31. Baby
BABY
“You been quiet the whole drive over, everything okay?” We were sitting outside of his mama’s house for the last five minutes. He held my hand on the way over but didn’t utter a word to me.
“Yeah. My bad for the silence, I’m in my head.” I nodded, understanding that one hundred percent. Seeing your sibling getting hauled off to jail would do that to you.
“It’s okay. You going through a lot with Valentine. I know all too well what that’s like being locked up, and I wouldn’t wish that on nobody. What did the lawyer say?” He was on the phone with him for a minute.
With his head laid back against the headrest, he inhaled and exhaled deeply. “He gone look into it for me.”
I stretched my hand to the back of his neck, massaging it while I listened. “I don’t got that type of time to be going through the legal system, so I’mma find Tank myself.”
I paused, my eyebrows knitted in confusion. “Tank? Why?”
His eyes connected with mine, goosebumps rose on my skin involuntarily. The things he did to my body should be illegal. “I need him to tell me how it went down, all of it. No matter what I gotta do to make it happen.”
“Do you really think he’ll tell you the truth?” Tank didn’t seem like the type to do things out of the kindness of his heart.
“Nah, but I got my ways to make him talk.” I gave him a pointed look, knowing what he meant, but I didn’t like the idea of him going down a dark path. The same way he wanted to protect him, I wanted to protect him. However, I’m sure Love could hold his own.
“I’mma cross paths with him real soon but for now...” He took the hand that was rubbing his neck, planting a kiss on the back of it. “Let’s go inside.”
I nodded, reaching for the door.
“Hold up.” His hand stopped me once I reached the handle.
“I don’t know what we finna walk into, so I gotta give you a heads up about my mama.
She's been sick for a while.” I nibbled my bottom lip.
“She gets paranoid, and starts acting crazy outta nowhere. I done took her to more plenty of specialty and everybody saying the same thing. That her condition was getting worse, and ain’t nothing stopping it. ”
I was listening, but he took my silence as something else, pressing the button on the ignition to crank the car. “Shit, my bad. I ain’t mean to drop all this on you. We ain’t gotta do this now.”
My head shook frantically, my arm darted out to stop him from moving.
“No, I want to,” I assured him, sitting back in my seat. “I’m glad you shared that with me.”
He leaned across the console and kissed me before he got out. Running around to my side, he opened the door to grab ahold of my hand. Ignoring the sparks that ignited at his touch, I smiled sweetly as he led us to the porch.
He knocked and we waited for somebody to come to the door. I didn’t miss the fact that he still held on to my hand, as if he didn’t wanna let go. I was not used to a man openly showing me affection, but I liked being close to him.
A red-skinned women swung the door open, a small smile on her face.
“Love, come in.” She moved back to let us walk past her.
My mouth watered at the smell of something sweet in the kitchen. The further we got inside, the more my stomach growled. Hearing the door closed, I twisted around to see her in front of me with her arm extended.
“Hey, how you doing? I’m Love’s aunt, Delia.”
She offered her hand in greeting, and I stretched mine to shake hers. “Nice to meet you. I’m Baby.”
She nodded in acknowledgement, focusing her attention on Love. “Y’all here because of the news, ain’t you?”
I noticed him taking his shoes off on the carpet and didn’t hesitate to follow suit. Some people crazy about wearing shoes in their house. My auntie Mona, Jayda’s mama, was the same way. Love walked around to the couch to sit down. He was so close to me, our legs brushed together.
“Yeah,” he answered. “Did mama see it?”
His auntie sat across from where we were, placing a plate of cookies down on the coffee table. I was tempted to reach for one, but I didn’t wanna be rude.
“No, and thank God she didn’t. She’s been sleep for a few hours now.” She shook her head in defeat, her shoulders slumped. “Love, this would give her a heart attack. I don’t know how you gone break this to her.”
Without breaking conversation with her, he picked the plate up and moved it towards me.
A warmth I couldn’t describe settled in my chest. It was a small gesture, but it meant everything to me to see him being so attentive.
We were in tune with each other and that kinda understanding was worth a lot more than intimacy to me.
It’s like he knew what I needed without me opening my mouth.
I grabbed one shyly, and bit into it. His eyes cut down to see if I took one before he put it back where it was.
“I want her to find out from me first,” he noted, turning to me. His eyes took me in, and I must’ve had crumbs on my face because he used his thumb to wipe across my cheek.
“I’mma be right back, alright?” he told me.
I nodded, smiling. “Okay.”
As he turned the corner to leave, his auntie moved from her spot and sat where he was. “So, you Love girlfriend?”
I thought for a second. “Huh? Oh, no. We’re just friends.” One of her eyebrows raised like she didn’t believe me.
“It’s complicated, I guess,” I added, taking another bite of the cookie.
She waited patiently until I was finished to reply. “What’s the complication? I can tell he really likes you. Love never brought a girl to my house before.”
Lady, you won’t believe me if I told you.
For the next few minus, we sat there and talked.
I told her all about our situation. How I knew him before I got locked up and how we got reconnected years later.
It’s crazy if you really thought about it, though.
We’d been through so much already in such a short period of time.
But just thinking about him had butterflies moving wildly in my stomach.
It may sound silly, but I’d go through hell just to come home to Love every day.