Renza burst out laughin’. “Man, get the fuck outta here.”
“I’m serious,” Pressure said. “We talkin’, she moanin’, her legs up, I’m holdin’ her ankles, and next thing I know I’m shootin’ the club up.”
“And she mad?” I asked.
“Madder than she should be,” he said. “I apologized, and gave her space. I been lettin’ her do her thing ‘cause I know her body been through a lot. But now she actin’ brand new. Three damn weeks without sex. THREE.”
I whistled. “Nigga… you a better man than me.”
“I ain’t a man,” he muttered. “I’m a prisoner.”
Renza nodded like that made sense. “Pluto ain’t playin’ with yo’ ass.”
“I know,” Pressure said. “But at some point she gotta remember who the hell I am. I’m gon’ lose my mind if she keep holdin’ that pussy hostage. My dick miss her.”
“Mine miss Toni,” I sighed. “It just don’t work.”
We all laughed together ‘cause this was the most pathetic rich nigga brunch ever. Three grown men with money, power, connections, and two with zero control over their wives.
Pressure cut into his omelette. “We sound like some old married niggas complainin’.”
“Y’all are old married niggas complainin’,” Renza said.
We kept jokin’, talkin’, and eatin’ for another hour until my phone buzzed on the table with pops flashin’ across the screen.
Everything inside me paused ‘cause me and him hadn’t talked like that in a minute, not real talk. I ain’t even wanna answer at first but I breathed out slow and hit accept.
“Wussup pops,” I said.
His voice came through the line deep and calm like always. “Son. I need to see you. Man to man.”
I sat back, my brows pullin’ in. “A’ight. I’ll slide through.”
Pressure and Renza watched me when I hung up. They ain’t pry but they felt it.
Pressure wiped his mouth and spoke first. “You gon’ be good?”
“Yeah,” I said, even though I ain’t know. My pops wanna talk.”
Renza nodded slow. “Talkin’ good sometimes. Even when it feel weird.”
Pressure’s eyes locked on me in that older brother way he did when he wasn’t bein’ funny. “If he comin’ to you right, hear him out.”
I nodded ‘cause I already planned to. “Yeah. I’mma see what he talkin’ about.”
After brunch I told Pressure and Renza I was gon’ holla at ‘em and walked out into the Trill-Land sun. My whip was parked out front, top already down. I slid inside, turned the engine on, and let the wind hit my face as I cruised through the city.
Palm trees leaned over the roads, the gold Trill-Land flags waved on every corner, and the ocean glistened like the whole island was dipped in money. And while the sun warmed my skin and the breeze cooled my face, my mind bounced all over the place.
I thought about Toni.
I thought about Pressure and Pluto.
I thought about meds, and my mama, and everything that shaped me.
And I thought about how I had spent my whole life tryna act like I ain’t need nobody, but the truth was, Toni and my father had always been the two people who could get through that steel wall I kept around my heart.
If I was gon’ fix shit with him, today was the day.
