pasts don't have to intertwine any more than they already have. He doesn't move. I step sideways. He mirrors me, like he's tethered to the same gravity. "Kymani-" "Selah" My name in his mouth feels like a dare. A part of me wants it to feel like a promise. I shake the thought. After what feels like a standoff written in the marrow between us, he finally exhales and steps back. Barely. But enough. I don't waste it. I slip from his hold, my heartbeat pounding in my throat, in my ears, in the soles of my feet as I bolt toward the door. I leave him there. Leave the house. Leave the heat still burning between us. And I run. Fast, desperate, the same way I did the first time I left this place. The same way I survived. I don't look back. Not at him. Not at the house. Not at the version of myself that's still trembling inside those walls. Not anymore.