The entire table froze.
“Baby momma?!” Everybody at the table shouted at the same time.
Hussle shot up out his chair so fast it scraped the floor. I ran my hand down my waves and waited for him to start clowning me.
“Nigga you got a girl pregnant?” he yelled. “Man, that’s unbelievable!”
The whole table started laughing.
“I need to see doctor paperwork,” Hussle continued dramatically. “She put voodoo on you or something. You good cuz? On hood if you not okay just say something, I can fix this.”
I couldn’t even laugh because this nigga looked dead serious. Hussle way of fixing something was getting rid of it. Layloni was a good problem to have, the kind I never wanted to see go.
“I actually like this girl,” I admitted honestly. “She just a lil selfish like myself.” I snorted.
Every woman I dealt with knew the rules. Layloni didn’t give a damn about rules. She would be the one to bring me down to my fucking knees. I felt weak as fuck without her. Even when I chose to give her ass space, I craved the fuck out of her.
She didn’t give a damn about the terms and conditions that meant she belonged to me and only me. That shit didn’t stick if I was still messing with other females and not fully claiming her.Layloni was making me work for it, and I liked that shit a whole lot.
She still entertained that Monty nigga when she knew that shit was a dangerous game to play with me. She wasn’t dumb enough to give that nigga no pussy. It was her sending me a clear message. A message that I accepted and was ready to put action behind after tonight.
“Change ain’t always bad.” Hussle broke through my thoughts.
He leaned against the table and looked me straight in my eyes.
“It’s too many ratchet bitches out here. When you find a real one you gotta hold onto her.” He stated seriously.
“Look at my baby mama Chari,” he continued. “Me and Rita got full custody of my daughter now cause Chari out on the track hoeing.”
He shook his head in disgust.
“Imagine if I would’ve let Territa walk away just to chase after Chari and all the other hoes I switched out…I’d be a single father, looking stupid as fuck.” He shook his head, passing his blunt off to Byron.
“I didn’t settle for Rita because of my kid… I settled and married her because she brought out the good in me. That’s the type of shit a good ass woman will do…They bring light to your darkness… peace to your chaos… It’s hard to find a soul mate that helps ground and balance you. We pour into each other so the well never runs dry.” He smiled proudly.
“That’s deep as fuck,” I responded without second thought.
“When I’m out in the streets all day, I be dying to get home to my family. That’s a man’s safe place.” He chuckled.
“I had my slip-ups with other women too… but one day I realized some real shit.” He grabbed his chest and shook his head.
“I’m sleeping with my girl… then sleeping with these hoes… and I don’t feel shit for them. They don’t even hold a candle to my girl… then I thought about her doing the same foul shit and felt sick to my gut… I can’t be expecting loyalty and not giving it.” Hussle eyes shifted towards the sliding glass as if Rita could hear him.
Byron passed him the blunt back just as I tried to shift gears in the conversation so I could excuse myself smoothly to go see about Layloni. Hussle took a long pull from his blunt then continued his sermon that was hitting home for me.
“Last time Rita left me for three months,” Hussle gasped out for air dramatically.
“A nigga couldn’t breathe…. I couldn’t?—”
“Nigga what the fuck is your point?” I snapped cutting him off.
“I’m tryna leave,” I complained. “You see me standing ready to go and you going on and on.” I frowned.
“Oh yeah,” Hussle smirked mischiviously.
“She the one nigga, make sure you don’t fuck it up is where I was getting to in my conversation… I detoxed from hoes and focus solely on my wife, kids, and money. If you don’t want to feel like I did when Rita left me, you better do right by her… Now get the fuck on, ruining my birthday with this simp ass shit.”
I pulled up to Layloni’s new house and cut the engine. I sat still in my car for a while just taking in her neighborhood and the outside of her house.
