Chapter 9 #4
When I opened the note, I couldn’t contain the smile on my face. Even when he tried to be sweet, there was still some hood in him.
Good Morning, Lola B,
I had to take care of some business this morning, so I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up. Breakfast has been ordered for you and your little thottie bopper crew. Once I tie up these loose ends, I’ma take you shopping so I can blow a bag on the baddest.
Today is a new day, so don’t stress about shit that happened yesterday. It’s all been laid to rest. I’ll see you soon.
—Essex
My trip hadn’t gone the way I planned, but it hadn’t been all bad. To be honest, I didn’t want to focus on what happened to me simply because I was tired of always being the victim. It was time for me to take my power back and stop allowing people access to me.
I got up, took another shower, did my daily routine, and got dressed for the day.
I kept it casual with a blue three-piece athleisure set I bought from my favorite online boutique.
The jacket and sports bra fit great, but the leggings had my ass looking like I had just gotten off the table from getting a BBL.
I already knew East would be fussing about it, and I looked forward to stressing him out.
Since my brows and lashes were done, I decided to forgo any makeup and only apply my lip gloss.
My hair was brushed back into a slick ponytail, and I couldn’t help but admire myself in the mirror.
Since I hadn’t posted much content in the last two days, I snapped a couple of photos and uploaded them.
The caption read: His Favorite Headache.
My notifications started going off right away, but one in particular caught my attention. Someone commented under my picture, and I couldn’t stop smiling when I saw who it was.
TheEastWay: Damn fuckin’ right.
I continued getting ready, then headed downstairs with my girls. They texted me to let me know the food was ready, so I wasn’t surprised to see them at the table digging in.
“Good morning, bitches!” I greeted them, then walked over to fix myself a plate.
“Good morning, bookie. How did you sleep?” Summyah inquired, giving me a concerned look as I took my seat.
“I slept great. The best I’ve slept in a few weeks.” It was the truth. Sleeping next to East gave me a different level of comfort, and I was able to sleep through the night with no issues.
“I’m glad you’re okay. You had me ready to jump some niggas and hide a couple of bodies,” Kiara added.
“I bet you did. I saw your man, who’s not your man, but is your man, creepin’ out of the room this morning with a goofy grin on his face. You sure do move fast,” Valor interjected.
“Oop, that’s tea for me. What was up with that, friend? You and your play baby daddy working on your family?” Summyah snickered.
“Don’t call him a play daddy to his face because he will cuss your ass out. You remember that time I tried to be funny and called Noodle his stepdaughter. To this day, his ass still doesn’t fuck with me like that.” Valor chimed in.
“Well, you were being shady, so I understand why it pissed him off. East loves that little girl, and he doesn’t play about her or her momma,” Kiara replied.
“Yeah, Symphonee only has one daddy, and he is bat shit crazy about her spoiled ass. If anything, I’m the stepparent with the way she treats me when he’s around.” I giggled, thinking about the relationship between East and Symphonee.
Before my daddy was killed, I was the light of his life, and a part of me never recovered when I lost him. Being able to witness the genuine love between those two healed a part of me. It gave me a sense of peace to know she would always have a daddy even if East and I didn’t end up together.
“I don’t know where they ordered this food from, but it’s good as hell.
I thought I was gonna record a cute little video of me eating, but I sat up here and smashed this plate like I haven’t eaten in forty days and forty nights.
” Summyah held up her empty plate as we all laughed.
She wasn’t lying because the food was delicious.
It tasted fresh and like it was made with love.
“Oh, shit.” Valor dropped her fork and crashed it against her plate. Her hand covered her mouth, but her expression was conflicted. I couldn’t tell if it was good news or bad.
“What happened?” Summyah leaned over to peek at whatever was on her phone. It must have been something wild because she absentmindedly snatched the phone from her hand with her mouth hanging open.
“What the fuck?” she whispered. The two of them gave each other a look before they both glanced over at me.
“What? Are you gonna tell me why the hell the two of you are looking at me crazy? Did something happen back home? What is it?” I held my hand out for Valor’s phone, but I noticed the hesitation in Summyah’s eyes.
The moment my eyes landed on the news article, I realized why. My brows bunched together as I expanded the image to read the story underneath the headline.
Three dead and one injured in a fiery car crash. The Cleveland Bulldogs are left grieving a devastating loss.
Cleveland Bulldogs players Damacio Sims, Rommel Haynes, and Jeremiah White were killed in a tragic accident on HWY 96.
Reports say the driver lost control of the vehicle and was unable to stop.
The vehicle flew over the guardrails and rolled down an embankment, where it later burst into flames.
Life-saving measures were performed on all three men, but unfortunately, they did not survive.
A candlelight vigil will be held at the Cleveland Lakes stadium. More details on page six.
I reread the paragraph a few more times to make sure I wasn’t tripping.
My feelings were slightly conflicted. Regardless of what anyone did to me, I never wished bad on the other person.
They all had bright futures ahead of them, but on the other hand, I was happy they would no longer be around to hurt any other women.
While they weren’t successful with me, it was obvious I wasn’t the first, and I wouldn’t have been the last.
“Wow, this is crazy,” I mumbled under my breath.
“I don’t know why you’re sitting there looking shook. If we don’t know anything else, we know East rides hard for you,” Valor stated.
“Wait, what does East have to do with this?”
“Lyric, I know you’re green to the street shit, but nothing about this seems like an accident.
The article continues on another page, where it states that they believe the brakes were faulty.
Bitch, that was a brand-new car with less than 18,000 miles on it.
There is no way those brakes were faulty enough to cause an accident like that,” Summyah explained.
“What are you saying? You think East and Logic had something to do with their accident?” My mind flashed back to the letter East had left behind, which said my problems were laid to rest. I thought it was an odd choice of words, but not enough to suspect him of murder.
“Actually, no. I’m sure it was nothing more than karma running its course.
You know they would never do anything to hurt anyone, but I’m glad everything worked out the way it was supposed to.
” Kiara’s statement confused the hell out of me until my phone vibrated and I saw the message she put in the group chat.
Ki: We probably shouldn’t even be discussing this because the Airbnb has cameras.
Myah: Damn, you’re right. Let’s drop the subject altogether. RIP to those poor souls.
We changed the subject to what stores we wanted to hit up at the mall.
I rarely shopped for myself since becoming a mother, so I was actually looking forward to treating myself.
Well, technically, East would be treating me.
Either way, I was excited to have a kid-free weekend where I did something for myself.
Noodle had more clothes than I did, and that didn’t even include the things that were at Granny and Aunt Pam’s houses. They spoiled her just as much as East.
“I miss you, baby. You don’t miss me?” Our conversation was interrupted as East and Logic walked back into the house.
He sported a wide grin on his face as he held his phone up to his face.
“That’s crazy. You were supposed to wait for me so we could watch the movie together.
I can’t believe you. You don’t love me anymore?
” The smile on his face pissed me off. It didn’t help that he had a fresh haircut and was looking good enough to eat.
His Amiri jeans hung low as he swaggered over to where we were sitting.
“Good morning, sis.” Logic kissed the top of my head.
“Damn, is she the only person you see at the table?” Valor scoffed playfully.
Logic’s head snapped in her direction, and the smirk on his face told me he was about to say some ignorant ass shit.
“Did I not speak to you when you were gargling my balls this morning?” he replied with a shrug.
My orange juice went down the wrong pipe, causing me to have a coughing fit. East raced over, pounding my back like a newborn baby who needed to be burped.
“You didn’t have to do all of that. I was just joking.” Valor rolled her eyes with an attitude. I could tell she was embarrassed that he put her business out there.
“My bad. I was just tryna get clarification. You barely gave a nigga the chance to walk in this bitch before you started nagging.”
I often got on Logic about his delivery. It wasn’t that he was wrong; it was the way he worded things. He could come off as cold or nonchalant even when he wasn’t trying to.
“You okay?” East whispered as he rubbed my back.
There was too much going on in the room at once.
Logic and Valor were having a heated conversation, and I almost forgot about him being on the phone with some bitch when he came in the house.
He was still holding his phone up, which irritated me.
Normally when we were together, he kept his phone on silent, giving me his undivided attention.