“That, among other reasons.”
“So wait, you have a place in the Hamptons?” Rye sat forward and I wondered if she were planning our girls trip.
“My house isn’t anything like the houses you’re thinking about. The family estate definitely is, but my house is more of a cottage. It’s only got two bathrooms and I doubt we could even have a good girl’s weekend there because it’s cozy.”
“You haven’t hung out with us. We can make two bathrooms work especially without husbands and kids. Nobody to run after? Just all weekend in onesies eating appetizers and drinking.” Rye was making this weekend sound better and better the more she spoke.
“There’s a water view of Bay Point. Some parts of the house have been renovated but I haven’t done a full gut. Might never get around to it.”
“Show me this place.” Lyric was now leaning over expectantly waiting for me to pull up a slideshow of my house.
I went through my photos and showed the large hydrangeas on the private gravel drive. The two-story house that was roughly two-thousand square feet my mother called a shack. By the time I was done flipping through it, they acted like they wanted to put dates in stone for us to go.
Which I was more than happy to do.
“I hope you know you’re gonna get got real soon.” Lyric was watching Ami as she giggled and drooled and I had no clue where that came from when we were just talking about vacations.
“Lyric…what do you mean?”
“She’s just such a good baby. I’d have already been caught up.”
“She is a good baby. I tell Aldrich all the time that she basically stole his whole face.”
Rye studied Ami’s face for a moment before nodding in agreement. “She really did. That is insane. I mean I guess we know that Money’s ass would’ve been even prettier as a girl than he is as a man.”
I laughed because Rye sounded like her Grams did. Talking about them like she had been around and seen everything. “Not you calling Aldrich pretty.”
“Girl, please stop playing. You over here wearing his chain but you have the nerve to be talking like that. He’s pretty. And I can’t believe you still call him by his damn government name.” Rye sipped her juice that she tried to have us believe had alcohol in it.
“I can’t call him Dinero because that’s just weird. And calling him Money is what everyone else calls him. I don’t know, Aldrich just seems right.”
“I hate to be crass but if you’re calling that nigga by his entire name when he’s stroking you he ain’t doing something right.”
My mouth dropped open as she casually said that in front of her little girl. “Rye!”
With a playful roll of her eyes, she looked at me like she were going to enjoy teasing me like this. “Honey, I know he's doing something right cause you went through a lot of trouble to make sure that we were all going to be at the opening game. That’s notoh we’re coolenergy. And that was months ago. And with the way you’re putting all this effort into these outfits every week? Pfft, you're not calling that manAldrichwhen your leg starts to shake.”
My entire body was hot with embarrassment, and I tried to give some type of defense. “The box was just sitting—”
“And you could’ve sold it to one of us and made a profit but instead you decided to be kind. Which we more than appreciate. That’s something you might not want to put a name on, but with this kind of effort, you gotta be brave enough to be honest with yourself at least.”
“Nah, he’s definitelyMoneythen.”
Rye cracked up laughing at my words, and when Ami innocently joined in I wanted to sink into the floor.
“Give me my baby. Got her out here being corrupted.” I reached for Ami and she came to me with the same smile on her face. I never took for granted the way she came to me. The bond that she had or the unconditional love I felt when I looked at her.
Before I could say anything else, there was a commotion in the hallway. The suites had several glass panels and since we didn’t have walls separating any of ours; it was easy to hear the disturbance as it got louder and closer to us.
“What in the world?”
“WHERE IS MY COUSIN? I’M HER GUEST!”
I dreaded who was about to come into view but sure enough I saw two men in all-black suits dragging Denise down the hall kicking and screaming. I just knew that she was going to end up on someone’s gossip page embarrassing the family.
Would definitely be worse than the time she got caught getting high in the bathroom of her boarding school like she was Kathryn inCruel Intentions.
While other people stared, we all pulled out our phones to figure out what had gone on.
