Page 142 of 4 Corinthians

“Hello?”

“Mama,” Judah said, sounding out of breath. “Madea said to call you and tell you I’m over here.”

“Okay,” I replied. “I’m on my way to get you.”

“Okay,” he said.

“Judah, why are you out of breath?”

“Krude is here; we were practicing.”

“Practicing for what?” I asked, confused. I could hear music in the background, but I couldn’t figure out what the song was. “Practicing what, Judah?”

“I gotta go, see you later. Love you,” he said, then hung up.

“Lord, what does Krude have my kid doing now?” I sighed as I stood. I picked up the folder, then looked over at Uri. He looked annoyed. I reached over and rubbed the skin creased by his brows being bunched together. “Breathe, Uri.”

“I am,” he said. He took my hand and kissed my knuckles. “I want to finish this conversation, but I need to go back to the office. I’ll take you to get Judah, then take you home. We will talk later?”

“Okay,” I replied. I hated knowing that this conversation hung between us, but I needed to tell him.

***

“Madea?” I called out as I opened her door. Uri followed me into the house. “Madea?”

“You yell, Judah yells, your cousins yell, the whole damn family yells,” Madea said, coming into the living room from the kitchen. “I hate to admit it, but sometimes I miss when your ass didn’t talk.” She kissed my cheek; patted Uri’s arm, then sat in her favorite chair.

“I don’t believe that,” I laughed as I sat across from her. Uri’s phone rang, and he took it out of his pocket. I felt him tense as soon as he looked at the screen. I leaned over, not to look at who was calling him, but to check on him. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right back,” he answered, then walked through the living room to the kitchen and then out to the back porch.

From the way he paced, I could tell there was something wrong. His shoulders were tensed, and his brows were bunched. Every so often he’d take his phone from his ear, look at it, and then put it back.

“You know for months you been walking around here saying you and that man ain’t nothing but friends,” Madae said. I glanced over at her to see her scrolling through her phone. “I told your granddaddy a while back that he would be the one who pulled you from your shell.”

“Madea-“

“Corinthians, I ain’t blind,” she laughed and shook her head. Her eyes may have been on her phone, but her attention was on me. “I haven’t seen you smile the way you have in…” she looked up at me with big eyes. “Ever.” She smiled. “I mean, not even when you were doing whatever with Judah damn daddy. You never talked about him, brought him around, nothing. It was just like one day you were pregnant.”

“Because that’s what it felt like,” I told her, then laughed softly. “My relationship-“

“It wasn’t no damn relationship,” she interrupted me. “Whatever you were doing with him wasn’t no relationship. It was a situation. One you shouldn’t have been in.” She gave that look that only a grandmother could, the one that meant she dared me to tell her she was wrong. I couldn’t, so I didn’t. She nodded then went back to looking at her phone. “But what you're doing with Four is different. I can see it, your granddaddy can see it, your cousins see it. And your son sees it.”

“Uri is…”

“Good for you, with you, and to you. Just like he is with Judah,” she replied. “I know love when I see it. These few months have been just that. You are falling in love with that man. Your son’s falling in love with that man. And that man is falling in love with y'all.”

“Do you think it’s too soon?”

She lifted her head. “For what Corinthians?”

“To be exploring something with him,” I answered with a shrug. “He was just introduced to y’all.”

“Girl, I have known that man for years,” she said, waving me off. “The good, bad, and ugly. I done seen it, just like you have.”

“I don’t think you’ve seen what I’ve seen,” I laughed and shook my head. She looked up at me and gave me that look again. I held my hands up in surrender and smiled. “I’m going to shut up now.”

“Nope, keep talking,” she said. “To him, let him continue to make you happy, open up, share secrets. Be each other's protectors. Do for each other because I promise you baby ain’t no other love like the one that man got for you.”