Did I think we could survive his marriage long term? Probably not but I wasn’t ready to let him go and give up just yet.
We had another year before his wedding and we’d go from there.
Nadira reached over and set a hand on mine. I slipped it away. She exhaled.
“I like Bishop,” she said after a moment. “I like Bishop and I think he’s sweet and smart and an amazing man, but I also love you and I know that whatever the two of you have planned isn’t going to be sustainable long term.”
“And I’m going to ride the wave until it crashes.” I looked at my watch. “I’ve got to get back to the club.”
“That’s a cop out,” she accused.
“Not really because I don’t owe you an explanation or have to explain myself to you.” I took my wallet out and pulled some cash out. “I love you but ultimately your opinion is just that, yours. It don’t change shit over here, Nadira.” I tossed the cash on the table. Then, I exhaled and looked over at my niece as she reached for something else on the table. I slowly let my eyes trail back to Nadira. “I love you and I know you want the best for me, but this is what I want right now and when I feel like I can’t hold on anymore, I’ll let go but I ain’t there yet.” I reached toward my niece and tussled her short hair before hopping to my feet. I rounded the table and kissed the side of Nadira’s head. “Thank you for looking out for me though.”
“Asante,” she called after me and I paused. “I’ll send you some promo stuff for the club.”
“Appreciate it.” I gave her a small smile.
“And Asante.”
I exhaled. “Yeah, Nadira?”
“Take care of yourself.”
10
BISHOP
“Yo, yo, yo,” Rook closed in on me and I dapped him up. “What’s up?”
“Shit. Making sure everything is good for tonight.” I gestured to the cameras in front of me.
We were hours away from Rook and Winnie’s second engagement party and it was being hosted at the Barron estate. I’d pulled files on her and her sister, Flora but there was no way to get information on all of their guests before the gathering so I was doing what I needed to do on the security side of things. I’d pretty much doubled the amount of hired guns we’d have and I’d made it clear to my family and Asante to make sure they had weapons on them. I didn’t want shit to hit the fan, but if it did I wasn’t going to be the reason they were caught lacking.
“Yeah, well you look like shit,” Rook said.
“Fuck you, alright?” I chuckled and turned around to face the screens again.
A yawn escaped my mouth as if on queue and Rook snickered.
I’d gotten to sleep beside Asante just fine, but staying asleep had been another issue. My body had wanted to shut down but my brain on the other hand, had not.
“All jokes aside.You good?” Rook asked.
“You’re the one that just got married. I should be asking you that.”
“I’m chilling,” he shrugged. “Shit. It is what it is. I mean, Winnie came over earlier and caught Sydney over so that was some bullshit but,” he shrugged. “I don’t know what she expected. We were thrown into this marriage and it ain’t for love. Shit. It’s barely for honor. We don’t owe each other shit for real.”
“Rook,” I said his name carefully. “You can’t walk into a marriage saying you don’t owe each other shit whether it’s arranged or not.”
“That’s a lot coming from Mr. I’m Going To Cheat On My Wife The First Night I’m Married.” He snickered.
“The difference is my wife will walk in knowing what she’s getting. Winnie didn’t have a clue.”
“Yeah, well it’s not like I was fucking Syd and she walked in or caught us or some shit. I have a lil decency. I’m not going to fuck ole girl in the house we share or no shit like that, but thinking I’m about to just be faithful in this contract ass short term marriage is stupid as fuck.”
“Y’all need to sit down and lock in the rules of y’alls marriage then.”
“Yeah, okay. She was mad that Sydney was helping me get her room together for the weekend. That’s petty shit.”
