“Hey, Grai,” the cashier, Brasia, greeted cheerily when Grai approached.
“Hey, girl. You know why I’m here,” Grai replied.
Brasia chuckled. “I do.” She turned her attention to me and waved. “Hey, Poppa. You getting your usual too?”
I nodded. “Yeah, ’preciate it.”
She walked away and got busy making our order. Grai always got the strawberry cheesecake cone, and I went with a pistachio cone. Satisfied with seeing Brasia get to work, she turned back to me. “Who did you run into?” she finally decided to engage in my earlier statement.
I chuckled. “Mrs. Rhodes.”
Grai’s eyes ballooned. “For real?”
I nodded. “Dead ass saw her ass in the grocery store I was delivering to.”
She released the cutest giggle into the air. “Oh my goodness, did she speak?” I gave her a glare that told her all she needed to know. She released a full-blown laugh this time, and those dimples nearly sent me to my knees. “Of course, she did. That lady has been ready to risk it all for a very long time. You still ain’t giving her no play?”
My head jerked back, and my top lip curled. “Hell no. I’m not letting that lady put her cougar pussy on me to be fucking up my brain chemistry and shit. Not to mention, that husband of hers never fucked around. He only needed to point his shotgun at me once for me to understand my place.”
I shook my head, already knowing it was the protection of the Most High that got me out of that situation. I was young and dumb, completely enamored by the idea of bagging an older woman, but the farthest we ever made it was her giving me head because her husband burst in the room, and I never playedwith my life like that again. “Granted, she did tell me she was divorced now, but I would never mount that horse. I just know that nigga still lurking somewhere in the shadows.”
Grai was bent over, laughing hysterically with tears in her eyes. “I have never known you to be scared of a woman except for that one. You do not fuck around.”
I tapped her nose as Brasia waved for us to come get our cones. “Because I value the air in my lungs. It’s too much money to be made and life to be lived to be body bagged over a cougar bitch who gets an adrenaline rush from making her husband jealous.”
I reached for our cones, then passed Grai hers. Pulling out my wallet, I pulled out two twenty-dollar bills and handed them to Brasia. “Keep the change.”
I used my back to open the door for Grai while eating my ice cream. She was damn near skipping on our way back to The Roxy. “I swear I never get tired of these ice cream cones. Ugh, I need to know how she makes these waffle cones.”
I chuckled because she said this every time we visited Lolita’s, and she was no closer to knowing Lo’s secret recipes. The doors of the hotel slid open, but we didn’t even get the chance to step inside before Connor came rushing over to us. He was a flamboyant white boy whom I only tolerated because of Grai. I wasn’t homophobic or anything, but I hated when gay niggas liked to think they were going to flip somebody to the dark side. This was not that type of party, and no matter how many times I told Connor, he kept trying. I was starting to feel like I was gonna have to break his jaw for him to understand what the fuck I was saying.
His eyes flicked to me, and he pouted. “Not y’all went to get ice cream without me.”
I frowned as my fist pumped in anticipation, but Grai stepped in. “I was on my break, crazy boots, but anyways, what’s up? Why did you come racing over here like that?”
In an instant, his posture and facial expression both became serious. “Girl, you know I don’t like to be messy, but I gotta tell you this.” He stepped closer and gulped dramatically. “While you were gone, Dre checked into a room with a very pregnant woman hanging off his arm.”
Grai’s eyes flooded with unshed tears as she nodded her head slowly. Without another word, she jolted forward and made her way toward the back office. I glanced at Connor, knowing messiness was right up his fucking alley, and he had no idea what he’d done. The look in her eyes before she walked away told me the storm brewing within her broken spirit had officially become a catastrophic category five hurricane. There would be no undoing the damage that would be done.
I turned to toss my unfinished ice cream in the trash. My appetite was ruined, knowing Grai was in pain. By the time I turned around, Bubbles stood there with a maniacal look on her face. She tried to move around me, but I blocked her path to the elevators. “Which room, Connor?”
I knew she was serious by the vein running down the middle of her forehead. I had to let this play out now. Connor lit the match; the bomb was going to detonate one way or another. By the look on his face, I could tell he was regretting his decision to share what he saw with her.
“Room three eighty-eight,” he mumbled.
Instead of responding, Grai took off for the elevator, but I was right on her heels. She pressed the button for the third floor without acknowledging me. Her tapping foot was the only sound other than the elevator itself. When the doors sprang open, she jerked forward like she was on autopilot.
When we made it to the room number Connor told her, she stared at the door with an emotionless expression. I thought she was going to beat on it with her fist, but instead, she pulled out a set of keys from her pocket. I shook my head, knowing that shit was an abuse of her power.
She eased the door open. The suite was dark in the living room area, but light floated from the bedroom. There was also the rumble of a television. I followed behind Grai on her stroll over to the open door. The lights were on, so we could see everything in high definition. She got ready to push it open wider when Drey’s voice paused her.
“I can’t believe you finally let me put a baby in you,” he said in admiration. Even I could pick up on the joy in his tone. “It’s been a long time coming. The day our daughter is born will be the best day of my life.”
I glanced down at Grai the same time a shudder went through her body. I was glad I couldn’t see her facial expression because I’d walk straight in the room and kill that nigga if I had to look at the pain I knew was painted there. I always had a feeling the nigga was cheating, but I was not expecting us to stumble onto all of this. I was afraid Grai wouldn’t be able to handle it all. He was saying some slimy shit that was probably already eating her up inside. But at the same time, if this was how the nigga really felt, she needed to know.
Whoever he was with was leaning against the headboard. Drey was lying beside her swollen belly, rubbing it lovingly. They didn’t look like strangers but lovers. The way they both were relaxed in each other’s presence was enough proof of their familiarity.
“You say that now, but you’re going to leave me in the morning to go home to your real family.”
