Capri 3

11. Capella

capella

. . .

It took a little minute, but one of the things my boy had was a big ass bruise on the side of his face. We were lucky considering what could have fucking went down had he not unbuckled himself and got under the seat.

Aimee was back staying at the lake house, and we didn’t speak at all. She tried to make small talk with me and wanted to have an in-depth conversation and I brushed her off. I was still mad at her, and then at myself for putting my hands on her.

I happened to be sleep in the living room at my pops’ house when I felt someone slap the shit out of me, and it was my aunt. She saw Aimee’s neck, and she was pissed that I put my hands on her. Considering the dumb shit she did, she was lucky that was all I had done. As a man, I recognized that I was wrong and should have never put my hands on a woman, especially, the woman I loved.

Rory had speech therapy today and they came to the house. I was supposed to be there, and I got caught up doing some other shit. Aimee had texted and told me she could handle it, which had me leery. She had been so in denial about Rory’s diagnosis and now she was all of the sudden super mom.

Bullshit.

I pulled into the driveway at the same time Aimee was coming out the house with Rory. She had him on her hip, with her tote bag on her arm and car keys in her hands. When she spotted me, she smiled.

“Where you going?”

“I’m taking him over to his grandfather’s house and then I have to make a quick run,” she replied.

How the fuck did we get to this place? She felt like a fucking stranger and that was a mind fuck because my mouth had been all over her fucking body. How was it that she felt like we were just knowing one another for the first time.

“I can take him… I’m chilling for the rest of the day.”

Rory reached for me, and I kissed my son’s face. “You gonna chill with your daddy today… huh?”

He slapped the shit out of my cheek, and I winced ‘cause this little nigga was heavy handed. “Rory, use your words… no hands,” Aimee stepped in.

“Should have told him that before he slapped the shit out of me,” I mumbled.

Aimee laughed. “I should be back in a few hours. If you want, I can come over and grab him when I’m back.”

“He’s good… I’ll keep him.”

“Or you can come stay back at the house… I think Rory would like that.” I had been staying between my pops’ lake house, and then my aunt’s house with Jasmine. If I wasn’t at either of those spots, I was chilling with Shante at her apartment.

My phone buzzed and I checked it real quick.

Shante: I took off because I thought you were gonna stay the night.

I turned my attention back to Aimee. “Just Rory, huh?”

“I mean, it would feel nice not being in the house alone. Rory doesn’t give much conversation when his favorite show is on,” she giggled, and pushed the loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“Something to think about.”

“No pressure… take your time. I know you’re between places, and I’m fine with sharing the house… our main goal is Rory, right?” Her phone rang, and she looked down at the phone before answering. “I’m on my way, Don… nigga, no,” she laughed.

My skin became hot when she mentioned Don, only because I knew that was the nigga, Landon. The one she claimed was a friend, and I had nothing to worry about. “Got plans with Landon?”

I couldn’t help but to ask because the shit had me mad. She was making plans with Landon, when she should have been kissing my fucking feet for the fuck shit she did with our son.

“It’s work, Capella. Me and Landon are friends… that is all,” she tried to assure me, then turned her attention to our son. “Give Mommy kiss,” she held his cheeks and kissed him on the lips.

I watched as she walked to her new car that my father bought her. “Aim?”

“Yeah?” she quickly turned around like she was expecting me to say something to her. I watched as she stared at me with bated breath, waiting for the next words to fall out of my mouth.

“I’ll come back home… be careful.”

She smiled. “Thanks.” I watched as she tossed her tote bag into the passenger seat, and hopped in the car, whipping out the driveway.

I was confused on what the fuck I wanted when it came to me and Aimee. One minute I wanted my family back, like now. Then the next I felt like I couldn’t trust what the fuck Aimee was telling me.

Would she be on some weird shit again, acting like I wasn’t here for her or family? I wanted to trust that she would come to me when she had a problem, but I couldn’t trust that right now.

Rory ran into his grandfather’s house in search for his aunt, who was on the floor in the living room playing with magnetic tiles. When she saw Rory, she tossed the tiles to the side and got excited to see him.

My father was laid on the couch watching some car show, and from the look of him laid out on the couch, it looked like it was watching him. I kissed my sister and left both her and Rory to play with the tiles.

Alaia was in the kitchen looking at some dough in a jar. She leaned back like she was examining it and trying to figure out what went wrong. She heard me toss my keys and phone onto the counter and finally looked up.

“Hey Baby Capp,” she teased, as she shook the jar, which had dough, but it looked watery and a weird ass color.

“Joy Gunn, the fuck you in here doing?” I took a seat on the stool and watched as she tossed whatever in the jar into the trash.

She washed her hands. “I think your father did something to my new sour dough starter… smells like water and something I can’t put my finger on.”

I wasn’t even going to pretend like I knew what she was talking about. Alaia was a little Muslim Martha Stewart in her home. She cooked, baked, and could make a fire ass mocktail that you didn’t even miss the alcohol in.

Aside from what she did in the kitchen, she kept the house clean without a housekeeping staff. She could easily hire one, but she preferred to take care of her home. I admired how she honored my father and wanted to submit to him.

“How long he been sleep?”

“If you let him tell it, he’s not sleeping… claims he has mastered resting his eyes in prison,” she rolled her eyes. “I thought Aimee was gonna bring him over?”

“I caught her as she was leaving out and took him from her… you know where she’s going?”

Alaia smiled. “I know she told you where she was going and you’re trying to see if I tell you something different. All I know is Core has her doing something… that’s all I know.”

“Hmm.” I looked over on the kitchen table and saw two car seats sitting on top of the table with a diaper bag. “Babies coming?”

“It’s almost time and Erin is helping me get everything together for my boys.” She was so excited, and I couldn’t help but to be excited to get two new siblings.

“Seems like it flew… how you feeling?”

She sighed. “Scared. Promise was such an easy baby, and she was only one. Two babies at one time is intimidating. I also want to give my baby girl all the attention that she’s used to.”

“You will figure it out like you always do. Joy, you really do this mom thing… and the twins are the last piece of the puzzle.”

Alaia snorted. “Your father wants two more.”

“The fuck?”

“He’s spent most of his adulthood locked behind a wall, missed out on time with you as a child, and wants a big family. That man in there deserves everything he wants, and I love the idea of us being a family of eight.”

Shante: Hello????

Alaia tried to act like she didn’t see the text message pop up on my screen. “Yeah, this the perfect time for me to take my ass back home.”

“Oh? You going back across the street?”

“Aim said she didn’t mind sharing the house with me… so gonna go back for Rory… give her more help when he over there.”

“She knows about Shante?”

“We’re friends.”

“Damn, that’s different.”

I looked at her confused. “What you mean?”

“I’ve gotten so used to my husband never lying to me that seeing you lie to me hit different.” She shrugged.

“Alaia, everybody not perfect like yo’ husband,” I laughed.

She held her hand up. “My husband isn’t perfect. Being an honest person and perfect doesn’t go hand in hand. It’s impossible to be both. That’s your problem… you see your father, our marriage and our home as perfect and you want that. We’re private when it comes to our marriage but know that I be upside yo’ pappy’s head sometimes.”

“Stop fronting.”

“Cappadonna always jokes that I finally found my voice, and I have. For so many years my voice was taken from me, I didn’t have that control to speak my mind. Your father has created a safe space for me to speak my mind. I think his ass actually gets turned on when I be mushing his ass.” She laughed. “Anyway, I say all of this to say that nothing is perfect in a relationship, but when we step out that front door, I got his back, and he got mine… I don’t give a fuck if that man tells me that a dolphin is walking down the street… that dolphin is walking down the street and I’m prepared to stand on it in front of anyone… when we get home, I’m def gonna tell his ass he was wrong.”

“I hear you.”

“Aimee is not me, Erin, or Capri… we’re all different women, different wives, and do things in our home differently. Capri has a full housekeeping staff in her home, and she gets her groceries delivered. You wouldn’t catch her food shopping unless she was running in and out. Me and Erin happened to bond over our love for taking care of our families. We’re different, but we love each other. Aimee is her own woman, and if you ever get down the aisle, she won’t be like us and that’s alright. She wants to be a working mom and wife… give her the space to feel safe in wanting that. You be okay with accepting that. If not, then you need to let her go and co-parent.”

“She fucking lied to me, Joy.”

She sighed. “Yeah, and that’s not something she can take back. The question is if you can forgive her, and work on the relationship? Is this gonna be something you toss in her face every argument?”

I leaned back in the stool and thought about what she had said. Could I move on and forgive her for this? It wasn’t even about the money that was replaced as soon as it was removed from the account. It was the fact that she didn’t feel safe enough to come to me as her man. She didn’t trust that I could handle the situation and moved differently when it came to us.

“I fucked Shante.”

“You didn’t need to tell me that because any woman sending that many question marks in a text has had you. Just hate that she had that fear, and you went and proved her right.”

“Now she’s the victim?”

“Absolutely not. Neither of you are, honestly. You both gaslight the fuck out of each other, and you’re young and figuring things out. You lost your aunt and then mother, she lost her brother, and then mother… honestly, trauma bonds are real.”

“Got nothing to do with that.”

She shrugged. “What do I know, Capella? At least you were single, right?”

Promise and Rory came running into the kitchen and she picked Rory up while Promise went to try and reach up to push the ice machine button. “Let’s go get in our swimming suits so we can go swimming.” She kissed Rory and then put him down while they followed behind her up the steps.

It was funny that Rory called her Quack-Quack, because them following her up the steps reminded me of two little ducklings.

I had accumulated a few things in the guest room, so I was tossing my shit into my bag I had grabbed when I left the house.

Shante’s name came on my screen, and I sighed. “What up, Shante?”

“So, you don’t see the text messages I’ve been sending you?”

“Nah. I’m with my son… Aimee had something to handle,” I explained, not even knowing why the fuck I explained all of that.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, what up?”

“Nothing… I thought you would have stayed the night… but clearly you came to get what you wanted and left.”

“I had to pick my son up, Shante. Why you acting like that?” I lied, knowing that Rory had plans to come over here to his grandparents’ house.

She sighed. “Are you going to go back to her?”

“The fuck kind of question is that?”

“An honest one, Capella. I’m falling for you, and I need to know if you’re going back to her? Am I something to do in the meantime until you both fix things…she tried to kill your kid.”

“Chill the fuck out, Shante. Don’t speak on shit that you don’t even fucking know. Aimee got a lot of shit with her, but she would never intentionally try to fucking kill my son.”

“Your words, not mine.”

“When I was fucking drunk and high out my mind… matter fact, let me hit you back.” I ended the call before she could even agree.

“Yeah, you went and did some corny shit,” I turned around and my father was leaned in the doorway. “You lay down with dolphins, you get fucked.” He shook his head and left from the doorway.

“The fuck does that even mean?” I whispered to myself. Erin had our family fucked up over these damn dolphins.

Things were still tense between us, and we hadn’t sat down and had that conversation yet. I knew it was me, because my father was the type that liked to get everything out in the open. It was me who was prolonging because I said some hurtful shit that I didn’t mean.

Clearly, I was used to saying hurtful shit often, because I told Shante that Aimee tried to kill our son.

Fuck.