Page 60 of Just Like Summer

“We can’t steal the moon and then I leave my accomplice out in the wind. That’s how niggas get caught up. Plus, you KP’s daughter, you might be a crazy as I am,” he taunted. “You liable to kill my ass.”

Kamilla rolled her eyes. “I am not crazy. Both of us can’t be nutty.”

“Mm,” Cairo groaned. “I haven’t folded you up yet. Something about your toes touching the headboard might unlock “I’ll kill this nigga” and being that I just started living, I’ll hold off on that.”

“Oh you get on my nerves,” she laughed, lifting her body off of him, only to be pulled right back down.

“You got something else to ask me. I see it in those eyes. Tell Cai Baby what it is,” he teased.

“You get called that three times and now I can’t call you anything else?” Kamilla huffed, rolling her eyes.

“Mariposa,” he rumbled. “Say it.”

Kamilla pulled in a deep breath and huffed. “So like at any point you don’t want me or this anymore, don’t string me along. My biggest fear in life is ending up like my mother— literally dying of a broken heart.”

“Can’t imagine a world where I don’t love you. But I hear you. I’ll let you go, now if another nigga gets to have you is the part I ain’t settled with yet,” he taunted but seriousness rested all over his face.

“Oh my God, man. Let me up so I can eat my donuts. And if you’re not going to let me up, at least carry me.”

“You get real bossy when you’re hungry,” Cairo spoke, maneuvering off the bed with her still attached to him. “Got me listenin’ though.”

“Good,” she hummed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Hear this, I love you too, crazy.”

Cairo smiled, kissed her, and completed the trek to the small living room. She ate, drank her latte, and tried to ignore her buzzing phone. It was no one but Aunt J. Kamilla hit the button ignoring the call and laid back on Cairo.

“At some point you got to talk to her,” he shared.

“The point isn’t today,” Kamilla muttered. “I want to be lazy until we have to go.”

“Aight then.”

twenty-two

He watched her ignore another call from her aunt and caught the shift of her demeanor. One hand on the steering wheel, the other clasped around her hand. Cairo balanced his attention between the road and his shotgun rider.

“Any idea what she wants?” he posed.

“I thought we said we weren’t getting into it,” Kamilla muttered, looking out the window.

“You said that but it’s effecting your mood. I can feel the shift,” he noted.

Kamilla shifted in her seat pulling in a deep breath. “The only reason I’m here is because she wanted to play superhero after my mom died. The only reason she wants to talk to me is to dictate what I do and I don’t. You included. Your reputation proceeds you.”

Cairo stroked the hairs of his freshly-manicured beard. “You can’t fault her for wanting something different for you.”

“Would be appreciated if she actually cared to know me. She goes off of whatever Martez tells her. So there’s that. I’m just not in the mood to subject myself to it. Plus, I’d rather focus on you. Can I do that?”

He groaned. “Don’t focus so much on me where you forget you got shit to feel and sort through, too. This shit we got has to be healthy and whole. It can’t be something we use to distract us from the bullshit. It can be healing and all that shit, but it can’t be used as a temporary fix. We’ll fuck this up if we do.”

“Alright,” she softly replied. Cairo took her silence and let it match his. He’d ran over how to rip the band aid off. How to tell her that KP died in his arms. That that night haunted him. That loving her came with a weight. A responsibility. An oath paid in blood. A debt bestowed on him when KP’s last breath was “Carry this shit on, nigga”.

Arriving to the park where Pepe was parked, Cairo moved his gun from the center console and put it into the back of his shorts as he stepped out. He scanned the area. Once he deemed it was clear, he rounded the hood and opened her door.

“Find a seat,” he directed, a low tap to her hip.

“You don’t even know what I want to eat,” she teased.

Cairo offered her a low smirk. “C4 special. You smashed that shit last time. Unless you switching up on me.”