Page 27

“Man, say what you supposed to say before you hang up,” I playfully threatened her, making her laugh.

“No. I feel like it’s not looking too good between me, and your niece. She going to want to fight me if I tell you I love you over the phone,” Deja dramatically said to me. Mya heard her when she said it, so she laughed, while reaching over to turn the stove off.

“You’ll rather be at odds with a five-year-old or with your man?” I asked her, causing her to smile.

“I love you,” she told me, without having to think about who she would rather be at odds with.

“Ewwww,” Maleah said, and reached over, trying to hang the phone up. That shit made me laugh because I didn’t expect her to react like that.

“I love you too. Ima hit you later,” I said, and then hung the phone up.

“You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend Uncle Wolf,” Maleah said it in a way like she was annoyed at me, and this entire situation.

“Damn, why you mad? Uncle can’t have a girlfriend? You want me to die and be lonely?” I asked.

She was too annoyed with me. She never even answered my question. She just climbed her little ass down and went back to the dining room table to finish with her coloring. My niece loved me. We had a nice little bond. She’s never seen me with another woman. I think she just didn’t know how to express her feelings right now. She was going to be fine though. I’m sure that when she got the opportunity to meet Deja, she would love her.

“Look at you, Wolf. I think all of us are surprised to see you with a girlfriend. When you showed up at the gala with her, you caught us all by surprise. I was just about to ask you how things were going between the two of you, but considering I just heard you both express your love for one another, I’m going to assume that everything is going just fine,” Mya turned around to say. There was a smile on her face the entire time that she looked at me.

One thing about Mya, even though she was going through so much fucked up shit in her marriage, she didn’t allow it to take away from her smile. My brother could have ruined the perception that she had on love. He could have made her feel as if all men weren’t shit, and that all men were going to treat her the way that her husband treated her. I could see it in her eyes that she was still hopeful when it came to love.

“Yeah. I fuck with her. We got a good thing going on,” I replied.

Not long after, we heard footsteps making their way down. Both Mya and I turned to see who it was. It was my mom making her way down. She came down in a two-piece, long sleeve pajama set. Her long hair was parted down the middle, with two single plaits. Her skin looked refreshed, as if she did a nice skin routine after her shower. You could see the glow from whatever products she might have used.

There were bags under her eyes though, proving that she wasn’t getting much sleep. The weight from whatever she was carrying was written all over her face. Every time I saw her like this, it made me want to pull up on my pops and beat the shit out of that nigga. Because I so strongly wanted to beat his ass, I was the only child of his that hasn’t gone to the hospital to visit him. I refused to. I lost so much respect for that man that I didn’t want to even be around him. Trust me, beating his ass wouldn’t hurt him as much as my absence would. I know he was sick to his stomach that I wasn’t speaking to him.

“What’s up?” I asked her, standing from my seat.

I put out one arm, so she could walk into my embrace. She did just that, wrapping both of her arms around my waist. I kissed her multiple times on her forehead and then let her go. The second I was no longer holding onto her, she tried to go into the kitchen, so she could help Mya.

“It’s okay, ma. I have it. Just sit down, and relax,” Mya said to her. My mom slowly nodded her head, and she took the empty seat that was next to me.

“How you feeling today?” I asked, even though I could look at her and just about tell how she was feeling.

“Just one day at a time son. Just one day at a time,” she told me. I nodded my head to that.

“Have you gone to the hospital to visit him?” she asked me after a few moments of silence.

“Nah,” I was quick with my response.

My mom knew that I wasn’t the son for her to sit here and try to convince me that I needed to see my father, so she didn’t. She never continued with the conversation.

I stuck around for about an hour. During that hour, I didn’t get much of an interaction with my mom because she barely spoke. I told her that I was going to come back over here tomorrow morning. I was going to get her out of the house. Take her to breakfast or something. Just wanted to change up her scenery a little bit.

Because I promised my nephew that I would play the game with him, we played one game of Madden where I beat his ass. Monroe wouldn’t let me leave the house without reminding me about the chain that I promised him and Maleah made me promise her that I was going to come to her birthday party. Her messy ass told me to leave my girlfriend at home. When she said that shit, all I could do was laugh.

Now, here I was, walking out of the door, and the second I closed it behind me, my brother came pulling his car into the driveway. I walked down their circular driveway, going over to his car, so I could greet him once he stepped out. He shut the car off, stepped out, and the second I was eye to eye with this man, I promise I could smell the pussy on him. It was loud. The cheap ass perfume was loud. The red lipstick on the collar of his shirt stuck out to me like a sore thumb.

This nigga was so loud, and sloppy about the shit that he does behind his wife’s back, that he didn’t even realize how he was getting ready to walk into the house. He tried to reach his hand out so that he could slap it up with me, but I didn’t. I took a few steps forward, getting as close to him as I could. I knew they had cameras out here, and I wasn’t sure how often Mya watched the cameras. If she did keep up with them, I didn’t want her to hear what I was getting ready to tell her bitch ass husband.

“You would think that after everything going on with pops, that it would have scared some sense into your stupid ass. You were right there to witness Emaye snap and try to kill our father. He’s laid up in the hospital right now, after taking five shots. The wound is still so fresh, yet you still going around fuckin’ off. You got a beautiful family, man. I know niggas that’ll kill to be in your shoes. I hope Mya does your bitch ass the same way that ma did pops,” I spat.

Being in the kitchen with Mya, vibing with her, seeing how good of a woman she was, it made me angry for her. She didn’t deserve to be treated the way my brother was treating her.

“How many times I gotta tell you to stay out of my marriage, nigga?” he asked me. When he asked me that, I laughed right in his fuckin face.

“The same marriage that you continue to disrespect? Yeah, aight. Keep thinking that Mya going to continue to allow you to play in her face. Dumb ass nigga, Emaye just gave her motivation. If ma can leave pops, she can leave your ass. Remember that,” was all that I had for him, bumping him, and walking over to my car.