"I'll just bet he did," she smirked.
She had cleaned the chicken to the bone. I reached for a piece finally and started eating. It was good; of course, I didn't put quite as much hot sauce as she did.
"I should go," she said.
"Go where?"
"My house."
Pause.
"You're in your house," I replied.
Diamond had stayed over a few times since Thanksgiving. I hadn't been trying to push it but I didn't know how much longer I could let this go on. My eyes darted to her ring finger and some anger began to boil there.
"You know what I mean, Thierry."
A sigh left my mouth. "You're staying here. End of discussion. Now get your ass up to the bedroom."
From the way her full lips had formed, she was about to cuss me out. However, exhaustion had crept into her body. I could see it written on her face.
"Fineeee!"
She grunted and groaned but she left me to clean up the kitchen. I needed to hire some staff around here. Even with just two people in this big ass house, it could start to get messy.
Chapter 23
Diamond
"Have yourself a holly jolly...."
If this damn song plays one more time,I thought. Christmas music was filtering through the speakers of The Magnolia Bloom. We were only days away from the big day and frankly, I couldn't wait to get it over with.
Hospice had been called in for my father.
He was starting to decline.
Nautica had been friendlier than usual, and I'd held Baby John who was starting to look more like my father than me. Getting dick on the regular from my husband had become a thing as well.
Shit was wild in Atlanta.
Nita one of the sales girls I'd hired for the Christmas rush was dressed like an elf and being extremely loud with a customer.
"Ooooo, yo girl gone love this for sure! Let me go ahead and ring you up!" I listened to her tell an older white gentleman who seemed intent on checking out her ass.
I'd talk to her later about using her inside voice but she was surprisingly outselling some of my seasoned personnel. I fixed one of the displays and listened to the music repeat and was just about to call it a night and let Nita and the other sales girl Jamie close up the shop tonight when the bell above the door gave a jingle jangle.
Both the girls were busy, so I would have to take the customer. One giant-looking guy with tattoos all over his neck walked in first. He had on a long leather jacket but I could already tell he had a gun on him. Behind him was a woman and at first, I didn't recognize her. She entered the store and headed straight for me. Before the door closed, I noted there were more guards outside of the door waiting in the cold December air.
Once she removed the sunglasses she had on at seven-thirty in the evening, I recognized her. Thierry's ex whatever was in my place of business. This was going to go one way or another.
"Ms. Giancomo," I gave a tight smile.
The amount of pressure I was putting into smiling was going to cause my eyes to pop out of my head. Still, I remained focused. It was no coincidence she was here. I watched as her snake-like features turned up into an unfriendly smile, the stop sign red lipstick almost seemed to be a warning.
"Ms. Knowles," she spoke. "What a quaint little place you have here."
Mind your manners, Diamond,I thought.
