“Yeah, turns out I didn’t have to get Rennix to track her location, I just had to go through my voicemails. She told me everything in them motherfuckers, except the fact that she was abandoning her kid…my kid.”
“You wanna be with her?” I found myself asking, on the verge of losing my shit.
He turned his face from the direction of the hotel and glared at me. “Nah, the motherfucker I wanna be with doesn’t know how to be with anybody.”
That was a jab, had me swallowing so hard while trying to avoid that eye contact. “Well, what are we doing here?”
“If she doesn’t wanna be a mother, she doesn’t have to be. I’d never force that on a soul, but I damn sure don’t want her coming around months later trying to play tug of war with my daughter. Romance deserves better than that.” He reached on the side of him and pulled out a stack of tri-folded papers, then handed them to me.
I opened them and looked the wording over. “You want her to sign over her parental rights?”
“Yup.”
My eyes went from him to the hotel again. “What’s the incentive?”
“The fuck you mean an incentive? She signs these papers or I leave her ass up here like maggot food.”
I didn’t mean to laugh, but I couldn’t hold it back. I knew Reminisce and I knew for a fact that he didn’t kill women and children, something we’d debated several times. In my opinion, a bitch could catch this work and I’d drop her kid off at a fire station. It was just that easy. “So what am I doing here, Rem?”
“To make sure I don’t kill her.” He finally looked at me and I felt the heat emitting from his being.
“Well then, let’s get up here.” I opened my door and got out before he could say anything else. I needed fresh air and not the inside of his car polluted with the scent of him. An aroma I had been obsessed with since the first night he’d found his way between my legs.
The walk into the hotel was quick as I made sure to keep distance between the two of us. When I was around Reminisce,I felt things I struggled to hide. He was emotionally unavailable and I struggled to be such when it came to him.
The ride up to her floor was quiet, me staring straight ahead and him staring at me. With Reminisce, everything was heightened, felt like the strongest drug. Completely lethal if I got a hold of too much of it…of him.
We stepped off the elevator and I followed him as he chanted the same number repeatedly, five-nineteen.The door at the end of the hall was it.
“You got it on you?” he asked when we stepped in front of the door.
“Damn sure wasn’t about to get in the car with you without it. You get us into too many sticky situations.”
“One time, Rim.”
“Twice. The bitch with the blue hair with the heart tattooed on her forehead.”
Laughter escaped his lips while he knocked on the door. “That wasn’t on me. You told her you’d rearrange her facial features.”
I shrugged, glancing down at the papers in my hand. “I wonder why.”All roads lead back to Reminisce, don’t they?
The door opened before he could respond. Truth was, I didn’t want a response, or maybe I did. I’d just been conditioned to not expect too much from him. Even though he said one thing, he always did another. We were friends and should stay that way.
“Reminisce, what are you doing her—” A pink haired woman standing in only a lace bra and panties held the door open. Why did I think he called her Pynk for anything other than her damn hair.
“Open the fucking door, Pynk.” He forced the door open and stood back, motioning for me to enter first.
“First of all, who the fuck you got in my hotel room and what are you doing here?” She slammed the door shut and grabbeda robe from the sofa. Once she had it on and tied tightly, she crossed her arms under her breasts and glared at me. “Who the fuck are you and wh?—”
“Yo, watch how you speak to her. Tell me why you dropped my kid off at my brother’s place after three years? Why didn’t you tell me about her?”
“How could I, Reminisce? You blocked me out of your life, came here, and made a whole life I didn’t fucking exist.” Her voice elevated.
“You didn’t, but what changed?”
“Everything. I’m engaged and my man don’t wanna take care of your kid.”
At that moment I wanted to hit this bitch in her shit, but he’d brought me along to be the levelheaded one.
