Instead of being weird about it I went to the phone and sent him a text message. I sat the heavy portfolio down and snapped a photo of it with a question mark beside it. Immediately my phone rang in my hand and I was surprised because I thought for sure he was at practice right now.
“Hey, did I catch you at a bad time?”
“Nah, everything good?” He sounded slightly out of breath and now I knew I’d interrupted something.
“I knew you were busy but something. Just got delivered to the house that I had questions about.”
“What was it?” The way his tone elevated I realized I should’ve chosen my words far more carefully than I had.
“No! Nothing bad. It’s an invitation to the team’s lady’s luncheon.”
“Oh, damn they’re quick as hell. We just got the sign up a few days ago. They didn’t waste time.” I could hear the smile in his voice and I wondered what made him so happy.
Then I realized what it was he’d said. “Aldrich?”
“Yeah.”
“You signed me up for this?”
“Yeah. You don’t want to go?”
I looked down at the white envelope again because I hadn’t bothered to examine the contents. “I don’t even know what this is.”
“It’s a team thing where the women in our lives get taken care of and supported the way they support us.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I felt the need to inject a dose of reality into his thought process.
“Al—”
“Nah. You about to say something that’s gone fuck up my mental when I need to be focused on what’s going on right now. You're not going to overthink or underthink who you are to me or no shit like that. I won’t have it.”
I bit my lip because he sounded sexy as hell trying to boss me around. “You're making demands now?”
“You know I have ways to get you to do what I want you to, Ling. Had you calling meMoneywhen you swore you never would.”
I felt my face get hot as my mind flashed back to the moment I called himMoney. “That was just a slip of the tongue.”
When I heard him chuckle I knew he was going to say something slick. “Nah, it was just the power of my tongue and I ain’t got an ounce of shame in it either.”
“Aldrich, there might be people around you!” Why I was whispering in the phone was beyond me but I felt the need to keep my voice down.
He snickered and I was sure he wanted to laugh. “And? Ion’t give a fuck. They're talking to their girls too. There are too many dicks around this muthafucka. Anyway, have fun with that shit. Link up with Aphrodite and y’all do the girls thing or whatever. It’ll be fun.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” He sounded hopeful and I knew this meant a lot to him.
“Yeah. It’ll be fun.” I was trying to convince us both because I didn’t believe it would be fun.
“You sound like you’d rather have a root canal but Imma take your yes and keep it pushing. Call me back when the baby is up so she can talk to Daddy.”
“I will.”
“Cool. And you video call me back after she carries her ass to sleep so you can talk to Daddy too.” His voice got softer but I didn’t miss the sensual tone in his voice that matched the request he was making.
“Of course I will,Money.”
It might not have been the best idea to come to this thing.
We’d been greeted well by theMVP Wivesand the staff had been amazing, but leave it to a bitch who isn’t getting the worship she thinks she should to mess up a moment. After I cleared that bitch who thought we were too damn stupid to know about game tickets and the other who tried to make me feel like a second-class citizen, I’d lost my appetite. Despite Ami not being able to talk, I was sure she knew when my tone and my aura switched up and I didn’t want her to see me act that way. Instead of going through the rest of the meal with these women, the ladies that I knew all got up and started shopping. Rye gave us the details on the women talking shit and I locked that info into my brain in case I had to confront her again later.
