“No joke,” Nickoi smiles just as one of his boys calls out to him.
“Soon fawud,” Nickoi says before walking away.
The metal door creaks open again, and Juaqína walks back in. She looks like she was crying.Why she hurt so?She strolls over to us with a smile that I know damn well is fake. “Congratulations, Zara… mi guess yuh get wah yuh want now,” she says, catching us off guard.
Wah she mean by dat?
“Wah yuh mean?” I ask, irritation bubbling. She betta try nuh test mi faith.
“Yow, Juaqína… yuh nuh have work fi do?” Junior cuts in.
Gyal a irritate everybody.
Gutta glances at her, then lets out a low chuckle. “Dat mi a seh too.”
She hisses and turns her full attention back to me. “Mi just a seh… yuh breed so yuh can wul him,” she says with that same fake-ass smile. Her eyes full a hate.
Mi hate yuh too, gyal.
“Girl, mi nuh inna the foolishness wid yuh,” I warn her.Last time yuh fight a gyal come stir up shit, now watch this one.
“Mi nuh inna no foolishness wid yuh neither. Mi just a tell yuh straight, mi know seh yuh mek him breed yuh so yuh can lock him down.” I shake my head, jaw clenched.
Every time she seh dat, mi get vex. Cause mi woulda never try get pregnant fi trap no man. If him waan lef, him lef. Mi nuh affi tie down nobody.
“Yow Juaqína, move up,” Junior snaps, fed up.
She glares at him, then shifts her eyes to my ring… then to my belly. She shakes her head and storms off.
Gutta hisses under his breath. “Look how long the man lef yuh.”
Oh… so she and Nickoi did deh?
Now mi know why she a gwan so. When Nickoi comes back, he daps up his friends, then reaches for my hand and leads us outside. We get into the car, and I click my seatbelt.
“Yuh good, Mami?” he asks, glancing over at me.
“I’m okay, babe,” I reply, though my mind drifts back to Juaqína and the venom in her voice.
Her words echo in my head:‘Mi a seh you breed so you can wul him.’
I chuckle to myself. Nickoi glances at me. “Wah happen?”
I shake my head, brushing it off. “Just memba something funny,” I say, and he returns his eyes to the road.
When we reach in Kingston, he pulls up outside a store and turns to me with a smile. “Come,” he says. I unbuckle slowly and step out of the car. He takes my hand, and we walk inside together. The second the workers spot Nickoi, the whole place lights up.
“The Don in the building,” I hear one of them say, grinning.
Nickoi smiles. “Wah gwan?”
“You and wifey today?” a woman asks. He nods, strolling casually through the aisle with me.
As we pass through, there’s a girl helping a customer, but the moment she sees Nickoi, her face lights up like Christmas.
“Watch Nickoi!” she exclaims, clearly too happy fi see him.That mi a seh too.
He chuckles. “Yuh Gov?” he greets, and she nods eagerly.
