“Who the fuck did this shit to you? Nolan? You still fuckin around with that nigga?” I asked, just calling out who I thought it might have been.
Nolan was a professional boxer, and I was cool with him. I beat his ass a couple of times back when I was fighting. He wasn’t someone that I would hit up, and chill with, but I was cool with him. I ran into that nigga months back when I was inAtlanta. It was the night that Toni and I had hit up the strip club, and I saw him walk in with Ivory. I didn’t even know the two of them were fuckin around with each other. I didn’t know that nigga had left his wife.
“We got into a big fight last week. You know me, and him have been dealing with each other for a little minute now. At first, I was cool with just accepting what we were doing for what it is. Getting trips out of him, money, and things like that. He was telling me that him, and his wife were getting a divorce, and of course, I believed him because I saw it for myself that the two of them were only co-parenting, and they were in court, trying to finalize the divorce. As we continued to deal with each other, of course, my feelings for him were growing, and I started picturing this life that me, and him would have,” she started out, and there was a mug on my face, as I stood directly in front of her with my arms crossed, hanging onto her every word, waiting to see where she was going to go with this.
“You know that him, and his wife had to undergo therapy to finalize the divorce. I guess during that time, the two of them were able to work out their problems. It was rumors all around Atlanta that the two of them were getting back together, but the nigga kept lying to me, telling me that that wasn’t true. Last week, he came to my house, confirming that the rumors were true, and that him, and his wife were getting back together. I spazzed on him. I went fuckin crazy. We got into a big fight. I threatened him that I was going to tell his wife everything, and that’s when he punched me in my eye. Don’t get in the middle of this shit, Steel. Just leave it the fuck alone, like what I’ve been doing,” you could hear it in her voice that she was defeated with this shit.
I was used to Ivory being loud, obnoxious, and just doing too fuckin much, but her spirit was down. You could tell that the nigga had truly hurt her. I wasn’t even going to use this momentas an ‘I told you so’ moment because she was hurt enough, but I did tell her months ago that a nigga like Nolan wasn’t leaving his wife. They had way too much history. They shared children together. His wife probably knew all his dark secrets, and for that, he wasn’t going to let her slip through the cracks.
This wouldn’t be the first time that Nolan and his wife were in the blogs with claims of getting a divorce, only to get right back together. I hated that Ivory had to get her feelings hurt, but she had to have known the way this shit was going to end.
“Nah. I gotta holla at that nigga,” was all I said, knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to let it go.
She sighed, ran her fingers through her hair, but she didn’t say anything. I yelled for Zayne to come back down because I knew that Ivory wanted to finish spending time with him.
Once he was down, I picked up his clothes, and I took them upstairs, leaving him downstairs with his aunt. As I was walking up the stairs, I could hear Zaylani in the bedroom, and she was screaming to the top of her lungs like somebody was killing her little ass. I sat the clothes down on Zayne’s bed, and I walked out of the room, so that I could tend to my daughter, and see what was wrong with her.
“What happened?” I asked Toni.
“I think she might have been having a nightmare. She woke up screaming. Hey. Hey, ma-ma, what’s wrong? What’s wrong with my baby?” Toni took her eyes off me, so that she could look at our daughter, who was still crying a little bit, poking out her little lip, like she was sad.
The second her big, hazel eyes landed on me, she looked at me the same way her mama did whenever any small inconvenience landed in her lap, and she wanted me to handle it. I was a sucker for this little girl, so I took her from Toni, and like magic, her little butt instantly stopped crying.
“You so phony,” Toni talked trash, coming over, and she stood right in front of us.
I laughed at that shit, but I agreed because all crying immediately stopped once her little butt got in my arms.
I left Toni in the room, and I decided to go downstairs with Lani. We went into the living room area, where Ivory and Zayne were. Zayne was opening up more with his aunt because when I walked in the room, he was standing up, with the remote in his hands, while Ivory sat down on the couch, and he was showing her some of his football highlights that were on YouTube.
He was being talkative with her, so that let me know that he was coming around. My son wasn’t a difficult child. Zayne liked everybody, but you had to show him that you could be consistent. If Ivory came around more, spent a little bit of time with him, his little ass would worship the ground that she walked on.
“Oh my God. This is my first time seeing her in person. She is sooooo beautiful. Hiiii,” Ivory cooed, taking her eyes off the TV screen, so she could look at Lani, who I’d place on my lap, when I flopped down on the couch.
I had her sit on my left leg, and I bounced her up and down, knowing that she loved it when I did that. Lani was cooing at Ivory, talking a bunch of gibberish, and smiling at her.
“She looks exactly like you, but I see a little bit of her mom in her too. Damn Zion. You have some beautiful children,” she let me know, and with a smile on my face because that’s always been one of my favorite compliments, I thanked her for her kind words.
“Whenever the time permits, me and Toni can have a conversation. When I leave, you can go back upstairs and tell her that. She’s not wrong for feeling some type of way about me. I made her feel that way when I saw her with you at the club. I know that you’ve had flings since my sister was killed, but I’venever seen you in a real, committed relationship after Sapphire, so I guess it was just this piece of me that was being a little petty when I saw the two of you together. From what I can see, she does good with Zayne. I know that he loves her so much, and that he’s in good hands with her, and I know that’s what Sapphire would have wanted. If she agrees on the conversation, and everything works out, I would like to have my wedding invite sent in the mail,” she finished, and I laughed at the ending statement.
I knew that Ivory could be a lot to deal with, but I’m sure that if her, and Toni did have a conversation, that the two of them could be cordial. I wasn’t going to force that shit on Toni though. If it was something that she didn’t want to do, I had no choice but to respect her feelings, but knowing Toni the way that I knew her, I knew she wouldn’t give me flack with it.
I wanted to sit here and continue to press the issue with Ivory about Nolan, but I let it go. I was going to make it my business to holla at him though. I was serious about that. I also wanted to sit here and ask Ivory about the business that she’d came down here on, but I didn’t want to keep asking her questions, making her uncomfortable and shit.
I just sat back and allowed her to soak up time with her nephew, since that was the reason she’d come down in the first place.
Chapter 4
Toni McCall
GOOFY AS EVER
It was after seven, and I decided to sit in on Brooklyn’s dance practice. She typically didn’t like it when I would come in and watch her, which was just weird, teenage behavior from her. She only had about thirty minutes left until practice was over, so I wanted to come in, and watch.
Brooklyn had a car of her own now, so she could drive herself to practice, but her ass wanted this loudspeaker system put in it, so Steel had taken it to the shop that one of his friends owned, and he was there putting it in for her. The car wasn’t going to be ready until tomorrow morning, so with that, I dropped her off to practice today, and here I was, picking her up. My last lecture ended at five, so I was able to pick Brooklyn up from school right after. A couple of times out of the week, Brooklyn would stay behind at school because she was involved in a few clubs. I picked her up, dropped her straight off to practice, and then I was able to head to the house, shower, change into some chill clothes, and here I was, back out here, prepared to watch her in rehearsal.
“Oh boo, you might want to stay in the car. Brooklyn in there having a tough practice,” Tanya, one of the dance moms said to me, as she was walking out of the dance studio.
I was cool with Tanya. She had twin daughters, that were sixteen years old, and her girls have been dancing at this same studio just as long as Brooklyn.
