Ya’ll know that my family liked to put on a party for any little accomplishment that someone had in the family, so after I called damn near every family member that I had, my grandma planned a fish fry at her house to celebrate. Everybody pulled up. Even my baby mama pulled up, which was shocking because her ass liked to pump fake, and pretend that she didn’t like my side of the family. I wanted my daughter here, and I wanted Promise here because she has been around for this journey.
She pulled up, but when she came, she was a little late, since she had been at the shop, doing hair. When she made it, she had been inside with the women for the longest, while I was out in the backyard with the men. I’d come inside because I wanted to bring my daughter out with me, but I didn’t see her, or her mama.
“Romy fell asleep. She went upstairs to lay her down,” my grandma let me know, and I nodded my head towards that.
I looked around the living room area, and Dionne had come out with Tank, so she was in the living room, chilling with my mama, and a couple of my grandma’s friends. My sister wasn’t here. She went ahead, and broke my heart, making that move to Cali, even though that was the last thing that I wanted her to do. She wasn’t here to celebrate with us tonight because she would have had to fly over, and she couldn’t because she had an event out there today. Cali was showing major love to Seren, just like she had anticipated that it would. I was happy for her because it finally felt like she had found her calling, and she was going to stick with something. My sister was young, but she’s been through more career changes than someone that was twice her age.
I went over to the stairs, so that I could take them up. I wanted to check on Promise, and Romy. It was a guest bedroom up here, so I knew that that’s the room that Promise had gone into. The door was cracked, so I just pushed it open, stepping right in. Romy was lying in the middle of the bed, while Promise was on her knees, and she was gently patting her on her back, trying to get her to stay asleep.
When she saw me walk into the room, she put up her free hand, placing her finger on her lips, telling me to be quiet, and to not make any noise when I walked in. I honored that, coming into the bedroom, and I got down on my knees, planting myself next to her, putting my chin on the bed, so that I could level with Romy. I looked at her with so much love in my eyes.
Promise eventually stopped patting her, and when she did, she turned around, sitting down on her butt, and placed her back up against the bed. I gave it a couple of minutes before I turned around, and I sat next to her as well. She had her legs crossed Indian style, while I kept mine out in front of me. We sat insilence for about ten minutes, and then she turned her head, so that she could look at me. Feeling her eyes on me, I turned to look at her as well.
“I know I told you earlier, but I’m proud of you, Rico. I don’t hate you. I never wanted the league to take football away from you. I know how much effort and time you’ve put into your craft. You deserve this second chance that they gave you,” she shared with me.
Promise and I were in a good space these days. I thought that shit would get weird between us after we shared that kiss, but she never brought it up again, and neither did I. It was as if it never happened.
“I appreciate that. I feel like a nigga gotta pull your teeth to get you to say some nice shit to me,” I let out, and she just waved her hand at me.
“Where your nigga at?” I always felt the need to ask her whenever she came around.
Usually, she would give me some slick ass answer, telling me to stay out of her business. Tonight was different though. She sighed, and I could sense that she was getting ready to drop something heavy on me. I prayed this girl wasn’t about to sit here and tell me that she was pregnant. She’ll really fuck my pride up with that one.
“You’ve always continued to call him my nigga, when I told you from the very beginning that we weren’t in a relationship. I was just fuckin him, and he would do nice things for me occasionally. We stopped dealing with each other a couple of weeks ago. It was one of those situations where the timing was just off. On top of that, living in two different cities made it hard for us to explore anything outside of what we were already doing. My life is here in Maimi. I have my shop here, and I don’t ever see myself picking up, and leaving Miami. I worked too hard to get to where I am with my business. I have loyal clients,that keeps me booked for months at a time. Marquez’s life is in Pittsburg. If it’s meant to be with us sometime in the near future, I’ll explore it again, but right now, we no longer deal with each other, so you can stop asking me that every time you come around me,” she finished.
“I’ll respect it. I won’t ask you about that nigga no more,” I was honest, and I could tell that she was appreciative of me saying that because she nodded her head towards it.
“From the stories that I learned from him, when you get into the NFL, it’s a whole other level of hoes. Hoes come from just about every other direction. He told me about the discipline that he had to learn once he signed. He told me how hoes will look for the next NFL player, that’ll sign these million-dollar contracts, ready to make them their next victim by getting pregnant by them and making their life a living hell. I say all of this to say, I hope you make smart decisions when it’s your turn to get into the NFL. A bitch can be your downfall, so don’t be blindsided by some pretty titties, and a fat ass,” she shot, and then she stood up.
Those pretty titties, and that fat ass that she was speaking of, is everything that she had. She came straight from work, so she was in a white tank, and it was tucked into the tight ass jeans that she was wearing. Although the tank didn’t expose anything, I knew that she had pretty titties sitting up under there. That ass was fat too. I had to force myself not to look whenever she came around.
“I was blinded by your pretty titties, and fat ass. You been running me crazy ever since,” I let her know, and she scoffed, like she didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.
“Oh please, Rico! What you going to say next? Your favorite one, which is that I poked holes in the condom? You used to love to run with that narrative, and I wanted to kill you for saying that because nigga do you see me? What about me gives that I wouldpin a baby on any nigga? I got my own shit, and you’ve always known that,” she spat, ready to go down memory lane, and start up some bullshit.
Promise and I used to beef so heavy, and I told everybody that she was the one that gave me the condom when Romy was conceived. Back then, I felt like I had the baby mama from hell, so I would tell people that I believed she poked holes in the condom, knowing damn well that that shit wasn’t true. Truth is, that pussy was so good, that it had me busting through the condom.
“Aight. Chill out with all that hot shit. You don’t scare no fuckin body,” I fucked with her, standing up from the floor.
“Whatever Rico. I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m trying to get along better with the women that you have in your life. Your grandma asked me if Romy could stay over here, so I’m going to let her spend the night. I’ll come back and get her in the morning. I had a long day, so I’m about to go home, shower, and take my ass to sleep. Be careful tonight. Try not to run through too many hoes,” she let me know, and then she patted me on my chest, and headed for the door.
“Ay,” I called out for her. She turned around, so that she could look at me.
“If we going to talk about the right kind of timing, I don’t think that has shit to do with you, and that nigga. I think that resonates with us more. Maybe right now, and in the past, it wasn’t our time. Who knows what’s out there for us in the future? Maybe things didn’t work out with you and him because I’m the nigga that you’re destined to be with,” I even shocked myself when I said that bullshit.
I could tell that my words caught her off guard, and she was looking at me, trying to see if I was fuckin around with her or not. When she saw that I was serious, that’s when she nodded her head.
“Maybe,” and like that, she opened the door, left out of the room, and closed it back behind herself.
I looked over at my daughter, and she was the one that I couldn’t wait to make proud. I couldn’t wait until she was old enough to go to school, so that she could tell all her friends at school that her daddy was in the NFL. God had given me a second chance with football, and I swear that I wasn’t going to do anything to fuck this up the second time around.
Chapter 17
Dionte Henry
I Waited My Turn
Three months later
