“Son, I suggest you tell her what’s wrong. Otherwise, you’re about to get a litany of the expenses you have incurred for us since we learned we were having you,” my father suggested wisely, holding up his mug toward me. He deliberately dipped his head and lifted his eyebrow.
I sighed and looked around the kitchen. Nicholas leaned against the counter with his legs crossed at the ankles, taking a bite from an apple, and watching me. Joshua was raiding the refrigerator, but I knew that nigga was ear hustling from the way he had touched the leftover chicken parmesan container at least three times and put it back.
“Fine. How can you resolve a misunderstanding with your woman and make sure that she gives you a chance to explain?”
“Depends. You already created the misunderstanding?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Is she already mad at you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Whohoohoohoo. Hmph.” She chuckled and shook her head as she moved around the kitchen.
I frowned. “That’s not helping me.”
“I didn’t say that it was, but it sounds like you’ve messed up with that perfect little angel big time.”
“I didn’t even tell you what I did yet.”
“You didn’t have to. Again, I know my son. What did you do? Did she catch you running around town with one of them little hussies? Or did you have one over your house?”
I sighed again. “None of that.”
“Then what did you do? I can’t tell you how to fix the problem unless I know the problem.”
I frowned at my dad with my lip curled up as I pointed at my mother behind her back. I mouthed to him, “See, this is why I can’t tell her anything.”
“And quit pointing at me behind my back. If you told me more, then you wouldn’t be in the trouble you’re in.”
“Maaa.” I groaned in disbelief. This woman knew everything, and I sometimes swore that she really did have eyes in the back of her head, as she had claimed to have since we were kids.
She spun around. “I’m just saying. You boys think that I’m just being nosy all the time.”
“You are,” Joshua muttered.
Mama pointed her spoon at him. “Nobody asked you. Anyway, I ask the questions that I do so that I can protect y’all. Give you some knowledge and wisdom. You better tell ’em, Bryant.”
“Kirsten, baby, I’m not in this.”
“Anyway,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “Chris, if you were running around on that girl with those loose women you entertain, you deserve to get kicked to the curb. And if that’s the case, leave that girl and her baby alone. She doesn’t need that type of foolishness. That bigheaded, no-good friend of yours took her through enough.
“I know, Ma.”
“So you gon’ tell me or not?” she demanded.
“Fine.” I huffed. I told her what happened at the ball two nights ago, and how Angel wasn’t taking my calls, ignoring my texts, and wasn’t even at home. I had driven by there repeatedly, and her car was never there.
“So, you’re in love again?” Mama asked.
“Yeah, I love Angel and Belle, and I know that I screwed up. But Ma, I cannot imagine life without them.”
My brothers and dad shook their heads.
“When will you ever learn?” Nicholas asked.
“I told you that I didn’t do anything wrong.”
