#Mckinley Freeman

[dxddykenn]

WHERE I WANNA BE

McKinley Freeman as Lewis

Reader and Lewis are going through a temporary separation.

Reminder: I’m fairly new to writing and am open to feedback 🤍

Word count: 1.7k

divider by @firefly-graphics

Here you were sitting on the shower floor, knees pulled to your chest and arms hugged tight around them. The tears that fell blended in with the water that rained down from the shower head above. All you felt was pain. It was as your my heart had been pulled out and left in traffic, being run over again and again and again. This has been your routine for a few weeks now. ‘Sleep’, get up, shower, cry, get the kids ready and try to go on with the day. A few months ago your husband Lewis presented an ultimatum, your family or your career. He couldn’t be serious. After years of hard work, long nights and endless caseloads you were finally at the point in your career that you’ve always dreamed of and finally receiving the recognition that you deserved. It was a decision that you couldn’t and absolutely did not want to make.

Two months ago…

“It’s always me me me everything’s always about you! Do you ever stop and think to ask me how my day was or how work is going?! No it’s always you and the cases and how you’re always too busy. When you come home, you focus on work. When we go out you’re answering phone calls and emails. You’re never fully here! It’s either work or your family, because clearly you can’t separate the two on your own”.

“Lewis you can’t be fucking serious I’m just reaching the point in my career that I want to be and you’re trying to make me choose? How can I provide for our family if you’re trying to limit me?”. Shaking his head he looks away “See you clearly don’t get it, I’m not trying to limit you. I want you to understand that you have a family, we need you just as much as your clients need you. Your children need you, I need you. It’s like my wife isn’t here anymore”. Sighing he grabs his keys “I think we need some time apart”. Walking away he left me standing speechless in the kitchen as he slammed the front door.

Since then you’ve been temporarily separated, him moving out and deciding to rent an apartment in the city, leaving you to co-parent between two homes. It was a tough pill to swallow and an adjustment that you just couldn’t get used to. The only time you saw each other were the days you alternated having the kids.

Standing up you cleanse yourself again before rinsing off and turning off the shower. Grabbing a towel off the rack securing it around your body as you stood in the mirror. Staring at the reflection, the light your eyes once held was gone. Tired of putting on a front that everything was fine when it wasn’t. Barely being able to focus at work resulted in you finally using your PTO, and taking a few weeks off to get yourself together. Groaning, you started to get ready before making sure the kids were ready. Yesterday you received a text from your mom asking if they could stay for the weekend. Making sure that they had everything before leaving out to head to your mom’s house.

Pulling up in front of her house the kids start to squeal when they see her coming out of the front door. “GRANDMA!” Smiling, you watch as they jump out of the car running into her arms giving her tons of kisses, as you grab their bags. Your mom looks up at you noticing the sadden look in your eyes that you were doing a bad job of hiding.

“Babies why don’t you go play while me and your mom talk” the kids run off while the two of you sit on the porch. “Y/n how are you really and don’t lie, I can tell that something's bothering you”. Staring straight ahead you feel your eyes start to water “Lewis and I aren’t doing well right now, we basically aren’t even on speaking terms. When it isn’t about the kids we barely talk or if we do it’s awkward”. A tear runs down your face and you quickly wipe it away.

“I just don’t know what to do anymore. I love Lewis with all my heart. I just wish that there was a compromise. I don’t want him to feel like I am choosing work over him, but I’m just finally getting to where I want to be” you sobbed. Pulling you into a hug she rubs your back “Sweetheart you’re going to get through this. Yes it may be a hard conversation to have but avoiding each other and thinking everything will sort itself out won’t do anything but cause more damage than good. All it takes is communication. Explain how you feel without yelling at each other, that won’t get you anywhere. But you also have to take his feelings into account baby. When’s the last time that you two had a date night without the kids? A getaway? Something as small as a walk in the park? You have to remember that he’s a person and has feelings too”. Sighing I hug her tighter “Mommy thank you, I really appreciate you for listening and helping me see it from his perspective”. “Anytime baby, let me know how it goes. Maybe you two can release some of that tension” she winks. “Oh my it’s time for me to go” you laugh, wiping your tears. Getting up you hug and kiss her and the kids goodbye before making your way to the car.

Picking up your phone you send a text to Lewis.

Lewis, I’m tired of fighting. Can we please talk?

read 5:52 pm

You watch as the three grey dots appear before they disappear, him leaving you on read. Tossing your phone on the seat you drive back home.

As you pull into the driveway you notice Lewis's car is there. Instantly you start to feel anxious, worried if he would want to hear you out or fearing the worst, him leaving for good. Taking a deep breath you grab your purse and phone locking the car behind you. Climbing the stairs to the front door your mother's words replayed in your head Unlocking the front door open you step inside looking for him, eventually finding him sitting on the balcony. Sliding open the door you step outside, as he glanced up at you.

Sitting across from him you lift your legs up onto the chair tucking them under you. For a few minutes the two of you sat in complete silence, allowing you to collect your thoughts. "Ready to talk?" you ask looking over at him.

Letting out a dry laugh he continued to look ahead.

“Lewis I miss you, I miss us”.

"What made you realize that?"

"You not being here honestly” you say fidgeting with your hands. "Why now?" he asked, finally looking at you. "Why wait until now to decide you want to have a conversation?"

"Lewis you left! Why wouldn’t I want to conversation about you leaving!"

He looked at you with tears threatening to fall "Do you think I really wanted to move out?! I left because I was angry! Every time I would try to talk to you I got shut down! I was tired of you not listening, it felt like you didn't need me or want me around so I left". Standing up he walked over to the rail leaning against it.

“Do you even love me?”

“Of course I love you! How dare you ask me something like that?”

“It doesn’t feel like you do” he says softly, his tears finally falling. “I get that you want to provide for our family Y/n but I can too. Everyone else gets to have your undivided attention but I don’t even get a fraction of that. I adore you and how strong you are but you don't have to be strong all the time. I am here for a reason and you can depend on me. Just let me in instead of trying to fight me all the time. I just want to feel needed”.

Tears steadily rolled down your face as you felt your heart break, you hated that he felt that way. Upset with yourself you walk over to him grabbing his hands “I'm truly sorry for not listening and making you feel like I don't need you. Lewis I will always need you, you are the air I breathe! You push me to be a better me. You lift me up on the days I'm down, I wouldn't be here without YOU. I love you with everything in me”.

Pulling you into him he hugged you tightly as you both cried. You both missed each other desperately and no longer wanted to fight. The time away only helped show that you needed each other.

Pulling away from the hug his hand grasps your chin “ I shouldn't have left and I shouldn't have made you choose between us and your career. I admit that was wrong and I deeply apologize. I don't want to be anywhere that you aren't. I live for the times that I am able to wake up next to you, watch you sleep, be able to touch your skin, kiss your lips, just to hold you. Y/n I love you more than anything in this world, I'm just tired of fighting. I want to work on us".

“I love you too. I want us to get back to how we were, I’m ready to work on us”

Cupping your face he places his lips on yours as he kissed you deeply. It felt like the first kiss all over again. The kiss was slow and passionate like you both were apologizing for everything.

Pulling away he pulled you against his chest, his arm resting protectively around your waist.

On the inside you were jumping for joy, happy that you got your man back and ready to make the commitment of getting the two of you back on track. Looking up at him you stare at him with a look of admiration. Turning his head he smiles, kissing you as you rest your head on his chest.

This is exactly where you wanted to be.

Tags 🤍

@teeresaresa



[jcstyle444]

Why We Should Talk About "Hit The Floor" Again!

Hey everyone,

I know it might seem a bit strange to bring up a show that aired over 11 years ago, but I can’t help but gush about "Hit The Floor." After diving into seasons 1-3 and the wedding special, I've realized I've never encountered anything quite like it. The chemistry between Derek and Ahsha is unlike any other—so real and beautiful.

The fanfictions I’ve discovered about the Dersha characters have only deepened my love for the series. While the show has concluded, we all know reboots happen all the time! Just look at how McKinley continues to shine in "Reasonable Doubt," and Taylour Paige truly embodied Ahsha's genuine spirit.

Great art deserves to be discovered and celebrated, no matter when or how it finds its audience. When you present an epic love story so beautifully, people will naturally want more.

Imagine seeing Derek and Ahsha as a married couple in 2025, navigating family life and success together—it would be incredible! I even had some fun combining their pictures to illustrate this idea.

I hope both the actors and fellow fans can appreciate this enthusiasm for such a fantastic show. Let’s keep the conversation going!

Best,

Jcstyle444

[onyx-collective]

Reasonable Doubt + Romance

[richgirlnetworktv]

Morris Chestnut and McKinley Freeman of Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt Share a Visual Love Letter to Black Women.

#morrischestnutofficial #loveblackwomen

[vintagewarhol]

[blackmensuited]

[jcstyle444]

I know this post is years old. As a new fan, I'm just sharing my love for #HitTheFloor I hope old fans understand New fans love for the show.

Hit The Floor (Season Two) Top 10 Dersha Moments: #3  Derek Tells Ahsha That He’s In Love With Her

When you think of Dersha and their best moments, this one is unforgettable. Even though Derek took center-stage this scene with his confession, Ahsha definitely shined for bringing Derek to their infamous “spot” at the overlook. Plus, seeing a vulnerable Derek Roman was everything us Dersha fans could ever ask for. The music was perfect, the setting was meaningful, and hearing our babies say “I love you” for the first time in this way made for one of the best scenes in Dersha history. Only 1 day left until we get to see more of these two lovers light up our tv screens! 

[dxddykenn]

Hear me out hear me out, I’ve been watching Reasonable Doubt and this man is a little fineeee…makes me want to work on something with him 🫣😏

[jcstyle444]

I would like to read a Fanfiction Regarding why Derek and Ahsha's didn't hug after the championship. You can tell he wanted to hug her 🤗 and She wanted to hug him. I didn't know about this show when it first aired. I discovered #HitTheFloor because a TikTok post. It's been 10 years and the show feels like new. I'm hoping #JamesLarosa will fight to reboot the show.

[onyx-collective]

McKinley Freeman and Emayatzy Corinealdi set the bar for on-screen marital tension 🙌🏾

[milliondollarbaby87]

Civil War (2024) Review

A journey across a dystopian future America that is currently in a civil war as we follow military journalists wanting to get to the White House to confront the President before the rebel factions. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Continue reading Civil War (2024) Review

[cecilthecowardly]

the definitive cecil kinlist. subject to change and be amended as needed

bold here signifies my highest kins — i define this as ones that feel most like a selfhood, in a sense. like they’re always there in almost a permashift way but fluctuate from time to time.

italics signify that i’d rather not interact with doubles of that particular kintype — i hate to do it because i’m sure you guys are great, but it’s mostly a comfort thing and i’ll block freely.

i’m aware there’s. a lot. here. but it’s not like i can help it and i’ve wanted to talk about many of my other types here too.

fiction kintypes

the emcee - cabaret (2019 olney theatre w/ aspects of mason alexander park’s 2021(?) revival)

cecil gershwin palmer - welcome to night vale

r.m. renfield - dracula (1931 primarily)

peter nureyev - the penumbra podcast

moomintroll - moomin series (2019, books, and most adaptations)

the pyro - team fortress 2

cesare the somnambulist - the cabinet of dr. caligari (1930)

ralsei - deltarune (some aspects of fanon are present)

gordon freeman - half life vr but the ai is self aware (with aspects of the original game)

john ward - faith: the unholy trinity

crowley - good omens (TV show)

jedidiah martin - camp here & there

ianto jones - torchwood

grantaire - les misérables

elder connor mckinley - the book of mormon

otherkin types

vampirekin (side note: i also consider myself a psychic vampire but that’s more rooted in coping mechanisms)

eldritchkin (primarily rooted in myself as cecil but it’s becoming much more prevalent!)

[theoriginalblackwoman]

Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, (January 5, 1868 or 1869[1] – June 24, 1933[2]) was an African-American soprano. She sometimes was called “The Black Patti” in reference to Italian opera singerAdelina Patti. Jones’ repertoire included grand opera, light opera, and popular music.[3]

Matilda Sissieretta Joyner was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, to Jeremiah Malachi Joyner, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and Henrietta Beale.[2] By 1876 her family moved to Providence, Rhode Island,[4]where she began singing at an early age in her father’s Pond Street Baptist Church.[2]

In 1883, Joyner began the formal study of music at the Providence Academy of Music. The same year she married David Richard Jones, a news dealer and hotel bellman. In the late 1880s, Jones was accepted at the New England Conservatory of Music.[1] On October 29, 1885, Jones gave a solo performance in Providence as an opening act to a production of Richard IIIput on by John A. Arneaux‘s theatre troupe.[5] In 1887, she performed at Boston’s Music Hall before an audience of 5,000.[2]

Jones made her New York debut on April 5, 1888, at Steinway Hall.[1] During a performance at Wallack’s Theater in New York, Jones came to the attention of Adelina Patti’s manager, who recommended that Jones tour the West Indies with the Fisk Jubilee Singers.[2] Jones made successful tours of the Caribbean in 1888 and 1892.[1]

In February 1892, Jones performed at the White House for PresidentBenjamin Harrison.[2] She eventually sang for four consecutive presidents — Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt— and the British royal family.[1][2][3]

Jones performed at the Grand Negro Jubilee at New York’s Madison Square Garden in April 1892 before an audience of 75,000. She sang the song “Swanee River” and selections from La traviata.[3] She was so popular that she was invited to perform at the Pittsburgh Exposition (1892) and the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893).[4]

In June 1892, Jones became the first African-American to sing at the Music Hall in New York (renamed Carnegie Hall the following year).[1][7] Among the selections in her program were Charles Gounod‘s “Ave Maria” and Giuseppe Verdi‘s “Sempre libera” (from La traviata).[1] The New York Echowrote of her performance at the Music Hall: “If Mme Jones is not the equal of Adelina Patti, she at least can come nearer it than anything the American public has heard. Her notes are as clear as a mockingbird’s and her annunciation perfect.”[1] On June 8, 1892, her career elevated beyond primary ethnic communities, and was furthered when she received a contract, with the possibility of a two-year extension, for $150 per week (plus expenses) with Mayor James B. Pond, who had meaningful affiliations to many authors and musicians.[8] The company Troubadours made an important statement about the capabilities of black performers, that besides minstrelsy, there were other areas of genre and style.[8]

In 1893, Jones met composer Antonín Dvořák, and in January 1894 she performed parts of his Symphony No. 9 at Madison Square Garden. Dvořák wrote a solo part for Jones.[1]

Jones met with international success. Besides the United States and the West Indies, Jones toured in South America, Australia, India, and southern Africa.[1] During a European tour in 1895 and 1896, Jones performed in London, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Milan, and Saint Petersburg.[9]

In 1896, Jones returned to Providence to care for her mother, who had become ill.[1] Jones found that access to most American classical concert halls was limited by racism. She formed the Black Patti Troubadours (later renamed the Black Patti Musical Comedy Company), a musical and acrobatic act made up of 40 jugglers, comedians, dancers and a chorus of 40 trained singers.[2] The Indianapolis Freeman reviewed the “Black Patti Troubadours” with the following: “The rendition which she and the entire company give of this reportorial opera selection is said to be incomparably grand. Not only is the solo singing of the highest order, but the choruses are rendered with a spirit and musical finish which never fail to excite genuine enthusiasm.[10]

The revue paired Jones with rising vaudeville composers Bob Cole and Billy Johnson. The show consisted of a musical skit, followed by a series of short songs and acrobatic performances. During the final third of each show, Jones performed arias and operatic excerpts.[9] The revue provided Jones with a comfortable income, reportedly in excess of $20,000 per year. She led the company with reassurance of a forty-week season that would give her a sustainable income, guaranteed lodging in a well-appointed and stylish Pullman car, and the ability to sing opera and operetta excerpts in the final section of the show.[8] This allowed Jones to be the highest paid African American performer of her time.[8] Jones sung passionately and pursued her career choice of opera and different repertory regardless to her lack of audience attendance.[8] For more than two decades, Jones remained the star of the Famous Troubadours, while they graciously toured every season and established their popularity in the principal cities of the United States and Canada.[11] Although their eventual fame and international tours collected many audiences, they began with a “free-for-all” variety production with plenty of “low” comedy, song and dance, and no pretense of a coherent story line.[12]

Several members of the troupe, such as Bert Williams, went on to become famous.[1] April 1908, at the Avenue Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, an audience made up mostly of whites (segregated seating was still prevalent), accepted Madam ‘Patti’ after singing ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ with much respect and admiration, and marked “the first time that a colored performer received a bouquet at the theatre in this city”.[12] For almost ten years, racial segregation had kept Jones from the mainstream opera platform, but by singing selections from operas within the context of a hard-traveling minstrel and variety show, she was still able to utilize her gifted voice, that people of all races loved.[12] The Black Patti Troubadours reveled in vernacular music and dance.[12]

Jones retired from performing in 1915 because her mother fell ill, so she moved back to Rhode Island to take care of her. For more than two decades, Jones remained the star of the Famous Troubadours, while they graciously toured every season and established their popularity in the principal cities of the United States and Canada.[12] She devoted the remainder of her life to her church and to caring for her mother. Jones was forced to sell most of her property to survive.[1][2] She died in poverty on June 24, 1933 from cancer. She is buried in her hometown at Grace Church Cemetery.[2]

In 2013 Jones was inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame.[13]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_Sissieretta_Joyner_Jones

Photos from Wiki Commons

[flightypiscean]

(Continuation)

Someone said Dave East is the sexiest man alive. What!?!?! Don't get me wrong. He's not ugly, but sexiest!?!? I was immediately inspired to create MY list of 100 men who are just as sexy, if not sexier, than Dave East.

31.) Henry Simmons

32.) Boris Kodjoe

33.) McKinley Freeman

34.) Sticky Fingaz

35.) Laz Alonso

36.) Michael B. Jordan

37.) Jonathan Majors

38.) T.J. Holmes

39.) Van Jones

40.) Michael Strahan

[recentlyheardcom]

'Reasonable Doubt' Creator on Season 2 Finale and Potential Season 3

[This article contains spoilers from the season two finale of Reasonable Doubt.] The case on the middle of season two of Affordable Doubt was deeply private for Jax Stewart (Emayatzy Corinealdi) and her husband Lewis (McKinley Freeman). Jax not solely discovered herself defending certainly one of her closest pals, Shanelle (Shannon Kane), who was charged with first-degree homicide within the…