In defeat, Kross smacked his lips. He reached in his pocket and retracted a stack of money. “Excuse me, shawty. Can I buy them roses off you?” he asked her.
She snapped her head over her shoulder and looked him up and down. He got the opportunity to catch a full look at her and couldn’t prevent himself from taking notice of her beauty. She stood at a height of five-foot-five with a physique that would’ve made any nigga want to spend their last on her. Her golden-brown skin complimented her jet-black hair that was styled bone straight and flowed gracefully to the small of her back. As she glanced back at him, Kross appreciated the view of her soft brown eyes that made the mean mug she had etched on her face a lot less intimidating.
“No, you can’t. You’re in a flower shop. There are other options to choose from,” she declined before turning her attention back to the cashier to finalize her transaction.
“Damn, you can’t do a nigga a favor?” he persisted, hoping to convince her to sell him the roses.
Once her transaction was complete, she grabbed her vase of roses and thanked the cashier. “No, not really.” She shook her head. “Plus, your money won’t be doing me a favor, so it ain’t really a win for me.”
Kross could hear a scoff air out of her before she proceeded to exit the store. Her attitude was off-putting as hell, but he knew everyone was dealing with their own demons, so he opted out on engaging further. Accepting his defeat for the roses, he took her advice and scanned the store for another set of flowers that was nice enough for Cassie. He picked an arrangement of blush pink blooming peonies and checked out.
“I should’ve bought my lady more flowers,” he shamed himself as he got in the car. Now that she was gone, all he could think about were all his shortcomings as her man. She deserved so much more than what he gave her.
The drive to the cemetery wasn’t too long. Once he arrived, he felt the same heaviness that shackled his heart at her funeral weigh him down. While he was at the condo, he got a text from Amoura that gave him directions to Cassie’s burial site. He followed the directions, which led him directly to Cassie’s plot. The dirt was still fresh and had yet to grow grass like the other plots around her.
“Damn, baby. This shit getting real now,” he sighed heavily as he crouched down to touch her headstone. The flowers that were left from family and friends visiting her had begun to wither away, all except the fresh set of white roses Amoura brought her the day prior.
He took a moment to clean up her grave and dust off her headstone as much as he could before sitting the fresh set of peonies down for her.
“I fucked up, Cass. At your funeral, I should have respected you enough to not even get into it with your brother,” he condemned himself while taking a seat on the ground. “I’m sorry for letting my anger get the best of me. I should’ve taken the moment to give you a proper goodbye. You deserved that. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that you really gone. This shit cut deep, baby. You held all this shit down while I was lockedup. All I wanted to do was come out and give you and Aniyis the world. They took that from us.
“I want you to get your rest now. You’ve been carrying all my shit, on top of taking care of yourself and ‘Niyis for seven years. You don’t gotta endure anymore stress or worry about anything. I’m returning the favor and holding you down now. I put it on everything that ‘Niyis is gonna be straight. I know how you want him to be raised and the man you want him to become. I’ll never allow him to forget about you, Cass. Just watch over us. Help ‘Niyis pull through ‘cause I need him to live. If I lose both of y’all, there won’t be a purpose for me to live anymore.”
It didn’t dawn on Kross that tears were cascading from his eyes until he felt them drop down onto his hands. It felt liberating to finally just have a moment with his lady without any judgment or her meddling-ass mama trying to get in the way. After letting a few more tears fall, he wiped his face and let out a heavy breath. He didn’t want to spend the entire time moping. He knew his lady, and she preferred laughter more than tears, so he put his best foot forward.
“I remember when we first met. You were playing hard but really wanted to fuck with a nigga. I wasn’t tripping, though, because I loved the chase. I ain’t gone lie. I really thought my paper would’ve had you willing to give a nigga chance until you dissed me in front of the guys,” he chuckled reminiscently as he thought back. “That shit hurt my ego a little bit, but that ain’t nothing to giant. I still made you my lady, and we was blowing money together like it grew on trees. I know we only had six months together before I got locked up, but I wanna let you know those were the most meaningful six months of my life. I ain’t realize how important you were to me then, but I see it now. I wish I had more opportunities to tell you this, Cass, but I love you, baby. I loved you then, I love you now, and I’ll always love you. Ain’t no nigga gone have you like I had you, and ain’tno female gone have me like you had me. We locked in forever, shawty.” He kissed his two fingers before sitting them on her headstone.
Time had passed him by as he enjoyed the calmness that washed over him from being with Cassie. He had been ripping and running since he got out and never got a chance to just breathe. He was grateful that he managed to just have a moment with his lady. After a prayer, he said goodbye to her so he could return to the hospital before Amoura had to head to work. As he was leaving, he felt a little lighter and had higher hopes for what was ahead. He knew his lady was looking out up there in heaven.
As he approached his car, he heard a heavy groan behind him. “Nigga, are you fucking following me?”
Kross looked over his shoulder and was met with a menacing scowl from shawty he ran into at the flower shop. She had her hands perched on her curvaceous hips as she looked up at him with her umber-brown eyes narrowed. He screwed his face up at her, completely thrown off by the accusation that she was throwing out so loosely.
“Shawty, is you cool?” Kross cocked his lip up at her. “I ain’t following your ass. Nobody even worried about you. Don’t fucking flatter yourself, man.”
Hearing the bass in his voice prompted her to take a step back. However, she kept her scowl on her face. He shot her a crazed look as he shook his head.
“You we’re just at the flower shop the same time as me, and now, you just so happen to be leaving the cemetery the same time as me. Nigga, it ain’t that damn deep over some roses,” she continued to accuse him.
He didn’t have much patience, even if it was clear as day that she lost her damn mind. His jaws clenched in agitation as he let out a heavy breath. “Shawty, you need to take your paranoid ass on. I tried to buy the roses off you for my people.” He pointedtoward the entry walkway of the cemetery, insinuating that he came for his own visit. “If I was following you, you clearly ain’t got no fucking brains, walking up on a nigga who could pack you up and put your little ass in the trunk of his whip. Whatever you on, lay off that shit, fam, for real.”
His eyes full of judgment and disgust seemed to snap her into realization. She pursed her lips as her shame began to set in. Instead of uttering out a lethal response like she had done previously, she simply walked away from him hastily to get to her car. Still, she couldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had just gagged her after she came at him from left field. “Get to the flower shop earlier next time, dumb-ass nigga,” she slyly let out her final remark before getting in her car.
“Crazy-ass bitch,” Kross snarled with a shake of his head before getting into his car. He made sure to speed out of the parking lot before her so her crazy ass wouldn’t accuse him of following her again. He always thought Miami females were the cream of the crop, but some of them were just bat shit crazy, and she was a prime example. “I ain’t got time for that shit,” he mumbled to himself as he headed back to the hospital.
Chapter Six
The bass of the speakers shook the 1976 Chevy Impala Noonie tricked out. They were riding high on 24s through the hood with the windows down as they bobbed their heads to a chopped and screwed mix of Jeezy. It was midday, and the streets of Miami were busy, per usual. After being ducked off in the hospital for so many days, Kross was glad that Noonie hit him up to ride through the city with him. It was just like old times with their music, fire weed and some good-ass conversation.
“That shit some pressure, ain’t it?” Noonie smirked as Kross pulled the blunt away from his lips to examine it. He didn’t remember the last time he hit some good shit like this.
Exhaling out a stream of smoke, he nodded his head. “This some good shit. Where you cop this from?” He took another pull before passing it back to him.
“We still fuck with KP out in Cali. You were right. You really do have to stay down for the come up.” Noonie nodded his head.
A light chuckle drifted out of Kross as he thought back to when he was trying to get Noonie and Los to take a chance on KP when he was just starting out. They had other plugs who were busting their heads with their numbers, but KP? He looked out. There were times when KP just didn’t pull through like theyneeded him to, but Kross was big on loyalty and stuck it out with him. They hadn’t had a bad shipment from Cali in the past seven years, and KP always made sure to show love. They were locked in.
“I told y’all. KP solid. I don’t really fuck with them Cali niggas like that, but KP, he’s Miami bred through and through, so he’s different.”
