"I'm not dead, tho."
"Exactly." She smiled innocently. "Wolfe, let me know when you're ready to go. I'm taking Nix with me."
"Cool." Wolfe laughed hard as hell.
"Man, take these funky ass glasses," I huffed, placing them on her face. "Just know when our company leaves, we gon' talk about that death certificate."
"What death certificate?" She blinked, blowing me a kiss, then walked away.
"Y'all are fucking crazy." Wolfe laughed.
"You really think she got a death certificate on me?"
"Yeah," he answered. "Chosyn's ass helped her. I was looking for Nix's social security card one day and stumbled on mine."
"Nigga… and you ain't say shit?"
"For what?" Wolfe shrugged. "I'm not leaving her ass."
"Damn, I can't lie. Knowing Four would do some crazy like that over me got me wanting to knock her ass up with another set of twins. That's my type of love."
I paused.
"You think Navy got one on Honor? We might have to?—"
"I thought you hated Honor?" Wolfe cut in.
"He's aggy as fuck, but I could never hate that nigga, forreal. We been through too much."
"Then dead the beef."
"I'd rather count every drop of water in the ocean 'fore I let that nigga think he can keep playing puppet master," I told him. "You being cool with him pulling stunts in your life is on you, but I don't want him having shit to do with what's happening in mine."
"I don't think he’s trying to control the situation. He just feels 'cause he's the oldest, he's gotta handle shit."
"Cool, I get that, but we're not kids anymore, Wolfe. I'm grown as fuck and don't need another nigga watching over me."
"Grown or not, he’s been more of a father to us than our own pops," Wolfe countered, not understanding where I was coming from.
How Wolfe saw shit would always differ from how I saw shit. Wolfe, being six years younger than Honor, had him putting Honor on a pedestal since we were kids. I never faulted him because I got it. He needed an older figure he could depend on, someone who'd love him the way his parents never did. Honor became that for him, and then Gigi stepped in. Had Wolfe not been there to see Honor show his ass, he probably wouldn't believe it went down how it did. Honor was a hero in Wolfe's eyes even as a grown ass man. Honor wasn't my fucking hero 'cause that meant putting him above myself, and no nigga sat higher than me in my eyes. We were equals, and that's all I wanted Honor to see.
"You mind if I spark up? Chosyn grew a new strand that she wants me to try," Wolfe asked.
"I don't mind, but you cool with Nix being around the smoke? I know she’s upstairs but the smoke is gonna travel."
"Shit, I forgot about my baby girl just that fast." He laughed.
"Let me text Chosyn and tell her to stop acting like the daddy and come get her child."
"Nigga chill with that 'I'm the mommy, she's the daddy' bullshit. Nix is as much my child as she is Chosyn's. If I have her more, it's 'cause I want Chosyn to know her life didn't end because she had my baby."
"You think she be feeling that?"
"Man… hell yeah," he groaned, running his hand down his face. "When Nix was a few weeks old, she was having trouble latching on to feed. It drove Chosyn crazy, and she started second-guessing herself. After every feeding, she'd hop in the shower, crying, asking God why he'd make her a mother when she doesn't have one to help her with motherhood."
"Damn," I murmured, making a mental note to be extra gentle with Four after she gives birth.
"Then her not being able to be at Mellow & Munch as much bummed her out. She couldn't be on-site for her new building as much as she wanted to be, and that fucked with her. I don't know the logistics of all the shit women go through when bringing life into the world, but I know it takes a toll on more than just their bodies. It can play tricks with their confidence and purpose in life."
