22. Quasim
Quasim
Berkeley sat across from me overdressed, but it was for a reason. She had left her date and came over to meet me at this restaurant. She got us a table toward the back and was waiting when I arrived. She had been texting and calling, and it was clear whatever she had to get off her chest was important.
If she told me that she had my kid, and hid it all this time, I wasn’t responsible for what would happen in this restaurant. I spent the ride over to this small town she wanted to meet in, thinking on what could be so important that she couldn’t say the shit over the phone. I took my drink back and stared at her as she decided on what she wanted to order.
I had no plans on sticking around long enough to have a meal. She needed to spit the words out so I could head on out. If Anjo knew where the fuck I was, she would lose her shit because she told me she didn’t trust Berks.
She didn’t need to trust her, though; as long as she trusted me, we didn’t have any problems. I had plans on telling her where I was, so it wasn’t like I was hiding the shit completely. Berkeley looked up from the menu.
“I always need something sweet after I eat.” She giggled and continued to flip through the menu.
“My baby the same way. Even when she’s too fucking full to eat it.”
Berkeley looked at me. “Are you really serious about her?”
“Not the reason I showed up.”
When my phone chimed, I looked down to check the message to make sure shit was cool with Anjo.
Mrs. Inferno: Israel?
Me: What up, Anjo?
Mrs. Inferno: Why do you hate her that much?”
I looked at my phone confused because I didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about. Before I left the house, we were good.
Me: Hate who, Blair?
Mrs. Inferno: You want Bento box to really end up in a box, huh?
I laughed, startling Berkeley in the process. Before I could even wonder how the fuck she knew, or where she was, I saw her fine ass walking through the restaurant to our table with Havoc behind her.
“Is that your girlfriend?”
“Fiancée,” I corrected.
Blair came over to the table and smiled, as she slid onto my lap and looked across the table. “It’s nice to see you again, Birkin.”
“Berkeley.”
“That’s what I said Badminton.”
I kissed her ear. “Anjo,” I whispered into her ear, and she balled my fucking lips up while staring across the table.
I’ve seen every woman in our lives do that shit to my niggas and always found myself laughing because that shit would never happen to me. Now, I found myself in the middle of a restaurant with my future wife on my lap, my lips balled up, with a woman that should be running, sitting across from us.
If she knew Blair like I knew her, she would get the fuck out of here because we had steak knives on the table. Havoc was laughing as I shot his ass a look, because why the fuck was she here?
“What I’m trying to figure out is why you out to dinner with her when you have a fiancée? Did you both not fuck before?”
Berkeley choked on her drink. “Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.”
I held her as she released my lips and watched as she sat on me, while staring daggers into Berkeley. “This is innocent. We are friends.”
“If this is innocent, then I’ll be joining. Hold up, who paying before I crash out even more?” She looked between me and then Berks.
“My love, I’ll never allow a woman to pay for my meal… you know that. It’s innocent, you trust me, right?” I kissed her neck.
“If this is innocent, then why is Bad Mon Forward over there looking nervous?” She looked me in the eyes.
“I am not nervous.” Berkeley shifted in her seat nervously.
Blair sucked her teeth. “Every time Bernie Mac sees you, she makes it a point to speak to you.”
“Bitch, it’s called being friendly.”
Other than the shit at Jesse’s crib, and I wasn’t even there to witness that, my baby was always quiet and reserved. Nothing made her get out of pocket, but the way she rose out my lap, I snatched her back and held her in place.
“Berks, chill the fuck out. You not about to disrespect my wife.”
Berkeley damn near fell back in the chair in disbelief. “But she can call me all kinds of names and you say nothing?”
I moved on the notion that my wife was always right in public, then once we were home and I was deep inside her guts, I was going to make her see all the ways she was wrong. I was never going to disagree with her in public.
“She been calling you by your name, no?”
“My name isn’t any of the names that she has been saying, Quasim!” She raised her voice, while Blair crossed her arms.
“Bingle bop, I said your name.”
The snicker from behind me told me that Havoc was laughing his ass off while I was trying to keep a straight face.
“Chill out… give us a second.” I lifted Anjo up, and pulled her behind me into the men’s bathroom, locking the door behind me.
She already knew what I meant when I raised my eyebrow at her. “You not about to make me out to be wrong… hiding shit is never good, and I don’t want to hear that insecure shit you was chatting before. Had I met with a nigga I used to fuck without you knowing, you would have burned this bitch to the ground.”
“True.”
She had me there, and I couldn’t front. Being honest, she was nice with how she approached because I would have drove my whip into the restaurant and beat the fuck out the nigga.
That was just me, though.
I backed her up against the sink and kissed her on the neck. “This was business for me, my love. You already know who I belong to… go ahead and touch it so you can stop forgetting.”
She blushed and looked away, and I pulled her face back toward mine. “Nah, big mouth… touch it. You see who this shit get hard for… matter fact.” I pulled her track pants down, spun her around and entered her from behind.
“Simmm,” she moaned out as she held onto the sink, and I held her hips, shoving all of me inside of her while she was on her toes.
“Repeat yourself for me, my love.”
“King, hmm,” she moaned out while I continued to slam her back onto me.
I bit my bottom lip as I watched her face in the mirror. “Why you acting the fuck up, my love? Tell me.”
“I…I…” she couldn’t get the words out because she was trying to climb the sink, and I continued to pull her back down.
“Where your words, Blair?”
She grabbed hold of the sink and threw that shit back and had my ass losing my step. Once she got stable, she was showing out, squeezing her muscles and had me about to tap out.
“Fuck, Anjo.” I grunted.
“Where your words, Quasim?” she asked, looking at me through the mirror, and I held her around the waist tighter, feeling myself about to nut.
I had to shake back, because she had me in here like a little bitch. Pulling out, I slammed myself back into her, and she screamed out, slapping her hand over her mouth.
“Who run this shit… stop thinking you run shit, my love… it’s my way or what?” I asked, and she was trying to catch her breath as I teased her opening, sending her ass into circles.
“You…your way.”
“Go ahead, release for me, baby,” I said, as I released myself inside of her. Had she not been pregnant, her ass would be now with how much I filled her ass up.
She rested her head on the sink, and I turned her around to face me. Holding her face, I kissed her lips. “This on me, and my fuck up. I’m sorry for not telling you. Shit was wrong, and you had every right to pull up on me…. you forgive me?”
She looked up at me. “I appreciate that. I’m going to be your wife… communication, nigga.”
I laughed and kissed her lips while she went into the stall to clean herself up. “If she still out there waiting for you while you back here fucking me…. Sim, she wants you.”
“Maybe.”
She paused and the door opened. “The fuck do you mean, maybe?”
“It takes two for something to happen and I don’t fucking want her, Blair. I want you… always wanted you. She called me here for a reason and I’m gonna get that reason, then we gonna go home so I can fuck you in the shower.”
She smiled. “Okay…. Oh, and no more of that fucking Berks… that bitch ain’t your friend to be giving nicknames, Quasim.”
Once she finished and we fixed ourselves, I held her hand as we walked back out to the table where Berkeley was still waiting with another glass of wine. Blair slipped into the seat next to me and smiled.
“We got off on the wrong foot, Bernie Madoff,” She started, and I rested my face in my hand because she was on one.
“My love,” I warned.
“Sorry.”
“We good now… just don’t ever call my wife a bitch again, Bahamas.” Berkeley eyes widened. “I’m fucking with you… not about the bitch shit, though.”
When I finally got everything settled, I turned to my right to see Havoc, Syn, and Kobe at the table next to us, looking over the menu.
“Think I want to do the shrimp pasta… extra cheese, please,” Blair ordered, as she handed the menu back to the waiter.
“Hey, Kang!” Kobe greeted.
Kobe was Havoc’s best friend, so he was always around. He was family and knew that all the IG’s would fuck somebody up that fucked with him. Your personal life choices were your own. I ain’t never cared about another man’s preference, and I was secure in mine.
“I told you to stop saying king like that, Kobe.”
“You right,” He laughed, knowing his ass was going to say it again, and I was going to ignore his ass.
“So, what this meeting about?” Blair asked as she buttered the provided bread and shoved it into her mouth.
Whenever I saw her eating that shit made me fucking happy. There was a time when she used to pick through her food, and I would share my plate with her because she couldn’t eat much. I couldn’t share a plate with her ass now because she was always eating the whole thing and then asking what was wrong.
Seeing her eat, knowing it was going to my baby, had me feeling different these days. Blessed being one of those things. I couldn’t wait for her stomach to grow so I could palm it while giving her kisses.
Berkeley was annoyed that Blair was even here, but she took a deep breath and finally got to why the fuck I was here. “First, I’m sorry about what happened to your house.”
“How do you know about it? You did it?”
I looked at my wife, and she looked away, knowing she needed to settle down. “We have run in the same circles for years.”
“She’s related to Salah.” I explained.
“Yeah, well, I heard about it and I’m sorry. I reached out when it first happened but know you had a lot going on at that time. Anyway, I’ve been investigating this case of this missing girl for a year now. Nobody knows where she went, but her mother is adamant that Vincent Morgan had something to do with it, and she just wants answers. Lucia Parker was the lead detective on the case, and it went cold, so I had an interview set up with her and ADA Fern… her people haven’t got back to me yet… maybe put a good word in?”
“I’ll see… go on.”
“Well, Lucia was no damn help and kept me going around in circles, which I’m used to when it comes to being a journalist. Usually, the people that I’m interviewing talk in circles, but they give me something… she didn’t give anything. She ended the interview early and rushed me out her office. I was in such a rush that I forgot my voice recorder since she literally rushed me right in the middle of the interview. She refused to answer my calls, so I called her partner, and he allowed me to come pick it up the next day.”
“What you trying to tell me, Berk…Berkeley,” I cleared my throat when Blair stared at me as I was about to call her Berks again.
“Lucia Parker was behind your home burning down and she has plans to set you up on a murder. Be careful, Quasim… I’m going to send you the recordings. I needed to tell this in person so you could understand how serious this is.”
Blair squeezed my hand as she looked at me. “Did she say who?”
Berkeley sighed. “No, but I would be very fucking careful. Whoever Elijah is, you took him from her… and she’s angry about it. She mentioned another woman is apparently missing and she can’t find her.”
Fuck.
Lucia had a target on my back, and although I always moved smart, I had to move ten times smarter to make sure that her ass never slipped up on me.
“How do we know that you aren’t involved in any of this?”
Berkeley laughed, then stopped when she realized my baby was serious. “My cousins are Brooklyn Bullies… we don’t talk to the police, and the loyalty that my cousins have for the Inferno Gods is why I am here. I have been investigating this woman’s disappearance, so I am going undercover… there’s so mu?—”
“Berkeley, you need to be careful digging into this shit.” I warned her, knowing that this was her career and what got her out of bed in the morning.
Aside from us never working, I always admired how dedicated she was to her career. I found myself reading her articles and paying attention to the shit she reported on that wasn’t pop culture.
“All jokes aside, Benihana, you should be careful because the things these men are doing to these women is serious.”
I looked at Blair and shook my head because she said the shit with a straight face. “I’m going to be careful… the date I went on is with a doctor that I think could be involved. He and Vincent Morgan were very close before his disappearance.”
Berkeley stayed for a little while before she left and told me she would send me the recording. I was going to send it to Core the minute she sent it to me. Havoc, Kobe, and Syn’s nosey asses brought their food over to our table.
“Kang…King, you need to take this seriously,” Kobe said.
“How in the fuck did you hear the conversation over there?”
He laughed. “I’ve been this nigga’s ears for years… I have great ears, and she was a little too loud.”
“Yeah, because I heard her, and I have to say I disagree with everything she is trying to do.” Syn answered, sitting on Havoc’s lap because there were only two other seats at the table.
Havoc looked at me. “I don’t like this shit, Sim.”
“Yeah.”
“Whatever Elijah knows must be powerful and I think we need to get him out of here… I know we said we would wait, but we need to just get married now, Simmy. If she does some shit that gets you caught up, I pray not, but we need to be protected. You know I’m the first person they’re going to come to… I’m protected as your wife.”
“Not the reason I’m marrying you, my love. We can get married now but know I’m marrying because I love you and that was always the plan.”
She held the side of my face. “Yeah, all that cute shit, but we need to be protected cause I’m not a snitch.”
“Me either… I did thirty days in Rikers,” Syn bragged, and we all looked at her. “What? I have a past is all I’m saying.”
Havoc pinched her and she laughed and signed something to him. Kobe signed something to them both and they both had this silly ass grin on their face.
“We all heading to Barbados… I’m gonna send him and you first, because I got some shit to handle before I bounce.”
Syn held her hand up. “Can I make a request? I know we’re all going to Barbados.”
“Wait, you are going?” Kobe asked.
Syn nervously laughed. “Well, I ain’t really get invited, but the lake houses were dope, I wanna see how they do it out the country.”
“Synthia, please.”
“I’m your friend, though… I should see you get married.” She pleaded.
“Me, too… I’m his friend and he never invites me anywhere.” Kobe added on, and I massaged my temples.
“Can we fucking focus?”
“Alright, sorry… we’re all going to Barbados. Anyway, if that something that you have to handle is anything like what you did outside the studio… can I pleaseeeee come along?” she whispered.
“Nah.” Havoc spoke.
She turned and looked at him. “I am grown.”
“And?”
“Please! You don’t need to protect me… I know how to use a gun, and I’m very good. My daddy being a criminal came in handy for something.”
I ignored her and looked at Anjo. “I’m not leaving this country unless you with me, so I’m staying behind.”
“Not with my child you carrying.”
She locked her hands with mine. “I’m not leaving this country without you.”
I kissed her forehead as she leaned her head on me.
“So, private jet or commercial? I heard Shante messy ass talking about how y’all traveled to Bali.” Kobe clasped his hands together and smiled.
I shook my head because both he and Syn were serious.