”I’d tell him before, but what’s a few more days to a nigga that ain’t all the way there anyways?” Frankee shrugged it offlike what she said wasn’t a big deal. “This was why Daelite kept bringing you up. I thought she wanted to fuck you.”
I gave Frankee a dirty look. I would never fuck another bitch or let one fuck me, and she knew that.
“Come eat with me. You done stressed me to the point of hunger again. Hold up,” Frankee called when I went to go inside the restaurant so I could get to her table. “Give me my niece, you might try to run off with her again,” Frankee said seriously.
“Be forreal."
“I am, give her here.”
Shaking my head, I gave Rye to Franke, and she happily went to her. That was a good thing. I felt a little relief now that my secret wasn’t a secret anymore. I wouldn’t be all the way okay until I told Faheem. I prayed he’d be as understanding as Frankee, but that was nothing but wishful thinking. Today was a start to either my life being complete or my end.
__________________________________
Later That Night
Running into Frankee turned out to be a good thing. We ended up going shopping with her after we ate lunch. Ryver enjoyed the extra attention she got from Frankee and had the nerve to cry when it was time for us to leave. I ended up promising Frankee I would call Faheem tonight to tell him about Ryver. Frankee had a way with words, and she could convince me to do stuff even when I didn’t want to. After getting Ryver a bath, feeding her, then getting her to sleep, I procrastinated in every way I could, down to arguing with Kojo to have a reason not to dial Faheem’s number. Then Frankee texted me asking did I do it yet, and I finally decided to put on my big girl panties and get this shit over with. Sitting curled up on my couch, with a glass of wine, I listened to the ringing of my phone, hoping he didn’t answer.
“Who dis?” My heart stopped after hearing Faheem’s voice come through the phone. I went to speak, but my words got caught in my throat when I heard him talking to someone in the background. “Ain’t nobody told you to stop keep suckin’ this dick,” he commanded to whatever bitch he was with. The picture of him getting his dick sucked ruined my mood. I hung up the phone without saying a word.
Fuck Faheem. He would find out about Ryver when I felt like he deserved to know about her.
Chapter 28
Faheem Banks
May, 2022
Why was I nervous? My name is Faheem mutha fucking Banks, I didn’t get nervous. “Ain’t that right? Daddy don’t sweat over bitches?” I said to Forrest, who looked up at me like I was crazy. “Da-Da,” Forrest replied happily from his carseat. Mixie wasn’t slick, she knew I had to go to my first mediation session with Juniper. Which is why she came up with a fake ass emergency for me to take Forrest with me. I could have easily taken him to my parents or sister, but the petty side of a nigga wanted to bring him along. Juni keep tryna swear my little nigga was finna come out funny looking, but her hating ass wasn’t even close. My seed came out handsome just like his daddy. I wanted her to see how wrong she was, but a nigga started to feel bad when I remembered how hurt Juniper was finding out about my seed. I wasn’t tryna hurt her anymore than I already had. Had this been a few months ago, I probably wouldn’t have given a fuck ‘cause a nigga was still in his feelingsabout the shit Juni pulled with that other nigga. I couldn’t get over her choosing another nigga over me…over us. She broke a nigga’s heart, and I never saw myself forgiving her. I didn’t have anything but malice in my heart for Juniper. I still loved her and hated her at the same time. I wanted to choke her to death with my bare hands then use my dick to fuck her back to life. Her ass had my head fucked up, and the only way I knew how to deal with my emotions were to act like she didn’t exist. I focused on my seed and running my business. I fucked bitches to make the time go faster, but no matter what I did, Juniper never left my soul.
When I thought I could see past Juni, she brought her ass through my carwash. The moment I laid eyes on her again, I realized that I would never not love her. She could kill a nigga, and even in death, I would love her. I watched her from my cameras in my office like a creep. I really had to talk myself outta taking her again. All I wanted was for her to get rid of the hold she had on my heart. How the fuck was I stuck on a bitch I was supposed to hate? She left me for another nigga; I should have been able to say fuck her. I couldn’t make sense of how I was feeling, so I did what I always did when I needed to talk. I took my ass to my parents’ house. I wasn’t fucking with Big Frank, but they were the ones who helped me work through difficult shit. Talking to my parents helped me see how fucked up in my thinking I was.
With Juniper and Mixie, I was on some selfish ass shit. I wanted them both to myself for my own personal benefit, especially when it came to Juniper., I refused to let her be with anyone but me while making her deal with my fear of letting Mixie go. Mixie was like that toy you had your entire life. You knew it had been with you through some shit, and you knew it could count on it to make you feel comfortable. Even thoughyou knew you’d outgrown that toy, you felt a loyalty to it, and letting go of it seemed disloyal. That’s what it felt like for me when it came to my situation with Mixie. Neither one of us were really happy, just existing in a situation neither of us were happy in. I pushed my baby away, and she wasn’t innocent, but I knew everything Juni did was because of the shit I was doing. Everything in me wanted to go after Juniper, but she looked happy and at peace. The last time we saw each other, she had tears coming down her face. I loved her enough to let her be. I told myself if it was meant to be, it would be. I wasn’t finna stress the shit and try to force her to be with me. It would hurt the fuck outta me to see her happy with another nigga, but I fucked up tryna be greedy. I had to eat this shit no matter how it played out.
“Come on, let’s get this shit over with,” I said, pulling my son out of his carseat, then making our way into the court house.
My mama tried to convince me to get a lawyer to handle this just in case Juniper was on some women scorned type shit and tried to run a nigga’s pockets. I knew Juni though; she wasn’t like that. She might have done a little petty shit here and there, but she wasn’t like that. I ended up needing to be on the third floor. It took me about fifteen minutes to find the office where I needed to be. Then speaking to the secretary who led me back to an office, I came face to face with Juniper and the nigga who was doing the divorce mediation.
“Mr. Banks has arrived.” The secretary motioned for me to walk into the office.
“Welcome, Mr. Banks, I was just talking to Mrs. Banks about what she’d like to get from the divorce.”
“Oh, yeah?” I unenthusiastically responded, strolling into the office with my eyes on Juniper. She refused to look at me, she kept her head down on her phone.
Standing up, the mediator stood up, extending his hand. “I’m Mr. Wells, I’ll be handling your divorce mediations, and if we're lucky, you two can get things settled out of court.”
Insteading of shaking this nigga’s hand, I didn’t like how eager he seemed about making our divorce go through. I mean, wasn’t we supposed to go through some therapy sessions or some shit at first? Mugging his hand while taking a seat across from Juniper, I locked my eyes on her. The Wells nigga figured out I wasn’t finna shake his hand. He nodded nervously, placing his hand at his side, sitting back in his seat to my far left at the round wooden table in the center of the room.
“You’re a lucky man because Mrs. Ba-”
“Ms. Weaver is fine. I’ll be changing my name soon,” Juniper corrected Mr. Wells, still refusing to make eye contact with me.
“You ain’t speaking to a nigga now?” I asked with a smirk, Juniper was nervous. Shit hadn’t changed that much between us. I could still read her like a book.
She took a deep breath then looked up at me with a blank expression. “Hi, Faheem,” she dryly responded, speaking to me, but her eyes were on Forrest.
“Hiiii,” Forrest responded shyly, waving at Juniper with one hand while he chewed on his other. My little nigga was a flirt, he knew a fine broad when he saw one.
The two years since I last saw her up close, Juniper had only gotten more beautiful. Call me crazy, but Juniper seemed to be aging backwards. Her skin seemed smoother and like it had a shine too. Her eyes were alluring and made my heart race every time she looked at me. Those same juicy lips I loved to kiss still were juicy and perfect. Juni might have been sitting down, but I knew her body like the back of my hand. She’d put on weight, her arms, tittIes, and thighs seemed thicker. I guess it was happy weight, or whatever it was, Juniper made it look good as fuck.She was dressed plain in a long sleeved white shirt, dark denim jeans, and a red blazer, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Juniper had me captivated by her beauty.
