He reached up and cupped my cheek with his hand. Crew stared into my eyes as he rubbed his thumb on my skin back and forth.
“I’m not going to tell anyone anything. You and I have a baby to take care of. I’m not giving that up for a bitch that's dead.”
When those words left my lips, you would think I’d said the sweetest shit in the world because Crew’s wide smile spread across his face. Now I see the stuff that really moves him.
“Alright good, well I’ll see you in the morning. Make sure you cancel that baby shower shit. Fuck Nomoney and her dumb ass family.”
He walked out of the apartment, and a smile spread across my face bigger than I’ve had in the past year.
I grabbed my candy bars from the couch and laid down with my cover, about to eat one of these and drift off to sleep. This entire time, I’ve felt that keeping this pregnancy from Crew was the right thing to do, but now, there was a feeling of peace inside of me that I wasn't feeling before tonight.
I don’t know what I’ll do about Emoney’s family, but I do know that if Crew and I can coparent the right way, my life won’t be hard at all. That's only if things go as he says they will.
I will however wait and see if Crew is really ready to step up.
Chapter 4
Crew
I sit in my barber Diego’s chair once every week, and I never have to make an appointment for it. People would be surprised how fast my hair grows with them deep Trinidadian roots in my blood from my mother. If I didn’t come visit this nigga regularly, I would look homeless as hell. I would never be okay with looking like a bum. That shit is for niggas with no fuckin hustle.
“Alright, bruh, I’m done with you.” Diego took the cape from around my shoulders.
“Appreciate you. Oh, and appreciate you for giving me the drop on them Hernandez niggas. I wiped they hoe assess out that same day like markers on a white board.”
“I heard nigga, and you know it was no problem for me on my end. I still owe you times a million for handling that little situation in Harlem for me back in 2017. I’ll never forget that shit.” Diego brushed my shoulders off with the neck duster brush.
“You don’t owe me for that shit, Muddy; he deserved to die. Any nigga that touches little girls is always free of charge for me.”
“And that’s why you forever my nigga. On Allah we locked in for life.”
Diego felt indebted to me for shooting a nigga in between his eyes after he molested his niece for years. I remember I noticed one day that he looked shook as a mutha fucka while clipping me up, and I asked what was on his mind and the nigga told me that a nigga who had touched his niece had just been bonded out of jail. I told the nigga to say no more and give me his name so I could handle it. Let’s just say the dude Tony probably wished he had stayed in jail until trial because I did enough research to find out where he was hiding and laid his ass down. One of the very few hits I did for free.
Diego and I slapped hands, and I placed five hundred-dollar bills in his hand. Diego often jokes that he can spot a broke nigga by how much they tip him after a cut. If a nigga rounds up to $300, then he's just trying to cap, and cheap as a mutha fucka.
When I left the barber shop, I stepped out onto the sidewalk, catching the eye of a car passing by so slow that they caught my attention. I grabbed my gun from my waist, and by the time I was ready to up it, the car sped off.
“Fuck ass niggas must want to die today?” I watched as they hit the corner down the street and made sure their asses were completely gone before I put my gun back on my side. When I turned back the other way to go back to my car, I heard my name being called, and I shook my head and squinted my eyes, confused as to why Cashmier of all people was standing in front of me with a baby strapped to her chest.
“Hey Crew, I was hoping to catch you here.”
She walked up to me.
“My name is not Crew. I’m Greg Hollis.” I walked off from her, yet she was still on my heels.
“Don’t you want to at least see him, Crew? He has your big ass hands and feet. When he was up all night last night, I told him that he most likely gets that night owl stuff from you. I know how you like to stay up all night snacking and listening to music.” She rambled on, chuckling like the conversation between us was mutual.
“If this little nigga has all those similarities to me, then why the fuck did you do a DNA test with Hov?”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Because I thought there was a chance that he was Hov’s child. I mean, that was my boyfriend, Crew. We were together and having sex often at one point. I slept with you both during the time of conception.”
I shook my head and opened my car door. I could see that she regretted how she put that last sentence. She knew that shit made her sound like a hoe. I mean, I was no better morally, but at least I wasn’t getting nutted in by two different niggas.
“So you are just going to leave Crew? You are not going to try and resolve this?”
“Cashmier, this is why I wanted you to get rid of him. I didn’t want a kid with you. I don’t want any connections with you at all, to be honest. This part of my life is over with.”
