“Always. Love you, too.”
The call ended, and the room fell quiet again. Heavy stood there for a moment, then got to work. He dragged a small folding table from the corner closer to the bed and started moving the money over. His fingers moved with practiced ease, organizing the stacks without needing to double-check himself.
Time passed without him paying attention to it. Counting money calmed and excited him. Heavy remembered the first time he counted one hundred dollars at six years old. That fueled a fire in him from then on. His first band as a teenager turned into ten, ten turned into fifty, and he stopped counting after a while. He’d stacked, saved, and splurged a bit, not knowing it’d be needed once he sat down for those years.
A yawn escaped him before he could stop it. By the time he finished counting and organizing one bag and was starting the second, his shoulders had relaxed a little. The buzzing of his phone caught his attention, where it sat on the bed. Seeing the name Tish for a second time today, he let it ring for a few more seconds before picking it up.
“Yeah.”
“You couldn’t answer the first time?” Tish asked, her voice already edged with irritation, but it softened just slightly, now that he had actually picked up.
Heavy leaned back in his chair, thankful he’d finished before she threw him off. “I’m in the middle of something. What’s up?”
“Every time I call, you’re in the middle of something. If you don’t want to fuck with me, just say that.”
He’d hurt her feelings if he came right out and said that, and Tish knew it. Still, that’d be better than him ignoring her for days on end or giving her the same dry answer.
“If I say that, then what? You gon’ stop blowing my line down?”
“You know what...” She huffed, sucking her teeth.
Heavy chuckled, knowing she was about to hang up. “I’m fucking wit’ you. I do be busy, though. You be calling at the most inconvenient of times.”
“Well, let me know that instead of acting nonchalant with me. You know I don’t like when you do that.”
He could’ve named a few things he didn’t particularly like that she did, but Heavy wasn’t that type of nigga. She was voicing her grievances, and he was listening, waiting for the point in the conversation he knew was coming. It always did.
“A’ight. What’s up, though? You straight?”
On the other end, Tish went quiet for a second. She was deciding how she wanted to say what she really called for. When she spoke again, her attitude had settled, and her tone was much softer.
“I’m straight,” she said. “I just… I haven’t really heard from you. Not like that.”
Heavy leaned back in his chair, his eyes drifting to the ceiling as he rolled his neck slowly. “I been around.”
“Not for me,” she replied. “I miss you.”
There it was.
He slightly shifted forward, sliding his phone onto the table where the money was no longer crowding it. “You know I been having a lot going on.”
“Okay,” she said as if his response was rhetorical. “You always have something going on.” Those words didn’t come out sharp this time. It sounded like she was more tired than anything. “That doesn’t change the fact that I miss you.”
“I know,” he replied.
That wasn’t the reply she wanted. Tish wanted him to say it back.
“Do you?” she asked. “Because it doesn’t feel like it.”
Heavy exhaled heavily through his nose. “I do.”
“You’ve been moving differently since you got home,” Tish added after a beat. “And I get it… you had to adjust. I wasn’t tripping on that. But then…” She paused, like she didn’t want to say it wrong. “After Dre… it’s like you just checked out.”
Heavy’s jaw tightened slightly at the mention of his name. He didn’t know what she was trying to get at exactly, but she was five seconds away from pissing him off.
“I’ont really know what you want me to tell you, Tish. You saying everything but what you really wanna say.”
“When can I see you?” she asked, bringing it back to what she really wanted.
