“Dinner with my Dad.”
Kas knew what that meant. He’d been present after her dinners with Jaivion before and knew they usually left her in a bad mood. Even worse than she’d be after leaving Janis. “Come to my crib with me for a minute.”
Yanna didn’t push back as she grabbed her wine and keys, standing from the couch. Onyx yelled something slick about her bringing their glass back, but she ignored him. She quietly followed behind Kas until they reached his house, entered, and headed straight upstairs. Once in his bedroom, he turned on the TV and grabbed a pre-rolled blunt from his dresser while Yanna removed her shoes and skirt, getting comfortable. Kas climbed onto his king-sized bed and rested on his pillows, pulling Yanna’s back to his chest.
“What happened?” He asked as he lit the blunt.
“Nothing happened really. I just can’t stand him.”
“Yo dad?”
“Yes, him. I’m not ungrateful, so I do appreciate what he tries to do for me financially, and even though the money he gives me just collects interest in a bank account, I feel like it’s the least he can do.” Yanna’s father had been placing $10,000 into one of Yanna’s checking accounts every month since she graduated college. She refused to touch it though, thinking she was proving to her father that she nor her mother needed him. The account had to have at least a million in it by now, but Yanna’s stubbornness far superseded her greed.
“Because he left?”
“Right. Like Troi’s dad, who was his best friend, was killed. Then his brother was murdered right after that, and it fucked him up. I get that those were his brothers. He decided he didn’t want to slang crack anymore, and I get that too, but… what I can’t understand is how that leads you to leave your wife and your child. Nigga literally dipped on us and got remarried. Then years later, he comes around on his daddy Warbucks shit and expects for us to just have this perfect relationship.”
“And you ain’t forgive him after all this time?”
“I’llneverforgive him.”
Kas sneered. “You sound like that nigga, Nyx.”
“It’s not the same. Ms. Layla is fine. I don’t know how she was affected by y’all’s dad leaving initially, but she eventually picked up the pieces. She raised her boys and lived her life. Janis, though… she let that man break her completely. If it wasn’t for my auntie Kamilla, I probably would’ve gone days without a decent meal, because my mumma was more concerned with drowning her sorrows in liquor.”
“Damn, Yanna boo, I’m sorry you had to go through that. You wanna cry? I ain’t gone tell nobody.”
“I’d never waste tears for something that wasn’t my fault.”
“But that’s the reason why you hate men, huh? Because of yo daddy?”
“Can’t stand y’all asses. Y’all are all the same. Onyx might be the exception, and even he had his issues. That’s why I don’t get invested… I refuse to end up like Janis.”
Kas shook his head at her statement. He could admit that at one time he was the ain’t shit type of guy Yanna spoke of. For her, he wanted to be more though. He wanted to prove to her that Onyx wasn’t the only good man in the world.
“That’s why you act like you can’t stand me too, huh? I’m not yo daddy.”
“And yet you’ve shown me that you’re capable of doing something as trifling as what he did.”
“We’re all capable of doing fucked up shit. It don’t mean we will though. At some point, you just have to take a chance on me because I’m not going anywhere anyway.”
“If I take a chance on anybody it’ll be a new nigga. You’ve done too much already.”
“A new nigga, huh? You’ll just be wasting yo time ‘cause y’all not gone last.”
“And how you figure that?”
“Cause that nigga gone eventually get tired.”
“Tired of me?”
“Nah ofme… beating his ass every time I see him. Stop fucking playing with me.”
Yanna couldn’t contain the laughter that bellowed from the pit of her stomach. “I swear something is wrong with you.”
“Nah, ain’t nothing wrong with me. Yo ass laughing, but I’m dead serious, Jaiyanna. It’s like you’re punishing me for what yo pops did but using the mistakes I’ve made as an excuse. I really get sick of that shit. Yo ways are draining, and yo inconsistency is making me not trust myself to be faithful, even though that’s the only thing I want to do. Even though… let you tell it, I don’t have a girl to be faithful to.”
“Kas, I?—”
