“Babe, that’s not what I meant,” Ace says. “You know that’s not how I feel. I’m just saying, I love y’all and I appreciate y’all’sconcern, but I’m grown. So whatever worries you had, just let it go. What’s done is done. This is my wife now. I’m good.”
“Well, that remains to be seen,” Angela says. “We won’t know if you’re actually good until the true colors start to show. And they always do.”
“Wow.” I move to stand, but Ace grabs my hand again. “No, I’m done.”
“Hold on.” He pulls me back down onto the couch and wraps and arm around me, pulling me in close. “Mama, you once told me Grandma didn’t like you when Pop first brought you around.”
I smile at that. “Interesting. And how did that feel, Mrs. Taylor?”
Angela rolls her eyes. “She was just a typical overbearing boy mom. And no, it didn’t feel good, but I get it now. Believe me.”
“So it didn’t feel good to you, but you were just fine making another young woman feel as bad as you did?”
She purses her lips and glares at me. “To be honest, and no disrespect to her, but I really didn’t care. I loved her son, and that was all that mattered to me.”
“And I loveyours.”
She scoffs at that.
“I do,” I insist. “And since we’re being honest, I don’t care what you think either.”
She rolls her eyes again, but I feel like I’m starting to see a grudging…almostrespectthere.
“Well, I will give you that you care about my son,” she says slowly. “I read your little email, and…it’s very clear that you care about his happiness. I wanted to be offended, but at the same time, I could see the fierceness in your words.” She looks over at her daughter. “Even Kam had to admit that.”
"Leave me out of this," Kam mumbles. "Is it true, what she said?"
Angela sighs. "It's in the past. Let it go."
"Wow." Kam looks at me with disgust. "Our holidays were always perfect until you came around."
"I don't have to come around," I explain. "But just know that if I'm not here, your brother won't be. Pick your poison, I guess."
Next to me, Ace nods his agreement.
It's quiet for a while until Rico picks up the dice and rattles them in his hand before shooting. "Damn. Back to jail." He turns to Kamryn. "You gon' hold me down while I'm in there?"
There are a few laughs, and the tension breaks, but I don't interact with Angela or Kamryn for the rest of the night.
16
Ace
Well, that went about as well as could be expected.
Raya’s in the shower right now, and I’m headed down to the basement to snoop through her shit again. But something’s been nagging at me ever since we left my parents’ house.
It was too easy.
The normal way to look at things would be to be thankful that Raya made an effort and that she did it without taking us all to hell. It would be seen as progress.
But my wife isn’t normal.
Neither is our marriage.
So I go to do my research.
But first, I do a few reps on my bench, just to clear my head. I just feel…uneasy. I’ve been feeling that way since the other night when Raya filmed herself giving me a blow job. At the time, that shit was sexy as fuck, and with any other woman, I would have felt like I won. But not with Raya.
