I rounded the counter, pulling her into me by the loop of her cargo pants with my left hand. I gripped her neck with my right and tilted her head up with my index finger.
A few pecks later we parted. “My bad, you good now?”
“Nah I’m not, but that’ll suffice for now.”
I cut my eyes at her sexy ass. Yeah, she was just working on being difficult. It was her thing, even when things were running smoothly.
There was then another knock at the door at the same time the tea kettle started to whistle. “Cut that off, I got it.” I left her in the kitchen and went to grab the food. It was then I realized I hadn’t heard my child since before I opened the door. Though it had only been a few minutes, I wasn’t fool enough to think she was quiet because she was asleep. Quiet kids were being sneaky.
“Romance, where are you?” I called out after grabbing the pizza from ol’ boy and handing him a couple dollars.
“I right here, Daddy,” she called out, running from her room.
“What were you doing?”
“My socks not match, Daddy.”
I looked down at her feet and laughed. She was wearing one lavender sock and the other one was blue. “Close enough. You want some pizza?”
“Yesss,” she sang before doing some lil dance then giggling when she was done.
I chuckled, then made my way to the kitchen. I set the pizza, wings, and cheese sticks on the island, then turned around, about to pick up Romance. It was at that moment that she laid eyes on Karim and a big ass smile planted itself on her lips.
“Rim,” she damn near squealed.
“Hey, pretty girl.” Karim leaned down and picked her up as soon as she hugged her legs. “How you been? I like your mismatched socks; they almost match mine.” Rim pointed down to the fact that she too had on a purple sock and a turquoise sock.
I shook my head, taking in their conversation. They had only met once, but Ro was convinced Karim was her friend too.
“Good. I played the game at my tete house. My cousin wasn’t good like you.”
“For real, he couldn’t beat our score?” Karim played all dramatic with Romance to appease her and apparently it worked.
“Nope. Can we play tonight?”
While they talked, I moved around the kitchen finishing my tea. I needed to get that shit in my system quickly.
“You’re making tea for who?” Karim asked after somehow shaking the toddler.
“Myself. Helps with the migraines.”
“Hmm. I didn’t know you had migraines.”
“’Cause you never cared past what was in my pants, shorty,” I said, just to fuck with her.
“If I didn’t think you were in pain, I’d hit you in your shit.”
“See, I told you. It’s something about beating on me that gets you off.”
She laughed. “Not even close but tell me about these migraines. Do you get them a lot? Or are they seldom with long episodes?”
“Out of thirty days, I probably get one ten of those days, and if I don’t catch them, I’m fucked up somewhere looking at a wall.”
“Could it be how you eat?”
“To be honest I never paid attention to that. The doctors tried to tell me it was caffeine, but I don’t drink it enough.”
“Crazy, I only get them when I don’t have my daily coffee. It’s like withdrawal symptoms.”
