His attention went to P’Nee. It had been over two years since he had seen her. My how she had grown. Everyone greeted him warmly. He barely noticed because his attention was still on her.
“P’Nee, you look like a little woman. You done grew up on a nigga,” Jacob complimented. “Pretty girl,” he mumbled.
She smiled before she thanked him, but she felt uncomfortable by the compliment. Jordan didn’t care for the undertone of the compliment either. “Come on, Bro. Let’s leave the kids to themselves. There’s food in the kitchen.”
After they went to the kitchen, P’Nee decided that it was time to go to her room for the rest of the night. She was tired. “I’m going to my room. I’ll see you in the morning, Josh.”
“Alright, Sis. I love you,” Joshua said before she went upstairs. He watched as Bolt watched his sister. When their eyes connected, Joshua gave his best friend a knowing look. “Don’t get fucked up, Bolt. That’s my baby sister.”
Bolt waved him off. “Nigga, no one is thinking about that shit. You’re tripping.”
That was the end of the conversation. P’Nee was the furthest thing from Bolt’s mind.
Joshua and his friends stayed at the house for a few more hours before the friends left. Jordan and his brother were still in the kitchen catching up over drinks. By the end of the night, it was decided that Jacob would sleep in the guest room. His ass was certainly too drunk to get behind the handles of a bicycle, much less the wheel of a car.
Tonight would be the last night that P’Nee spent at her father’s house for the summer before she left to go back home to Augusta, Georgia. She would miss her brother more than her father. Unbeknownst to her, it would be the last time she visited Clover.
Over Two Decades Later. . .
“Man, those folks love that monthly dinner cruise. I can’t believe that it’s booked out for three months,” Joshua said from the passenger seat next to me. “That was a smart-ass business move.”
We were on our way back from my family’s Charleston, South Carolina, location of our family restaurantSmoked Soul. My family were generational farmers. We owned over one hundred acres in Clover, South Carolina. Some of those acres were dedicated to our cow and pig farm. My family owned the largest privately Black-owned cow and pig farm in the state. I was proud as hell about that.
In 1974, my father decided that instead of being the supplier for grocers and restaurants, he would open his own restaurant. Between him, my grandmother Catherine and my mother, Sandra, cooked their asses off. From the stories told to me, out of a night of drinks and conversation came the idea of the restaurant that would set the family up for decades to come.
Over the years that Smoked Soul had been opened, its success led to expansion. Now decades later, the family had five locations. There was the flagship restaurant in Clover, SC, which attracted culinary stars and TikTok influencers on a regular basis. When that boy Guy came through with his television show, we really got the notoriety that we deserved. It had been up from there.
The next location that was opened was the Lake Wylie location. This location was special because the backdrop was the lake. One day, I brought up the idea about doing a dinner boat cruise for Valentine’s Day. My father wasn’t sure about it, but my mother thought it was an amazing idea. Needless to say, it was a success. We offered it once a quarter with a boat that we rented. Eventually, we financed our own boat and offered the dinner cruise once a month.
We followed that model when we opened our Charleston, South Carolina, location where the backdrop was the Cooper River. One thing about Charlestonians, they loved a good cruise. Our cruises had live music, a DJ, amazing food from Smoked Soul, and a good time. The cruise was an all-inclusive price and an all-you-can-eat kind of flow. The Charleston location included seafood, as well, that we sourced from a local vendor.
Our last two locations were in Columbia, South Carolina, and Charlotte, North Carolina. My family worked hard on our farms which supplied all the beef and pork for our restaurants. All of the chicken was supplied by my best friend’s family farm.Nichols Chicken Farm and Abloy Farm had been partners since before Joshua and I were born.
“Shit, you know how we do. Mama was the real VIP for that shit. She was the one that brought in that romantic aspect. At first, I was like, let’s have a party on a boat,” I said with a chuckle.
Joshua laughed. “Man, that shit was clutched too. That romantic shit is cool, but when we just do the parties, I get some of the best pussy on those waters.”
“Nigga, I told you to stop fucking on my boats,” I jested. I didn’t really give a damn if he did or didn’t. If it was consensual, it was what it was. Now, that only applied to him. Anyone else would be banned from the cruises.
He laughed. “Man, whatever. Speaking of cruises, Kaycee told me that Anna and she are coming on the cruise this weekend. She heard you were gonna be onboard.”
I immediately got annoyed. Normally, I didn’t go on the dinner cruises, but I agreed to cover for my cook, Grif, since it was his anniversary with his wife. My mom sent them on an all-expense paid trip to Jamaica. “I don’t know why that girl is willing to pay that much money to be on a dinner cruise to be annoying. I’ve told her before that all we do is fuck. I have no interest in anything else.”
“Man, I told you when you first fucked that girl that she was gonna get clingy. Bro, I don’t know what the fuck you did to that girl. When you started fuckin’ with her, she was a damn vegan. Now her ass is a damn carnivore. Bitch started eating meat and dairy just to be around you.”
That shit was crazy as fuck, but true. When Anna first approached me about getting the dick, I told her that she was too small for me. I loved women with meat on their bones. I was a big boy who wanted a thick woman. Somehow the conversation shifted to her being a vegan. All I said was that I understood whyshe was so skinny and that she needed some meat. Next thing I knew, she was a regular at my restaurant, and the rib plate was her favorite.
“Yeah, I’m about to pull back on her completely. Matter of fact, let me cancel her and Kaycee’s reservation.” I gave myself a mental note to do that as soon as I got to my mother’s house. When I canceled the reservation, it would send an email to let the patron know. It would also give them a reason. One of the reasons and the one that I would use was at the owner’s instruction.
Joshua sucked his teeth. “Man, why you canceling Kaycee’s reservation? She ain’t got nothing to do with Anna, man. Don’t mess up my pussy because yours is clingy.”
“The cling of the clingy sometimes falls on the friends. The only way Anna would know that I was going to be on the boat was if you told Kaycee,” I pointed out. “You need to stop pillow talking with these hos.”
Joshua snickered. “Nigga, fuck you. I didn’t tell that girl anything about your ass being on the boat. She RSVP’d for that dinner cruise like two weeks ago. You just decided, what, three days ago to cover for Grif. One of your servers must have told her ass.”
He was right, but fuck that. “I don’t give a damn. If Kaycee comes then Anna comes. I’on want neither of their asses there. Anna’s ass is sickenin’ by her damn self. With her sidekick, it’s double that. You know that.”
I took my eyes off the road for a moment to gawk at him. Kaycee was just as annoying as Anna, but Joshua liked that clingy shit. He wanted his bitches to be on him. I needed space and loved to be alone to do my own thing. When I decided that I wanted to be in a relationship with a woman, she would understand that shit.
