I knew Emery wouldn’t give her his last name if someone paid him a hundred million dollars to do so. And when he walked into my house with Yumi, I knew for a fact that ho didn’t have a chance.
Yumi was more his speed.
She was pretty, humble, down-to-earth, and sweet. Normani was none of that. I was surprised she hadn’t called to vent to me about Emery not fucking with her anymore, but I was glad about it. I had my own problems to deal with.
Closing the door, I went straight to my bar and mixed myself a drink. I had to figure out what was next since Emil wasn’t going to prison. The only reason I felt a little bad while stuffing Normani with information was that Mook didn’t deserve to go down for Emil’s bullshit, and I knew Emery would have been fucked up losing his two best friends. Otherwise, I felt no remorse for what I had done.
Emil had been sending all kinds of shit to my house, trying to win me back, but none of it was working. I didn’t even think the nigga knew my love language or my favorite color. That pink shit he did at my birthday party wasn’t it. I rolled with it because I did like the color, but it wasn’t my favorite.
Turning on my R&B ’90s playlist, I let Toni Braxton croon through the Bluetooth speaker and pulled open my laptop to see where I wanted to take the kids for their summer vacation before school started next month.
While surfing the net, my doorbell rang, and I grabbed my phone from the couch pillow beside me to pull up the security footage. Seeing Emil standing on my porch with bags, I rolled my damn eyes and tossed my head back. This man wasdetermined to make me take extreme measures to get him the fuck out of my life.
I set the laptop down and went to the door, flinging it open while I stared a hole in his sexy ass face.
“Can I help you?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest. The gesture made my boobs push up more, and I saw his thirsty ass eyes go right to them, and he licked his crusty ass lips. “I’m up here, nigga.”
“Amina, I’m being patient with you because I know I fucked up, but chill with that fucking attitude before shit gets ugly around here.”
“You don’t scare me, Emil Aldana.”
“I’m glad I don’t. I knew you were never a weak chick.”
I sighed, dropping my arms to my sides. “Emil, please leave me alone.”
“I can’t, Mimi. I love yo’ ass too much to lose you. That saying ‘you don’t miss your water until the well runs dry’ is true shit. I fucked up, bad, but I’m determined to get you back.”
“What’s my favorite color?” I asked, propping my hand on my hip. “What’s my favorite movie, food, love language, and places to go. If you can tell me those simple things, I’ll let you in, and we can have a conversation,only.”
He looked away, then down at his AM sneakers.
“Like I thought. Goodbye, Emil.” I was about to close the door when he stopped me.
“Your favorite color is purple and lavender, even though they’re both the fucking same to me. Your favorite food is that nasty ass Chick-fil-A because you order the same shit every week, the spicy crispy chicken sandwich with the Polynesian sauce, large waffle fries, and a Coke. You love physical touch, but I know you love words of affirmation too. Ya ass stay in the damn salon and love a vacation—Barbados is your favorite place. Your favorite movie isThe Last Dragonbecause you think that niggaBruce Leeroy is fine, making me want to shoot the shit out of that nigga, and he ain’t even real.”
I didn’t want to, but a giggle escaped me before he stepped up in my space.
“You gon’ let a nigga in or what?”
I rolled my eyes and let him in. I was surprised he knew me as well as he did. I thought for sure this man didn’t pay me any type of damn attention. As soon as I closed the door, and he turned to me, I blurted, “I was the one who told Normani to snitch to get y’all locked up.”
I could see Emil’s eyes darken as he stared at me. The room was silent for a long minute before he ran a hand down his face and looked away. “You don’t have to go to this extreme to try to hurt me, Amina. I get it, I fucked up, but you don’t have to lie to get yo’ shit off, baby.”
“I’m not lying to you, Emil. You’ve been hurting me for years, and when I saw that shit from Paisley, it just set me off. I wanted to hurt you, so I just planted a small seed that she made grow because she was desperate to hurt Emery for hurting her.”
“Amina, . . . do you fucking realize that I could have spent the rest of my life behind bars? Hassan and Emil Jr. would have been looking at me through a fucking glass!”
“At the time, I didn’t care! While you were out here making a fool of me, I was here, trying to be everything you needed! Taking care of your sons while you frolic around, fucking on dusty bitches! So yes. Yes, the fuck I did tell her to do what she had to do to get her revenge.” Tears were streaming down my face as I angrily swiped them away. His ass didn’t deserve my tears. He didn’t deserveme.
Again, silence took over the room, and I could feel his eyes on me, but I refused to look at him.
“You were wrong for that, Mina. No matter what I did to you, my people were involved. All this shit could have come crashingdown because you were hurting. You would have been better off shooting or poisoning my ass. If my brother didn’t get to that judge in time, shit would have been a lot different around here.” He shook his head. “You better be glad you’re my wife, and I’m trying to make shit better for us. I’m sure I would have done you worse than Em did Normani if I knew you were the mastermind behind her bullshit.”
“I wouldn’t have cared. You don’t love me, anyway.”
“I love the fuck out of you. I didn’t know how to show it. You gave birth to my sons and treated a nigga good. I just wasn’t mentally ready for that grown woman love you exuded, but I ain’t on that little boy shit no more. Can we start over? Please? I’ll erase what you did if you could forgive me and move on with me. I’m ready to commit to you and give you and the boys everything you’ve been missing. I’m now the head of the family, and I need my queen by my side to rule this shit.” He stepped closer to me, pulling me in by my waist and kissing my forehead. “Please?”
“Let me think about it, please?” I asked. As hard as I was trying to end this between us, it was proving to be more complicated than I expected.
