“Billy Briggs is my best friend so I’m always at the games and events and stuff. Several of the players and even the owner’s girlfriend are my clients. Billy said that he’s been the calmest he’s been in months the last few days. Since before all this shit happened with that damn girl.” She raised her brows before cutting on the water and adjusting the temp to where I said it was comfortable. She rinsed my hair and now I was wondering what I was really stepping into.
I knew you didn’t know anyone until you lived with them, but even after I agreed to take the job Aldrich looked as though he’d had a weight lifted off his shoulders. Tension that seemed embedded in his pores slowly leeched out as we went about getting me settled. Aldrich seemed at peace taking care of othersso I wasn’t sure how that would change once I stepped in for his daughter.
“I don’t know about that. I think I’ve just helped make the situation less stressful so he can focus on work and still know that his baby is taken care of.” Porsha sat me up with a towel around my hair before we got back to her chair.
“Uh huh well I don’t think that’s it. You give a man a place of safety and security for his troubles and he starts to see you differently. Besides, you’re fine as hell, Sterling. Who knows what could happen?”
A knock sounded on the door and we both looked up as it opened. “Pretty?”
A grin broke over her face, and she looked at me. “Sorry, this is my fiancé. He has this thing with feeding me like I’m not a whole adult!” She raised her voice for that last part probably to ensure he heard her as she opened the door. A man who looked like a professional basketball player but had the swag of a man who owned the streets and the boardrooms walked into the door and bent down to kiss her. He didn’t care about her attitude and with his height he legitimately had to bend down to get to get her.
“Pretty, I’m taking the load off of you. Let me do that. I ain’t seen you in like four hours and I missed y’all.”
Oh, even I wasn’t gone be mad anymore after he said that shit, so I knew she wasn’t going to.
She had the nerve to look embarrassed at what he said but I could tell she was tickled to hear it. “Corey, this is one of my new clients, Sterling. She’s Money’s girl.”
See now I take all that niceness about her right back. “Ma’am, I am his nanny. Don’t go around spreading rumors like that. Folks talk and then I have to fight rumors and have people questioning my professionalism.”
“Nah, if she said it then it’s true. Pretty knows how to tell when everyone is supposed to be matched up together. Well, except for herself.” He shot her a look and I had to cover my face at how he was clearly throwing shade at her.
“Damn are you still on that?” Porsha rolled her eyes playfully but even I could see there was no attitude behind it. Especially not when he pulled her closer and kissed the side of her neck. Like any woman, she absolutely melted into the move and now I was blushing for her.
“What I tell you it was gone take for me to get over it?” Corey gave her a pointed look and she was blushing and I felt like I needed to leave the room and give them a minute. “Aight then.”
He tore his eyes away from her to smile at me. “It’s good to meet you, Sterling. I brought food for the salon since Pretty seems to forget she got my baby riding shotgun for the next five months. Make sure she eats.”
I glanced down and saw his hand splayed over her midsection possessively. There was no sign she was pregnant but she was so tall and lean the baby had plenty of room to spread out. Judging by its parents, the kid was going to be huge though. “Oh, I’m a nurse, I don’t play that.”
He grinned broadly and it was clear why she’d fallen for him. Corey was extremely handsome, with rich dark skin and a pretty smile. I clearly had a thing for smiles because Aldrich’s was a sight to behold.
Now, wait a minute. Where did that thought come from?
“I like you. Pretty, I got her services for the day.” Corey was nodding at me like it was a done deal and I had to stop him cause that was just too much niceness for me in one day.
“No, sir, that’s not—”
He pulled out a wad of money and peeled off a stack that was at least a quarter inch thick. “It’s already done, lil lady.” Definitely a street nigga. Or a reformed one.
“Corey, this is too much.”
He shrugged as he slid the wad of money back into his pocket. Corey was making it clear he didn’t give a damn about that money and he wasn’t taking it back. “Then give her some extra shit or raise your prices. I ain’t paying you change to be working while you pregnant with my baby. Got me fucked up.” He kissed her lips and then bent down on one knee to kiss her stomach, which was doing a damn good job of hiding a whole four-month along fetus. “I’ll see y’all at home. I love you both.”
Well, damn am I crying?
“We love you too.”
He gave me a nod of the head, and I gave a friendly wave as he walked out the door. She turned to me like she was about to get right back to business but I had to speak my piece first.
“Girl, just let me send you something for the wedding cause you're not gone be wearing anything for the honeymoon.”
We both cracked up laughing and that big-ass rock he’d obviously placed on her finger seemed to sparkle even brighter with her emotions.
“That’s how I got in this predicament to begin with. I’m really thinking about just doing something small with our close friends and family and having something big later. If I even feel like it. I can wear a bomb-ass dress any time and with his profession we always have some reason to get dressed up.”
“Is he an athlete?” Because he had the height for it and just because I didn’t watch sports didn’t mean he didn’t play one. Even though that wasn’t the vibe he gave off. Athletes had swagger but this man had an air about him that he didn’t answer to anyone. Him being calm enough to play by anyone else’s rules besides his own didn’t really fit the air he gave off. He might be a teddy bear around Porsha, but it was clear he’d seen a lot of life.
She scoffed as if I was a long way off and when she gave his title I understood why she had. “He’s co-CEO of Lyrically Sound.”
