"I'm gonna try to do better," he said. "But I ain't never been no soft nigga. You got to understand that."
---
I showered and got dressed quick. I had moves I needed to make today. I got in the truck and gave the driver the address to my bank. Sam sat up front quiet, but watching me through the mirror.
Sam was with me at the bank. Standing close. Watching over my shoulder like I might do something stupid.
I withdrew ten thousand dollars. Hoped it would be enough for a while. I knew that I wasn’t in a position to be moving back and forth without looking suspicious.
But I already knew this wouldn’t be enough. When you are dealing with greedy and money, hungry people, they always try to find a way to make you come out of more money.
---
The driver took me all the way to Temple, Texas. Three and a half hours out into the country where my aunt lived.
When I got out the car, I took a deep breath before going inside.
My aunt was sitting at the kitchen table smoking a cigarette when I walked in. The look she gave me was of annoyance and disgust. Since I was a kid, she hated me. She went from being my favorite aunt, to be someone I despised and vice versa.
"It's about damn time you made it," she said, not even looking up.
The house was empty. Completely empty.
"Where is everybody?" I asked.
"Gone," she said. "I sent them out on purpose. We need to talk."
I felt my stomach drop. Talking to her ass was never good.
"You know we have a routine," I said, trying to keep it light.
"Fuck a routine," she snapped. "You been missing for a damn week, Tattiana."
"Things happened that's out of my control," I said. "I have to get married unexpectedly. A lot of unforeseen things came up where I couldn't call or come by."
She put the cigarette down and looked at me straight.
"How the fuck are you getting married and unexpectedly? What the fuck does that even mean, when you got other obligations?" she asked. "Who's paying for the wedding?"
"My husband," I said. "In this generation that's the husband's job. And it's just a small ceremony anyway."
"Your husband," she repeated. "So you marrying that trainer? The one that cheats on you? Everybody's talking about it. It's all over your town. Hell, the talk even made it all the way down here."
"He doesn't cheat," I said, but my voice was weak. I didn’t want to tell her that I wasn’t marrying Savion. That was too much of my personal business to share with her.
She pulled out another cigarette and lit it.
"You got other things to worry about than who cheating on who," she said.
I pulled the money out of my bag, the ten grand. Sam was standing right outside the front door where I could see him through the window.
I handed her the bag of money.
She looked inside and smiled.
"This will buy you another two weeks," she said, fingering through the bills.
"How long does this have to go on?" I asked. "How long are you gonna keep doing this?"
