19. Quasim
Quasim
I was up late last night so I could speak to Elijah before going to bed. He barely had a minute to speak to me because Des was taking them for ice cream and out on the lake in the boat. He did his usual check-in to make sure I was coming back for him, and when I told him that I was, he was straight.
Anjo had her leg tossed around me as I laid in the bed with my arms behind my head. When Cherie passed, I didn’t know what to do with my arms. She was the one I would wrap my arms around, and her side of the bed was now empty. I never touched her side because I was scared of her scent being washed away, so I didn’t wash my sheets on my bed.
For the first six months, I slept on the floor in Harley’s room. Gams had come over and washed my bed set when I was out, and I flipped out on her. The guilt for the way I spoke to her still ate away at me. All she wanted to do was help, and I lost my shit because she washed Cherie away.
She didn’t physically wash her way, but it damn sure felt like she did. It was then that I realized that I needed to start sleeping back in the bed, and I tried it one night, and then the next night until it became normal. Eventually, I worked up enough courage to purchase a brand-new bedroom set.
My arms never knew where to go, so I rested them behind my head. Anjo held onto me, damn near squeezing me, like she didn’t want me to disappear from her. I removed my arms from behind my head, and put them underneath her, pulling her closer into my arms.
She moaned something as she found a comfortable spot in the crook of my neck. “I love you, Simmy,” she mumbled, while still asleep.
I smiled and kissed her lips a few times until her eyes fluttered open. “I love you too, baby.”
She hugged me tighter, and I heard the soft snores coming from her as I watched the sun coming up over the water.
One thing my baby was going to do was bully my ass, and make sure I knew how she felt. A nigga needed that at times, because had she not been so honest and open with how she felt, I can’t say that I would have made the first move.
That fucking fear was a bitch, and would cripple the fuck out of me, keeping me from what I should have known I deserved. Someone knocking on the door pulled me from my thoughts. I pulled the sheet over Blair before telling them to come in. Only reason the door was unlocked was because we came back to the room and chilled last night.
Blaze came rushing into the room with his hair tied up and Capri right behind him. “Yo, Pops on the phone… said they got into an accident.”
I sat up, and Blair lifted her head, confused. Blaze handed me the phone, and I put it to my ear. “What happened?”
“Me and mommy got into a car accident on the way back from her doctor’s appointment. Something with the brake, and we just smacked into the other fucking car… she hit her head, Pop.” I knew he was fucked up when he called me by my childhood nickname.
I took a deep breath. “I’m coming home now.”
“I didn’t call you to have you rush back here… I got it under control. You don’t think I can handle my wife?” He let out an exasperated sigh.
“I know you can handle her. You can’t tell me some shit like that about my mama and not expect me to want to come home… I’m coming home.”
He sighed, knowing that there was no changing my mind once it was made up.
Jeffie came into the room with her phone in her hand. “Menace knows a friend here, he said that you can use his jet… it’s not like the jet that we arrived on, so you’ll have to make two stops to refuel.”
Blair slipped out of the bed with the sheet wrapped around her. She went into the bathroom and came out in pajamas. I sat on the phone with my father as I watched her start pulling my things into the suitcase, then turned to start packing hers at the same time.
“Good looking, Jeffie.” Quameer said, on his second phone, while Capri was on hers.
He kissed his wife’s head. “I’m sorry, Su?—”
“Don’t even open your mouth to apologize. Mommy is hurt, we’re going home. I’m going to pack our things,” she scolded him, and left the room.
“How is she? I know she’s probably scared.”
I heard him take a deep sigh. “She’s not awake, Pop… she hit her head pretty hard, and the airbag was late deploying.”
My voice cracked. “The fuck you mean she’s not awake?”
Meer’s head snapped up, and he had the same look, and I knew he had the same feeling in his chest. “I didn’t even want to tell you this because I know my boys…You’re both going to come home, and I know that shit. When you get home, we’ll talk.”
Blair was ripping and running around the bathroom and room packing our bags up. She stopped when she saw me holding the phone in my hand. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s not awake.”
“God.” She walked over toward me and wrapped her arms around me. I kissed her arms as I held her, allowing her to love me.
She kept telling me I deserved it, and feeling her warm body on mine, comforting me, was foreign and familiar all at the same time. “Fuck!” Blaze hollered, not even bothering Jeffie in the least.
I imagined she saw some crazy shit working for Menace’s ass, so this was smooth sailing for her. “I’m going to make the calls and have you guys out of here quickly.”
Even on vacation, she couldn’t turn her brain off from problem solving and saving the day. “Appreciate you, Jeffie.”
She smiled. “No problem.”
Blaze stood there, not saying anything while staring into the air. “She’s going to be good… Mina Inferno is always good.”
He gave me that reassuring smile that I needed in this moment. “Toughest woman besides Gam.”
“You said it.” I held my hand out and we hit the IG handshake, before he took his phone, and headed toward the door.
“I’m gonna finish packing my shit.”
“Bet.”
We were left alone, and she climbed back into the bed with me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good.”
“You don’t always have to be good, Quasim.” She held the side of my face as she stared beyond my eyes.
Whenever she looked into my eyes, she was looking beyond, like she was learning about me through the lens to my soul. “I have no choice but to be good, my love. This position I’m in, I have to be good… don’t have no other choice. You want to be my wife, well, this is what comes with it.”
She kissed my jaw and hugged me before climbing out the bed. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“If this is what comes with loving you, then okay. I can tell you one thing; this won’t be our life for long… you won’t be good all the time… not with me as your wife. You’ll break down those walls eventually, Simmy.”
“You so fucking bossy.”
I never realized how fucking bossy Blair was, and how much the shit was a turn on for me. She wasn’t scared or ashamed to admit that she loved me and wanted me. Even not knowing if I felt the same for her.
“Yeah, well… when the head of the Inferno Gods tells me that ain’t no going back because he slid inside me, I have no choice.”
I laughed. “Yeah… ight.”
“Take a shower because we have a long ass flight ahead of us… your stuff is packed. I left your toothbrush and stuff out so you can handle that… funky breath.”
Shaking my head, I leaned my head on the headboard for a minute before climbing out the bed and getting on my knees to send a prayer up for my mother.