Chapter 4
UNO
“Dad, so if you get married, I’ll have a stepmom. I already have a stepdad, so that’s like four parents instead of two. So on holidays and birthdays, I should get extra gifts right?” Ace angled his head to the left and peered at me as I chuckled.
“I guess that’s one way you could look at it. You want me to get married, so you can get extra gifts?” I held the door of the barbershop open, so he could walk through it.
My question made Ace’s shoulders hike into a shrug. “It wouldn’t hurt. But I want you to get married, so you won’t be lonely. You and my mom broke up, and she met my other dad. You didn’t meet anybody.”
For some reason, that made me laugh. “I’ll meet somebody when the time is right. After me and your mom broke up, I was focused on other things. Like boxing.”
Ace was inquisitive as hell, so I knew my dating life would be the topic of discussion until he found something else to talk about.
Jade and I had a healthy co-parenting relationship, so I asked her if it would be okay for me and Ace to grab food together after his haircut.
I knew she was more than likely cooking and wanted to make sure it was cool for him to already have dinner.
I didn’t play about my son, but I still had respect for the woman that he primarily lived with. She was a damn good mother.
Jade and I had been broken up for more than four years.
She was married and had two other children with her husband.
We were in our early twenties when we broke up, and we did the toxic shit, the puppy love phase, all that.
I didn’t hate her, and I was glad she was happy.
We simply grew apart, but I took care of my son, and I wasn’t bitter at all that she moved on.
I started getting deep into the game, and I didn’t have time for a relationship.
One thing I used to hear Devin preach about was the fact that women could knock a man off his square.
He said he went through the drama and the arguments with his wife, but she was at a place where she understood his lifestyle, and she conformed to it.
He basically said that a woman that didn’t understand the lifestyle and was always bitching and moaning about time, etc.
wasn’t a good fit for anyone trying to come up to the game.
I took that advice to heart and kept it at no strings attached friendships.
I started making good money, and I was living my best life.
Time truly got away from me. I was finally at the point, however, where I was older, and settling down didn’t seem like a bad thing.
I knew I just had to put in the effort to meet the right woman.
For some reason, Apricot popped into my head.
I had never been a slow nigga, and I could usually tell when a woman was flirting with me.
Apricot had me stumped though. I couldn’t see her hitting on me.
Not with the way she felt about her father.
“You want seafood or soul food?” I peeked at Ace through the rearview mirror.
“Ummmmm, I think I want some soul food from Ms. Anne’s. I want her peach cobbler eggrolls.”
“You got it.”
Thankfully, Ace became lost in his phone, so he let the questions go.
Since he lived with his mother full-time, any time that I got to spend with him was special to me.
Therefore, any time we were together and ate, we ate together.
Seated at a table and having a conversation.
None of that eating in front of the television or him being on his phone.
I didn’t play that shit. Bonding with my son was important to me.
We weren’t far from Ms. Anne’s and arrived in no time at all.
When we walked in, and the first thing I saw was curly, orange, hair, I had to chuckle.
The Universe kept throwing Apricot in my face, and I wasn’t sure why.
When she turned around to see who walked in, her face reddened instantly.
Maybe she was feeling a nigga because she’d always been so standoffish, so her buying me drinks and blushing and shit had to mean something.
“What’s up, Apricot?” I gave her a genuine smile in an effort to relax her.
“Hey,” she smiled. “Diamond Cove is suddenly starting to feel really small.”
“I know right.”
The miniature version of Apricot with dark hair turned to look at me. I’m pretty sure she wanted to know who knew her mother. I hadn’t seen Kiwi in person too many times, but I knew enough to know that she was Devin’s granddaughter and anyone that breathed on her too hard might come up missing.
“You have a son?”
“Yeah, this is my son, Ace. Ace this is Ms. Apricot, and her daughter.”
“Hi,” Ace smiled wide because me nor his mother played that rude shit or that bad kid shit. He was always on his best behavior in school and out in public, or it was gon’ be belt to ass every time.
“Hi, Mr. Handsome.”
The hostess came over to the stand and smiled at us. “Table for four?”
“Oh no, we’re not together,” Apricot stated. “It’s me and her together.”
“Okay, um,” the hostess looked over her shoulder. “I have one booth, so unless you two want to eat at the bar, it might be about a fifteen-minute wait.”
I parted my lips to tell her that the bar was fine, but Apricot turned to look at me. “We can share a booth if you want. It’s totally up to you if you don’t want your son to sit at the bar.”
“Dad, I want to sit in a booth,” Ace announced.
“Bet,” I gave a curt nod. “We can share a booth.”
Since Apricot appeared to be interested in me, I was anxious to pick her brain and see what was up.
It wasn’t a secret that she didn’t care for drug dealers, so I wanted to know what made me different.
Or maybe she didn’t have anything against drug dealers, and she kept her distance from her father for another reason.
I would only get the answers to those questions if I had a conversation with her.
A conversation that would have to wait since we had our children present.
Kiwi was just as talkative as Ace, and they pretty much talked a mile a minute during the entire meal.
Ace didn’t go to private school like she did, but he lived in a really nice area and went to a good school.
As soon as I started making good money, even though we were broke up, I put Jade and Ace in an apartment and paid the $1,800 each month for rent.
When she started dating, my only requirement was that if she moved in with a man, he be able to put her somewhere nice because my son wasn’t living in the slums. Jade’s husband was a dental hygienist, so needless to say, they lived in an upscale area.
She didn’t have me on child support because I bought Ace clothes, shoes, and personal hygiene items every month.
I replaced his socks and underwear every two to three months, and I got his haircut every two weeks.
I also gave his mother $1,500 a month to cover his food and anything else he might need.
His stepfather was cool, and we all got along great.
It was a great situation for my son, and he was blessed indeed.
I loved being a father, but I wasn’t having any more children unless I was damn near married.
My next child would have to live in the house with me full-time, and I damn sure wasn’t getting any hood rats pregnant.
I didn’t have anything against women that went out and had fun.
I just wanted my child’s mother to be a good one.
Put them on schedules and shit, feed them healthy food, make sure they’re learning, etc.
“I want to pick your brain about something later,” I made Apricot aware while the kids talked a mile a minute.
Her brows hiked. “Um, okay. I’ll give you my number before we leave.”
I could practically see the wheels in Apricot’s head turning.
She was curious to know what I wanted to talk to her about.
Glancing over at Ace’s plate, I saw that his greens were untouched.
He was devouring the chicken, and the mac and cheese had been annihilated.
I spoke while pointing my pinky at the greens.
“You know you not touching dessert until those greens are gone, right?”
Ace pushed out a sigh. “Yes sir.”
“They’re good. I don’t even know why you tripping.”
I watched Ace intently as he picked his fork up with a slight scowl on his face. He had my curly hair, but his skin tone was like that of peanut butter. He was a few shades darker than me, and a few shades lighter than his mother. Ace was the perfect combination of the two of us.
After he placed the greens in his mouth, the scowl disappeared. “Hm,” he bobbed his head.
“Good right?” I grinned.
“Yeah, they are good.”
When the food had been cleared from all four plates, I picked up the check despite protests from Apricot.
I paid, left a tip, then we walked to the door, and Ace held it open for the ladies.
He was nosey as hell, so I eased my phone from my pocket and locked Apricot’s number in quickly.
When I got settled for the night, I was going to see what she was about.
Hours later, I was laid back in bed chilling barely watching an NBA game with my phone on speaker. “So, what is it that you want to pick my brain about?”
“You got me feeling like I’m losing my touch, and I need to figure out what’s up with that?”
“Got you losing your touch? How?”
“Normally, I can tell when a woman is interested in me, but you give mixed signals. I can’t tell if you’re being polite for real, or if you’re feeling me. My instincts tell me that you are, but I’m not sure about that. You strike me as the type to not like men that are in the streets.”
“Just put me on the spot,” she chuckled. “Wellllll, I do think you’re cute. I just wasn’t sure if you had a girlfriend, and you’re kind of correct. I don’t typically go for guys that are in the streets, but friends is okay I think.”