15. Reighvyn
ONE WEEK LATER
The music was loud and lively, and the drinks were being poured in abundance.
The oppressive heat that had settled on the island the last few days had let up just a bit.
It had rained this morning, but surprisingly, it didn’t bring the normal humidity it would after the rain ended.
A nice cool breeze danced around the island all afternoon, and it was the same this evening.
There were fairy lights hanging from trees and tables filled with food that catered to every palate. Melicia and Felicia and their husbands had returned to the island this weekend, along with some of the other people we had known growing up.
I was surprised to find out how many of them often returned to their childhood summer vacation homes every year. One of the guys I used to kick it with when we were kids, Davion, was throwing a luau in honor of his wife’s thirtieth birthday.
“Aye, you wanna hit this blunt?” a nigga named Cortez, who I couldn’t stand when we were kids, asked.
“Nah, I’m cool.”
“This is that shit,” he replied.
“Yo, I’m good, man,” I repeated, turning my gaze back to Dove. She was dancing with some of the other girls. Her ass bounced so hard underneath her coverup that my dick bricked up. Thankfully, she wore a wrap coverup, but it did nothing to hide those jiggling ass cheeks.
Cortez chuckled, causing me to turn my gaze back to him. He took another hit of the blunt and then passed it to someone else. “Reighvyn up here trying to act like a Boy Scout and shit, knowing his ass be getting stoned like the rest of us muthafuckas,” he announced to our group.
I ignored his comment and looked back at Reighvyn again. She twerked, and Felicia, Melicia, and some other girl danced in a circle around her.
“Y’all niggas gon’ be fucked up at the end of the night with the way y’all keep hitting that weed and tossing back that Hennessy Black,” Davion announced.
“You must think we some lightweight muthafuckas,” Cortez declared.
“Yo’ ass been drinking since you arrived.”
“Just tryna have a good time, Von. Ain’t that right, Reigh?” He elbowed me, and I mugged the shit out of him.
I slanted my gaze to Davion. “Man, I think ya boy had enough.”
Cortez laughed again, but I wasn’t laughing. “What? You gon’ beat my ass or some shit? Wondering if your punk ass can fight at all. That’s why you were taking them drugs and shit, huh? That’s the only way you can win a fight?” Cortez asked.
Davion wasn’t quick to shut that shit down, and quietly, I thought he might want me to beat Cortez’s ass.
Cortez was always the one who had too much mouth, always the one nigga everyone wanted to shut the fuck up.
Now that he was on his drunk shit and nobody was stopping it, I knew that was what they wanted.
They were right too. This nigga needed to be bust in his shit. But they were letting this shit go too far, knowing damn well that nigga would have me in court tomorrow morning if I handled him.
“Aye, Tez. Chill with that drunk shit,” a nigga named Tyson spoke up.
“Shut the fuck up, Ty. You been on this nigga’s balls all night,” Cortez remarked.
I slanted my gaze in Cortez’s direction. “Watch what the fuck you let come out ya mouth, nigga,” I warned.
“Yeah, you tripping, man,” Davion stated. “This my wife’s celebration. I’m not trying to have it fucked up because you on some jealous bullshit.”
“Jealous of who, Von? Ain’t none of y’all niggas worth being jealous over. ’Specially not this ugly-ass nigga,” Cortez stated, pointing at me.
I stood and slapped hands with Davion. “Aye, my nigga. I’m ’bout to bounce. Tell Gina I said happy birthday again, and I’ma get up with you later.”
“That’s cool, Reigh. Thanks for dropping by,” Davion replied.
“No problem.”
“Seriously, though, Reigh, don’t leave on account of this nigga. He’s on some drunk shit,” Davion remarked.
“It’s all good.”
“A’ight,” he replied.
I dapped the rest of them niggas up, and Cortez couldn’t resist one last jab.
“You running, nigga? All hype!” he shouted as I walked away.
I turned back around and ran up on him so fast that he fell backward in his chair. I placed my foot on his chest, leaned down, and replied, “Nigga, if I put these hands on you, I will kill you. No doubt about it, boy. Watch who the fuck you talking to, and respect me when I step on the scene.”
As a professional fighter, one of the hardest lessons I had to learn was not to beat a nigga’s ass, even when they deserved it. It wasn’t worth everything I would lose if I engaged in petty shit.
I walked up to Dove. She stood near the makeshift bar, sipping a glass of water. Sweat poured down the sides of her face.
“You good, girl?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you though?”
“I’m getting up out of here.”
“Okay, well, let me tell my girls bye.”
“You ain’t gotta roll out yet, babe. I can come back and get you when you’re ready. The walk isn’t that far.”
“No, Reigh. I’m tired and ready to relax.”
We had been at the party for four hours, so I could understand where she was coming from. I watched as she said her goodbyes before she joined me again. We intertwined our fingers and slowly strolled down the beach back to our cottage.
“Thank you for tonight.”
“Whacha mean?” I asked.
“Getting me out of the house. I needed to get my mind off some things.”
I wrapped my arm around her. “Like what?”
“You’re leaving in three days, and it will be a while before I see you again.”
It had been three weeks since I arrived on Sorrel Island, and I needed to get back to formal training.
I had worked out every day that I had been here and done some training, but it was nothing compared to the more rigorous training that I would get at camp with my coaches, trainers, and sparring partners.
“We’ll be okay. You’ll get tired of me being under you all the time pretty soon.”
“You have what, two fights per year?”
“Yeah, and usually eight weeks in training camps.”
“Mm. I don’t like the idea of anyone beating on you, Reigh. I mean, I know that’s your career and you’re good at it, but you deserve better than that.”
I stopped in the doorway and tilted her chin so that she could look up at me. “I do have better, now that you’re in my life.”
She smiled sweetly at me, and I brushed my lips against hers in several sweet pecks. She pressed her tongue against the seam of my lips, and I opened up. Although she initiated the kiss, I controlled it.
She yawned and stretched sleepily when I pulled back from the kiss. “It has been a long day,” I pronounced.
“Yeah. All I want is a bath and to get out this swimwear. It’s full of sand.”
I popped the rear waistband of her bikini bottoms, and she laughed and ran to the bathroom.
“You undress while I run bathwater for you. How about that?”
“Are you gonna bathe me?” she asked, looking up at me from underneath her lowered lashes.
“I’ll do whatever you want me to do, sweetheart,” I replied, cupping her ass and pulling her closer. We kissed again.
“At this rate, I don’t think I’ll ever get a bath.”
I laughed and released her. While she undressed, I ran her bath water and added scented oils to it.
When I finished bathing her, I lifted her from the tub, wrapped her in a bath sheet, and carried her into the room. She yawned repeatedly as I dried and moisturized her body.
“I miss my flower shop, but I’m going to miss being here when it’s time to go back home.”
“What do you love most about this place?” I asked, applying oil to her legs.
“The peace. The ocean breeze. The beauty. The sun and sand.” She giggled.
“So just about everything?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Would you like to own a vacation home on the island one day? We could escape for vacations and long weekends.”
“You’re already planning your future with me in it.”
“You are my future, girl.” I walked to the dresser and grabbed her hairbrush, oil, and bonnet.
She remained still while I applied a light oil to her hair before I carefully brushed it. She relaxed after a while and started talking again.
“You were gonna marry Daniella.”
“I was, but Paloma and Wryn always told me that it was a mistake, even before I asked her.”
“If she hadn’t turned you down, would you be married to her by now?”
“Married and miserable as a bitch.” I chuckled lowly, and she smiled and met my gaze in the mirror. Dove reached up and touched my hand, and I lowered my lips to kiss hers.
“I guess the doping scandal helped you out. You never know how God will turn a bad situation around and work it for your good.”
“Yeah. I guess.” I finished brushing her hair, wrapped it, and then placed the bonnet on it.
“Why are you so good at this?”
“I watched Paloma in the earlier years. I would sit on her bed and talk to her about what life might be like for us when Mama got better. She would be doing her hair and dreaming with me. This reminds me of those times with her. Something about it was soothing to me, just like when she braided my hair when she got older—like my mama used to.”
“Thank you for taking care of me tonight.”
I lay down beside her, and she rested her hands in prayer position on my chest.
“You’re easy to take care of.”
She stared at me with drowsy eyes. “I love you, Reighvyn Bloom.”
My heart was full, and I couldn’t help but beam at her just as her eyes closed, and she drifted off to sleep.
I climbed out of the bed and returned to the bathroom to shower.
My thoughts turned to how we had transitioned from good friends to lovers now.
Just like the bird symbolized peace and confirmation, she was my peace and confirmation that everything was as it should be.