16. Quameer
quameer
. . .
I sat on the upper deck of the yacht and was finally enjoying my pregnancy. The sun beamed down on my pale ass legs as I looked at my wife reading a pregnancy book in complete heaven. She had her feet crossed as she wiggled them in the sun and popped a piece of pineapple into her mouth. Considering the shit that had just gone on last week, this was needed for all of us. Me, Core and Sim chartered a yacht off the coast of Capri.
Yeah, I was corny like that, and it made my baby smile so wide, so it made it all worth it. Since we had been here, we been eating, swimming, playing spades, and doing karaoke at night. The damn yacht was so big that we weren’t on each other’s back. With a full staff and chefs on board, there wasn’t shit that we even needed to do.
I told Capri that I would give her the honeymoon of her dreams and I had done that shit. Core and Sim refused to let me handle the tab, because they were coming along, so we split the shit three ways.
Two weeks on a yacht cost more than what some people ever saw in their lifetime, and we had shelled out the money like it was nothing so our women could have a good fucking time. As I watched Capri in complete heaven, her phone off and smacking heavily on those pineapples, all the bullshit had been worth it to see her in this moment.
Her stomach out in the open as she wore a bikini, and her curls on display from the sea water.
“What other facts you got for me, Sug?” I asked, as I rolled my weed.
When it came to weed, I was going to find that bitch wherever I went. I smelled one of the staff members smoking on the lower deck one night, and the muthafucka damn near tried to eat the blunt because he thought he was in trouble.
He took me on the speed boat back to land and I was able to cop me some for the two weeks on the boat. When Suga went to sleep, I came out on the deck off our room and smoked.
I was serious about not smoking near my wife while she was carrying our blessing. She was skimming through the book to find another fact for me, as I sealed my spliff with my tongue.
“They hiccup in the womb, too,” she replied.
“Word? They be drinking the fluid that’s in the stomach, right?” I questioned, and she flipped through the book.
“There’s piss in that fluid you know?”
“Now, niggas gonna be calling my daughter pissy… look at me, Sug. When niggas call me pissy, I’m gonna need you to act like I’m yo fucking husband. I tried to school Sim’s ass and he fucking failed.”
Capri laughed. “You took me on a honeymoon off the coast of my actual name… when they call you pissy, they gotta see me.”
I leaned over and she kissed my lips. Before I pulled away, she kissed me a few more times. “Stop trying to get a taste of the damn bourbon, Suga.”
“Damn, I can’t even kiss my husband without being accused of trying to taste the liquor on your lips.”
I laughed and pulled her into my lap, as she tossed the book to the side. “I got to sit and have a conversation with Brandi when we’re back.”
“Which is expected. One door closes, eight more open…what are you going to say?”
I sighed. “I asked Peach the other day what color horse she wants.”
Capri’s head snapped in my direction. “Quameer, you are not going to kill Brandi. Peach loves her mother and that would kill her.”
“She got you now, Sug,” I calmly replied as I watched her straddle my lap and stare at me.
“I’m not her mother, Quameer. I love Peach with all my heart, but I am not Brandi. The damage from losing her mother will be heavy. You may hate her, but she’s a good mother to Peach, and their relationship is so sweet and pure.”
“Stop thinking about your own situation with your mother, Sug… putting your emotions and feelings into this ain’t gonna help,” I replied.
Capri was losing her shit right in front of me. “Quameer, you cannot be serious about that. Martin is already gone and Peach loved him, are you really going to kill her mother too? I don’t support it… not when there’s no proof of Brandi even doing anything other than being a hoe.”
“I’m deadass.”
Capri folded her arms as she stared down at me. “So, you made up your mind?”
“When the fuck did you become Brandi’s lawyer? Every chance she has gotten to display disrespect toward you, she has… why are you getting so fucking emotional, Sug?” I reached up and swiped away her tears.
I hated to see my baby cry and lately, her ass cried for the smallest shit. It was the hormones, so I learned to tread lightly with her. It took all of us to calm her down when I revealed where we were going.
She removed herself from me and I tried to pull her back, and she snatched her hand away from me. “How can you look that little girl in the eyes knowing what you did? Peach loves both her parents and would be distraught if any of you were taken from her. No matter how much Peach loves me, I cannot replace her mother, Quameer. That is her mother, and Brandi may be a bitch to me, but she’s the best mother to her daughter… so, do what you gotta do, but I’m not approving this.” She stormed back into our room, and I sighed.
I was conflicted on getting at Brandi because of Peach. When it came to raising my daughter, I already knew that I could take care of her. It was when I thought of how she would act after losing her mother. Peach was so outgoing, sarcastic and sweet because me and Brandi always put our shit to the side when it came to her.
She never saw the hate that I had for her mother, and neither of us bad mouthed the other in front of her. I couldn’t front like it didn’t worry me how my child would change after experiencing death. She was too young to really understand the impact on losing both Cherie and Harley.
With her age and how smart she was, she would understand death more clearly now. Especially with it being her mother. Capri was so passionate about it because she saw her and her mother. Jean may have loved Capri, but their relationship had been shit for years.
When Suga looked at Peach and Brandi, she saw something she had always wanted. Something that she would give to her own daughter.
“Fuckkkkkkk!” I yelled, kicking my feet and tossing the damn pregnancy book across the deck.
Instead of going after Capri, I took the stairs down to the lower deck where Sim was laid out in the sun with headphones on. Blair was lying beside him topless on her stomach evening out her tan.
I pulled his earbud out and he looked up at me. “Blaze, don’t touch me.”
“Capri wild on you, huh?” Blair lifted her head up and looked at me with a smirk on her face.
“Yeah… shit complicated.” I took a seat in the lounge chair next to Blair, who turned her head in my direction. “She doesn’t want me to handle Brandi.”
Quasim raised his eyebrows. “Blaze, you just be saying shit, huh?”
I looked at my older brother and contemplated if I wanted to toss Blair’s tanning oil at his head. “The fuck you mean I be saying shit?”
“Ain’t no reason to fucking kill her… I got my ear to the streets, and she was fucking Tookie… they meeting was just some rekindling type of shit… stupid of her, but like I said, I never liked that bitch.”
Blair’s head turned from me back to Sim, and then back to me again. “I can ask around… I still know some of the girls that mess with those Vipers.”
“Oh, so you want to ruin the day and piss me off, Blair?” Quasim asked her, and he was dead serious with his question.
“He want an answer, too,” I told her.
“I’m just saying… if you really wanna know what she’s up to, I can fi?—”
Quasim leaned forward. “Everything that happens before an Inferno comes into your life don’t fucking matter, Beautiful. I been handling shit for a long time, and I find shit out… Blaze, when we get back, we’ll talk to Brandi. Don’t damage my niece like that… if it comes to where we have no choice, we cross that bridge when we get there. I would never want her to experience grief like that… not when she doesn’t have to.” He stood up, grabbed his drink and headed inside.
“I would get up to, but you know… kind of exposed right now.” Blair laughed. “Seriously, this isn’t something light to consider, Meer. Making a choice like that will alter your entire life, so even though Capri may be hormonal, she’s not entirely wrong.”
“She extends too much fucking grace to people that don’t deserve the shit,” I vented.
I loved my wife beyond words, but the way she extended grace needed to be studied. Capri could and would find the positive in even the most undeserving person.
“When you’re used to always people pleasing, it doesn’t leave you so easily. Capri isn’t thinking of Brandi in this situation, she’s thinking of your daughter, her stepdaughter. Has nothing to do with Brandi or even extending her grace. She knows if you make a decision like this, it won’t only mess with Ryder… it will mess with you, too.”
“I don’t give a fuck about Brandi, Blair,” I defended.
She reached behind her back and tied the bikini around her and fixed herself before fully sitting up. “I believe you; I really do. You hitting her with that ring lives rent free in my head. You and Brandi had history… love was shared, and even if you never admit it, it will mess with you every time you comfort Ryder in her grief journey, the guilt will eat you alive.”
I was looking down at my hands and then looked up at Blair. “I hear you, B.”
She grabbed my hands and smiled. “Make sure your reasons aren’t because of you, Meer. I know it hurts to find out what she was doing. As much as I am over Tookie, it hurts that he was sleeping with her while putting me through hell… they both were wrong for what they did to us but look at us… better people than both of them. You living a life that she wants with Capri is killing her already.”
Core came outside with a bottle of Don Julio and sat on the lounge across from us. “I’m going to shower before us girls go shopping in town.”
“Blair?”
“Yeah?”
“You burned the fuck up… back a whole different color from your face,” I replied, and she started laughing.
“Meer?”
“Hmm?”
“Fuck ya.” She stuck both her middle fingers up, as she walked backward, bumping right into Quasim.
He raised his eyebrow while looking down at her. “Oh yeah? You on it like that?”
She blushed and stuck her middle finger at me once more. “Don’t be mad because he caught yo’ hood ass in the act. What happened to the peaceful light-breathing Lamaze Blair!” I called behind her, and she stuck her finger up at me again, and hurried inside.
Quasim laughed, coming back out with another drink and a cigar. No sooner than Blair went in, Skyler came out with a plate of food in her hand. Core looked at her strange as he sat up and accepted it from her.
“Geeky, I just fixed you and Jeffie both a plate.”
“And we made you a plate… take it before I eat your shrimp.” She tried to turn, and he grabbed her hand.
“Damn, I can’t say thank you?”
Skyler laughed and allowed him to kiss her on the lips before she went back inside. Soon as she went inside, Jeffie came out with a drink and his phones.
“Your phone chimed, and I bought you a Chinotto.” She sat the glass bottle down beside Core as he sat his plate down.
“Here you go, Quasimmy,” Blair called, as she brought him a sandwich, and I looked between both Core and Quasim being catered to.
Meanwhile my wife was upstairs in our room probably flushing my spliffs down the toilet because she was so pissed with me. “Appreciate you, Love.” His hands lingered on her ass, and he gave it a squeeze, as I tossed myself back on the lounge chair.
“Alright, I’m really gonna go get ready now.”
“I’m gonna have to order me some for when we leave… addicted to these,” Core smacked on his food as Jeffie popped open the bottle cap.
He had started drinking a local soda here in Italy called Chinotto. Core had been tossing them shits back like they were fucking beer instead of soda.
As she was leaned over putting his drink back, Core puckered his lips out, and Jeffie kissed him. “Enjoy fellas.” She turned with a smile on her face as Core watched her switch back inside, like he had done with Skyler seconds before.
“The fuck am I enjoying? Ain’t nobody bought me shit.”
“And they won’t with that attitude!” Suga yelled over the banister from the top deck, and I shook my head.
“I’m sorry, Sug!” I yelled back.
“She was the one having difficulty with what you wanted?” Quasim asked, while taking a big ass bite of his sandwich, that looked good.
“Blair made that?” I asked, not even caring about what Core had going on.
“Yeah. Prosciutto and swiss cheese on fresh bread… I had mentioned I wanted it last night when we were playing cards.” He took another bite on purpose and turned his attention back to Core. “You both spoke more on it?”
Core was too busy fucking his food up. “Nah. I didn’t take them on this trip to ram what I want down their throat. They both know, and I’m a patient man. We just enjoying each other.”
“In what fucking way?”
“In the way that keeps their clothes on… they sharing a room, and I got my own. I’m not on it like that.”
I nodded. “I respect it. They both know what they’re signing up for, and on the real, the way y’all be having fun… shit is lowkey beautiful.”
Many may have a lot to say with the way that Core lived his life, but I respected it. He respected both Skyler and Jeffie, and when they were together, they were always laughing together.
Me and Suga been on our own personal mission to spot who looks like they’re jealous, and so far, we couldn’t spot shit. Jeffie respected Skyler’s time with Core, and Skyler respected Jeffie’s time with Core. How a nigga had energy for two women were beside me.
I was over here struggling with my little nutcase. Then I went ahead and put a little nut in her, and now she mad at me for wanting to kill my baby mama.
“Yeah, I got a date planned for each of them.” He finished his food. “What the fuck we getting into while the girls shop.”
“Tell ‘em to pull the jet skis out… I’ll dust yo’ ass.”
Core chuckled. “I ain’t been on a jet ski since I took Bia to Mexico… seem like a lifetime ago.”
Me and Quasim looked at each other. “Bia who?”
Core laughed. “Steele… I’m already knowing that you know who Bia is.”
“Yeah… how the fuck do you know who she is?”
“We used to fuck around.”
I paused. “You really been around this whole time and niggas didn’t know… I’ve chilled with Bia plenty of times.”
“Infernos and Steeles run deep. I also know the Delgatos and Infernos do, so I kept my distance until it was time.”
“I ain’t never met a hood ass geek in my life.”
Core stuck his middle finger up as he guzzled the rest of his soda. “Shouldn’t you be worried about your wife? She probably up there tossing your shit off the top deck.”
I sighed. “Let me go make it right with my baby.”
Quasim snickered. “Blaze about to go beg.”
I popped my head next to him so quick I scared the shit out of him. “And fucking is!” I mocked Capri.
Core busted out laughing. “You really a fucking clown.”
“Yeah, prepare to get your ass dusted later.”
“Put your money where your mouth is.”
“What we offering?”
“Fifteen stacks.”
Sim leaned forward. “Make it twenty.”
I pretended to stumble back. “Oh shit… Sim ‘bout to show us how it’s done?”
He chuckled and stood up. “Bout to take a nap.”
I followed behind him and headed to go patch shit up with my wife, because I hated when she was mad at me. Capri had some valid points and after having a conversation with Blair and Quasim, maybe I had been overdoing it.
Either way, let me see one thing that didn’t fucking add up, and Peach was getting a fucking horse, and Brandi was being buried in mauve.