“Man, stop. Tuesday, stop,” Biggie said, finally catching up to her, cuffing his side in pain.
Her eyes softened slightly as she let out a long sigh.
“I can’t do this with you, Biggie. Our son deserves better. I…deserve better from you.”
Biggie’s jaw clenched as Wallis walked over to him and hugged his leg. When Biggie looked down at him, it was as if his entire heart exploded into a mass of love. He didn’t understand how his love had grown so big for this tiny human, his twin, in such a short amount of time. When his eyes fell on Tuesday, he realized he also didn’t understand how his feelings for her had seemed to come out of nowhere.
He wasn’t used to people dictating his moves, but Wallis and Tuesday held that power, and they didn’t even know it. Still, he couldn’t give in. Not this time. He promised himself that once he deaded this Antonio situation for good, he would take a look at how he could invest his money to make it grow so he could sitback and play the family man. He never thought he would see the day where he would commit to getting out of the streets for good, but here he was silently making that promise to himself for the two most important people to him that seemed to come out of nowhere.
“Look, get Wallis to your mom, go to work, and by the time you get off, I’ll be home, I promise. We can talk more when I get back. I just need to handle this.”
Tuesday shook her head in disappointment. She didn’t respond because she had already told him how she felt, and he obviously didn’t care, so there was nothing left to say. Mute, she got Wallis’s little shoes on and then her own. When she reached for the doorknob and her designer purse, Biggie stopped her.
“Don’t leave like this. We had such a good night the other night?—”
“Just go do what you have to do. I’ll talk to you later.” Hastily, she opened the door and grabbed Wallis by the hand, not giving him the chance to respond.
The day had been grueling for Tuesday. Everything that could have gone wrong did, and she had been working the truck all alone. When it was time to close, she was too happy to park her food truck and slid into her own car.
As soon as she did, her phone rang. It was Winter. Tiredly, she hit the button on her steering wheel to answer the call.
“Hello?”
“Ohh, you sound tired,” Winter volunteered instead of a greeting.
“I am,” Tuesday agreed. “What’s up?”
“Girl, nothin’. Just haven’t heard from you much since your baby daddy popped back up. Spill the tea.”
Tuesday chuckled. She really didn’t have it in her to try to play coy, so she ended up spillingallthe tea, just like Winter wanted.
“We got a paternity test, I found out he’s heavily in the streets, we fucked, he came home with a stab wound, and it doesn’t seem like he’s gonna leave the streets any time soon. Oh, and Wallis loves that man so much, already. I don’t know what to do.”
Silence stretched out so long Tuesday wondered if the connection was bad, but then Winter’s voice filled the car once again. “Well shit! I wasn’t expecting all that. What do you mean he got stabbed? Is he okay?”
Tuesday sighed while rubbing her tired eyes at a red light.
“Hell if I know. He seems to be since he found it in him to go run the streets not even twelve hours later.”
“Well…Do you like him?”
That question threw Tuesday for a loop, but again, she was too tired to play pretend. “I think so. I haven’t felt a connection like this in a long time, but I’m too scared to act on it for real knowing that he could be taken from me and Wallis at any moment. I’m not built for the kind of lifestyle he lives.”
“I hear you, friend. Plus, you want to make sure Wallis is good. No point in them getting close just for some shit to pop off, or even worse, something happening to y’all.”
A chill ran up Tuesday’s spine at the thought. “My sentiments exactly.”
“I say you set some boundaries, sis. Tell him how you feel. At the end of the day, being honest can’t hurt, right?”
“You sound like Mama. And I hear you. You aren’t wrong. I’m still just shaken up after seeing him hurt last night?—”
“Wait, that just happened last night?”
“Yeah! It’s so fresh. I was really scared, and I don’t like that feeling. Even now, I’m worried because I haven’t heard from him since I left his house, but I’m so mad I don’t want to reach out.”
“I hear you, but eventually, you two will have to come to an understanding. If not for you two then definitely for my godson.”
“I know. You’re right. And speaking of your godson, I’m only a few minutes from my mom’s house to get him, so I’ll call you back later, okay?”
