He exhaled. “Look, I’ve been taking care of myself since I graduated high school and I appreciate you and love you but accepting handouts ain’t how I operate.”
“It’s not a handout and I wasn’t asking for your permission. You can’t stop me from sending our money wherever I want it to go.” I lifted an eyebrow. “You think I can’t track down bills in your name?” I scoffed and shook my head. “If I have to go around you, I will but it would mean a lot to me if you just let me help you out.”
I watched Asante as he sank in his seat. I could visibly see him running numbers in his brain and weighing his options.
“I’ll give you half,” I offered. “Nothing more and nothing less, just a little cushion to get you through the rough patch.”
“Half?” Asante repeated.
“Unless I get you to agree to more, yeah. I’ll settle on half.”
“Alright.” Asante sighed and nodded. “And I’m going to pay you back.”
“As long as you track that shit yourself, cool. Put whatever you want in that motha’fucka.” I paused when I felt my phone vibrate and quickly pulled it out.
I answered Knight’s call immediately.
“It’s showtime.”
“Alright.” I hopped up. “I’m on the way.” I hung up and looked at Asante. “Nova’s about to give birth.”
“Fuck.” He started to throw all of his food back into their containers. “Let’s go.”
“Let’s go.”
We both grabbed our keys and headed out.
Asante told Layla she was in charge but to call him if she needed to and we hopped in his whip to head to the hospital.
My father, Novalie’s father, Casmi and Winnie were already there. It was only a few more minutes before Rook showed up. King and Xavia got there last.
We all sat together in our big ass group just talking and joking and my mom came out to see us in the waiting room after three long hours of silence from inside the delivery room where she, Knight and Nova’s mother had been.
Quiet took over while we waited for the final verdict.
“A healthy baby girl!” she halfway screamed and bounced on the balls of her feet.
We all clapped and made varying sounds of excitement, earning us a few glances from other people but nobody really gave a fuck about that.
Our family slowly went in groups of twos and threes to see the new mom and Rook and I went in last.
Nova was lying down with a smile on her face and a small baby on her chest. Knight stood next to her with a hand on her head, massaging her scalp lightly. He grinned widely when he saw us and we walked over and dapped him up.
“Congratulations to both of y’all,” Rook offered.
“Thank you.” Nova smiled.
“How you feeling?” I walked over to her head and looked down at the baby.
“I’m good.”
“She’s a fucking beast.” Knight leaned down and kissed her head and Nova beamed. “She did so fucking well in here.” He shook his head. “It was crazy.”
“You ready to do this shit again in two weeks?” Rook asked.
I shot him a look. Knight shook his head and chuckled.
“Yeah, actually. I’m ready to be in here with Casmi, to have our family whole and safely at home.”
