“You haven’t overstayed a thing! I can’t let you drive, knowing you haven’t slept. I’m not trying to be pushy like I’m your mom—”
“You’re not. My mother wouldn’t care one way or the other,” he cut in, jarring her to where she could only blink, losing track of her thoughts.
Diane glanced at her husband, who scrubbed his bald head like he was as lost for words as her. When she looked at her daughter, she noticed Kennedy putting her hand on Relic’s leg beneath their table. His sharp features remained stoned as though he refused to expose cracks in his armor, and Diane grew assured of two things; pain and a forlorn story resided behind his glacial, cryptic eyes.
“Well, I care,” she asserted. “And I’m sure Kennedy does, too. I’m not taking no for an answer because I don’t need her moping around again if you got hurt or worse.”
“Okay, y’all can stop doing the most, acting like I was so distraught since I got here. Ma, I can clean this up since I know you and dad are heading to the store. Relic, you’re helping before I make up a bed for you. My mom is right about you needing rest.”
Butch pushed his plate away and patted his stomach. “I’m done, and I know I’m about to burn it off ‘cause she’s about to have me out all day. It was nice talking with you, Relic. Maybe you’ll last, and we can do this again but with some liquor and sports.”
“Dad, he fishes!” Kennedy exclaimed like the thought had just popped in her head. She stood with a cheesy grin. “You know, you’ve always wanted to do that. He’s taking his son this weekend.”
“How do you know? I told Jah yesterday,” Relic said, and she rolled her eyes while grabbing their plates to take to the counter.
“He called me back once he got in the house. He was really excited about it.”
“Wait a minute. The sweet boy you’ve been talking to is his son?” Diane clarified as she got up. Her husband did the same with a toss of his head.
“Partners my ass. And speaking of asses, I plan to get in yours once I get back, Kennedy. Your mom told me that you went to Zeke’s lounge and saw him, with your lying self.”
“Butch!” Diane smacked his arm before he laughed at Kennedy looking like a deer caught in headlights.
“Oh, did I just tell something I wasn’t supposed to? I think that’s our cue, Di. Let’s get out of here.”
Kennedy couldn’t even look at Relic as her dad rested a hand on her mom’s back to guide them from the kitchen like he hadn’t just put her business on blast. Nerves settled in her stomach, causing it to mimic tumbleweed while she scraped plates clean before transferring more dishes from the table to a neat pilebeside the sink just as the front door closed. Tension hung in the atmosphere so thick that she’d suffocate beneath it if it wasn’t addressed. She pivoted on her bare feet before pushing out a sharp breath at the most menacing eyes piercing her like glass shards.
If she knew nothing else, she knew Relic was about to reveal yet another side of him she hadn’t experienced.
Relic knewKennedy would force him hate her ass but hadn’t known when or how she’d do it. His initial thought was that she’d rob his safe inside her salon and run off like a thief in the night. She’d done one out of two. The second thought that’d come to mind was she’d build the courage to off his ass in his sleep, which was why he’d been awake when she’d stolen his car. Relic would’ve respected either option more than her resorting to running to her ex-nigga out of fucking spite. Kennedy was a lot of things, but he’d hopeddumb like the last two bitches he’d gotten wrapped up inwasn’t one of them.
“So, that’s what you were doing while I was blowing up your fucking phone about my folks?” he sneered with utter repugnance dripping from each word. “Entertaining the same nigga who fucked yo head up.”
“First of all, don’t speak on me and Ezekiel’s situation like you know about it because you don’t.”
“Me and Ezekiel,” he reiterated, leaning back with a dry chuckle. “So, it’s you and him now.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Look, we just had a decent breakfast with my parents, and I know you’re on edge about what happened at your restaurant. I don’t want to argue. Sonny took me out for drinks, and it just happened to be at his brother and Zeke’s lounge. Zeke popped up there, we talked, and that was it.”
“Did you not know it was their lounge before he took you? Were you unaware the brother of the men Koda was closest with would take you a spot they owned? If you say no to either of those, I’ll let the shit go.”
Relic was met with silence as Kennedy nibbled on her bottom lip and squirmed under his intense glare. He gave her the benefit of the doubt to disprove his claim—waited for her to convince him that she hadn’t come home to run to her first love like he figured she would from the fucking start for whatever reasons she’d concocted in her head out of hurt. The guilt permeating from her sent Relic springing out of his seat.
“I let you play with me today. You won’t get another chance to do it again.”
“Nobody is playing, Relic! You knew I’d see him and made it clear you did, so what the fuck?!”
“I made it clear that I knew how bitches moved, but I thought you had the sense to know better! You knew from the moment you met me that I wasn’t shit, Kennedy, but I expected more from you! That was my fault for not seeing you’re a hoe just like the rest of them.”
His shot landed right where he wanted it to, knocking the wind out of Kennedy before she jutted a finger toward the front of the house.
“Get the fuck out, Relic. Now.”
“Make me,” he retorted. “Put me out this muthafucka if you want me gone, Kennedy. Bring yo ass over here and put yo hands on me, so I can do what I should’ve done the first time. You didn’t deserve to be spared.”
“And you don’t deserve shit but what you got coming to you, nigga! You don’t deserve me and damn sure didn’t deserve to meet my parents. I wish I had never listened to my mom and let you in.”
“And I wish the same because then I never would’ve been at this table, letting you paint me as a nigga I ain’t! I went out of my way for you!” he raged, swiping dishes off the table with a single hand. He picked up the mug he had used and launched it into the wall. “I let your parents pick me apart and took that shit when yo ex ain’t even think yo ass was worth that!” Relic kicked over the chair in a blind anger that rattled his core while he bellowed, “I was going out of my fucking mind, while you were here showing me why Joseph put this hatred in my goddamn head to begin with! Why the fuck would you prove him right, Kennedy, huh? Why would you give me a reason to listen to him?!”
