Page 69

He looked much different than he did the last time I saw him. Last time, the nigga looked rugged and beat down. Today, he had a fresh line up, and his hair was back in its signature waves. His beard looked nice, full and healthy. He cleaned up in a pair of tan trousers, with a white, short sleeved button down. There sat a nice Audemars Piguet Royal Oak on his wrist. I caught a whiff of his cologne once he got a little closer, and it was bold like most of the cologne’s he wore.

“Demarco, go ahead. Let me talk to your brother,” our pops said.

Demarco shook it up with me and then left. The spot my brother was just sitting down in, my pops lowered himself, taking the seat. He extended his right leg and kept the cane in front of him. I could see him from the corner of my eyes. My eyes weren’t directly on him.

After a few seconds, he cleared his throat, prepared to say whatever was on his mind.

“You ain’t gotta punish me by not talking to me, son. I’m going through enough punishment as is. I fucked around and lost everything. I divided my family. I put my sons in a situation where they feel like they gotta choose between me, and your mom. Demarco comes over, but he doesn’t stay too long, out of fear he may be hurting her. Kendrix will come over and I can see he’s on pins and needles with me too. I’m aware of my fuck up. I’m living in this shit every day. Don’t make the shit hurt even more by cutting me off,” he finished, and that’s when I turned my head so I could look at him.

“The divorce papers came in the mail?” I asked him, choosing not to reply to anything else that he’d just said.

“Yeah. I ain’t signing it though⁠—”

“Oh, so you going to be one of those kind of niggas? The kind that fucks off during the whole marriage and when the wife finally gets tired of that shit and files for divorce, now you going to hold out on signing? Man, that’s crazy. You wanted to move like a single man while you were married, why not just be a single man? I can answer that for you. It’s because your ass is selfish, and you like the perks that comes with marriage. You like being able to cheat and then come home to a home cooked meal. Still come home to a clean house, your bath ran, and your pajamas folded on the bed, waiting for you,” I shot.

It was so much more that I wanted to say to him, but we were at my niece’s party, and I wasn’t trying to fuck up the vibes.

“Me being selfish doesn’t have shit to do with it. I won’t sign because I still fuckin love her. How the fuck would you ever expect me to sign off on something to terminate a marriage that I still want to work?” he asked and I laughed in his face.

“Easy nigga. Same way you signed that birth certificate fifteen years at the hospital behind her back. Pick up a pen and sign that shit. The way I see it, you already signed a birth certificate without her knowing, changing the entire trajectory of ya’ll marriage in the process. The least you can do this time is sign the papers she actually asked you to sign,” I hit his ass with.

He knew I wasn’t the son that he could play this game with. I was never the son to give him a pity party, especially when it came to my mom. It’ll never happen.

Before he could respond, the door to the princess spa opened. I saw a woman walk in that I didn’t think anything of, but then I did a double take, taking another look at her, realizing that it was my mom that just walked inside. The last time I saw her, she was still rocking her long, wavy hair. This lady cut all her hair off, just like she had been hinting at for a while now, and she dyed it that highlighted blonde, and light brown color she showed us. It was cut into a shoulder length bob. The same bob she swore she was going to get. I’ve never seen my mom with short hair, let alone color.

My pops saw the same thing I saw, so his jaw was on the floor too.

She fucked the entire party up because her presence was so strong that when she walked in, everyone stopped what they were doing to look at her. No one recognized her within the first second. This lady was fresh off Turks and Caicos and it’s almost like you could feel all the fun she had. She always had good fashion sense, so I wasn’t shocked with the fit that she had on. Her fit was light washed, high waisted jeans she paired with a fitted brown long sleeve body suit tucked into the jeans. My mom had a tall, slim frame, so when she walked in, she came in looking like a model. The heels she rocked added even more height to her frame. She wore a small Louis Vuitton Nano Speedy as a cross body because her hands were occupied, holding the gift bags that she’d gotten for her grandbaby.

All her grandchildren took off, going in her direction. I couldn’t hear what the boys were saying, but they looked like they were scolding her. Maleah was running her hands through her grandmother’s hair, and I already knew that she was over there hyping her up.

In this moment, I turned to look over at my pops. I smiled at him.

“Yeah big dawg. I think you just fucked around and lost your wife,” I said, reaching up and putting my hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah okay. I always get my way,” he said, and I laughed even harder.

“Nah nigga. You used to always get your way,” I corrected him.

Maleah was pulling onto her grandmother’s hand, damn near dragging her wherever she was trying to take her. Once they were about to walk past me, I stood up, stopping them from walking. Now that I was even closer to my mom, I really got the chance to take in just how beautiful she was.

“You go to Turks for a few days and come back with all your hair gone, and you dyed it too?” I asked her with a smile on my face.

“I warned you and your brothers that I was going to do it. I got it done while I was in Turks and Caicos. You like it, son?” she asked me.

“I love it. You look beautiful,” I told her, stepping in so I could hug her. I kissed her on her forehead and then pulled away.

The second we pulled away, I saw that she was looking past me. Her eyes were on my pops. He stood up, planting the cane in front of him. Maleah had taken off running, going with her friends, so it was just the three of us right now. The shit was awkward as hell.

My pops stepped over, standing on the side of me.

“Damn. You look nice,” he couldn’t help himself.

He had to say it. After he said it, my mom smiled. I knew she didn’t smile because she was happy about the compliment. Instead, it was one of those smiles that you do when you’re getting ready to say something slick.

“I know,” she replied.

She was getting ready to walk away but stepped back over.