I looked at her for a minute before I nodded my head. I wasn’t all the way convinced that the nigga had nothing to do with it, but for now I’d let the shit rock because the last thing I wanted to do was set her off or have her thinking about that shit. Her nightmares had just subsided, and I wanted to keep it that way.
“What did you get to eat?” she asked a few seconds later, changing the subject and forcing me to reset my focus.
“What do you think? You only eat three things when we eat out. Picky ass.”
She started laughing as she walked over and grabbed the bag with the food cartons inside of them. When she opened it, I peeped the smile form on her lips. “Owee. You got me gizzards.” She was happy as hell.
“Country ass. Now pass me my burger.”
“I’m country but I bet you have gyro meat on that burger.”
“And if I do?” I asked knowing damn well it was gyro meat on my burger. Matter of fact it was extra gyro meat on that motherfucker too.
“Ghetto ass.”
Chapter Thirteen
Surah
A Month and a half later
Sometimes he looked at me like I was everything to him and I believed him. Every touch told me that he loved me in a way he could never voice. Mari wasn’t perfect and neither was I, shit we were both hot ass messes, but the fact that this thing fits the way it did was enough for me. Things with us were electric and our bond was undeniable, as well as unbelievable. Sometimes I questioned why it was so easy with us. I mean sure I got shot and almost died, but even before that when we were both playing games he and I were magnetic. It was like the moment he and I started taking this seriously, the world slowed down and the only people on this earth were he and I. It was crazy because before him I never believed in this lovey dovey shit. I didn’t believe in tangible or intangible love. I believed that life was life and any people would always be people. I guess that came from my father’s absence and my mother’s obsession with being married. When I was growing up my mother alwaysmade it seem like marriage was the ultimate goal for a woman, like you weren’t whole unless you carried a niggas last name. That irritated me and in turn made me resent the notion of ever needing somebody the way my mother needed my father as well as my two stepfathers. I didn’t give a shit about my father; shit I had gotten this far without him. Why would I need him now? However my mother’s second husband Otis was everything that I would’ve wanted in a father. Too bad things with them didn’t last too long, and he moved to Minnesota. I could only imagine what went wrong with them, but it wasn’t my business. Their divorce didn’t stop Otis from being the father figure in my life then and definitely not now. Speaking of, I probably needed to call and check in with him. We hadn’t spoken since before I got shot. Knowing my mother she didn’t even call the man to tell him. They didn’t exactly talk anymore.
Mari’s lips against my shoulder broke my train of thought. I didn’t realize I was standing in the middle of the kitchen staring into space until that moment. Blinking a few times I turned around and looked at him.
“What’s wrong? Are you having one of those moments?” He was referring to the intrusive memories I often got from that night.
“No, I was thinking about you … then my thoughts drifted to my stepfather. Then I was abou?—“
“How the fuck did you go from thinking about your stepfather to thinking about me? You were one of them” He winked at me.
“No nigga. I was thinking about love and how before you I didn’t believe in it because of my mother's constant obsession with marriage and belonging to somebody. I did?—"
“Doesn’t matter then because yo ass better be obsessed with belonging to me. Ob-fuckin-sessed. Get dressed though, I need to hit a mall.”
“That’s for sure not how you ask me if I want to go to the mall with you, Namari.”
“Since when do I ask you shit, wife? Just like you don’t ask me shit. You tell me and I tell you. Now get your fine ass dressed. Please.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the please that followed his demand. He was something else …My something else.
About two hours later he and I finally made it out the door, and the entire time he was fussing because he claimed all of my clothes were either too tight or not covering enough. Of course I had to remind him that the only way he picked out my clothes was if he bought them. That was but a word to him because his only response was bet. I knew what that meant.
“When we get back, pack our bags for a night or so. We’re staying at my brother’s house tonight. He said something about some shit with Ommy that he had to tell me. You know I will be finished for the night after that drive. ”
I glanced over at him confused, before I nodded my head. “The baby.”
When he glanced over at me with wide eyes I realized that I said that just a bit too loud. Damn I fucked up their surprise. “What baby?”
“I didn’t say baby.” Now here my non lying ass was trying to fix it.
“Yes the fuck you did say baby. I heard you, now unless we’re having a baby which I know we ain’t because you got that shit in your arm. So them niggas are having a baby?”
I shook my head. “You can’t say anything, because I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”
“But you did fuck around and say something, right?” He chuckled seconds before his heavy ass hand landed on my thigh. “But I got you. I guess I could stand to act surprised when he tells me.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he decided to put it. “Why do you have to be so difficult?”
