“At conditioning. He won’t be back until later, and it just got delivered.”
“Aight, I’ll go pick up Tre, and we’ll come over here.” I exhaled and hung up on her as soon as she gave me that goofy ass smile when I didn’t put up a fight. I didn’t even bother debating with her because that was just who she is. She didn’t have an ounce of patience, and I talked shit, but she knew I was a phone call away.
I hung up on her and brought my eyes back to the road, and just as I did, I did a double-take at the woman walking out of the coffee shop. If my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, I thought it was Breeze. It had been two weeks since I had last seen her. She and her husband hadn’t booked another session, and I don’t do follow-ups unless I’m compensated for my time. A part of me wants to know what the hell happened, but if I knew anything, it was not to get too invested in my clients.
Thoughts of her clouded my mind while I rode to Shareese’s place to go get Tre. I pulled up in front of their home and called Tre’s phone. It went straight to voicemail. I went to his location, and it wasn’t found, so I knew his phone was probably dead.
Not wanting to blow the horn, I went through my contacts and called Shareese.
“He’s coming,” She answered and hung up without a greeting or giving me a chance to speak. I chuckled and dropped the phone on my lap.
After about fifteen minutes of waiting, I saw Tre walk out the door looking half asleep and carrying his duffle bag. He came over and opened the door.
“What’s up, boy?” I asked when he took a seat in the truck, and I prepared to drive off. I hit the brakes once his mother appeared and started walking toward us.
I had just seen her yesterday and gave her one day off. Today, she looked totally different; the hair that once fell down her back was completely gone. She had cut it into a curly style. Probably going through a fucking mental crisis, but the shortcut heightened her beauty. The prettiest damn devil.
“Can you please have him to school on time? ON TIME Q! He always misses his first period when he’s with you. He has a statewide test on Monday, and he cannot be late. If he’s late and can’t sit for it, I’m going to show my ass.” She warned with a smirk.
“Yes, I can do that, Shareese,” I said as I started to roll up the windows.
“Yes, I can do that.” She mocked me with a goofy expression on her face.
“I don’t know how they gave a fucking asshole a got damn psychology degree, this shit is getting scary out here,” She snapped with her hand on her hip before she turned around and started to walk back into the house.
“I’m your boss, you’re not scared to talk to me like that?” I asked her.
She stopped mid-stride and turned back to me with a grin on her face. “No, because OSHA protects my job from retaliation. And I will beat your ass, you know that. Don’t make me embarrass you in front of your son. Enjoy your weekend, Tre, love you baby.” She said as I rolled up the window and backed out of the yard.
I laughed at her. I really didn’t want any smoke with that woman. I always try to be peaceful for Tre. He was in the passenger seat, laughing at me because he knew his mama was right about beating my ass.
I hit him in the arm playfully, and it made him laugh harder as we left their neighborhood.
“How was football practice?”
“The new coach tripping, we run too much,” he scoffed. I chuckled, but before I could respond, my phone vibrated in my lap. I immediately knew it was either my sister or our parents. As expected, it was Quiana. Shit, I was scared to open it, thinking she wanted me to paint too. But her message just said, "Never mind." Her husband had come home early and would put the swing together. I replied, dropped the phone into my lap, and got into the turning lane to head back to my side of the city.
“You hungry? You want to eat now or later?” I questioned.
“Man, I’m starving,” Tre shot back quickly, making me laugh. He could eat a house after football practice.
“Your usual?” I got onto the interstate.
“Yeah,” he said before putting on his headphones and reclining the passenger seat. It wasn’t long before I heard the sounds of rap music flowing through them loudly.
I drove for a bit, exited, pulled into the steakhouse lot, and killed the engine. He had already fallen back asleep, so I tappedhim awake. He looked around, realized we had arrived, and we both stepped out.
The waitress who always serves us came over as soon as we walked in.
“Hey, boys. How is it going today? Come on, I’ll get you seated.” She smiled as she grabbed the menus for no real reason. I was a person of habit, and so was Tre. We were here at least once during the weekend, and we always got the same thing.
“Appreciate it,” I gave her back a smile and followed her to the booth in the corner that we always sit at.
“Am I bringing you the usual appetizers, or are we finally going to switch it up today?” She joked, looking between Tre and me.
“The same,” He laughed as he scrolled on his phone.
“Gotcha, so we’ll do an order of the fiesta lime shrimp, and some boneless wings. I’ll be back with your drinks as well.” She said. Never writing the order down, she turned to walk away.
