Page 6 of Love Sanctioned

“I didn’t say you did.”

“And that’s your fault too. You knew I was coming through and went into hiding.”

She laughed. “I’m not hiding from you. I meant what I said the last time. You’re just not trying to hear me, because everything has to be on your terms.”

“And what did you say, Syn?”

“I’m not about to keep repeating myself to you. You’re extremely smart and very capable of good conversation recall. As a matter of fact, I know you know what I said.”

I laughed. “And do you remember what I said?”

“Pops, what do you think about these?” Junior walked up on me holding three shoes when I could have sworn we came in here for one pair.

“Is that Junior? Tell him I said hey.” Karsyn livened up as soon as she heard his fucking voice.

“Damn it’s like that, Syn?” I asked, splitting my attention between the two.

“That’s my stepmama, Pops?” Junior asked, his attention immediately on the phone and not the fucking shoes piled in his hands.

She laughed in my ear, just as this lil smooth fucker grabbed the phone from me with his free hand.

“Hey, Ma,” he greeted her immediately. Junior had been calling her his stepmother since the morning she made breakfast for me and him at my spot months ago. Carla, his moms, had dropped him late as fuck because she needed to fly to Tampa and care for her grandmother. Some emergency shit like that, so when she woke up, he was there and she made us breakfast without even being asked. Junior being who he was, having heard me on the phone with her a few times and finally being able to meet her, immediately started calling her his stepmother. I guessed that also came from the fact that I’d never had a chick around him unless it was blood or his mother.

Carla and I were tight as fuck when I was younger. She was seventeen and I was fifteen, but that never stopped anything, hence Junior now being sixteen and me thirty-one. I was young as shit when she had him though. Hell, I didn’t know a damn thing about being a father, but we grew up together, learning as I went. It was never anything between me and Carla though, just good coparenting and her deciding years after Junior was born that she liked women instead of men anyway.

Junior brought the phone back a few minutes later, then went to find an associate to get his size.

“Why does it seem like you’re happier to talk to Junior than me?”

“’Cause I am. Is that all or do I nee⁠—”

“Nah, that ain’t. Gimme your word that you are coming by the house tonight.” My eyes stayed on my boy while he waited for ol’ girl to bring his shoes out.

“And why would I do that? I meant what I said, Posydiann.”

“We can talk about what you said.”

She laughed. “Why do you have to be so smooth? You don’t wanna talk, Posydiann.”

“Nah I don’t, but if that’s what needs to happen to get you to come, then I will.”

She was quiet for a moment, digesting my words. “Fine, I’ll come over tonight.”

That was all she had to say and I was all smiles. I knew I should have never fucked with Karsyn, should’ve steered clear of her after that night. I didn’t though. Instead I kept seeing her and I fucked up. I got to know her past what was between her legs.

I had always known of her through Junnie. Shit, she was her best friend, but I never addressed her and she never addressed me. I also knew she was ol’ dude’s daughter, so I really didn’t have anything to say to her. Then I got shot, almost dying in the process, and before I knew it, I was thinking about all the things I hadn’t before. Two weeks later I was leaving Dirties and saw a fool trying to handle her. I didn’t like that shit at all, and for the first time in my whole life, I was reckless for a cause other than my own street agendas. She went home with me that night and she’d been doing it since. Well until she decided she wanted more, and for the life of me, I couldn’t decipher what the fuck that more was. She was convinced that I was fucking other people, but I wasn’t. For about a year and a half, the only person I had been fucking with was her. She had been around my son, shit, my family. While she was trying to keep this away from her folks, I wasn’t hiding a damn thing.

I paid for Junior’s shoes then we went by a few more stores before heading home and to my mama’s spot. Her, my grandmother, and my uncle lived in a two-flat in the heart of Watertown. No matter how many times I tried to move them out to Marshall or Westvale, none of them were going for that. They wanted to stay where they grew up and I understood that shit one hundred percent because I still stayed there. Watertown was home, and would always be such, regardless of the dangers people not from it feared. In order to exist in Watertown, you had to be aware of the flow and stay the fuck away from shit you knew nothing about. Long story short, keep your nose clean and stay the fuck out of the way. I purposely bought both the buildings and had security gates installed around the perimeter because when it came to safety I didn’t play any of that.

I pulled into the alley behind my house and pressed the garage button for the door to open.

“You wanna buy me a car?” Junior said out of nowhere while I was backing into the garage.

I glanced over at him like he had lost his fucking mind because obviously he had. ’Cause who the fuck was about to buy his non-driving ass a car. “Yo, you good? Who’s about to buy you a car, Psy?”

“You. I’m boutta be seventeen. You gonna drop me off and pick me up from school every day? You don't even like it when I take buses or rideshare.”

I coughed because he had me. “You don’t even have your permit.”