“I don’t want a gift that just means you think you can buy forgiveness.”
“Hold up. I’m not even sure how we got here. I don’t need to buy forgiveness for anything. I apologized, I fucked up and now I’m coming with a peace offering.”
She pulled her hair out of the bun she’d had it in and I got distracted watching it cascade down her back. She raked her fingers through her hair at her temples like she suddenly had a headache and I caused it. “What do you mean a peace offering? You know what I would prefer over whatever is in this box?”
Now I stood up fully, not offended but realizing this wasn’t something she was going to accept. “No, what?”
“I want you to figure out what is wrong. That’s the best gift you can give me — yourself and Ami. Whatever is in that box is something that you want to give me to make this blow over, but you were disrespectful and ungrateful—”
“I didn’t ask you to—”
“You didn’t have to ask me to do anything. I’m not the type of person who sees someone in need and ignores them. If I were, I doubt you’d have me here with your daughter.” Sterling’s brows rose like she dared me to challenge her words but I couldn’t.
“You’re right.”
“Like I was saying, You have everything at your disposal to be the person who you want to. Time, money and access. That’s more than many people get in this world. If you want to squander it because you’re being stubborn there’s nothing I can do about that. But please don’t think that you’re going to buy me. That’s something we need to make apparent right now. I’m always going to look out for people because that’s the type of person I am. You need help and I’m sure you have a way to get it. But thinking something material is going to undo a harm that you’ve caused will never be the way we’re cool.”
“What nigga fucked up and kept buying you gifts to think it was going to make everything better?” I’d asked only half joking but with the way her face got tight I realized I’d hit that shit on the money.
“My father.”
My stomach dropped because that was the second time a playful question had gotten a serious answer. “Gotdamn, Sterling, I didn’t even mean to—”
Her hand went up and my mouth shut because she had that maternal authority down pat. “Don’t. You didn’t know and we’re not going to fall out over that. Just don’t ever disrespect me again or call me out of my name and we’ll be good. If you do, I’m done. That was the only chance you’ll ever get. Understood?”
The thought of her not being here when I got home and having to acclimate someone else to Ami had every fiber of my being set on edge. Sterling was synonymous with peace of mind and spirit so her not being a part of our lives set me on edge.
“You’ll never have to worry about me disrespecting you in any way ever again. You mean too much to me, to us, for that to happen. You got my word on that, Ling.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Progress
STERLING
“CAN YOU GET dressed real quick for me?”
I looked down at what I was wearing and then back up at Aldrich, trying to understand what was wrong with what I had on.
“Um, is there something the matter with how I’m dressed?” There hadn’t been any direction inside of the hiring packet as far as clothing went but I assumed that the athletic clothing I was wearing wasn’t inappropriate. I made sure that my shorts weren’t too short or too tight and that the zip-up jacket that I wore wasn’t gripping tight. I never wore super tight clothing anyway so this wasn’t a big deal but now I was second guessing myself.
He looked me up and down again before he met my eyes. “Nah, you're pretty as always but you look comfortable. Just in case we run into people, I didn’t know if you wanted to change your clothes.”
Stuff between us had been different since we had that talk. Not bad, but a shift that made me more aware of him. He’d been spending a lot more time at home when he wasn’t training and although I’d attempted to take a step back from him he’d taken such a big step forward. Aldrich had spent more time with Ami and demanded I take at a minimum a few hours off every day. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that because I needed to keep my mind busy and Ami had been that for me. She gave me a job and a purpose and without that distraction I was now sinking back into my old habits and old thought patterns. Which irritated mesince I’d talked all this shit to him about doing better but I wasn’t there myself.
But wait, did he call me pretty?
I quickly skipped my ass from that thought to the next because it wasn’t going to do anything but cause confusion. “Run into people? What are you talking about?”
He nodded toward the other side of the house as if that completely answered my question. “We’re about to go out.”
“For what? I’m not sure it’s a good idea for her to be out.” Ami had her first round of shots so that wasn’t an issue, but I still wasn’t trying to have her around a bunch of folks
“Her six weeks are way past up—”
“She spent time in the hospital, she’s still a newborn, Aldrich.”
He rolled his eyes at me like he was exasperated, “I keep telling you to call me Money or something other than that old ass name.”
