“Oh, yeah, I remember now. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I was just thinking about you and wanted to see if you’d like to hang out tonight?”
“I can’t tonight. I’ll be on the clock,” I lied. My shift ended at nine every night.
“Damn, that sucks. Well, this is my new number. Call me whenever you’re free. I’d like to see you again,” she said, voice dripping with lust.
“You got it, shorty.” I hung up, grabbed my bottled water, and took a sip.
“Was that one of your jump-offs?”
My head whipped over to Brendan, and I almost choked on the water while trying to choke back a laugh.
“You okay, Uncle Baye?” Sahira asked me while leaning up and patting my back.
“Yeah, I’m cool, princess. Bren, what you know about a jump-off, Nephew?”
He shrugged with a smirk on his face. “I heard you talking to my dad one time about calling one of your jump-offs to come over.”
“You shouldn’t be eavesdropping, Neph. Not cool.”
“Sorry.”
“You’re good, man. Just never repeat that, a’ight?”
“I got you.”
I swear, kids said the darndest things and knew too damn much.
“Good. And to answer your question, yes, that was a young lady I was speaking to.”
“Not to be eavesdropping, Uncle Baye, but I really like you and Ms. Alicia together.” Brenton jumped in.
“You don’t even know her. You’ve only seen her one time.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at him.
“I know, but I felt her vibe. I know you said she’s married, but I don’t think she like her husband for real. The way she was looking at you in the store that day said she liked you.”
I shook my head. Kids swore they knew shit, and in a sense, they did. I felt the vibe and peeped the look in her eyes, too, but I wasn’t going to speak on it—not to a nine-year-old anyway.
“You stay trying to make it happen between us, Nephew.”
“Because I know it’s going to happen. Watch,” Brenton said as I watched him smiling in the rearview mirror. I didn’t say anything else while I headed to Alicia’s place.
I hope it happens, too, Nephew. I truly hope so.
I pulled into Alicia’s driveway thirty minutes later, and I frowned, seeing her in the front yard, arguing with who I assumed was her husband—or ex-husband, rather. Her mouth went a mile a minute as she yelled in his face.
I didn’t know if I should get the kids in the house or wait until he left, but to avoid my nieces and nephews being around anything they weren’t used to, I opted for us to stay in the truck.
“Is Ms. Alicia okay, Uncle Baye? She looks really mad,” Sahira said.
“She’s okay. Y’all sit back and put your headphones and AirPods in. I’ll let y’all know when it’s cool to get out.” They did as I instructed, and I continued to watch to make sure homie didn’t touch her. I cracked my window some to hear a little better. Ex-husband, kids’ father or not, all I knew was that he better not disrespect her.
I knew I had no right to think about yoking this nigga up, but one thing I didn’t play about was niggas disrespecting their queens. Granted, they were going through a divorce, she was still the mother of his kids, and he shouldn’t be yelling at her with their kids in the house.
“. . . And who the hell is this you have pulling up to my house? You just couldn’t wait to open your legs to someone new, huh?”
“First of all, this ismyhouse. I pay the bills around here, so you don’t concern yourself with who—Leo!” I watched as he stormed toward my truck, and I discreetly slid my hand in the pocket of the door to make sure my gun was there. I had no problem running them ones with homie, but just in case he was carrying, I wanted to make sure I had my shit with me too.
