Back at One
She finally agreed to give me another chance, and that’s all I needed. While she was sleeping, I went to Kronic’s and fed the block all night to get my money up and came home the next morning with full pockets and breakfast.
I set everything out nice. The pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and mimosa to wash everything down with. I was just about to run upstairs to get her when I saw her walking toward me. The morning sun was hitting her just right. She looked like she walked straight out of heaven.
I smiled at her hard. I tried not to, but she looked so damn good.
I reached out for her hand, and she took mine. Her ring from that other nigga was big as fuck, and I felt like it cut my finger, but I didn’t speak on it. It was going to come off soon.
“I bought breakfast,” I said, leading her to the kitchen.
“Good, cause I am hungry,” she responded as she let my hand go and rushed into the kitchen.
I stood back, looking at her. She looked like she was gaining some weight in all the right places. Again, I didn’t speak on it. She still looked good.
I fixed my plate after hers, and we sat at the table.
“I was thinking we could go and do some shopping today, get some things in here that you need, and decorate the house a lil’ bit.”
Islah nodded slowly. “Shopping is cool, but don’t you think us picking out decorations together is a lil’ too soon?”
“Nah, baby girl, I don’t. I think it’s speaking shit into existence.”
She looked at me and didn’t say shit else, just ate the rest of her food in silence, then got up and scraped what was left in the trash.
“I am goin’ to get dressed,” she said as she walked out of the kitchen, not even drinking her mimosa.
After a few hours, she came down the steps and walked into the living room, staring at me like she wasn’t upstairs taking her time.
“Are you ready to go?” I chuckled to myself.
“Yeah, boo, let’s go.”
I got up and walked over to her, trying to grab her hand to walk out of the house, and she snatched it back.
I stopped and looked at her.
“I can’t hold your hand?”
“Gio, can we just take things slow? Let it flow, don’t force it.”
I didn’t argue with her. I just nodded and opened the door for her.
We walked over to my rental, and I opened the door for her.
Once we pulled off, I was trying to think of shit to talk about, but everything I wanted to talk about was our future, and it seemed like she wasn’t on that yet.
As I looked over at her, I caught her looking down at her ring. She looked sad, like she was trying to hold back tears as she looked toward the window.
“So where do you want to go shopping?” I asked her.
She shrugged, wiping her eyes. “It’s up to you. It don’t matter to me.”
We took a lil’ drive, letting her feel that Cali breeze again, while the sun beat down on us. I turned the music up and rolled the windows down.
“I know you missed the weather. Ain’t no home like Cali.”
She looked at me with a slight smirk and nodded.
A lil’ bit later, we pulled up on Melrose and parked. She was out of the car before I could open the door or help her out.
We walked down the sidewalk like we were on a blind date. She stood a lil’ bit away from me, her arms folded across her chest. She didn’t talk to me too much, just answered when I spoke to her.
She looked at the Chanel store, and before we walked in, I stopped her at the door.
“Listen, Islah, I know you said you would give us a chance, but it don’t seem like you are moving like that.”
She exhaled hard. “I am sorry, Gio, I just have a lot on my mind.”
She wrapped her arms around her stomach, tight.
“What is wrong? You know you can talk to me?”
She shook her head.
“It’s okay, Gio, let’s have a good day.”
I nodded and opened the door for her, and we walked inside. I stood back a lil’ bit and watched her walk around the store looking at everything they had before one of the consultants walked over to her and took her to the new releases.
She picked out a few pieces, then went to try them on. I sat back and waited for her to come out. As I did, I checked my phone and realized I hadn’t heard from Jada in a lil’ bit.
As I opened Facebook, I saw people tagging her page, saying RIP.
I sat straight up and clicked on her page as I scrolled through everybody saying how much they were going to miss her. I caught the news article.
I clicked on it and skimmed through it, trying to figure out what happened.
I got to the bottom of the article and read that the police said that it was a home invasion and had no leads.
For some reason, I felt funny about that shit.
Before I could do any more checking, Islah walked out of the dressing room in a yellow sundress and walked over to the mirror.
“You look good, baby girl. You like it?”
She stared at herself for a lil’ bit, smoothing the dress down in front of her.
“Yeah, it’s cute.”
I nodded. “It is, get it, and whatever else you want.”
Islah turned back around and looked at me.
“Are you sure about that?”
I smiled. “Yeah, I want you to have all that you need.”
She gave me a slight smile. She was lighting up again.
After she was done there, we went to the Gucci store, Prada store, and Ulta before heading to Target to get a few more things that she needed.
By the time the back seat was full, she had a smile on her face, and she was talking to me about different shit she had seen as we passed it. She even let me hold her hand for a few minutes while we were singing our hearts out to Ja-Rule and Ashanti on the radio.
Her smiling and laughing felt like old times. I felt like I was slowly getting her to come around to giving us a real chance again.
As the sun started to dip, we stopped and got some street tacos and corn, then went to the park and found a table to sit on, watching the YNs play ball.
“You remember when you met me out here?” I asked her.
She nodded through bites. “Yeah…a long ass time ago.”
I agreed with her.
“You helped a nigga grow up a lot.”
She looked at me sideways. “Are you sure about that? You took your time to hit milestones we should have hit a few years into our relationship.”
I nodded. “I know, but low-key…I think I was scared. I mean, I knew I wanted to marry you. I always wanted to marry you. I just wanted to make sure I had all that you wanted and needed. That’s why I was doing all that extra shit to make sure you were taken care of.”
“I think you should have just given me what you could afford, like Love does…”
I brushed my tongue over my teeth, trying not to feed into what she said.
“Well, I wanted you to have the world.”
She nodded. “I do…in Atlanta.”
“You had your so-called world there. I am going to give it to you here.”
Islah smirked at me. “Are you sure about that?”
I smiled. “I know I am. You know why? Because I know how it feels to lose you, and I don’t want to go through that shit again. You had a nigga losing his mind after you.”
“You sure were!” she agreed. “Are you gonna get to that state again?”
I looked around for a second, thinking about that.
“I hope not,” I responded.
Islah placed her food down and turned to face me.
“Can you promise me that you don’t do me anything like you did before? That is not you and not the Gio I know.”
I nodded. “If I promise, can I get a kiss from you?”
She looked at me like I was crazy, making me laugh.
“I don’t know about that…maybe a hug.”
I didn’t like that, but I let it go.
“Okay, Islah…I promise that I won’t get like I was before.”
She smiled. “Thank you.” She opened her arms, and I reached in for a hug.
She felt so good. Her skin was so damn smooth. She smelled like vanilla and honey. I didn’t want to let go of her.
But my promise to her wasn’t on some light shit; I meant what I said—no turning back into the nigga that’s trippin’ again.
When she pulled away from me, she adjusted her clothes and looked around the park.
“Are you ready to go?”
I nodded. “Yeah…I want to go anywhere with you.”
Islah stood up with a smirk on her face. I grabbed our empty food containers while trying to hold her hand. She walked to the side while wrapping her arms around her waist.
Back in the car, she didn’t speak to me, just laid her head against the window. I didn’t care that she looked a lil’ down here and there. I was just glad that she was with me.
Once we got home, she slid her shoes off and headed up the steps with all her bags in her hands.
“You know…” I said softly. “You can move your things into our room.”
Islah stopped on the steps and looked back at me.
“No, Gio…I am not ready for that.”
When she was outta my eyesight, I walked back out of the door, hopped in my car, and went straight back to Kronic’s house. I needed to make some more money. But as soon as I pulled up, I saw Bully sitting on the steps.
He stood up once he saw me, walking up the sidewalk.
“You don’t know a nigga no more?” he asked.
“I been busy,” I responded.
“Yeah, I heard you have. Why the fuck did you take them niggas with you to Atlanta?”
I looked him up and down.
“Nigga, ‘cause you and Kronic wasn’t down for the count.”
Bully looked back at Kronic, and he was just shaking his head.
“Because it was a dummy mission, Gio, and you lost a nigga!”
I looked past Bully at Kronic, trying to figure out how he knew.
“Them niggas came over and told it all; they are still worried about you,” Kronic added. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you brought Islah here?”
“And she didn’t want to be here,” Bully chimed in.
“Y’all niggas need to worry about yourselves. I got what’s goin’ on in my household.”
“No, the fuck you don’t,” Kronic said, standing up. “I’ma let you make your money here today so you can send that girl back home to her man. If you don’t…you are not welcome on this block anymore.”
I stared at both of them for a second.
“Are you serious?”
Bully nodded. “You can’t make her be with you if she don’t want to be.”
“Y’all niggas are wrong, y’all don’t know every fuckin’ thing. She is giving me another chance. I took her shopping today, I brought her breakfast and shit. She is coming back around to me.”
Kronic and Bully laughed.
“Man, that girl is just trying to stay alive. I heard that you’ve been crazy; she don’t want to deal with that shit alone,” Kronic added.
“Love is gonna kill you!” Bully blurted out.
Kronic handed me some work, and I snatched it from him.
“That nigga best bet is to let her go.”
They laughed at me again.
“No, nigga, your best bet is to let her go,” Kronic said before I walked off his sidewalk and got back in my car.
His block wasn’t the only block I was good on. I can make my money anywhere, and I didn’t give a fuck what them niggas had to say. I knew what I was doing was right, and that Islah was going to come around.
I just knew she was.