“Yet you’re here with me.” She rolled her eyes, and I smiled.
“You different,” I replied then laughed when she kissed her teeth. “On Lord you are. Before you, I never met a woman that made mewantto do this shit, dead ass. I’m used to bitches accepting what the fuck I say and being willing to work them knees out day one. You wasn’t going for none of that shit.”
“Facts because number one, I’m not a bitch. I’m a grown ass woman. I have never and would never sleep with a man without making him earn me.”
“And, no disrespect, but that makes you the baddest bitch I ever met in my fuckin’ life, Lord. You know your worth and you gon’ make sure a nigga know it too. I fuck with that.” I admitted. “I don’t mind working for you and earning you. Long as it’s worth it in the long run.”
She smiled at me before she tore her eyes away and took another sip of her drink.
“Tell me about the Lords,” she said. “You always say it, and you have it tattooed across your throat.” She studied me some, grabbing one of my chains. “And I assume that’s what this means.”
The waiter had returned with our appetizer—heirloom tomatoes with drizzled basil oil and balsamic glaze, so I waited until he placed it in front of us and refilled our glasses before I answered her question.
“What about it?”
“Is it a gang?” she whispered the last part causing me to laugh a little.
“To the mothafuckas on the outside lookin’ in, maybe. All they see is colors, signs, handshakes, and they assume that it’s all street shit, but we more than that. It’s a brotherhood to us. We all grew up together—same blocks, some of the same struggles, feel me? Our shit ain’t about running the streets though. It’s about survivin’ them and savin’ them.”
She nodded. “So, it’s not criminal?”
I smirked. “We ain’t saints. We don’ did our shit comin’ up, but the heart of it is loyalty. It’s protection. It’s makin’ sure our people eat. We created a family for niggas that didn’t have one,” I said thinking about Jay. He had his grandma, and she was really the one that saved him, but I liked to think me and P had something to do with that as well.
“How’d you come up with the name?”
“My brother came up with it,” I admitted. “Comes from wanting to rule over our circumstances. Me and P didn’t see some of the same struggles that our peers did, but he still wanted to create something for niggas to be a part of so they’d experience what having a solid family felt like.”
“I like that,” she beamed. “P is the one with the locs, right?”
I nodded but cut my eyes at her. “Fuck you was doin’ lookin’ at my brother?”
“Shut up.” She nudged me and giggled softly. “I just made an observation.”
“I made an observation that night too,” I said before eating some of the appetizer. “You was arguin’ with that dancin’ ass nigga in front of the club that night. Who is Lord to you?”
I’d meant to ask her when I got to her crib that night, but the shit slipped my mind. I was tired as fuck, and we were talking about more important shit in my opinion.
“Ugh, my very annoying ex,” she rolled her eyes. “I’ve basically begged this man to leave me alone, but you see how that’s going.”
“What happened with y’all?” I asked even though I didn’t give a fuck for real. I just wanted to know everything about her.
“He cheated.” She shrugged. “He’d started to get a lot of buzz from dancing for Breeze. Women were literally flocking to him. I was okay with that because I knew it came with the territory, and I’m far from an insecure woman, but I’m also not a fool. There was another woman always commenting on his stuff, making it her business to post him while they were on the road and what not. I tried ignoring it at first, but it got out of control. The woman was damn near obsessive. She actually wrote me to tell me they were sleeping together.” She shook her head. “I confronted him about it, and he confirmed it, claiming it was only once. I didn’t know how true that was, but it didn’t matter. You only have one time to show me that you don’t value my presence before I make you appreciate my absence.”
“Damn,” I chuckled. “Yo’ little ass don’t play.”
“At all,” she laughed. “Life is too short for me to waste my time dealing with a man that doesn’t recognize the gem that he has in me.”
“I like that. You too fine to be puttin’ up with any bullshit.”
“Right, so let this be your warning if we were to ever go any further at some point. I don’t care what you have or who you are, I.Will. Leave. You,” she pointed.
“Noted.” I nodded. “I wouldn’t even waste yo’ time for real if I ain’t have plans on doin’ right by you, and I damn sure wouldn’t have wasted my bread on all this shit.” I waved my hand around the cart. “I’d have just found a bitch with lower standards and kept it pushin’.”
“Good.” She smiled and finished up the appetizer.
The server came back a little after that with the main course. I’d asked the chef to prepare filet mignon with red wine reduction and truffle potatoes as well as butter-poached lobster tail with saffron and grilled asparagus. I didn’t know which she’d prefer, and I was hung up on the two options as well. We switched our drink up to a Light Pinot Noir too. I wanted her to get the full experience while she was out with me.
We talked a little more over dinner. She asked hella questions about my upbringing and my parents. I’d told her about my pops being a reformed street nigga that was now in politics and the mayor of Miller’s Pointe. That led to her ass saying she wanted to go to MP so she could see some goats she’d been seeing all over Cliqued. I wasn’t opposed to taking her, but I wasn’t fucking around with no goats.
