“Anything for you.”
She ate while I sipped my coffee and watched her. She was telling me about something—the bakery, some new recipe shewanted to try, her sister Zainab’s court case—but I wasn’t really listening. Just nodding at the right times, throwing in a “that’s crazy” or “damn, for real?” when it seemed appropriate.
That’s all you gotta do with women. Pretend to listen. They do all the work themselves, filling in the blanks, convincing themselves you’re the perfect man.
After she finished eating, she hopped in the shower. I could hear her humming some song through the bathroom door. Happy. Content. Thinking she’d found a good one.
When she came out, she was dressed for work—jeans, a Sweet Zin t-shirt, her hair pulled back. She grabbed her purse and keys, then came over to where I was sitting on the couch.
“I gotta go,” she said, leaning down to kiss me. “Thank you for breakfast. And for… everything.”
I pulled her onto my lap. “Come back later.”
“You know I will.”
“Good.” I looked in her eyes, made my face go soft. Vulnerable. “Because I’m falling in love with you, Mehar.”
Her breath caught. Her eyes went wide. For a second she didn’t say anything, just stared at me like I’d handed her the moon.
“I’m falling in love with you too,” she whispered.
She kissed me again. Deeper this time. Then she pulled back, smiled that pretty smile, and headed for the door.
“I’ll see you tonight,” she said.
“Can’t wait.”
The door closed behind her.
I sat there for a minute, staring at the door, thinking.
Kacey was moving here in a few months. That was the plan. Set up a house, get my family out here, start fresh with clean money and a legit life.
But Mehar…
That pussy was too good to give up.
Maybe I ain’t have to cut her loose after all. Plenty of niggas had a main and a side. Kacey ain’t have to know about Mehar. And Mehar damn sure wasn’t gonna find out about Kacey.
I could have both.
Why not?
I smiled, picked up my phone, and started looking at houses for my family.
Life was good.
23
PRIME
The last week had been all about gathering evidence of my mother’s wrongdoings.
She had taken so many bribes that it wasn’t even funny. First thing was to drag all that shit into the spotlight. I had Quest and Justice going through her online files, deleting any of her connections to the Banks family businesses. We also deleted any connections to other folks’ businesses that we didn’t want to get caught up in trouble.
And now we were sending everything over to the DC DA—anonymously, of course.
I couldn’t wait to see the very thing she loved more than her kids—her mayorship—get taken away from her.
