The next day, I had to get fitted for my tux. As soon I saw my brother and he was frowning, it put me on alert. “What’s good?” I asked while bumping my fist with his.
“Bro, it’s gon’ take the patience of Job for me to deal with Brion’s fuck ass baby daddy.”
“Oh hell. What he do?”
“I was supposed to get the girls the new J’s that dropped and an outfit to match. He said he didn’t want me buying it and that he would. Cool. The nigga was supposed to bring it to the girls yesterday, so they could wear it today. He calls Brion last night fussing and shit, saying he has bills, and why did they need expensive ass shoes when they were little girls, and they could get away with wearing cheap shit. Brion cursed him out, and I could hear him yelling at her through the phone. I nicely took the phone from her and hung up on that nigga. I had to rush this morning to go get the stuff for the kids, take it back to them, and get here on time.”
“That nigga is a certified sucka,” I shook my head.
The women in the store greeted us, and Isaac, Ken, and a few more people started arriving. Hymn’s facial muscles relaxed, and all seemed to be forgotten. Once I had the tux on, I stared at my reflection in the full-length mirror and wondered if I couldsee myself getting married. A nigga was fly. I had never dealt with a woman that didn’t start getting on my nerves after a few months, so how was I supposed to think about marriage? Being with the same person day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. I wasn’t sure that was for me.
“Looking good,” Hymn walked up behind me. “Maybe you should keep this and wear it to court. The judge might look out for you.”
“Fuck outta here,” I mumbled.
After a brief laugh at my expense, Hymn stood beside me and eyed me through the mirror. “You coming to dinner?”
My mother had texted me a few days before and asked if I would come to dinner with her, my grandmother, Hymn, and Divine. I loved my grandmother, Hymn, and Divine. Ordinarily, I didn’t miss too many chances to be around them, but I didn’t want to go eat with my mother. Not even I could figure out why I was having such a hard time letting go and building a relationship with my mother. It was possible that I felt if I moved too soon, I’d more than likely get disappointed when she slipped back into her old ways.
It seemed so easy for Hymn and Divine to just go with the flow and appease her. Meanwhile, I wasn’t on that type of time. I wasn’t them and was obviously moving at my own pace.
“Probably not.”
Hymn stared for a moment before he replied. I hoped he wasn’t in the mood to try and lecture me about giving her a chance and forgiving her, because I wasn’t trying to hear it. I couldn’t move past my issues with my mother at anyone’s pace but mine.
“Alright.” Hymn gave a curt nod before patting my shoulder and walking off. I hadn’t expected him to give up so easily, but I was grateful for it.
Divine especially loved trying to talk me into having more of a relationship with our mother, and I got tired of hearing people speak on her behalf. My mother was the one that should have been trying to develop a relationship with me. I didn’t want her to kiss my ass, but if it meant anything to her, she could continue to try. If they wanted to forgive her after she only applied bare minimum effort that was on them.
Once the seamstress was done taking measurements, pinning the tux in various places, and walking around me to inspect her work, I was able to change back into my regular clothes. In the dressing room, I saw that I had a missed called from Shaliya. I had dealt with Shaliya off and on for a few months. She had a girlfriend but used petty arguments with her girlfriend to slide off and get some real dick when she wanted it. Most times, I had to wait for her to hit me up because she could only get away when she felt her girlfriend was up to no good herself. Any other time, her girl was possessive and clingy as fuck.
She had some aight pussy, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with her. Anytime she wanted some dick, she would call and rush a nigga, so we could link before her girlfriend started looking for her. I didn’t mind a no strings attached link up, but I wasn’t on her time. Shorty acted like I walked around with emergency dick in a glass on standby for when she felt like cheating. Fuck outta here.
Choosing to ignore Shaliya made me think of Josie. Shorty was a piece of damn work. Reminiscing on our fuck session had my dick jumping. I needed some more of that ASAP, but I didn’t want to do too much too soon. Josie had a bad habit of trying to son my ass. I wasn’t about to be acting thirsty as if she had the best pussy I’d ever had in my life. I mean she did, but she didn’t have to know that.
CHAPTER 9
BRION
I pulledin front of the house and smiled when I saw my man’s cars lined up. The girls went to their cousin’s birthday party with their grandmother. She wanted everyone to wear red and white, and the girls had in their minds the exact shoes and outfits they wanted to wear. When their sperm donor didn’t make it happen for them, Hymn pulled it off at the last minute. In between clients, I saw that jackass posted a picture of my children on his social media standing there with them like a proud father while they were dressed to the nines in clothes and shoes the next man bought.
To say I couldn’t stand Corey would be me being nice. I loathed that bastard, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. We still had to co-parent. He was starting to be so inconsistent with the girls they weren’t too pressed to deal with him, but they loved him and hadn’t written him completely off. Therefore, I had to deal with him on some level even when I didn’t want to.
My girls had a long way to go before they were eighteen. Twelve more years of dealing with Corey wasn’t appealing, but I didn’t have a choice. Pushing him to the back of my mind, I walked inside the house to get ready for date night with my fiancé. God really did His big one when He placed Hymn inmy life. I would never stop being appreciative or doing my part to make sure my relationship remained healthy and loving. The last thing I wanted to be was miserable and stuck.
Inside the house, Hymn was sitting on the couch playing his PS5. A smile lifted my cheeks when I took in his dark denim jeans, red Polo sweater, and wheat colored Timbs. He looked so handsome and rugged my clit swelled immediately. But we had all night to get nasty. I needed to get ready. We were going to a movie and dinner at a nice restaurant but not so upscale that he couldn’t wear Timbs.
Seeing his face reminded me of how he’d come through for the girls earlier, and I was going to get real nasty for him when we got back home. “Hey,” the fact that I was smiling so hard didn’t bother me in the slightest.
I had worn simple black leggings and a black fitted tee to work in. Nothing spectacular at all, but the way Hymn’s eyes roamed over my frame, one would think I had gone to work naked. Anytime I entered a room, Hymn eyed me like he wanted to devour me, and it made chills run down my spine.
“What’s up baby?”
I walked over to him and placed what was supposed to be a quick peck on his lips, but he wasn’t having it. Hymn snaked his tongue into my mouth and kissed me like he hadn’t seen me in years.
“Do you want me to go get ready, or do you want us to be late?” I giggled pulling away.
Hymn didn’t respond but the lust lining his eyes told me he wouldn’t care if we were late. I rushed upstairs, turned the shower on and stripped out of my clothes. Life had been busy in a good way. Planning a wedding and running a successful business was not for the weak. Not to mention having three kids, but life was pleasantly overwhelming. Hymn had a cleaning service that came in once a week, and they were lifesavers. I hadalso started giving the girls an allowance for completing their chores, and that helped the house remain clean on the days the cleaning service didn’t come.
