It hurt, but I was just glad that it was out the bag now, and everyone knew. I was going to have to tell Blake too, and I was only doing that because I meant it when I said that once they all knew, I never wanted to speak on it again. I would never tell my dad. I’m sorry, but I just wouldn’t. It would do more damage than good.
I came over tonight, just to have some quality time with the women in my life and look how it ended. I swear I lived the kind of life where you just never knew what was going to happen with me.
Garrus’s son walked into my warehouse earlier, with a plan to kill me. Then, I finished the night off having this tough conversation with my family. Somehow, this is what my life has become.
Chapter 14
Tavion ‘Tank’ Briggs
Birthday Boy
“Bounce that ass just like yo’ friend”
“Throw it”
The DJ had my party jumping, playing that Belly Gang Kushington, and I had the finest woman in the room, right in front of me, bent over, shaking ass, showing me that she could keep up with all the strippers that worked in Maimi, and shake her ass too. People probably didn’t think that Dionne could shake her ass. If she knew how to shake it, they didn’t think that she would do a good job at it, since her ass was so fuckin bougie. She was born and raised in the south, and she had rhythm out of this world.
All night, I had been telling her that I wanted a dance from her. The DJ kept going back and forth between slow jams, and that hood shit, and some of the slow jams that he was playing, it was setting the mood, and I wanted Dionne and I to go off to our own little private area of the fancy hall that she’d rented tonight for my party and give a nigga a little lap dance. Her ass wasn’t fuckin with it though. I wasn’t tripping too much about it because what she was doing right now was just as good as the lap dance.
“This shit overly loaded,” Dionne’s sisters, and her girls were in the section, standing on the couches and shit, phone in their hands, recording us, watching as their girl went off, shaking ass on me.
I had my hands on her hips, not paying attention to anyone else in the room because I was more focused on what my girl was doing. When she eventually stood up, I wrapped both arms around her waist, putting the palm of my hands on her stomach. Because of the black dress that she was wearing being so tight fitting, you could see her small baby bump trying to play pick-a-boo, and all night, everyone had been complimenting her on it. Not a lot of people knew that she was pregnant. It was only our close friends and family, but by the time we got to this party, everyone knew.
I fucked with the outfit that she was rocking tonight. We were right in the middle of December, so the weather was cold out tonight. Cold weather meant that us Miami people could step out and put that shit on. Dionne opted on wearing a long, black leather trench coat. Because we were in the building though, she had taken the trench coat off, and it was draped across the plush, velvet couches that were behind us. Beneath the trench was a sleek black mini dress. I loved it when Dionne wore short dresses because short dresses showed off her tall frame, and those long legs that I loved for her to wrap around me. As simple as her dress was, that shit was intentional, and she could get away with it because of the face, and the body on her.
For her accessories, she chose to go with vintage Chanel tonight. Everything from the stockings she had on, the hair piece that was in her hair because instead of wearing her long hair down, she chose to have it pulled up. Her bag that was resting on the couch, jewelry, gloves, and every piece of jewelry that she was rocking tonight was vintage Chanel. Whenever she stepped out to hang, she never played fuckin fair.
“I’m trying to get you away from everybody for like five minutes. I know you feel this shit,” I whispered in her ear over the loud music, right before I stuck my tongue inside, licking it, not giving a damn.
I had been smoking, and I had a little bit to drink, so I was feeling damn good right now.
Dionne chuckled at what I said to her, and she turned around, wrapped her arms around my neck, glaring me in my eyes.
My hands went down to her ass, squeezing it, wanting nothing more in this world right now than to fuck her.
“Baby, I know you can hold on for just a couple of hours more. I have more surprises for you once we leave here. I promise pussy is on the table tonight. I made sure I took a long nap earlier, so that I could stay up with you, and give you as many rounds as you want,” she said, right before leaning in, and she kissed me on my lips.
I heard her, but I wasn’t trying to hear her.
I could tell that Dionne was happy tonight. Last weekend, when her ass came home, telling me the bullshit that happened at her warehouse, where Garrus’s son walked in, toting a gun, and then the big revelation that she let out to her sisters, and grandma, I just knew that she was going to be in a fucked-up mood going forward, and allow that to fuck with her happiness, but she didn’t. She handled that shit like a woman that was at peace, moving on, and no longer allowing past shit to control her. I was shocked about Garrus’s son pulling up on her though. I was glad that the OG Dionte was there to handle it though. Dionne told me what he did to him, along with the threats that he made. She told me that Garrus’s soon looked scared out of his mind. Bitch ass nigga better go have a long conversation with his daddy, so that he could find out from him that I was the lastnigga that he wanted issues with. No shade to his mama, but his ass will get buried right next to her for fuckin with mine.
“Ima go over there with my girls. We’re going to sing happy birthday soon. Behave,” she said, leaning in, kissing me on my lips, and then she walked off.
Looking around this huge hall, I had to admit that my girl did her big one. We had a deep talk about birthdays months ago. Dionne wanted to know how I’ve spent my birthdays in the past, and I shared with her that I was always road running, and hustling, so I was never the kind of person to throw myself parties. All that shit stopped once I was old enough, and my mama stopped throwing them. For years, my birthday had always been just another day for me.
She told me that she wanted to be in charge of throwing me a party this year, and I allowed her. I didn’t have a say so in shit. She handled everything. The venue, decorator, getting all my family, and friends to come out, DJ, food, everything. Shit looked like a party that had to cost a pretty penny. Since I walked in this motha fucka, I had been asking her how much she spent, but she wouldn’t tell me. Then, she was hollering about she had more surprises for me after this.
Vibing with a drink in my hand, I watched as Dionte made his way over to me. Everybody in attendance had been drinking all night. Dionne hadn’t because she was pregnant, but I knew that if she wasn’t, she would have been sipping too. Dionte was the only nigga walking over to me, and he was holding a bottle of water in his hands.
He came over, and he slapped it up with me, and stood right on the side of me. Me, and Dionte got along just great. I never dealt with a woman before and had to deal with her daddy. I never really had anything serious enough to have to deal with someone’s parent before. I was a little worried that we wouldn’tget along because I knew how overprotective fathers could be of their daughters, but we got along just fine.
“When you going to go ahead, and pop the question, man? I don’t do all this hanging out, and shit. It’s after nine, nigga. I’m usually home by now, sitting on the couch, watching TV,” he said, sounding just like my mama.
My mom, Dionne’s mom, Dionte, and June were the only ones that knew I was proposing to Dionne tonight. I needed some words of motivation, so I’d gone through them. I was going to always have to go through Dionte though because that was her dad, so I had to get his blessing.
“Right after we sing happy birthday, Ima get on the mic to thank everybody for coming out, and then Ima ask her,” I told him, and he nodded, with a smile on his face.
“You nervous?” he wanted to know.
