"𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥..." Poet was used to being the second choice. Actually, she was used to not being chosen at all. The girl blended into the background easily, it had always been that way. Sometimes, passion wasn't enough to put you in the spotlight and she was okay with that. Riot had always carried the weight of his mother's ways on his shoulders. He was the oldest son. The protector. The rock. He never would have thought these things to push him closer than ever to his soulmate. Not when he wasn't even sure what he wanted his own love story to look like. Their love was never expected to be but maybe it was supposed to happen that way. 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝟏 𝐎𝐅 '𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄' 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒

Before the crowds screamed his name, before the league talks and the magazine covers, he met her. Calista Marchand. Not the kind of girl you run game on. She was sharp where it counted, soft only when she wanted to be. Real Brooklyn - pretty in the face, slick with the mouth, and solid with her hands if you stepped wrong. She kept her circle small, her loyalty tighter. The kind of woman who knew how to turn silence into safety and side-eyes into shut-ups. Men feared her. Girls tried to be her. She didn't chase, didn't fold, didn't need nobody. Until Ibrahim Montaigne walked into her life like he had all the time in the world. He didn't come with sweet nothings or flashy promises - just steady presence. Intent in his eyes, patience in his chest, and something rare behind the way he looked at her. Like he saw through the polish and the fire, like he knew the woman behind the defense. He didn't try to tame her. He studied her. Let her be exactly who she was. The shift was slow. She still fought when needed, still had a rep in the streets and in the salon chair. But somewhere between nursing exams and late-night block parties, she started saving parts of herself just for him. The quiet parts. The delicate ones. The ones nobody else got close to. And when she crossed that graduation stage, RN-BSN stitched behind her name and her grandmother crying in the crowd - he bragged harder than anyone. Didn't care who was listening. Forget MVP, forget the championship rings. She was the win. She was the headline. The girl from Brooklyn with spitfire in her lungs, gold in her smile, and a softness only he ever got to see. This isn't a story about being chosen. It's about choosing each other. No fairytales. Just Brooklyn grit and a love that never let go.

"You can't see the future. I might have a chance. You don't know for sure." He mumbled, making her expression soften. "M-my mom used to tell me t-that birds still sing even after a storm. Why shouldn't people feel as free t-to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?" Samir stopped talking for a moment to regather himself so that he didn't stutter, but Nina froze completely. "You don't have to settle with him Nina. It's been five years an-and you're not a-as happy as you should be. You smile differently with me.. and you cry a lot with him. I just think that you deserve to enjoy your time with someone other than h-him for a minute because there's still sunlight out there for you too, even if you can't see it yet." How did he become her source of 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 so 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐥𝐲? A short story.

He blocked her in. She shut him down. Now, the whole town is waiting for the explosion. Sage Woodson didn't come back to Liberty Creek to fall in love. She came to bury her grandfather, sell his estate, and get back to her life as a high-powered Chicago ER nurse. She has a plan, a timeline, and zero patience for the locals. Especially not for the arrogant Fire Captain driving a midnight-blue F-150 who thinks he owns the road. Captain Connor Stapleton is used to being the hero. He's used to respect. He is not used to a curly-haired tourist publicly questioning his manhood in a crowded coffee shop parking lot. They were supposed to be enemies. But when Sage inherits her grandfather's rusted-out 1969 Chevelle, she realizes the only mechanic in town skilled enough to save it is the very man she swore to avoid. A wager is struck: Connor has one week to get the engine running. If he fails, Sage leaves for good. If he succeeds? She owes him a date. But late nights in a humid garage have a way of blurring the lines between fighting and flirting. As the engine roars to life, so does a possessive, feral hunger that neither of them expected. Connor doesn't just want a date. He wants to ruin her for anyone else. And Sage is realizing that the only thing scarier than leaving... might be staying. Small town. Big truck. Massive attitude.

Saige Monet is almost there. Almost famous. Almost in love. Almost his. Her voice is rising, her name is catching buzz. But the man she shares her nights, and maybe even her heart, with still keeps her tucked in the background. Niko Landry prefers it that way. Behind the camera. Behind the chaos. Behind the walls he's never let anyone through. What they have isn't defined, but it's real. At least, it feels that way. Until it all starts to slip. When a trip back home resurfaces everything Niko buried, their already fragile worlds shatters. He's forced to choose between surviving his past...or building something that lasts. And Saige? She's left with a spotlight, a broken heart, and a future that no longer includes the one person she thought might be hers. Now, she's rising without him and he's learning how to show up for more than just the moment. Because what they had was never nothing. It was almost everything. Almost real. Almost forever. Almost his. Almost yours.

"Beautiful things don't ask for attention." In a world that thrives on conformity, August is an anomaly. Raised in a secretive overbearing family, she was chosen to leave its hidden grounds-not for freedom, but for duty. Sent to college to become the strategic mind for her generation behind the family's growing empire, she tries to move through the world like a ghost, draped in gothic shadows with secrets too heavy to share but her style is just too much to go unnoticed by judging eyes unscathed. Then she meets Kason through his older brother. A rising rapper with a reckless charm and a hunger for something real, dealing with battles of his own, he's instantly drawn to August's eerie demeanor and the quiet storm that lingers behind her dark mysterious eyes. She's nothing like the women he's used to-unbothered by trends, and untouched by the need for validation. The more she resists, the deeper he falls, his infatuation turning into an obsession he can't shake. One he cant let go of. As their worlds collide, the slow burn of their connection threatens to ignite everything August has been taught to suppress. With her past closing in and expectations pressing down, she must decide if she's willing to defy everything she's ever known for the chance at something dangerously real. In a society that demands she fit a mold, August stands in defiance. Unfortunately, love has a way of making even the strongest question their silence. STARTED; February 22nd , 2025 PUBLISHED; MARCH 18th, 2025 FINISHED; MAY 27th, 2025

They met by accident-in chaos. At twenty-five, Brielle Price has learned what it feels like to pour years into something that was never meant to last. Fresh out of physical therapy school, she's focused on healing, rebuilding, and climbing forward in her career. Love is no longer a priority. Stability is. Perseverance is. And for the first time, she's choosing herself. Andre Carter, also twenty-five, is fresh off his rookie contract in the NFL and stepping into a new chapter of his life. Focused, disciplined, and painfully aware of how quickly everything can be taken away, he moves with caution. Labeled a golden boy by the world around him, Andre knows better than to believe the hype-or tempt fate. One drunken night in Houston brings their paths together in the middle of chaos, neither aware of the impact that fleeting moment will have on their carefully laid plans. Some encounters are brief. Others linger... Waiting for the right time to return.

Camya and Sy'aire have been friends for a while, meeting through there close friends, but the longing stares and the hidden touches always kept them wondering if there was something more between them but neither one ever spoke on it, Sy'aire kept his guard up with anybody that came across him, many people knew about him for being straight forward and blunt and most didn't like it but they still were attracted to him by his imitating demeanor and looks, he didn't have no interest in them, but when he's around Camya it's a different story, no matter how much he told his self to stop, he couldn't keep his eyes off her, when Camya finds herself a man, Sy'aire still finds his self wanting her heart, mind and soul so he can take care of her the right way, even if the man is his cousin.

Peaceful would be the perfect word for Mila to describe where she was in life. She was a single mother, raising her daughter alone-which wasn't anything new, anyway-but she'd escaped. She'd escaped the life she was born into and created a new found family that didn't exude toxicity. But as her best friend never let her forget, the next addition to her life had to be...love.

She fought in courtrooms with precision. He ruled studios with pain turned platinum. Together, they were power - but love made them human. He loved her carefully, like a man who'd lost before. She loved him steadily, like a woman who refused to break. Their story wasn't loud. It was intentional - built in silence, sacrifice, and the kind of fire that doesn't explode... it glows.