“Nah,” I answered too quickly. “My security is top notch, too, Baby. Trust me. Y’all are well taken care of.”
“Good to know,” she said. Just then, her phone rang.
“Hey, Bestie!” she answered with a bright, cheery voice. She burst out laughing a second later. “Heeyy,Domino!”
Domino,I thought, instantly irritated. She said she didn’t have a man, but the way she answered this nigga, I was on the fence about believing her.
“I just left church. It was amazing.” A moment of silence passed, but she wore a silly smile the whole time. Then, she blushed. That shit made me frown. “Boy, don’t play. I told you; it’s not like that.” Although she talked under her breath, I activated my sonic hearing to pick up what she said. She let outanother round of laughter. “Sure, I’ll call you when I get home tonight. Bye.”
She hung up, and I was too ready to ask her who she was talking to. I was tripping hard. This girl wasn’t even mine…yet. Minutes later, she was still tickled, and I was too impatient to wait for her to bring up Domino, so I did.
“You and Domino good friends?”
Out of the side of her eye, she glanced at me. “No. He hates that I call him bestie. We’re cousins.”
Relieved, I damn near swiped my brow.
“Oh, aight. Y’all close?”
“Very,” she replied. “He’s a retired Army officer, who watches the boutique for me when I’m away. Are you close to your family?”
I snorted. “Mane, I wish. I can’t even trust my people to keep my baby. My parents have been married for thirty-something years, yet they can’t stand to be in the same house with each other. Truth be told, the only reason my pops probably stays with my mama is ‘cause I bought them a house. He ain’t tryna leave the mansion. I pay all the bills, make sure they’re good. Yada, yada…” Sienna’s eyes burned a hole through the side of my face, so I chuckled. “What’s up? What’re you thinkin’?”
“You sure you want me to say what’s on my mind?” she countered.
“I prefer ya raw thoughts, baby.”
She smacked her teeth. This time, I didn’t fix my mouth to fix anything I said.
“Well, in that case, don’t make me cuss you out,” she stated.
I burst out laughing. As prim and proper as Sienna was, a firecracker laid at her core. It was evident.
“I come from a wealthy family, and truth be told, I’ve always been spoiled. To a degree, that is. Sure, my parents would do anything for me. However, I’m inclined to do a lot for myself.It’s not about being ungrateful about what they can and will do. It’s about understanding the dynamics of adulthood. Anything can happen and solely depending on the breadwinner to do everything has the potential to be detrimental. Do your parents save money for a rainy day? Are they setting aside money in case they one day have to take care of you? Are they financially stable enough to carry on should your career slow down or worse? I mean, it’s common sense.”
While processing the thrashing she just put on me and my parents, it took me a minute to catch up.
“Plus, there’s the fact that they’re grown. Take care of your parents, but they should also take care of themselves. Do you take care of your siblings, too?”
Reluctantly, I said, “Yeah.”
“You’re crippling them. It’s one thing to give your family stable housing, the occasional shopping spree, and even pay their property taxes. However, funding their entire livelihoods is overboard.”
“Yeah,” I finally replied. Sienna said nothing wrong, but family was family. A part of me didn’t mind taking care of my people. I just wished I could depend on them one-tenth of what they depended on me. “I hear you.”
She simply smiled and skeptically rolled her eyes. “Sure.” She started typing on her phone, effectively dousing water on the topic. My family wasn’t hers, so I guessed she wasn’t going to argue about it.
My phone rang, breaking the awkward silence. I dreaded seeing Courtland’s name. However, I knew it was coming.
“Don’t ignore her call,” Sienna mumbled and continued typing away without a care.
Pressing the button to filter in Courtland’s call, I said, “‘Sup, Court?”
“I don’t like that new nanny,” she replied.
Sienna’s fingers briefly paused. She smirked, then started typing again.
“Well, I can’t help that. You can’t dictate who I have watchin’ my daughter.”
