Capri 3.5 (Season Three: Delgato Family: Capri)

26. Capella

capella

. . .

Jaiden whipped on the highway in a brand-new Audi that the company had sent him to drive while he was in town for the holidays. My guy had so many people that couldn’t wait for him to go pro so that they could sponsor him.

It was like he grew up overnight and wasn’t my little brother anymore. Between his slight beard, muscles and tattoos, he was changing right in front of my ass and I was proud of his ass. He had always had the dream and now it was right there and about to happen for him.

“You wanna act like you could get a ticket out here?” I said, as I checked my phone and responded to a message from Aimee.

She needed me to get Rory because she had class this week, and I told her that I would stay at the house with him. Pops and Alaia were in the process of moving onto the compound since their house was completed.

Even Jo’s house was completed, and she was going to move in soon. Ryai and Big Mike had bought a house closer to the city, but would spend time between there and Jo’s house on the compound.

The only house on the compound that wasn’t completed was Meer and Capri’s house, and that was because they extra asses was doing the most. Shit looked like a damn glass box with all the modern touches they added to it.

Me and Aimee decided we wouldn’t move into our house until we figured out what we were doing in our marriage, so it was just sitting there vacant. Pops wanted her to move into the new house with him, but she was trying to convince him to allow her to move into a condo in the city to be closer to the city.

“With the way the New York Sonics want me… I can promise you they would let me off with a warning and probably an autograph.” He laughed, as he exited the expressway as we headed to Fern.

“I’ll be fucking hype if you get drafted back home… get to see you all the fucking time now.” My chest became tight when I thought of getting my best friend back.

Jaiden laughed. “We get a condo in the city together…. And really be out here getting the bitches.”

“Elliot,” I coughed.

He looked over at me. “She said she’s not going to chase behind me, she got her own dreams and I respect that… you know she lost the baby, right?”

“Kind of expected that when you didn’t tell Erin about it or make an announcement.” I sighed, knowing that shit was tough for the both of them.

“It’s crazy because I wasn’t ready to become a father, but I damn sure wasn’t ready to lose my seed either… this is the second seed that I lost, C.”

I knew Joie and the baby she was pregnant with fucked with him daily. It was one of the main reasons that he worked hard to go away to college, hoping that the pain of losing her would somehow subdue and he wouldn’t have to deal with it.

“Yo, don’t blame yourself for what happened in both situations… as fucked up as it is for Elliot to lose the baby, something bigger is on the rise for you both.”

“Hard not to blame myself for Joie… I got her mixed in my shit because I wanted to be following behind Timmy’s stupid ass… some nights I wake up sweating thinking about how I did him in.”

Catching your first body was never easy and that shit stuck with you. I remember when I caught my first body and ended up throwing up in my bedroom at my aunt’s crib. She thought I had a stomach virus and I was sick because I had ended someone’s life. The shit never got easier, you just become colder.

Now, I could do that shit without blinking twice, and that was only because I had become numb to the shit. Jaiden was never supposed to live this life, so it made sense why he was struggling with catching his first body.

Not only did he catch his first body, but it was his best friend. That shit alone was a heavy burden to carry around. He lost his girl, baby, and then his best friend right behind each other.

“You did what you had to do for Joie… nobody thinks less of you for that.”

Jaiden continued pushing it through the streets. “Yeah… I hear you. The fuck is up with you and Aimee?”

“Nothing right now. We’re in a good place where we not arguing when we’re around each other… even be laughing with each other.”

“You trying to laugh the panties right off her.” Jaiden chuckled.

As much as I wanted my wife back, I knew I had to earn it. I couldn’t say all the right things in hopes of her coming back to me. I had to show her that I was capable of change and that I was going to change for the both of us. While I wanted to be inside her more than life, I knew that wouldn’t do anything but confuse the both of us.

“Nah. I just want her to be happy… shit I just want to be happy too. Finding out I have sickle cell and then being epileptic put me in a fucking depression… feeling like I’m this sick nigga she had to settle for because she doesn’t have family.”

“That’s you projecting though. She never said that shit, you gotta handle your own shit. Don’t take out what you’re feeling about yourself out on her.” Jaiden pulled in front of Fern.

I sighed. “Yeah, you probably right.”

The little niggas that wanted to be Inferno Gods so bad were hanging out front. The Gods usually tolerated them because they never meant no harm. All they wanted was to be put on.

He looked at me as he hit the button to turn the car off. “Nah, I am right. Aimee never cared about any of that… she loves you because of you. It’s you that gotta get that shit out your head. Stop always getting on her neck because you think she fucking somebody. As much as she’s to blame for not telling you all the secrets she was keeping, that shit on you for not creating a safe space for her… we got all these men showing us the example, we have no choice but to know how to step behind our women.”

I nodded as I took in wisdom from Jaiden of all people. “I hear you… let me buy you a drink since I stopped drinking.”

Drinking was the cause of all of my problems. Whenever I got to drinking, the thoughts in my mind turned dark and I turned into someone that I wasn’t. I wasn’t a man that put his hands on women. I’ve been raised better than that and my aunt would have beat the shit out of me if she saw how I was out here living.

We walked into Fern and I spotted Shante right away. She tried to act like she was busy and didn’t notice me, but I peeped her right away. Since she told me that she was pregnant, I’ve kept my distance from her.

I was on a path of trying to be a better man and she made me want to beat her ass with my bare hands. The shit she pulled with trying to toss my father and what happened between him and Ace in my face didn’t sit right with me.

She was someone that couldn’t be trusted, and knowing that she sent Aimee a picture of us, she had broken my trust when it came to her. Aimee looked hurt and I couldn’t shake the look in her eyes when we were in Monaco.

“Oh shit, they let an NBA superstar up in this little ass bar… what up with you?” Kincaid dapped Jaiden up and sat on the opposite side of him.

“Ain’t shit… home for the holidays… how you been? Fatherhood kicking yo’ ass?”

Kincaid laughed and pulled his phone out. “Nah… I love my seed. Look at his ass…he gonna play football.”

“How Jas been with motherhood and shit?”

“Fucking beast when it comes to him… wish her mother could have seen her. The best fucking mother.” He smiled as he looked down at the picture of his son, my little cousin.

I looked over at him. “She still considering moving?”

Kincaid and Jasmine were broken up because he didn’t want to commit. Jasmine thought when she had the baby that he would give up his place, or even offer to move her in with him. Kincaid was still between both of their houses and didn’t seem like he could make up his mind.

“Yeah, I ain’t with that shit and already told her I would kill that boyfriend of hers.” He was serious as shit.

Jasmine reconnected with an old college boyfriend and she was ready to up and move to Atlanta to be with him. I stayed out of other people business because my own shit was fucked. However, taking their son away from Kincaid was fucked up.

“Hey, welcome to Fern… what can I get you?” Shante looked directly at Jaiden with her hoe ass.

“Bottle of water and some of those kettle chips that you keep back there,” Jaiden placed his order with her, and she looked toward me.

“And for you?”

“Stop fucking playing with me, Shante.”

The smirk that appeared before she rolled her eyes told me what type of time she was on tonight. It was Friday night and the bar was starting to pack out so I knew I wouldn’t have her for much longer.

“What do you want, Capella? Not like you’ve even checked on this baby… all my appointments have been alone... so why are you really here?” The other bartender called her, and she went back down to the other side of the bar.

The other bartender came and brought Jaiden his water and chips while we chilled watching the game on the screen. “Oh shit.”

I followed Jaiden’s eyes and saw Aimee, Skyler, and Lia walking into the bar. They were laughing and moving their body to the music that played. Aimee had me about to rise up off this fucking stool with how good she was looking.

She wore an all-black one-piece suit with thigh high boots on. Her fucking body looked amazing and that suit showed every inch of that shit. She had a cropped jean jacket on, so I could see that ass from the front.

Her natural hair was out and hung down her back. I knew she wore her natural hair more because it was cooler outside and she wouldn’t have an afro. I watched as she saw Havoc and signed something to him and he nodded toward her.

When she turned around, her hair flung in slow motion. It was like I was experiencing her for the first time, which was crazy because she was my wife. Everything inside of me was on alert as she walked over toward me.

I was nervous as shit the closer she got to me. This was Aimee.

My Aim.

The mother of my child.

Why the hell was I so nervous like she was someone new. Then again, she was someone new. She had been going to therapy and working on her, so she wasn’t the same Aimee that I had experienced. She wasn’t the same woman I had fell in love with and abused in the past.

“Hey you,” she pinched me.

Her sweet spicy yet sweet perfume caressed my nose as she stood in between me and Jaiden. “What’s going on? You didn’t tell me you were coming out tonight.”

“Rory is with his great-grandparents tonight… what are you three getting into tonight?” She looked between me, Kincaid, and Jaiden.

Kincaid couldn’t keep his eyes off Lia as she was on her phone. Skyler reached over and grabbed some of the chips from Jaiden’s bowl. “Nothing… this nigga boring now.”

I shoved Jaiden and laughed. “Fuck up… we chilling tonight. What you getting into?”

Out the corner of my eye, I saw Shante’s ass make a beeline toward our side of the bar. The bitch had been ignoring us since she went back over there, and now she wanted to come back over here.

“Hey, can I get you something to drink?” She looked Aimee in the eyes, and Aimee looked away and laughed.

“I’m good for now.” Aimee kept it short and sweet, considering how she could have gotten with the bullshit that Shante had been on.

“Capella, you don’t have to act funny because she’s here.” She started in with me and Aimee looked between the both of us.

“The fuck are you talking about,” I replied.

“Aimee, I don’t know if you know, but we have a baby on the way.”

I watched as Aimee laughed in her face. “No, you don’t.”

“Yes, we do… be upset with him but respect that a baby is going to come.” She removed herself from the bar and rubbed her stomach.

I held Aimee around the waist and she didn’t remove my hand which as a small step. “Bitch, you have IBS, and go ahead and lie because I have proof. That stomach bloated because you gotta boo-boo.”

When Shante told me she was pregnant, I considered believing her because why else wouldn’t I? We fucked so there was a chance that she could been pregnant with my baby. With the way that bitch threatened my pop’s freedom, I didn’t trust shit about her.

I didn’t want to ask her, but I ended up asking Aimee, and she hacked into the hospital that Shante told me her doctor appointments were in. Aimee found out that she wasn’t even pregnant and was playing games.

Skyler, Jaiden, and Kincaid looked away and withheld their laughs while Lia looked at Shante. “Girl, I would clock out and go home if I was you,” Lia laughed.

Aimee leaned on the bar. “Before you got petty and sending pictures I never asked for, you should have known that his wife could get any information she needs. Someone real close to me told me to stop letting people play in my fucking face.” I watched as Aimee plucked Shante, and then leaned off the counter. “Whatever is going on between you and Capella is your business… not mine. Stop trying to make me jealous when this nigga would literally eat my pussy on this bar in front of you.”

“Ain’t shit happening between us, Aim,” I made sure to let her know right in front of Shante who was fuming.

I held her around the waist as she stood there waiting for Shante to say something, and she stood there with misty eyes. “Core said that he over in Coney Island,” Skyler told her.

“Shit, then we’re out,” Lia said, as she turned to leave, and Kincaid left his seat and followed behind her like a puppy dog.

I was the same way because I was on Aimee’s ass as we made it out the bar. Skyler hit the locks to Core’s Maserati, and Aimee walked over toward the passenger seat.

Before she could get in, I pulled her toward me and tried to kiss her, and she balled my lips up. “Nah, I didn’t do that for you… I’m tired of people feeling bad for me and she needed to know that she can play games with you, but she better leave me out of it.”

“I’m not fucking nobody, Aim… I meant that shit. I want my family back, and I promise that I’m going to do whatever to get y’all back.”

When she looked into my eyes, I could see the love was still there for me. “I really hope that’s true because I want our family back too, but I don’t want to hold onto a prayer and a dream.”

I lifted her chin and kissed her lips. “Aim, you got my word I’m coming for my family. I love you… be safe, ight?”

She smiled as she walked backward to the awaiting car that Skyler was in. “Love you, too… be safe, too.”

“I’m about to go to my grandparents’ house after I’m done here.”

She laughed. “Alright, Grandpa.”

I watched as she got into the car, and Skyler sped away. Lia followed behind them on her motorcycle, and Kincaid and Jaiden watched as she sped off the block.

I was going to do what I needed to do to be better as a man, and get my wife back. A nigga was determined to make her fall back in love with me, and court her the right way.

When I gave Aimee my last name, I meant that shit. She was a Delgato, and I was gonna make sure she stayed that way.