“Whoopty fuckin’ doo!” She yelled. “Still happened. It don’t matter.”
“None of what I said matters, Mahogany? You… we got past that. The cheating?—”
“Did we? Did we really get past it?” She interrupted.
“Yeah we did. Because you forgave me. How you punishing me for something I did years ago? I been good. We been—shit we been alright. I didn’t just go out fuck a bitch and get her pregnant Mahogany. The shit happened in the past. I’m just finding out about it like you. Damn, give a nigga a break. I didn’t hide it from you?—”
“Yes, the fuck you did.” She took a deep breath and made a sharp turn. “Leave me alone. All you need to know is that you will be sleeping in that mancave?—’
“I’m not sleepin in that fuckin’ mancave. Fuck I look like? Sleeping on a low ass blow up mattress and my ribs still fuckedup? I’m sleepin in the bed. Build a fort around yourself or some shit if you don’t want a nigga around you.”
Hell naw I wasn’t sleeping in that fuckin’ mancave. I was serious. If she wanted to start some shit because I needed to sleep in my bed, then so be it. I was maneuvering through accepting the fact that she didn’t want to talk to me or resolve anything, but I couldn’t be cool with that. It wasn’t just because I missed sleeping with my wife either. I legit couldn’t sleep on that low ass, uncomfortable ass mattress. I didn’t give a fuck about what she was talking about.
She didn’t say anything. Just took a deep breath and turned the music back up. Beyonce emanated from the speakers, singing about not being sorry. I knew then that she didn’t put on lip-gloss for me. She didn’t spruce herself up for me. None of that shit. But what she did do was get a playlist ready for me.
“Middle fingers up! I ain’t thinkin ‘bout you!” She yelled.
I cut my eyes at her, shook my head, and looked straight ahead, quiet for the rest of the ride to the crib.
“Daddy!”Shrieked Sparkle when I walked into the house.
She ran up to me and hesitated, stopping herself from jumping up on me.
I leaned down a little and kissed her on the top of her head. “Wassup baby girl,” I said with a grunt.
She giggled. “Hey daddy! Your arm okay?”
“It’s getting there, baby,” I said with a deep breath.
Mahogany brushed by me with her head down, her attention on her phone. I watched her until Aubry and Gabe came into view. I tossed my arm over Aubry’s shoulder and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Wassup daughter?”
“Hey daddy,” she said. “You okay?”
“Okay enough.” I said before chucking my chin at Gabe, pulling my arm from around Aubry to drape it over Gabe.
With furrowed brows, he nodded back at me. “Wassup dad?”
“Wassup with you? You alright?” I asked, noticing how cold he felt.
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.”
He pulled away from my embrace and walked off, similar to the way his mother had. With his head down, and his attention on his phone. I already knew what was up with him. Really didn’t need to think too deep into it. He still had a chip on his shoulder toward me because of the night NeNe and I got into it. Seeing that he’d witnessed us at it more than one time, it was going to take him a minute to let that go. Shit was escalated. As a man I understood where he came from. His ma and his pops were at it. Of course he was going to take his mother’s side. I wasn’t going to ridicule him for it though. Fuck it. He’d move past it eventually. Or so I hoped. When the shit hit the fan, things would only get worse, I was sure of that.
A couple of seconds later, Honesty ran up with something in her hand.
“Hey dad! Look at what I made for you!” She yelled, showing me a canvas. It read ‘Get Well Soon, Dad. I love you’, with a painting of two stick people I assumed was the two of us.
I kissed her on the top of her head and took it from her. “Thanks baby girl. This is beautiful. When you make it?”
We carried on like that for a good five minutes, with my girls pouring love into me. I didn’t know where Mahogany went off to. Figured Gabe went up to his room. It didn’t matter. Nah, I lied. It did matter. It felt good, being poured in by my girls, but I would have loved to get the same type of treatment from Mahogany and Gabe.
“Let me go get situated, y’all,” I said, noticing Mahogany climbing the stairs. I wanted to make it to the room before she did some wild shit like locked herself in there for the remainder of the day just to keep me out of there. Hell, low key, I was thinking about posting up there just to make sure I had a soft bed to sleep in tonight.
“Okay! Can we have a movie night?” Asked Honesty.
“Ohhh yeah! Can we watch The Little Mermaid! With the black Ariel,” Sparkle said.
“We not trying to watch The Little Mermaid for the fiftieth time, Spark. God. We gotta take a vote on it.”
