“Got damn shorty,” I licked my lips while entering the house.
Josie rolled her eyes and tried to walk away, but I grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Spinning her around, I pressed my body into hers. “Like it or not, you my old lady, shawty. I’m fucked up ‘bout you.” I kissed her lips, and Josie’s stubborn ass melted into me. “You made me realize if I want to fuck with you, I gotta be on my shit. I was already on my shit as far as taking care of myself, but I know I gotta level up mentally to keep you. So, you being old as fuck is the best thing that happened to me.”
Josie’s eyes narrowed. “Did you just stand here and tell me you like me because you got mommy issues?”
“Bruh you bout to piss me off,” I mumbled before pecking her lips again. “I got yo’ muhfuckin issue in my pants, and it’s hard as fuck. You want to go eat food or you want to eat dick?”
“Boffum.”
That made me laugh. “Come on Pretty Girl, we can eat food first.”
“Let me get my purse.”
“You don’t need that shit with me, but I know women like to carry them for the aesthetic or whatever that means, so yeah, go ahead,” I smacked her ass, and she scurried off.
I’d never been optimistic about much in life, but something was telling me that shit was gon’ be aight.
CHAPTER 18
JOSIE
10 months later…
At my big age, I had done something I said I wouldn’t. Visits, phone calls, and letters were a part of my regular routine as I held a man down that was in prison. At the time that Huncho was sentenced, I didn’t love him. I was in deep like but not love. That being said, I wasn’t sure if I would have held him down if he’d been sentenced to anything more than two years, and that was just me being real. I was too old to wait years for a man to be released from prison especially when I couldn’t even be certain that he’d come home and do right. Nah. Right idea wrong chick.
But over the past ten months, I’d fallen hard for Huncho. In prison, all his sexy ass had been doing was reading and working out. The man had gained about fifteen pounds of muscle. And while he’d never been dumb, the fact that he had been researching everything from investing in the stock market, real estate, various religions, and even holistic healing was admirable. He told me that once he was released, he wanted two good meals and then, he was going on a ten-day detox where he’d only eat fruit and raw vegetables. Absolutely no meat. He also stated that he had no plans to go back to drinking, but hewas more than ready to hit a blunt, and I wasn’t even mad at that.
Huncho had been housed at a prison almost forty minutes from me. He could only have two visits a week and sometimes, I wasn’t able to see him because his biological mom, sister, and Hymn might do one visit and sometimes, his father or the woman that raised him would do the second visit. I was fine with not seeing him those weeks because my businesses were booming, and I was also glad that he had the support from his family. Huncho’s mother was still sober and each time they had a visit, he revealed to me when he called that the visit had gone well. I loved that for him. I hoped he would let his guard down and stop waiting to see if she was going to relapse and disappoint him. All he could do was enjoy the time he did have with her while she was sober.
Once I picked him up, I had a surprise for him, then I knew he’d want to eat, kick it with his family, and all that good stuff. I’d let him get all of that out the way before I took him to bed and took his ass down. The season had just ended for Hymn, and his team had won the Super Bowl. He had previously wanted to give the NFL one more year, but he was so in love with his twins, Hiram and Henley that he had played his last season. Hymn was officially retired and about to start working toward his real estate license. He wanted Huncho to get his as well and that way, Huncho, Hymn, and Divine could all work together at the firm that Hymn planned to start. Brion said she might even get hers too.
My graphic design business was doing great. My YouTube baking channel was doing so well that I started a separate channel to give people interested in graphic design tips. They could learn very basic things for free while watching my channel and if they wanted to learn more, they could take my class. Even if they didn’t take my class, they watched my videos for free,but their views got me paid. Just off my two YouTube channels alone, I was earning around $12,000 a month.
I only opened my dessert website once a month for twenty-four hours. I still refused to be stressed out by having to spend hours upon hours baking every day. My supporters were very understanding of the fact that I was a one woman show. I made it clear on the website that orders could take two to three weeks to ship. I still wanted their orders to be of good quality, so I put a cap on how much I baked in a day. If I got two hundred orders in twenty-four hours and I got my mom to help me, I could typically fulfill every order in a week or so. Especially for the people that only ordered a three or six pack. If I baked twelve cookies at a time, that was four orders for three packs. So, it wasn’t that bad. The cookies were pretty large so for some people, three was plenty.
I had been parked for ten minutes when I saw a figure in the distance. Dressed in a white shirt and gray sweats, a grin stretched across my face as I recognized that familiar swagger that only Huncho had. My grown ass was bursting with excitement. The closer he got, the wider I smiled. By the time he was only a few feet away from my car, I got out and ran toward him. Huncho’s grin matched mine as he picked me up and spun me around.
“There go my Big Mama,” he joked before placing me on my feet and gripping my chin. “I missed the fuck out of you.”
Seeing him on visits wasn’t the same as seeing him in the free world. They barely wanted us to peck one another on the lips, so long, passionate tongue kisses were out of the question for sure. But my man was free, so he slobbed me down in that parking lot like he was kissing me for the last time. Finally, he pulled back.
“Let’s blow this joint,” he smacked my ass as I tossed him the keys. “You can drive. I’m ready to go back to being a passenger princess.”
Before I started dealing with Huncho it had been years since I was serious with anyone. Being single was something I was used to, but in the short time we dated before he had to serve his time, I got spoiled. Having someone to drive their own car and not mine. Having someone asking me what I wanted to eat almost every day instead of expecting me to cook for him all the time. Having someone to drive my car to the gas station and fill it up. Keep it clean. Yeah, I had missed all that. Not to mention, being able to have good ole nasty unprotected sex without being too worried. I didn’t put anything past anyone, but I trusted that Huncho wasn’t out sliding up in hoes raw while dealing with me.
“You said your stepmom was cooking for you, right?” Huncho’s father was no longer married to the woman that raised him, but he still called her his stepmom. She was in town for a few days.
He looked at the time on the dash. “Um, she said she should be done around three. Since it’s only noon, I can just stop by the condo, so I can get my car. I want to take a shower and shit, then you can ride with me if you want to meet her.”
“That sounds good. You hungry now? Divine told me to bring you by. She cooked too. My man has everybody trying to feed him.”
“You need to be trying to feed me too. I need that,” he licked his lips while looking over at me.
“What about if I give you some head while you drive? Can you handle it without crashing my car?”
“Hell nah,” he laughed. “I took a shower this morning, but I don’t want to touch you until I shower at home. I don’t even think the water and soap in prison are clean,” he frowned. “I swear I don’t see how niggas do years in that joint, get out, and are right back within a year or two. I learned my lesson. On God I did.”
“That’s good to know.”
