“I know that’s right,” my smile was just as wide as Lexi’s. I was loving being at home already. My parents lived alone in a four-bedroom house.
Growing up, my friends always said I had the cool parents. I never disagreed with the statement because it was true. For the first thirteen years of my life, we lived in the hood. My father worked during the day as a warehouse manager for many years. I had no idea how long the idea to change careers had been on his mind, but one day my father announced that he was going to get a real estate license. For two months straight, I watched him get off work three days a week and go straight to class. He aced the exam and got on at a real estate firm. A year in, he was able to buy a house of his own. Three years in, he retired from his warehouse job and did real estate full-time. My mother wasa paralegal and had been one for ten plus years. In the last year, she’d started working part-time.
Even when we didn’t have much, I loved my family down. We were rich when it came to important things like love and strong bonds. My father busted his ass providing for us and when he fell short, which was rare, my mother was there to hold it down. I couldn’t wait for my fashion line to take off so I could pay off my parents’ home.
An idea popped into my head as I studied my sister’s grills. “Who did them?” my eyes widened with excitement. “I want some of the models in my show to get custom grills. They can wear them for the promo ads.”
Scratching the back of her neck, Lexi looked off to the side while my mother coughed. My head whipped from Lexi to my mother then back to Lexi.
“Um, Rage made them,” the words tumbled out fast.
For the second time in two weeks, I’d heard his name. No matter how I felt, I had to play it cool. “Oh. I didn’t know he made grills.”
“Yeah, he has a shop and everything. I think that’s the reason he got shot. Two guys came in trying to rob him.”
My heart sank. Proud was an understatement. Especially when the reason for how breakup had been him not wanting to elevate past the streets. Ironically, the very thing that removed him from the street life was the reason he got shot. My feelings were conflicted because I was happy that he had a shop but sad that he was almost killed. At that moment, I made the decision not to be petty.
“Okay, well I still want them. Rage and I didn’t break up because he did anything to me. He just didn’t want to leave Diamond Cove, and I didn’t think long distance would work.” I downplayed the situation.
“The day I went to get my molds done, Kira’s trifling ass was hanging around. The way she runs after him is sickening and most times, he pays her dust.”
“You got any luggage in the trunk that I need to get?” my father interrupted coming in the house with my suitcase and Jaxon’s bag.
“No, that’s it. I am going to have to go home for a day or two next week, so I didn’t bring too much stuff. I’m mostly going to be working with the models doing fittings and rehearsals. The rest of the time I’ll be looking over pieces that have been finished and sketching new ones. In other words, I’ll be too busy to be worried about being cute. Leggings, sweats, and tees are all I needed.”
I was rambling because I was grateful for the distraction. More than likely, because years had passed, and I had a baby by another man, Lexi probably assumed that I was over Rage. But I wasn’t, and I didn’t want to hear about the women he was bedding.
Thankfully, the conversation switched, and I sat down to check an email that I’d just received a notification for. My heart slammed into my ribcage as my eyes darted over the words. Even after reading the message two times, I still couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. It couldn’t have been a joke because it was a notification from the platform that I used for sponsors. Markell had signed up to be a sponsor for my fashion show, and he donated $15,000.
Appreciative would never be a word that I used to describe how I felt about his donation. I just wasn’t sure if I should be relieved or disgusted. Disgusted mainly because I wasn’t in the position to send it back. I wanted to be independent and tell him to kiss my ass, but I wanted my fashion show to be a success more than I hated Markell. After the day I hung up on him, hecalled me four different times. He called the next day, a week later, two days after that, and when I was four months pregnant.
I didn’t answer any of his calls. He had also texted me a few times, but I deleted them without reading them. During my entire pregnancy, I didn’t post full body pictures on social media, and I had never posted my child. Markell didn’t know if I had a baby or not. But he’d already made it clear that he was married, and he had no desire to be in my child’s life. I never asked him to provide for him because what good was money if he couldn’t publicly acknowledge my son? That was my thought process behind not putting him on child support.
I was learning the hard way, however that kids were expensive as hell. Everything was falling on me and it wasn’t fair. So yeah, my mind was made up. I was keeping the $10,000, and it was still fuck Markell.
RAGE
My jaw muscles flexed as I entered my shop. It had been three weeks since I got shot. Jabar and Wanda had cleaned the place for me. There was blood on the floor. My shop had been an entire crime scene, and I was lucky to be alive. They also had to straighten my office up from the illegal ass search the police did when I was taken away in the ambulance. Of course, they assumed there were drugs in the shop.
I stood in the center of the room and sighed. The same shop that previously brought me so much joy now had a sour taste in my mouth. I tried to rationalize that I could have been robbed anywhere. Luxurious, fancy, shops in nice areas, got robbed too. And the ones that didn’t get robbed, it was because they had security.
I was sore as shit for two and half weeks. I didn’t think the pain would ever go away. Vanity had never been my thing, but I hated the scar that ran down the center of my chest. I walked over to the counter, eyes landing on the sketch pad that had been abandoned when I realized I was being robbed. I had shit to do. Even though I’d reached out to my customers and let them know what was up, they’d still paid deposits, and I knew they wanted their shit.
My ass was still scared to smoke, so I ate an edible before I left the crib. My body finally relaxed as I sat on a stool and grabbed a pencil. I had missed sketching. While I was home, I’d been too pissed off, sore, and irritated to work. All I did was watch TV, play my PS5, and sleep. I’d never been the type to sit around and feel sorry for myself, so I had to get back to it. I didn’t want to be on edge every time the door opened. Pride had me not wanting to hire security, but I was seriously giving it some thought.
Flipping the page, I stared at a blank sheet of paper. I was a heavy weed smoker, but high from edibles hit different than being high from smoking. My lids weren’t heavy, but my body was. Staring at the white paper, I brainstormed trying to think of some dope shit. The door opened, and my head lifted. Maybe it was the edible, but time seemed to slow down like the corny ass scenes in movies when a bad chick walked into the room in slow motion. I almost thought I was tripping, but as she nervously bit her bottom lip and inched toward me, it couldn’t be anybody but her.
The only female that wasn’t blood that I ever loved. Her five-foot four frame advanced closer. Leighton’s brown skin was flawless. The lashes that she wore gave her almond shaped eyes an even more slanted appearance. My dick stirred as I took in her thick thighs and her breasts. I knew Leighton’s body inside and out. She had put on at least fifteen pounds, and her breasts were fuller.
“Hi,” she stated bashfully.
The edible had me slow as hell. Damn near discombobulated. “What’s up?” I tried to appear cool, but got damn I had missed her. It didn’t hit me just how much until I was staring in her face.
Getting over my breakup with Leighton wasn’t easy, but her being in Charlotte made it easier than it would have been if she was still in Diamond Cove. It didn’t even feel right having her inmy presence and not grabbing her waist and pulling her into me. I was never a kisser until I fell in love with Leighton. I wanted my lips on hers.
“I saw the grills that you made for Lexi, and I want a few pair. One for me and two more for some models. I’m having a fashion show here in Diamond Cove in a few weeks, and I want the models to have the grills in for campaign pictures.”
“Woah,” I couldn’t hide my astonishment. “A fashion show, Leigh? That’s dope as fuck.” My chest swelled as she blushed. That was all she’d ever wanted. She dreamed about that shit, and it was happening in real time. It was the reason she left Diamond Cove. And me.
