“I love you, too. It feels good to be able to say it without crying. I’ve waited for this day for so long, and it still doesn’t feel real. Don’t ever leave me again.”
I chuckled when she placed her finger in my face as a warning.
“I won’t. You don’t ever have to worry about me going anywhere. Until Big G calls my number, you can’t get rid of me.” I kissed her lips, sliding my tongue into her mouth. Wegot carried away for a minute, so I pulled back. It was almost one in the morning, and I still needed to get myself together for my flight. We showered together and then took a nap until my alarm went off. I struggled with whether to cancel my trip, but I decided to get it out of the way. Since Naiari and I were about to get back together, I owed it to Golden to let her know our business was ending. The label would have to get over it because I wasn’t about to hold myself back to make them happy.
“It’s a shame I have to book an appointment to spend time with my friend,” Nova huffed.
“You are being so dramatic. We talk on the phone every day and every night. You act like I’ve abandoned you or something.”
“You have! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you and the kids are enjoying your time with your baby daddy, but damn. I feel like he took you away from me, and I don’t like it,” she whined.
I shook my head as I walked over to check the temperature of the wax. She was getting her brows done and her chin waxed. Nova was one of my regulars, but it never felt like I was working whenever she was on my table, because we laughed and talked shit the whole time.
“Girl, you are ridiculous. Now, I will admit we have been gone a lot lately, but I think things are finally calming down. Keynauri tried to see the kids every day because he felt so guilty about missing time with them. I think he has finally realized that he needs to find a better way to balance them both.”
“Where is he now? I know you mentioned he was taking a trip yesterday.”
“Yeah, he had to go to Cali. It honestly surprised me that he didn’t invite us, but I’m sure it was because he was gonna be so busy. When we went to Atlanta, we barely saw him except in the morning and at night, when it was time for bed,” I explained. The kids didn’t seem to mind, but I could tell it bothered him that he still wasn’t able to spend time with them the way he wanted to.
“Well, I’m glad he has been making such a great effort, but I want my friend back. Are you at least getting some good dick out of the deal since he has been dragging you all over the world?” Nova pressed. I dropped my head to hide the guilty expression on my face.
“You sneaky ho! You’ve been over there getting put through the mattress, and you’ve been keeping me in the dark!” She squealed.
“It wasn’t like that. We hadn’t done anything until the day before yesterday. Up until then, we were strictly co-parenting,” I admitted, failing to hide the smile on my face.
“Bitch, I know you’re lying. I need all the details, and don’t you leave a thing out.”
Putting on a new pair of gloves, I got the items I needed and began prepping her skin as I recalled our night together.
“I don’t know whether to cuss you out or be proud of you. You have been faking the funk about your feelings for him since he stepped back into the picture. It’s about time you stopped playing and popped your pussy for a real one.” She teased me.
“Fuck you, trick. It wasn’t like I was doing it on purpose. Keynauri and I had a lot of things we needed to figure out first before I could even think about sex.”
“How are you feeling about him now? Sex changes things.”
I sighed, twirling the wax on the wooden stick before I applied it to her skin.
“I have a lot of feelings. We sat down and talked about the past, but I won’t pretend the pain isn’t still there. I went through so much when he got locked up, and I’m still trying to get over it. All Keynauri wants to talk about is the future, and while I can appreciate it, it scares me. The last time we tried to plan for the future, it was stripped away from us. I’m not tryna get ahead of myself.” I confided in my best friend because I knew she would understand where I was coming from.
“Does this mean the two of you are together now? Do you even want to be with him?”
Before I answered, I pulled the strip back, revealing the hair I pulled from her chin.
“He said that I was his, but we haven’t put an official title on things. I’m not expecting a proposal tomorrow, but I definitely plan to get clarity when he comes home. We’re two completely different people from the ones we were back in the day, so we have to relearn each other all over again. Plus, we have the kids, and they are the main priority. As much as I want to explore whatever this is with Keynauri, I want to make sure we are thinking about the kids in the process. They are still getting to know their daddy, and I don’t want them to feel a way about the two of us being together. It probably sounds crazy, but I don’t want to infringe on their time with him.”
“You don’t sound crazy, but I think you’re being a little hard on yourself. Kiaya and Keyaire are still young, so I can guarantee they aren’t thinking too deeply about this. They love both of you, and I don’t think they will care about their parents being together. If anything, they will more than likely be excited to have you both together,” Nova reasoned.
Maybe I was overthinking things, but it was so hard not to. We were cheated out of so much time, and I found myself trying to make up for it.
“You’re probably right, but I’m also considering Keyami’s feelings. She just got him back as well, and I don’t want her to feel slighted. Lord knows, her momma acts as if I’m a home-wrecker who broke up her family.” I rolled my eyes, thinking about the way Tiana was carrying on.
She found both my business and personal pages on IG and had been stalking me ever since. She was making weird, disrespectful comments under my posts, so I blocked her. I thought it would be enough, but she created fake profiles and began to harass me from those. She created at least four fake profiles in the last forty-eight hours, and it was getting ridiculous.
“Fuck that botched built bitch. She has been jealous of you for years, and I know it’s eating her up to know you both have kids with Nauri. If I were you, I would add her to my close friends and post a bunch of pictures of y’all lying up together. If she wants to hurt her own feelings, that’s on her.”
I shook my head because Tiana was crazy, and the last thing I wanted to do was invite drama into my life.
“I am not thinking about her ass. She can be mad all she wants, but she won’t get attention from me, because the only attention I have for her is an ass whupping. I’m trying to avoid it out of respect for her child,” I rationalized.
