“That’s right. It’s been a minute since I’ve seen my girls, and now that I’m here, I want to spend time with my grandson.”
I darted my gaze to Nyx who simply cleared her throat and tiptoed out of the living room.
I looked back at my mother. “Where are you staying?”
“Well, I had planned to stay at your place, but since you’re not there, I’m staying with your sister.”
I almost slipped and told her I’d be heading home today. But thankfully, the sensible part of my brain kicked in. A few minutes in my mother’s presence felt like a decade. I didn’t need that kind of aggravation right now.
Tilting my head, I quickly changed the subject. “Did you color your hair? It looks darker than usual.”
“I did,” she said with an appreciative grin. “You like it?”
“Yeah. It looks pretty good.”
“Thank you. Maxwell loves it too.”
“Maxwell? Who is Maxwell?”
“Oh, right. I haven’t told you about him.” Her grinned widened.
“No, you haven’t. But I thought you were seeing someone named Charles.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, honey, that’s been over for months. That man was unbearable.”
“Really? Why?”
“All he ever did was work. It was business meeting this, business meeting that. He was canceling dinner plans almost every week.” She pulled a stick of gum from her purse. “Ironically, that’s how I bumped into Maxwell. I was heading out of the restaurant after being stood up for the fifth damn time, and we sparked up a conversation. We’ve been glued to each other ever since. He’s amazing.”
“How old is he?”
She rolled her eyes. “Relax, he’s not a youngin. He’s fifty-one.”
“Finally, you’re dating someone that’s the same age as you. I thought you would never stop trying to get your groove back.”
“Whatever, your father was my age.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t even count. You haven’t been involved with my father since I was a toddler, and we don’t even know where that man is.”
I couldn’t believe she brought him up. Neither of us had seen or heard from him since I started kindergarten, and he was drunk off his ass then. As far as I knew, he was passed out somewhere under a bridge or dead.
“Yeah, you’re right. But forget all that. We’ve gotten off topic. You still haven’t told me what happened that Nyx was so worried that she had to call around looking for you.”
I sighed.
I didn’t want to go into detail about everything that had gone down with Mecca. But her staying here for a while meant she was going to find out soon enough. Especially since she was staying with Leera.
Although we hadn’t talked, I knew my sister’s husband was well connected, which meant she knew every damn thing. Anytime something happened, she would shoot me a text to see if I was okay. Whenever I responded back to let her know that I was okay and asked how she was doing, I didn’t get a response back. I took that as she was just trying to make sure I wasn’t dead, but that was as far as our communication would go.
I crossed one leg over the other and started filling her in. Granted, I left out a few parts, like my dumb ass begging Mecca to let me have his baby. Oh, and walking in on him fucking a stripper and still staying with him. She didn’t need to know all that.
“Wow! So you broke up with him after finding out he had a baby by someone else and he attacked you, then he kidnapped you?”
“Well, he didn’t exactly kidnap me. That was one of his bum ass friends that did all that. But?—”
“Oh, please, I’m sure he had something to do with it. Have you told the police? Did his ass get arrested?”
“Relax, Mama. It’s already been handled. No police necessary.”
