My last client of the day might’ve gotten the quickest haircut in barbershop history. That’s how anxious I was to get back to Aspen; being sure not to compromise the quality of my work while also going as fast as possible so I could get out of the shop at a reasonable hour since my time left with Aspen was extremely limited.

Her flight wasn’t until later tonight, and it didn’t take long to get through security at the little airport in the city, so it wasn’t like she had to be there stupid early. But time wasn’t slowing down no matter how much either of us wished it could, which is how we found ourselves back at a surprisingly-empty Jackie Robinson Park.

This time, instead of boning like teenagers in my Cadillac, we were chillin’ at one of the picnic tables eating sandwiches since Aspen claimed she couldn’t leave the city without having one more. And with the sunset serving as our background, the shit was honestly a little romantic until Aspen randomly asked, “Are you gonna break my heart?”

“What?”

Peeking up from her food, she repeated, “Are you? Let me know now before I get more invested in this than I already am.”

While I could appreciate her speaking her mind, the truth was, “Shit, if that’s the case, I should’ve been asking you the same question after that first night we spent together.”

She only gave a halfhearted smirk in response, picking at her food like the thought was starting to make her lose her appetite. But since I wasn’t about to let her waste a good sandwich, I stood up and moved to her side of the table, grabbing her hand to remind her, “You told me I wasn’t alone in how I felt, so that means you already know I’m just as invested as you are. You got me, little mama. Real shit.”

Her smirk turned into more of a teasing grin when she looked directly into my eyes with her pretty ass hazels and asked, “Real shit?”

Doubling down, I repeated, “Real. Shit.”

Gnawing into her lip, she pulled herself onto my lap, keeping an arm wrapped around my shoulder when she said, “Guess that means I’ll be coming home a little more often now, huh?”

Snapping my head back, I asked, “A little? More like, whenever you can. Even if I gotta fuck you in my car in the back of the airport garage and put your pretty ass right back on the plane.”

She started laughing even though I was deadass. Little mama had turned me into something like an addict for that pussy. She knew it too, her adorable little grin full-blown when she asked, “You gonna come see me too, right?”

With a nod, I answered, “If that’s what you want, I’ll be wherever you at. The city don’t even matter.”

“Even if it’s international?” she challenged, her eyebrow piqued as she started to stroke my facial hair.

“I mean, shit. Let me cut a few more heads and get my bread up first, but then I got you.”

She laughed again, adjusting in my lap to wrap both arms around me. “Once I build my empire, you can be the Stedman to my Oprah.”

“Yeah, aight. I’ma hold you to that,” I told her with a chuckle of my own. “But in the meantime, I’ma be busy building my own shit.”

While cutting hair in Tiana’s shop might’ve been what got me here and I was more than grateful for the opportunity she’d given me, I still had aspirations of possibly owning a little something of my own one day. Or maybe even taking my skills mobile and working for a clientele of a different caliber. Either way, Aspen seemed confident when she said, “This city is definitely the perfect place for that. It’s a great place to live, period.”

“I mean, I found you here. So you might be onto something,” I replied, catching the goofy look on Aspen’s face that told me she was about to call me out for saying some cute shit. But honestly, I didn’t even care, willing to do that and more if it meant making her happy.

Damn, she really got you good.

Now that we’d settled things, Aspen felt more comfortable finishing her food and I did the same. Then we took a little trip to the swings since Aspen claimed she needed to redeem herself from the last time she was here as a kid and got clowned for being too afraid to jump off mid-air.

Her little ass was flying today, though.

She even made me capture a video of her doing it a second time to share with her followers on social media that turned into us having to hurry up and leave since her local fans immediately started showing up to the park in response to it.

Real celebrity shit.

Since we still had a little bit of time, I started to head to my crib in hopes of squeezing in one last fuck until she said, “I’d like to make one more stop before we head to the airport, if you don’t mind. Actually, two more stops.”

“Where to?”

It took her a moment to respond. But when she did, her hesitation made sense. “My parents’ gravesite. I need to leave them some flowers. Well I need to go get some flowers, and then take them to their gravesite. If we can.”

With a nod, I simply replied, “I got you.” Then I made the short drive to the local grocery store, Aspen starting to get out of the car with me until I told her, “Nah, you stay here. You’ve caused enough hysteria today.”

Thankfully she agreed without much fuss, making my trip to grab some flowers a quick one before we took the GPS-guided trip to the cemetery. And once we were on the grounds, Aspen did the rest of the guiding to her parents’ companion burial plot that included a joint headstone with their names on each side and their wedding date in the middle; something I found interesting since the two of them had died more than a decade apart.

As if she had read my mind, Aspen said, “I remember visiting my mother here as a kid and seeing my dad’s name already engraved on the headstone. But he’d always be standing right next to me, so it was strange to even imagine him ever being here. Now they’re together again.”

The sadness in her voice ate at me, though I was still sure to mention, “I bet they’re real proud of you up there.”

“Yeah. Probably,” she quietly replied with a shrug before asking, “Can you just… give me a minute? Alone?”

“Absolutely. Take your time. I’ll be at the car,” I told her, stopping to give her a kiss on the forehead before I left her to it. But once I was there, I couldn’t help watching her every move as she bent to place the flowers, ran her hand against each name on the headstone, then looked to be saying a quick prayer before giving them each a finger kiss.

Her head was down the entire walk back to the car so I couldn’t see her face until she climbed in, my first question being, “You good?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” was her answer, though the obvious tears in her eyes contradicted it. But since I knew it wouldn’t really be helpful to press her about it, I simply reached over and grabbed her hand, giving it a supportive squeeze that only made the tears start falling as she turned towards the window and shared, “Another reason I haven’t come home often as of late is because of that. Because that never gets any easier. It’s like the more successful I become, the more I accomplish, the more it hurts because they’re not here to share in it with me, you know? When something good happens, my father is always the first person I wanna tell. But I can’t because he’s... here.”

Rubbing my thumb against the back of her hand, I honestly struggled with what to say knowing there was nothing that could make that type of hurt go away. Still, I tried my best to at least soothe her for the moment when I offered, “I may not go to church every week, but I do believe in it all. And I know he’s watching over you. The both of them are. The same way my mama watched over me that night at the club. Hell, she’s probably the one who sent your pretty ass my way. Like some type of heaven hook-up or some shit.”

Her little giggle in response was a good sign, her lip pulled between her teeth when she turned back my way to suggest, “I think my silly might be rubbing off on you, Orlando.”

Shaking my head, I agreed, “Damn. I think you might be right.”

She giggled some more, pulling her hand away to wipe her face with an exaggerated sigh. “Thank you for that. And thank you for… coming with me.”

“Glad to. Now let’s get outta here before you try to blame me for making you miss your flight.”

It didn’t take long for her to get right back into teasing mode, slugging me in the arm when she said, “Come on, gentleman. Don’t fuck up your perfect streak at the last second.” Then we laughed together as we made the drive to the airport that truly wasn’t long enough considering it was the last time I’d be seeing Aspen for who knew how long.

“Hopefully not too long,” I thought as I went to pull her luggage from the trunk before making my way to open her door for the final time. And I suppose I wasn’t the only one trying to prolong our last few moments together since Aspen was slow to get out, stopping on the sidewalk to say, “Well… this is it.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

Instead of wasting time exchanging pleasantries, she threw herself into my arms, pulling my face down to hers for a kiss that was as sweet as the first one she’d ever given me back in her hotel bathroom. And considering how deeply we’d fallen for each other since then, it also felt like a guarantee that it wouldn’t be our last; something for me to hold onto when she finally pulled away to whisper against my lips, “Until next time, outsider Orlando.”

“Until next time, little mama.”

Again, she was slow to move, this time with her walk inside the airport. But after one final peek back and a wave goodbye, she disappeared into the sliding doors, taking a piece of my heart with her.

She’d be back, though.

I trusted that she’d meant everything she said, trusted that she was serious about figuring out how to make this whole thing work. And since I knew I was too, I was fine with missing her while she continued after her dreams, the whole thing only inspiring me to focus even harder on my own. In fact, my drive home had turned into something like a brainstorming session for all the moves I wanted to make in the near future, putting an extra pep in my step by the time I pulled up and could actually get to my phone to jot some of it down. But before I did that, I checked the text I had gotten from my little superstar.

Little Mama: “Welcome to my world.” {1 attachment}

Clicking to open the attachment, I was surprised to see it was a screenshot from Instagram with a picture of us at The Max from the night before that neither me nor Aspen had taken. But it made sense once I saw it had been posted by a gossip blog and then read the caption.

“Actress Aspen Watson caught canoodling around her hometown with new mystery man.”

For a second, I was a little annoyed since it wasn’t like I had given anyone permission to take a picture of me, let alone share the shit with some trash ass blog site. But my annoyance went away instantly once I saw the top comment included in the screenshot.

“@aspenwatson: He’s cute, right? ;)”

She was making a statement, letting the world know that I was the one who had her attention while also managing to tease me from afar with that cute shit. And though there very well could’ve been a bunch of negative comments about us from strangers with nothing else to do on the post, none of that shit even mattered when I finally sent her a reply.

Outsider Orlando: “More than happy to be here. Have a safe flight, baby.”