Chapter 4 #2
“Gatdamn Rem, you gonna suffocate her in front of the whole family? There's a whole ass priest and kids in here,” Rennix called out.
Everybody was laughing, just as Reminisce lifted his middle finger in Rennix’s direction.
“Daddy, Rim said I can’t stick up my middle finger. But you stuck up yours.” Romance’s small voice flowed through the space loud enough to pause the remnants of laughter before it more than doubled.
Almost like he was caught red handed, he snatched his hand down and immediately looked at my niece standing at the first step with her small hand on her hip and a mug that more than matched his.
Reminisce shook his head. “You're right. My bad, baby. I shouldn’t have done that.” He stepped down and grabbed Ro, holding her up. He then approached Karim and said something.
“Rim, that means Daddy is in trouble, right?”
Karim laughed. “Yeah baby, he’s in big trouble. We’ll deal with it when we get home, okay?”
“Okay. Daddy, you’re in big trouble. I don’t think you’re getting any ice cream tonight.” She shook her head like she was about to scold him. That shit was extremely hilarious.
After the wedding was the reception in a massive ballroom a few feet away from where they had married.
This was a nice, big ass hotel. I had already gotten a room for when this was over.
I’d find myself a lil plus one and take the party up to my room for the evening, then cut out early the next morning.
I was sitting at the table in my thoughts when I heard my sister clear her throat. Blinking a few times, I focused on her momentarily when the person next to her caught my eye. Couldn’t be, but it was, and she was trying her hardest to look everywhere but at me.
“Indiri, this is the cake maker and the woman who made all of the sweets for the wedding. Selah, this is my little brother Indiri. He’s also from Briar South.” She introduced us with an ulterior motive, unaware that I already knew Selah.
“What’s up, Selah baby? This why you ain’t called me?” I asked, watching embarrassment flash through her features. I hoped she didn’t think I was gonna stand here and act like I didn’t know her.
“Oh, so you guys know one another already. Like that?” Jade’s nosy ass cut in while I peered at Selah, who had yet to speak.
“N-no we don’t. We, well, I me—” she stammered, but I put a stop to that for her.
“Yes the fuck we do. Selah and I are good friends.” I grinned, fucking with her.
“Oh, okay. Then I don’t have to do the secret matchmaker thing I was trying to do over here. As a matter of fact, I’ll walk off and let you two friends catch up.” She stepped back before moving away from us and going toward the table where Oden sat holding their son.
“I didn’t know you we—”
“Course you wouldn’t have. We never talk about shit like that.” I shrugged.
“Because you always let me talk about only me, never leaving room for you to talk about yourself or this big ass family you belong to.” She glanced around the room then back at me.
A chortle escaped my lips. “Nothing to talk about. There’s a lot of these motherfuckers.
And I see you’re finished with the big job you were stressing over last week.
” Selah and I had talked off and on for the last month and a half, between my training schedule and her work schedule.
This week had been more off, considering she had been working on this.
“Yes. Now I don’t know if I’m tired or relieved. I’m just glad it went off well.”
“You’re relieved and you did good. Shit, look right there.” I pointed at Romance sitting at the kids table with the other kids chowing on the white and royal blue iced cupcakes.
She laughed, genuine happiness living in her eyes. Baking was her life, that much I’d learned from talking to her over the last few weeks.
“Now I’m wondering what you have planned after this.”
“Absolutely nothing. Maybe some rest and a good me—”
“Nah, come chill with me.”
“Chill with you?” she repeated.
“Yeah, when is your flight back?” I asked, lowkey uneasy with how entitled I felt to her business. I didn’t like getting too comfortable with people, especially not with how much my name was in the media and how much people felt entitled to my business.
“In the morning.”
“Cancel it and fly back with me.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because you want to.”
She didn’t respond but instead took another sip of her wine. I made her nervous, but I didn’t understand why. She had been around me too many times to be nervous.
“Since when you get timid around me, Selah baby?”
“I’m not timid.”
“Then tell me why you are so far over there and haven’t rejected what I said?”
“Because what you said was right, but the last thing I’m trying to do is rush into something when I haven’t fully closed the door on my last situation.”
“And I ain’t asking you to. We are friends, right?”
“The way you turn your lips up to grin lets me know you have something else in mind, but as long as lines are clear and you’re feeding me, I’ll indulge your requests.”
That statement earned a laugh from me. “I like the sound of that, you indulging my requests.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Too late, but all jokes aside. How long do you have to stay down here?”
“I don’t. Your sister asked that I come so she could introduce me to her family, and including you, I have been introduced to several other people.”
“Good, then let's go.” I reached for her hand and led her toward the exit. I locked eyes with Rem and he looked behind me, then nodded with a smirk. He already knew what I was on and he knew I damn sure wasn’t about to sit in this reception.
It was just my luck Selah was who Jade had intended to play matchmaker with.
When we reached the elevator, I pressed the button then swung her body around mine.
“Let me guess, you got the best room in the place again.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“No, maybe, it’s true. I like how you aren’t flashy, but you spend money on comfort and space.” We stepped onto the brightly lit, mirrored ceiling elevator and the doors immediately closed behind us.
I pressed the PH button then stepped back, resting against the cushioned back wall. “Being in my own space and comfortable is what makes me happy. I like my comfort.”
She nodded. “I like that you like it.”
“When did you start baking?”
“I’ve been baking my whole life. Something about the way my grandmother used to always have the house smelling like fresh baked cookies.”
“Let me guess, your home smells like baked cookies too.” The elevator dinged, alerting us that we reached my floor, then the doors opened.
A small smile trespassed onto her features. “Considering my loft is right above my first bakery, maybe.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the thought as we walked toward the room at the end of the hall. “That sounds dope as fuck.”
“Really? You don’t strike me as the type to appreciate things like that.”
I waited until we made it fully into the room before I responded. “When I was a kid, I spent time between my father’s house and my grandmother’s spot. Grandma was always cooking and baking some shit. The smell of baked pastries and goods takes me back to childhood.”
“Same.”
I watched her move further into the room, her olive-green tube dress hugging her frame.
Every time I looked at Selah, I felt like I was in some type of trance.
She was the complete opposite of the women I usually went for.
Instead of long, sewn-in tresses, she had collarbone-length, curly, jet-black hair that encased her chocolate face.
She didn’t wear much makeup, if any at all, because no part of her needed it.
She was perfect as fuck without it, a doe-like nose, piercing, slightly slanted eyes, and two-tone heart shaped lips. Fucking perfect.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, interrupting my mental rant of nothing but her.
“Because you beautiful as fuck.” I wasn’t even this type of nigga but I damn sure wasn’t gonna lie.
“Thank you for that. You don’t look so bad yourself. Are you drinking?” She tossed her head in the direction of the minibar.
I shook my head. “Nah, I’m training.” Then I took my tux jacket off and laid it across the back of the couch. I took a seat next to it shortly after.
“For a fight? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you ain’t asked, and yeah, sorta.”
“What do you mean sorta?” She didn’t go to the bar but instead moved back toward me, taking a seat in the last empty space on the three-seater sofa.
“Means he still ain’t challenged me, but I know it’s coming.”
She nodded. “As your friend, am I invited to your fight?”
“I’on know. You gonna go?”
She shrugged.
“Nah don’t shrug. Tell me you wanna come to my fight and see me.”
She was quiet for a moment then she shocked the fuck out of me and crawled into my lap.
Then she hoisted her dress up enough to comfortably straddle my lap.
“Yeah, I wanna come see my homie fight,” she answered when her face was close to mine, her lips so close to mine any P word would have them touching.
“Homie, huh?” I asked.
“Yup.”
“Bet.”