He shook his head. “He’s training here for his next fight. If it was an emergency, niggas would be fucked, huh?”
“Keeping it a buck, I got all y’all muted in there. And I feel like if it was a fucking emergency y’all wouldn’t pick your phones up and send a text,” I grumbled, moving to his refrigerator to grab something to drink.
“Nah, scratch that shit. Jade damn sure would.”
We shared a laugh. “Yeah, you right. I bet we get a text when she goes into labor. Gonna be saying some shit like, I didn’t wanna bother you guys, but my water broke.” I mimicked her voice.
“This isn’t an emergency, but it’s an emergency,” G mimicked as well.
“I’m glad y’all are in there having fun. I’m telling her.” Beyah’s voice had me looking toward the living room.
“Damn, that’s how you moving, sis? You a snitch?”
“When you talking about my girl I am.”
I threw my hands up in surrender. “So, that ain’t her?”
Beyah didn’t respond because she knew what G and I said was true.
“Exactly, now gon’ ahead and get what you need so I can put my card back in my wallet. The way I keep up with my shit is by putting it back where it belongs.” G teased his wife and I laughed. In my thirty-one years of living, I had never been in too many spaces with married people until them. I mean of course they existed, but back home nobody I knew was married or committed to one person long-term unless they were doing a bid and wanted conjugal visits or it was some common law shit. Either way, you didn’t see much of what was damn near a norm here, where I was from. Even with all of that, I still saw the happiness I wanted someday. What was wild was I hadn’t seen myself having anything remotely close, but then something kind of clicked. It happened around the time I found out Romance was mine. I was faced with what I could have if I stopped cheating myself.
"But Daddy, I not cold,” Romance sassed, walking her barefoot ass into the kitchen holding a caseless iPad. I needed to get a case for both of them expeditiously.
I mugged her little ass, because if I heard the words “but daddy” again, I was likely to pick her up by her fucking nose.
“I don’t care, Ro. I’m cold, I assume you cold. Now go put your socks on, shorty.”
“Fine.” She stomped off to find the socks I told her not to take off when she’d walked in the door. I’d laughed at Caya when she beefed with Lil G plenty of times, but I never thought I’d end up here. What made my situation worse was that I had a girl. I just knew Romance was gonna be the death of me.
“Stop stomping on my damn floor and don’t drop that iPad. You break it, I’m not buying another one.” I was lying, but of course she didn’t know that. She didn’t need to.
When it was just me in the kitchen, I moved toward the tea cabinet Jade had set up for me and began removing everything I needed to catch this migraine and sack it. I felt it coming on by the dull ache behind my left eye and the last thing I needed was to be laid up and her bad ass be running around here doing whatever.
When I had everything out, I grabbed the tea kettle and walked over to the sink to fill it. While it filled in the sink, I cut the stove on. Once full I screwed the top on and placed it on the stove. I went over to the counter and grabbed the bag of loose tea Jade had put together for me. From the moment she found out I had migraines, she put mixes together and always sent me links of stuff to try. It was crazy because the way she’d been helping me treat them was better than the way those fucking doctors did. Every medication they gave me had me stuck and tryna sleep the day away. The teas cut my migraine days in half, working to prevent them and make them less debilitating when they did get through. Then for the most part, when they did make it through, I’d smoke a blunt to ease the pain. Long story short, my pain was managed through herbal ways and not all the pills those doctors pushed for kickbacks.
A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. Right before I could even leave the kitchen, I heard Romance’s feet pattering across the floor toward it. That let me know she hadn’t put on the socks like I told her to.
“Romance, if I walk out this kitchen and you don’t have socks on, I’m taking that tablet and you’re going to sleep.” I set the mug down and moved around the center island toward the living room. Before I made it there, I heard those same little feet goingback toward her room which brought a smile to my face. With a toddler, I was learning it was the little victories.
By the time she reached her room, I was opening the door. I expected it to be the pizza I’d ordered, but apparently the shop was having a slow night. Karim stood on the other side of my door with her natural mug plastered.Shit was so sexy.
“What took you so long?” She entered, looking around while I closed and locked the door.
“My bad.”
She didn’t respond. She was too busy looking around my spot. It was nothing spectacular to me, but to her I guess it was something to see. Jade had done the decorating, like everything else that needed any type of putting together.
“You looking for something in particular? I could for sure point you in the direction,” I offered, going back toward the kitchen.
“Nope, not at all. I’m just in awe. I finally get to see the bat lair.”
That caught me off guard and had me cracking up. “Fuck outta here.”
“It’s nice in here though, like even though I know Jade did your decorating, this space fits you.” She followed me into the kitchen.
“Good to know. Pizza is running behind, so make yourself comfortable.”
“I will but uh, damn, you’re not gonna greet me or anything? Got me feeling like I’m just a guest.”
