“Anika Dancy, the kids’ grandmother.” She picked Carlee up and kissed her cheek.
“Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Dancy.”
“It’s Miss.”
“Gotcha.”
Still feeling slightly embarrassed by my mother’s outburst, I finally broke the silence between us. “Basil, I think we’re all set for the night. You are relieved of your duties for today. Thank you for everything. You made today a lot less stressful for me.”
“No problem at all, Ms. Alicia. Eight o’clock tomorrow, right?”
“Yes. We’re going to church tomorrow, but you have the option to either come with us or stay here and get some work done.”
“Uh un, he’s coming to church. We need to send up a prayer that God don’t make you mix business withpleasure.”
“Oh my God. Basil, I’ll walk you out,” I said, shaking my head at my mother. Basil gathered his belongings and followed me out of the family room. I opened the door and held it open for him.
“Oh, I need you to sign the timesheet for me,” he said, then pulled out his iPad and tapped around on it before he handed it to me. I signed my name, then handed the device back to him.
“Good night, Ms. Alicia. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good night, Basil. Again, thank you for everything.”
“You’re most welcome.” He winked at me, and if he were a genie, my leggings would have been on the floor. He walked out, and I shut the door and leaned my back against it.
Having a manny was going to be way harder than I thought.
One week later. . .
I was bringing my nieces and nephews over for a playdate with Alicia’s kids. Although Siori and Sahira were around Carsyn’s age, my soldiers loved kids just as much as I did, so they wouldn’t care how old they were. I didn’t want to bring them on the job, but Alicia insisted since Chloe couldn’t stop talking about them visiting all week.
Alicia’s moms was something different, and nobody could help but to love her. The way she kept making jokes about Alicia and I taking things further made me laugh, but I could tell Alicia didn’t like it. She asked me questions about how I acquired my business, whether I liked working for her daughter, and how Alicia was single now. All I could do was chuckle because she didn’t let up that she was trying to play matchmaker. When Alicia fussed at her about it, in true Ms. Anika form, she said:“Hush, girl! I’m trying to secure my grandbabies a new daddy. God knows that other one wasn’t worth the hairs between my?—”
Alicia had to stopped her, fussing at her about the kids being in the car. At that point, I knew Ii had to throw Alicia a lifeline by telling her mother that I was engaged.
I watched the shocked expression cross Alicia’s face and hated that I had to lie to save her, but it was all I had and seemed to stop her mother from further embarrassing her.
For the most part, being Alicia’smannywas fun. She pulled Carlee from daycare, and I put her on a schedule. In the mornings, after getting Chloe and Carsyn off to the school bus, I fed Carlee breakfast, set up learning activities in the family room, and went over alphabets and numbers with her.
I’d then read to her animatedly, and she’d laugh the whole time. By noon, she’d take her nap while I did laundry, cleaned the house, and organized the kids’ room. By two, Carlee would be up, and I’d feed her lunch while preparing lunch for when Chloe and Carsyn got home.
Alicia called me multiple times throughout the day for the first three days, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I knew she was nervous about leaving her baby girl with me, but I made sure to ease her worries every time. I loved that she was cautious and concerned. It showed me how much she truly loved her kids, and that was something I would always praise.
I pulled up to my brother’s house and got out. Before I could even get to the porch, Siori opened the door, raising her arms for me to pick her up. I scooped her into my arms and tickled her as her laughter filled the foyer.
“What’s up, little one?” I asked, kissing her cheek.
“Hi, Uncle Baye. Look what I got Chloe.” She held up a press-on nail set and some lip gloss.
“That’s cool, beautiful, but we’ll see if it’s okay with her mom first before we give it to her, a’ight?”
“Okay!”
I walked further into the house and saw my brother and Sheena in the living room. He held her around her waist, kissing her neck as they danced to the R&B record playing.
“Yo, yo!” I greeted. They looked over at me, and Sheena smiled.
“Hey, Brother B! I feel like we don’t even see you anymore,” she said, walking over and hugging me.
