I nodded. “So what do I do?”
“Go home and talk to your girl,” Keith said. Sammy nodded his head, agreeing.
I sat there in silence for a second, thinking about it.
“She said she was scared that I would cheat or do something like Gio. That’s all I keep replaying in my head.”
“So are you going home?” Keith asked.
I shook my head. “Nah, I’ma sit back. Drink my bottle and smoke until I pass out. At the end of the day, I never hurt Islah, never wanted to, and never would. I want her to make up her mind on what she wants.”
“And what does Love want?” Sammy asked.
“That shouldn’t even be a question,” I responded. “I want her…”
After my niggas left, I sat in that room alone, staring at pictures of me and Islah or pictures that I took of her.
It’s crazy how they say you can’t remember what life was like before you have a baby. I couldn’t remember what life was like after Islah came into mine.
I picked my phone up off the couch beside me. I was fighting everything in my body not to call Islah, and I called Amir instead.
“Hey, Dad,” he said, picking up quick.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Yeah, just playin’ the game. Islah ordered us some food.”
Hearing her name made my heart skip a beat.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
“She’s good. Her girls are here. They were burning something in the backyard and cheering.”
I laughed, not even wanting to know what it was.
“I am glad y’all are okay. I?—”
“Are you and Islah breaking up?” he asked, cutting me off.
“Why you ask that?”
“Because I heard her talking to Kenya, Deja, and Renee. She said she didn’t want to lose you.”
That made me smirk. “No, son, we are not breaking up. We are just figuring things out.”
“So when are you coming home then?”
“Give me a day or two, and I will be home.”
“Okay, Dad.”
After hanging up with Amir, I could have grabbed the few things I had and taken my ass back home, but instead, I sat there.
I sat there and planned my future with Islah. What the next steps were, our baby, and how I was going to make it known to her for the rest of her life that I was never like no nigga that she would ever run across.
I had a plan for us. I just needed to make sure we were going to be on the same page.
I passed out in the living room and woke up early as hell in the same spot I went to sleep in. When I looked at my phone, I had a message from Islah.
