5. Declan
5
DECLAN
In my office, I scanned the papers Diesel needed. Lunch time had passed, and I’d been working on the project since I arrived. I came in earlier than usual because I planned to leave earlier and have a nice evening with Winter. Before I left, she was asleep, so I didn’t tell her to cancel her plans. If I had woken her, she would have been pissed and the whole day would have been over before it started. Since I’d been working, I considered texting her the plans. Every time I typed the text, I got nervous and erased it. I’d been with that woman for twenty years and felt like an idiot for being nervous to ask her on a date.
After the shit we’d been going through, I knew I needed to step up. When a cool idea hit me, I took a quick break and called Quinci to see if she’d help me since I needed to get this done for Diesel.
“Uncle Declann, hii,” she answered the phone chipper, like always.
“What’s up, Quinci, are you busy?”
“Not right this moment. Dymon is on a call right now, if you were looking for him.”
“No, uh… I need a big favor.”
“Anything.”
“I want to do something special for Winter tonight. Is it possible for you to go into the city and pick up a nice dress for her and stop at a flower shop to get a bouquet of flowers. Would the flower shop be able to deliver before five?”
“Oh my God, Declan, that is so sweet. Of course, I can do that, my parents have Mani. Where are you taking her? Actually, let me text my girl at Gucci, so she can have something boxed for me. There is this cute little mini dress I been looking at. I think she might like it.”
“Quinci, don’t buy nothing else for Dymani,” I heard Dymon say in the background.
“Stop tipping around corners and ear hustling on conversations. It’s for Winter.”
“For what?”
“Your brother wants to do something nice for his girlfriend.”
I heard him kiss his teeth, but I ignored it. It only took one time to get on Dymon’s bad side and he would never get over it. Although I don’t believe he ever liked her, he respected her because he loved me. Since Kemba knocked out the dude Winter was with, I’d been making my presence short and sweet, in case they knew about it. Shit around town spread like wildfire, so if they knew about it, they weren’t saying anything, and I appreciated it.
“Okay, yay! They have a medium, which should fit her perfectly. Shoes?”
“All of it.”
“Okay. She and I are the same size. She’s going to love this, Declan.”
She sounded more excited than me.
“Okay, I trust you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. How much do I owe?”
“Forty-five hundred, but it’s on my card, so you’re good right now. I’m about to get ready to go pick it up now. What do you want me to put on the card at the flower shop?”
“Be ready at eight. I love you.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know once I have everything done.”
“A’ight. Thank you, again, Quinci.”
“No problem, later.”
I was happy Quinci was going to do me that solid. Our relationship was close like we were real sister and brother, though I was being a hating ass nigga when we first met. I felt like Dymon didn’t deserve a good woman like her, and I didn’t hesitate to let her know that. At that point, my issues with my brother ran deep as hell. She had every reason to hate me and to never treat me like family, but her and her family welcomed me with open arms. At first, I was a little standoffish because of what went on, but she pulled me to the side and told me she didn’t care about that; she assured me it was water under the bridge. Since then, we hadn’t talked about it all, and her family still treated me like I was her big brother.
The knocks on the door got my attention.
“It’s open,” I called out.
Kemba walked in, looking at the stacks of papers on my desk.
“What’s up, my boy? Did you eat yet?”
“Nah, I was going to walk over to the museum and grab something light after this stack of papers right here. I’m just scanning everything I think is important. You know how thorough Diesel is.”
“Yeahh, man.” He walked further into my office and shut the door. “So, I put my ear to the streets about that dude yo’ girl fucking with.”
I looked at him, trying to decide if I wanted to know the information or not, knowing I had a nice evening set up for her.
“Why you looking like that? You don’t wanna know?”
“Would you still tell me if I said no?”
“No, bro. This the second time you tried me on some hoe shit like that. Why you think I want to purposely see you hurt?”
“I-I don’t know. I planned a nice evening for us. Quinci is going to go pick up some things for me, for her. Did I tell you I was leaving early today?”
He nodded with a confused look on his face.
“What’s that look for?”
“Let me get this straight.” He sat in the chair across from my desk. “Yo’ girl is cheating on you, you know it, and you still trying to make it work. Why?”
I kept scanning the papers.
“I mean, bro, she doesn’t even respect you enough to cheat in private, and you still trying to make it work. It’s like she knows yo’ dumb ass, respectfully, ain’t going nowhere.”
“It’s just that—”
“And then yo’ ass ain’t gon’ even get no pussy from somebody else. That’s crazy, Declan. That’s the craziest shit I ever heard in my life.”
Ignoring that, I said, “I’m about to go get something to eat. You rolling?”
“Hell yeah, so I can keep talking shit.”
I chuckled and shook my head.
After clearing my desk, we left my office and headed toward the museum to the small food court. Fridays were the busiest day, so the food court was packed when we walked inside.
“Hi, Kembaaa,” a girl sang as she approached us with eyes brighter than the room.
He pulled her in for a hug. “What’s up, Mama, how you?”
“I’m okayy.”
When she waved at me, I threw my head back before walking away to get in line. When I moved here, it didn’t take me long to realize that Kemba was the most popular person in Citrus Grove, especially with the ladies, older and younger. He was also like a jack of all trades, whatever you needed, he could find it. With all the attention he got, I understood why Quinci was his only friend, and why it took Dymon a long time to realize him and Quinci would never be nothing more than friends.
As the line moved forward, I studied the menu as if it changed since the last time I’d visited. They didn’t have a lot of things to choose from, but everything tasted good.
Kemba came up next to me. “I’m trying to put yo’ ass on, and you walked away.”
I looked at him. “What you mean?”
“Put you on, nigga.”
“Man, how old was that girl? She looked more into you than me.”
“Pig is the same age as me, bro. She just skinny as hell.”
I chuckled. “And her name is Pig?”
“Yup. Just like that big ass nigga over there coming in the door is named Slim.” Kemba said, throwing his hand up at him.
I stepped up to the stand.
“Mr. Danger, what can I get for you today?”
“Can I get a turkey wrap and some of those Kettle chips?”
“Is that all?”
“Yes,” I said, pulling out my wallet. “And I’m going to eat in here.”
“Mr. Danger, you know your money is not good here. Well, it is, but not here. You do this every time.”
“I know.” I pulled out the cash and stuffed it in her shirt pocket. “I’m going to grab a cup for some water.”
She nodded and handed me a number for the table. I went over to the drink machine to fill my cup while Kemba ordered his food. My usual table overlooking the grove had just cleared. I sat there and slipped my number into the card holder.
Kemba came over to the table and sat across from me. “Now, where you’d get this bright idea to plan this extravagant dinner or whatever for ol’ girl?”
“What you mean where I get the bright idea to do something nice for my girl?”
He looked around. “You ever did something like this before?”
“Nah, but—”
“Exactly, so who gave you the idea to do that?”
“Ella. Elle.”
Saying her name took me back to last night. Drinking with her last night was one of the best nights I’d had in a long time. Along with the drinks, her pretty ass and smart-ass mouth had me the most relaxed I’d been in a long time. I could also attribute that to all those damn drinks I had. Even though she was my sister-in-law’s best friend, I didn’t know much about her. Last night was the first time she and I talked at length. The most we’d ever said to each other was a couple sentences.
“Elle? Elle Thomas?”
I nodded.
“When y’all start talking?”
“She pulled up on me at JB’s and thought I was my brother. It just went from there. She sat down and we had a few drinks.”
“Aw, why you ain’t call me, I would’ve pulled up. I heard it was deep as hell in there last night.”
“It was, which is why I’m surprised you hadn’t already heard I was hanging out with her. You know you the CG Enquirer.”
I had to change the subject because I didn’t want to tell him I was there watching Winter. I was already embarrassed to tell Elle, but Kemba would never let me hear the end of it, though I knew he meant well.
He laughed. “Yeah, I hadn’t had time to open it yet. But nah, I hadn’t heard anything. However, I’m going to tell you this because you my dog, don’t do it.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Fuck Elle. Let me put you on Pig.”
“I don’t want to fuck Elle. We were just having general conversation, and I don’t want to fuck Pig either. But if I did want to, why shouldn’t I do it? You hit that?”
He looked taken aback. “Hell nah. She scares me.”
“You scared of a girl that’s half your size.”
He laughed. “That’s how she gets you, but nah, she made one of my homeboys go crazy. That nigga moved away from here and I hadn’t heard from him since. So, I’m telling you not to do it, especially if you want your girl back. Plus, women with old names are savages. Last Summer, I fucked a girl named Dottie and she took me down. I almost couldn’t keep up,” he said, laughing.
Thinking back to last night, her big bright eyes were alluring and so was her smile. When she smiled, she had the cutest cheekbones. That face was sexy, but her ‘look of steel’ face as I’d dubbed it was sexy as fuck. Shit, I didn’t even look at her like that until last night and now, I could already describe her in detail.
“Aw, hell. She got you, didn’t she?”
I blinked, focusing back on him. “What you talking about?”
The server brought our food and left the table.
“What I’m talking about, nigga, is yo’ ass going off into space when you mentioned her name. That’s exactly how my homeboy was. He was fucked up. He wouldn’t tell anybody what happened or what she did or said. All he said was she was crazy, and he needed to get away for a while. That ‘a while’ has turned into years.”
“Damn. That’s crazy, but nah, it ain’t nothing like that.”
I took a few bites of my wrap and drank some of my water.
“A’ight, I’m just looking out for you.”
I ate few more bites.
“The reality is Kemba; I don’t know how I’d get another girl if this didn’t work out. I’ll be honest, last night, I was trying to flirt with Elle, just to see, but I realized I didn’t know how to. She changed the subject every time. At one point, she even got up and ran to the bathroom. At least she was nice about it. I tried to flirt while we were on the phone as she drove home, and she hung up on me.” I shrugged. “I don’t know man. This shit is embarrassing as fuck, for real. This is the first time I’m saying this shit out loud. I don’t know, bro.”
“Hol’ on, hol’ on. Hol’ up, bro. You acting like you ain’t ever had no ass outside of yo’ girl.”
I didn’t respond.
“That’s the only girl you ever been with?”
I responded by eating some more of my food.
“Declan. You only been with one woman? Yo’ whole life? Not even in high school? Some head under the bleachers? Spin the bottle?”
“My 18th birthday, but I don’t remember because I was drunk, but yup. Only one girl, basically.”
“Ain’t you like forty?”
“Thirty-eight, nigga.”
“Shit. Same thing.”
“Kemba, we been together since then. I never had a desire to cheat on her. I watched my dad do it to my mom, and I never wanted to be that guy. It’s all good.”
He rubbed his temples. “You got my head spinning a million miles a minute because I have a lot to say.”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” I said, chuckling.
“I’m about to ask you something, and it’s going to sound crazy coming from yo’ boy, but don’t take it the wrong way, but—”
“I know how to fuck and I’m not skimping in that department.”
He laughed. “Mann, something.”
“Nah. Women have tried, and they echoed those same sentiments after I turned them down. That’s how I knew what you were about to ask. But nah. Just seeing the hurt on my mom’s face is something I never wanted to do to Winter and—”
“She doesn’t fucking appreciate the shit. You are a damn unicorn of a nigga. Bro, you work for one of the biggest hospitality companies in the world. You mean to tell me, you ain’t never had one slip up? She pissed you off. You pissed her off. Y’all broke up for a couple months. Nothing. No kiss. No touchy-feely. No lady ever caught yo’ eye and you wanted to…”
“Nah. We have broken up a couple times, but not even during those times.”
He shook his head. “The more you talk, the more questions I have, so I’m going to switch back to Elle. What you mean you don’t know how to flirt? That’s the easiest fucking shit to do.”
“We would talk. I would say little things and she would pause like she couldn’t believe I was saying it. I said she ran to the bathroom. I was even calling her pet names and she would smile. I mean, she was saying little shit back, but I don’t know.”
He started laughing.
“What’s funny?”
“Yo’ ass been out the game so damn long. She was flirting back, fool. I mean, not fool, but yeah, fool. Did y’all talk about yo’ girl, at all?”
I nodded.
“Ah, there we go. You talking about yo’ girl would turn any girl off. She was probably pulling back because of that. But that’s good, because you are already a lil’ crazy in the head, and I would hate for you to go out sad fucking with Elle.”
I laughed.
Pulling my vibrating phone out of my pocket, I saw Quinci’s name on the screen.
“Sis,” I answered the phone.
“Hey Quinn,” Kemba spoke.
“Tell Kem hey. Okay, good news and bad news. The good news is, I just picked out the most beautiful bouquet of flowers. The bad news is, they don’t have a delivery driver who could make it out to the grove in time because he’s already out on a few runs. So, when I get back, I’m going to take everything over and leave on the porch and ring the doorbell.”
“How you get there so fast?”
“You know I have a lead foot. Is that okay, though?”
“Yeah, that’s cool.”
“Okay, I’ll let you know when I drop it off. Later,” she said, ending the call.
“Bro, in all seriousness, though… I want whatever you want for yourself and your relationship, but I also don’t want you to be no fool, either. If she can’t see she got a good dude in front of her, then you can’t fear starting over. Life goes on.”
“You right, man.”
“Plus, it’ll be cool to be yo’ wingman. You know how much pussy the pauper gets just because he’s friends with the prince.”
I shook my head.
That was the most open I’d ever been with anyone regarding my relationship with Winter. A part of me knew everything Kemba said was true, but I had to try. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I gave up that easy.
Approaching my house, I saw Diesel behind his car, holding his daughter in one arm and getting his bag out of the trunk. Instead of going to my house, I drove over to him.
“My boy,” I said, pulling up next to him.
“What up, my boy?”
I hopped off my golf cart and dapped him up before taking my niece out of his arms. I tossed her in the air and made her giggle. “Hey, lil’ girl.” I kissed her cheeks before lifting her in the air again.
“You good, bro?” Diesel asked.
“Yeah. You got plans tonight?”
“Why, what’s up?”
“I want to borrow your car, so I can take Winter out.”
“Oh, yeah. I ain’t doing nothing, but laying up under my wife, and this lil’ girl,” he said, handing me the keys to his car.
He closed his trunk and held his hands out for Deija, and she moved away from him, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“Oh, it’s like that?” He covered his face and pretended to cry until she reached for him.
When my brother became a father, he became a completely different person. I could credit that to Greysen, because I’d never seen him so down bad about a woman, ever, but love looked good on him. In the back of my mind, I knew he’d always be like our dad, but he proved me wrong.
“You coming in?” he asked me.
I glanced at my house to see that the box and the roses weren’t on the porch. Quinci had texted me over an hour ago and told me she’d dropped it off and rang the doorbell. When I didn’t receive a text from Winter, I thought she wasn’t at home, however the packages were gone, and she hadn’t reached out to me.
“Yeah, I’ll come in and speak to Greysen. I hadn’t seen her in a few days.”
He looked me up and down. “And why haven’t you checked on her and your nephew?”
“I sent her a text.”
“A’ight then. Better than nothing. You know you the Godfather.”
“Uh-huh.”
Diesel handed me Deija while he grabbed his key from his bag. Before he stuck his key in the door, it flew open.
“Daddy!” Greysen shrieked and waddled into his arms. “I missed you.”
“What’s up, baby girl?” He kissed her forehead.
“Hey, Declan,” she greeted. “Come here, little girl.”
She jumped into her mom’s arms, and they traded kisses as we followed them in the house.
“Why are you up, Greysen, and where are—”
“Don’t come in here with all that rah-rah, Diesel.” She turned and looked at him, grinning. “Your mistress pissed you off in New York or something?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Don’t even start.”
She rolled her neck.
“Mrs. Greysen.”
“Let me get out of here. I’m not trying to be a witness to nothing. I’ll see y’all later,” I said.
“A’ight, bro. I’ll talk to you later.”
We dapped each other up before I headed out the door.
“You just want me to put you over my knee, but you’re too far along. Go get in the bed,” my brother told his wife as I closed the door.
I got on my golf cart and drove home.
When I walked into the house, I expected to see or hear Winter running around the house trying to get dressed, but it was quiet, though her car was in the yard. I went into the kitchen to grab some water but stopped in my tracks as I saw the box and roses on the table. From where I stood, I could tell the card hadn’t been moved from the stick. I pulled out my phone and called her. It rang several times before she picked up. Music blared in the background.
“Hello!” she shouted over the music.
“Where are you?”
“I came over to the Keys.”
“Will you be home soon?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I’ll see you th—”
The three beeps in my ear indicated she’d ended the call. A part of me wanted to think she’d show up before eight and rush to get dressed, but the other part of me knew that wasn’t likely.
It was approaching eight p.m., and I hadn’t heard from Winter. It was starting to feel like I’d done all of this for nothing. I didn’t even bother to call her because she’d already sent me a text saying she would be later than expected. I just didn’t expect it would make us miss the dinner I’d planned for us. Instead of moping around the house, I walked on the back porch to smoke a blunt and enjoy the night breeze. I’d already taken two of my anxiety pills, so I was as calm as I could be.
As soon as I sat down, a kid’s scream caught my attention. I looked down the row to my family on Dymon’s porch enjoying dinner. My son was playing peek-a-boo with his cousins. I could have joined them for dinner, since Quinci had invited me and Winter for dessert when we made it back, but there would be to many questions I didn’t want to answer. Just as I’d lit the blunt, I immediately put it out because I thought about the smell traveling down there.
I sighed and laid my head back against the couch and stared at the sky. The sudden vibration of my phone made me jump to grab it, hoping it was Winter, but it was only the restaurant letting me know my table was ready. Swiping out of that notification, I opened my call log to call Winter again, but an unsaved number popped up and then immediately went away. I stared at the red number, suddenly remembering it was Elle’s. Instead of calling Winter, I pressed Elle’s number.
She answered on the third ring. “Hello, um, hello. Elle’s.”
I chuckled. “Hi, Ella. Did you mean to call me?”
“No. No, I was just deleting my call log and mistakenly hit your number. I delete my call log at the end of every night.” She spoke quickly.
One thing I’d learned from Dymon was that when people overexplain, they were usually lying.
“You say you delete your call log at the end of every night.”
“Why do you always repeat things?”
“To make sure I’ve understood what was said. And sometimes, it triggers the questions I might need to ask, like, if you delete your call log every night, how you mistakenly call me when we talked last night, not tonight?”
She laughed. “After midnight, duh. Trying to catch me up in a lie, and for what… like.”
“But, if I could counter that statement with another statement: it’s not after midnight, now…”
There was a long pause.
“And for what…like.” I mocked her as best as I could and chuckled to myself.
She burst out laughing so loud that I had to move my phone from my ear.
“You really get on my mothafuckin’ nerves. Like…” She laughed again.
“I’m just trying to point out the inconsistences.”
“Yeah, you need to point out why you even on the phone when you supposed to be doing what I told you to do for your girlfriend.”
I got quiet. Just like that, my mood went down. I guess I could tell Elle since she was the one who gave me the idea, anyway.
“Oh, Declan, I’m sorry,” she whispered, catching onto my silence. “She ain’t like the idea?”
“It’s okay.”
“No the fuck it’s not okay! To my knowledge, you ain’t did shit for her to just dog you out like that. I think it’s a difference between being in an open relationship versus the blatant disrespect.”
“Don’t get all worked up, Lil’ Bit. If we don’t work out, it won’t be because I didn’t try.”
“That’s the best way to look at it, for real. You want me to beat her up so she can get her mind right?”
I laughed. “No, Ella. You cannot beat up my girl.”
“Hmph. So, what you doing right now, then? And where she at?”
“I don’t know. I’m on my back porch. Was about to smoke, but I ain’t want my people to smell it and run down here.”
“Oh yeah. Quinci did text me and tell me her and her mama was cooking tonight if I wanted to come over.”
“Yeah? Why you ain’t come eat?”
When I heard her gasp, I smiled. It was a little embarrassing that a guy over ten years younger than me had to tell me Elle was flirting back with me.
“I had to come to the shop and get some work done, and I have some food at home.”
“What kind of food you got at home?”
“I ain’t telling you, because you already make fun of how country I am.”
“You think I be making fun of you? I’m really just joking.”
She sighed sarcastically. “Declan, I know you just be joking. Lighten up, a little. You don’t have to be so serious all the time.”
“My fault. Just trying to make sure I don’t rub you the wrong way.”
The line went so quiet that I thought she’d hung up on me like she did last night.
“Since you’re just sitting on your back porch, come to my shop. It’s just me.”
“Yeah, I can do that. I’ll see you soon.”
I walked in the house to grab my brother’s keys since I’d already told him I was going to drive his car. When I walked out on my porch, I looked down the row at my brother’s houses to make sure the coast was clear before I walked to his car. I didn’t want them to see me leaving alone. The window for me to tell them was closing in, but I wasn’t ready.
Getting in the car, my heart started to race like it knew what I was doing was wrong. After taking a couple deep breaths, I started the car and pulled off. Her salon was a few miles outside of the city, but it was still considered a part of Citrus Grove. I’d never been inside before, but I knew where it was because I’d dropped Winter off a few times to get her hair done.
Turning in the parking lot, I backed in next to her dad’s truck and got out the car.
“Elle’s” I read the sign above the door.
The windows on her building were heavily frosted so I couldn’t see inside. I pulled on the door handle, and it was locked.
The camera beside the door lit up.
“House of Beauty!” Elle’s cheerful voice came through the speaker.
I leaned toward the camera. “Is Cutie available?”
She giggled. “Always.”
When I heard the locks pop, I pulled the door open and walked inside. The outside left a lot to imagination, and I was not disappointed. It was nice as hell for a beauty salon in the country. She had six stations for her stylists on one side and a bunch of hair, and hair products on the other side.
Elle came around the counter with a smirk on her face.
“Oooh.” She purred. “The man can clean up niceee.”
I looked down at myself. “This ain’t nothing for real.”
Since Winter’s dress was Black, I put on black pants, white shirt, and a matching black sports coat. I’d put on a matching Gucci belt and shoes to match her dress. Since I been living here, there wasn’t much to dress up for, so I was happy to get dressed up.
“Can you just take a compliment, Declan?”
“Yes ma’am.”
I followed her further into her shop, looking around and trying not to look at her body in that two-piece, Nike compression outfit that hugged her tighter than the pants she had on last night. She looked completely different from last night, or maybe I could see her face better. She didn’t have on a hat and her hair was pulled back into ponytail that swung just below her shoulders.
“Yess, darling, look around at your future home. You already love it here. I’ll welcome you with open arms. I can see that fucked up line even better under this light.”
I chuckled. “Delusion can be a twenty-four-hour bug, I see.”
She cackled. “You and that mouth…”
When I looked at her, she’d stepped up a few steps on a ladder, pulling bags of hair off the wall and onto the floor. With her back to me, my eyes swooped up and down her body recklessly. Just from the pants she had on last night, I knew she had thick thighs, but I didn’t know they traveled down to perfectly toned calves and perfect French-tip, pedicured toes.
Her screaming for Alexa got my attention.
“Alexa! Play Elle’s R her head was cocked to the side.
“What?” I asked.
“Are you being smart? I figured.”
I laughed. “No, but I can see how you could think that.” I continued laughing. “And now, I’m getting the look of steel.”
She laughed. “Because you really asking for it.”
“I am.”
She blushed. “Um, so, if you hand me those packs of hair out that box, I will put them on the wall.”
“Or I can move this box from here to there, and you tell me where to put them. Plus, you don’t need to be back here around all this glass with no shoes on.”
We both looked at her feet, and I was thankful for the excuse to look at them again because they were so pretty. The French-tip matched with her dark skin perfectly.
“Do you know how long I been stocking this shop by myself, exactly like this?”
When I found her eyes, she was smizing.
“No, are you going to tell me?”
“Years, but since you want to be so helpful, just line them up by inches and hair color. They should already be organized in the boxes, though.”
Flipping the box open, I looked at the packs to see they were already in order. I opened a couple more boxes, moving them from counter to counter. She’d started to separate the bags of hair on the floor with her feet. If I didn’t keep my eyes off them, she’d catch me staring, and I’d feel weird.
“So, how long you been doing hair?”
“I have been doing hair since I was sixteen in my dad’s kitchen. I graduated from cosmetology school at twenty. So, a lil’ over a decade.”
“Oh, so it’s just in your blood, huh?”
“Yeah, for the most part. My granny did hair too. I started in her old shop in town, but when I expanded to full-service, selling products, and stuff, I needed more space.”
“It looks fly in here, though. Looks like you’re doing pretty good.”
“Well, if you want to get in my business, which I don’t mind, I’ve been doing well. I sell wigs and wig classes. Annndd…” she looked at me. “When my girl started dating one of the finest, richest, eligible Black bachelors in New York City, everybody wanted to know who Ms. Greysen was. So, we took advantage of it, no shade to him or anything.”
“How so?”
“Just sharing photos of her hairstyles and tagging me in them. Her hair was always fly, so that got me a lot of followers, which led me to promoting myself and caring about my brand a little more. A couple years ago, I was able to do three separate ten-city tours with rap girls. It’s really just been up since. I don’t care that I’m last on people’s call sheet, at least I’m on there.”
I looked at her, and she had the biggest smile on her face.
“That’s dope. If I can be honest, I wish I felt that way about being ‘the other Danger’ brother.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, sometimes I feel inadequate standing next to my self-taught software developer baby brother, and my mathematician older brother.”
She grabbed her phone and started tapping on the screen.
“It says here that you are worth thirty million dollars, which could very well be a lie, but how does inadequate fit in here? I mean… yeah, thirty million dollars can seem broke when 100m’s walk into the room, but you are still in the top percentage of rich guys. And at the top, top percentage of rich Black guys. Do you know how outrageous I’d be if I had a brother who was the CEO of a half a billion-dollar Black owned-company? You couldn’t tell me shit. Yes, my brother is the Dymon Danger. I would do nepotism the correct way. Fuck you mean inadequate?”
That made me laugh. “You are funny as fuck, yo. That country twang is something else. Everything you said is cool but it’s different when you a man.”
Her shoulders dropped. “Oh my God. The male ego is why this big floating blue ball we live on is going to be burnt to a crisp soon.”
I doubled over laughing.
“Declan, we are laughing, but I am dead serious. It is your ego telling you that you’re inadequate because your brothers are worth a lil’ more money than you, and I think that’s stupid. Like in the grand scheme of things, what can they buy today that you can’t?”
“Nothing, really. You know, honestly, I’ve never simplified it like that.”
“In all seriousness, though, Declan, comparison is a dirty thief. It robs you of so much, like imagine if I got pissed off at all the girls doing the same styles of wigs I was doing. Me and you work in billion-dollar industries, we don’t have time to compare ourselves to nobody else.”
“I get all that, Lil’ Bit. I think I’d have to explain everything from the beginning, and I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not?”
For a moment, I regretted saying anything about it, because it was going to make me take a trip down memory lane of feelings I’d put to rest a few years ago. I felt like I couldn’t just tell her about the major issues without telling her the whole story of how differently I was treated growing up.
“Oh, I get it. It’s not really about the money, is it?”
When I didn’t respond, we locked eyes.
“Then we can leave it there, but just know, regardless of what you feel or what others have made you feel like, Declan, you are not inadequate.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
“You’re welcome. And see, look at this.” She walked up on to me to quick and stubbed her toe against my shoe. “Ow! Your big stupid shoes.”
“I’m sorry. Let me see.”
I thought she was going to be reluctant to do it, but she balanced herself on her right leg and lifted her left leg as high she could. I caught her calf with my right hand, and her foot with my other one. When my fingers brushed over her soft skin, blood started rushing toward my dick. If I didn’t ignore it, a tent would start forming in my pants, and that would not feel good.
“Did I crack my big toe?”
“Nah.”
I rubbed my thumb over her nail to make sure it wasn’t a crack in it that I couldn’t see.
“Did that hurt?”
“No. It just stings a little. As long as I didn’t crack it, it’s fine. Because it would have hurt like hell getting it fixed, and you would have had to pay for it. Peace offering.”
“Would I get to choose the color?”
When her calf tensed, I looked at her, and she was smizing again.
“If you pay, of course you can choose the color. What’s your favorite color, and it better not be nothing ugly, because I normally go with white, a French-tip, or if I’m feeling festive, a red.”
“My favorite color doesn’t have anything to do with the color I would want your toes.”
“Oh,” she mumbled, biting her lip. “What color would you want me to get them, then?”
“Something light. Ella, your skin color is so fucking beautiful. Your dark skin always looks like it’s glowing, so you would need to be in something light. I’m thinking, peach.”
She blushed. “Peach.”
“Yes.”
I looked at her foot, caressing the arch with my fingers while rubbing my thumb over her toes.”
She licked her lips. “I’ll take that into consideration. I’ll test run that color before I make you start paying for it.”
“What size do you wear?” I looked at her.
“Guess.” She wiggled her toes against my thumb.
“I’m going to go with a size eight.”
She nodded.
“Same size in heels?”
“Depends on how the shoe is made. You want to see my peach-colored toes in a pair of heels?”
“Yes. Would that cost, too?”
“Declan…” she whispered. “You don’t—”
My phone chimed.
“I don’t what?”
I released her calf and pulled my phone out of my back pocket to see Winter’s face on the screen. I looked at Elle and she looked away.
“You gotta take that.”
When she tried to snatch her foot out of my hand, I shook my head, and she stopped moving.
I answered my phone. “Yeah, Winter.”
“Declan, where are you?”
For a moment, guilt started to rise in my chest. If she was calling, then she must had gone to everyone else. Any other time she would have texted me, but she hadn’t. I chuckled as I stared at Elle with her head cocked to the side. She held her phone up to my face, showing me an article from a major new network.
Hospitality I hadn’t said anything wrong to Donovan, and I knew damn well she wasn’t mad or even worried about me coming in late last night. If that was the issue, she knew not to say anything about it, especially after how she’d been treating me lately. After that little game with Elle earlier, I might be tempted to play with her.