Raised in the tough foster care system of East Side Calhoun Heights, Maryland, Roderick Payne never had it easy and consistently chose the wrong path. After spending more than a year in a youth correctional facility for a drug charge, he gets one la...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It was a stormy evening in mid-April 2021 and Jacory was beginning to worry as he stopped studying from his law school textbook on tort reform. He began pacing around the small apartment he shared with Roderick near the Washington D.C. neighborhoods known as Logan Circle and Shaw. Roderick had left nearly an hour before to go pick up their Chinese takeout order instead of using DoorDash because he also had to stop by FedEx Print & Ship Center to fax off some documents for the law firm he worked for as an intern.
In an attempt to ease his mind, Jacory got on Roderick's MacBook and accessed WHUR-HD2 96.3 FM, Howard University's free online quiet storm radio station. The station was playing Marvin Gaye's "Distant Lover," which only seemed to make Jacory worry about Roderick even more. When he noticed their pet cat Simon jump up and move away from the front door, he smiled because Simon always did that when someone was approaching the door. When he heard Roderick drop his keys on the floor out in the hall, he hurried to the front door and opened it.
"I could've unlocked the door myself, baby," Roderick said with a smile as he bent down to pick up the keys, almost dropping their food.
Jacory caught the bag of Chinese food and joked, "Yeah, you definitely could have. This bag is soaked."
"It's pouring down out there. And then somebody parked in our space. I cannot wait until we're both done with law school and racking up billing hours so we can afford a house instead of living in a place where we have to go to war to find parking spaces."
"Whoa, slow your roll there, chief. We're not even done with our first year yet. We're lucky we were able to stay on schedule given how COVID-19 messed up so much shit." He carefully took the food over into their kitchen and managed to get everything onto the stovetop without dropping anything.
Roderick closed and locked the door before taking off his raincoat and stepping out of his boots. He then stepped up behind Jacory and wrapped his arms around him, asking, "You were worried about me, weren't you?"
Jacory scoffed and lied, "No."
"Yeah, right. You know you were. You always worry about your fiancé." He began kissing on Jacory's neck.
"I know you don't think you're getting any ass tonight? I am not staying up late to douche my ass after eating all of this Chinese food."
"Come on, baby. We ain't got it in since last week. You're gonna make me get down on my knees and beg for it."
Jacory turned around with an eggroll in his hand and said, "You can beg all you want but the most I'm willing to give is a hand job tonight. Shit, I am tired. And we're studying for final exams. This isn't undergrad, Rod. We can't—"
"We can't afford to mess up and lose anything. Baby, you have been saying that to me every single day since our first day at GW Law."
