Marco is cracking up in the background. "She on that BDSM, that Dom/Sub shit."
"Listen, whoever the hell you are—"
"You may call me Athanasius." He's holding the phone away from me. "You wish to speak to Ione, she has just awakened, she was snoring."
"Eww!" Marco screams. "Let them adults do their adult shit, we don't need to be hearing all this."
Kicking Athanasius in the shin, he growls and drops the phone. "Don't hit!"
"Orlaya!" Grabbing the phone, my face is jammed into the camera. "Do not listen to him, he's foreign and his English isn't great."
"Sounds good to me." Orlaya raises an eyebrow. "Athanasius? Girl, what the hell have you been doing?"
"We have not fucked." Athanasius yells from the background.
"Shut up!" Rushing into the bathroom, I close the door behind me. "How are you? How's the baby?"
"No, no, no." Marco appears in the camera. "Where did you meet him? He is funny."
"In the neighborhood," I answer quickly. "How's the baby."
Orlaya takes a deep breath. "Ione Phaedra Davis, I am going to be calm, and you better answer me like your life depends on it."
"It does." Marcos echoes.
"Your mind better be straight," She closes her eyes. "You better get some get right, cause if I have to get on a plane and come tighten your ass up, Lord as my witness."
Orlaya raised me. Our mother died when I was four, and our father passed when I was fourteen and Orlaya was twenty-one. She's the only mother I have ever known. She's been walking a fine line between older sister and mother,sometimes the lines get blurred. This is one of them. I know she's asking because first, a man has never answered my phone, and second, because I haven't been with anyone in two years. She's concerned about me, living 2 states away, she's 7 months pregnant with her first and here I am in a new neighborhood, in a new house.
"I am fine. Nothing weird is going on. I met someone and he's really nice, kind of intense sometimes, but he's foreign." That's the best answer I can come up with. "That's why he's like that. I've been trying to educate him." Which isn't a lie. "Trust me, my neighbors think how he talks is odd too."
She narrows her eyes at me. "He better not be living with you."
"He doesn't." I lie. "He was here cause his grandmother lives near me." I hate lying to her. "I promise."
"So, what happened last night?" She's trying to read my face. "Cause he's there now…so I assume he spent the night."
"We didn't have sex." Not a lie. "We slept together. Literally."
"That's how it starts." Marco chuckles. Marco and Orlaya have been together since she was eighteen. He's like an older brother to me. "Just cuddle with me 'Laya. Look at her now. A house, a car, picket fence, married, baby on the way, spoiled as hell."
She scoffs. "Still won't get me that Van Cleef bracelet."
"I heard that," Marco is crunching on chips. "You're getting a push present, I asked for the baby, I know what to do."
Shaking her head, Orlaya moves away and stares into the phone. "Where is this Athanasius?"
"I'm in the bathroom, he can wait." I reply, propping it on the counter so I can wash my face and brush my teeth. "Why?"
"Nothing." She rubs her forehead. "The baby is fine. Big as hell, two months to go and I don't know if I can go natural, I'm getting antsy."
"Girl, ain't nothing wrong with drugs." I chuckle. "If my niece has a big head like her daddy, I can understand why."
Orlaya begins to laugh. "I'm not playing with you, you already got my pressure up."
"I'm sorry."
"Mhm," She replies. "When you go back to work?"
