“What you make?”
“Clam chowder.”
His eyes lit up and he smacked my ass in appreciation. Aldrich burned more calories than anyone I’d ever been around and I couldn’t imagine if he was someone like Runt. “Oh, you made some real shit? Bet, I’ll fix the plates, go sit down.”
“Aldrich—”
“Nah. You know as soon as you get comfortable she’s gone wake up and want all your attention. And your hardheaded ass will give it to her to avoid this shit. You cooked, so I’ll serve. Sit.” He pointed to the table that I’d already set like I needed directions on how to get there.
I battled the urge to answer, yes sir cause he had that energy that made it seem like he wouldn’t take no for an answer. And I liked it a little too much.
I sat down at the table and watched him move around the kitchen grabbing bowls, plates, crackers and the ladle to actually plate our food like he knew what he was doing. He carried them both to me and sat down, took my hand to bless the food and then started to watch me.
“So what’s the deal?” He took a bite of soup and when he started to nod and didn’t bother to say anything else as he ate, I knew he liked it.
“He’s a deadbeat and I don’t fuck with him well enough for him to be wanting to come down here.”
Another nod, another bite, and I smiled at his nonverbal appreciation of dinner. When he came up for air he hopped up to grab drinks from the beverage drawer and came back to the table. As he handed me a sparkling water, he got back to business. “There’s something else though.”
“It’s the way he did it. Trying to use our broken relationship, that he broke, to get a free vacation for him and his family.”I swirled my spoon through the thick soup getting annoyed all over again.
“What was his reason for coming? To check on you?”
“Yeah. That and he’d been seeing me around you and he wanted to make sure you were good and I was living well.”
“And he thought that approach was going to warrant a flight and a vacation?” Aldrich’s laugh was deep, the kind that let me know he was happy with how I handled the situation because my father wouldn’t have been welcome here.
“I guess his stamp of approval was supposed to move you into seeing to his every need.”
He raised his eyebrows thoughtfully before shaking his head. “That’s actually not a bad approach if I thought he was worth it. But seeing that you don’t even fuck with him he couldn’t get a hello from me.”
“That deep?”
He moved his chair closer to mine so that he could rest his hand on my thigh. “You’re a damn good judge of character, Tesoro. I’m not about to sit here and act like you don’t know who to keep close and who to push away. Especially with your people. That was some real ho shit though. Manipulative as hell to do that to your daughter. He shouldn’t be okay with doing that to you because it leaves you open for other men to do it to you. Nigga couldn’t even be inventive with his reason for coming. At least fake dying like Anthony’s mama tried.”
I’d gasped when Aphrodite told me that lady was saying she was ill to try to extort money from them. There had to be a special place in hell for people who were okay with playing with their health just to grift.
“Right? Letting him come to a game to cheer on a man he doesn’t know off the back of his daughter he doesn’t even communicate with. I probably would’ve felt better if he would’vetried harder with his faux concern. It pisses me off that I wasn’t even worth a good fucking lie.”
Aldrich squeezed my thigh forcing me to look at him. His eyes were soft, his concern displayed clearly. “Aye, we're not about to do that. We're not letting other people’s bullshit make us feel anyway about ourselves. We're not internalizing that shit, Ling. He fucked up so he misses out. It’s that simple. I know how I move with Ami isn’t always right but the last thing I ever want her to feel is that she’s the cause of it. How she got here wasn’t ideal but I’m thankful with each passing day that I got the chance to love her. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. And if your punk-ass daddy doesn’t see the benefit of you, that’s a him issue.”
“First of all, you’ve been more involved with Ami than I’m sure my father ever was. My mother had no issue with reminding me she was the parent that stayed although I know they had a day and night nanny so they could both continue on with their careers.”
“They told you that?” He looked appalled that neither parent even tried to spare my feelings.
“Yeah. She wanted me to see that she had made so many sacrifices for me but all it showed was that she didn’t have a maternal bone in her body.”
He finished the bowl of soup and put his forearm casually on top of his head. “Damn. You should be far more fucked up than you are.”
I laughed sarcastically as I felt my desire to finish my dinner return. “Thanks…I guess?”
“Nah, not like that. I mean yeah, like that, because we all fucked up. I definitely don’t have any room to talk about people who are emotionally scarred and damaged.” He gave me a pointed look so I knew what he spoke of.
“Scarred maybe but not damaged. That’s letting the wrong people win.”
“Yeah, I get it. But you should probably use some of that same info for yourself don’t you think?” He folded his arms across his chest and I could see the fatigue from eating settling in his eyes.
“Stop making sense, Aldrich.”
