Chapter 6
Oden
A week later…
Jade was… Shit . Jade was the type of woman that had you questioning every moment you shared with another.
The kind of woman you only encountered the realness of once, because there were so many out here pretending to be what she was.
Jade was one of a kind, and way too good to be fucking with somebody like me.
She could have done better, but it was too late.
She already let me experience her in the way I had.
No nigga in their right mind wanted or needed to be going back to before.
“You know if I wanted to have a meeting with you and you pay attention to everything but the meeting, I would have come out to the house while you were fishing.” Lois’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
I chuckled. “I told your ass I was on board with whatever you wanted to do. Both options you ran by me for expansion were solid.”
Kie laughed. “I told you he would say that.”
“That’s because he’s fucking difficult.” Lois mugged me.
“How am I difficult when I’m agreeing with what you’re saying? What, you want me to say no or something?”
“Yes, Oden. I want the or something. I just told you I’m thinking about making us bigger, which means construction, or we could open up a new place.
You of course said, those seem like solid ideas’ that’s your choice.
How does that help me? Yes, you’re difficult.
” She then folded her arms like a big ass kid.
Kie cackled.
“You’re the leader, Lois. I’m just here to cook, shorty.”
She pointed in my direction. “No, you are not. You own this place. Now, pick one before I square up and fight your ass.”
I was about to respond but a knock at the door had us looking away from one another and in the direction from where the sound came.
When my eyes landed on Jade, a smile crossed my face.
A fucking light. She looked fucking beautiful, her thick, coily hair crowned her face and something about the olive outfit brought out her figure.
It was a two-piece pantsuit, fitted in all the right places.
“I’m sorry, am I interrupting? The woman behind the bar sent me back here.”
“Nah, you’re not. Come here, love.” I motioned for her to come and of course her fake nervous ass hesitated before moving toward me.
Once she was in front of me, I pulled her down into my lap, pressing a kiss to the side of her face.
I felt Lois and Kie looking at me too, but momentarily I was caught up in her presence.
“Well since he has decided to be rude, let me meet you for myself.” Lois’s voice filled the room. “Hey, my name is Lois, and this is my wife Kie.” When I looked up, she had her hand extended to Jade.
Jade accepted her hand with a chuckle. “My name is Jade, an—” she started.
“Lois and Kie, Jade. Jade, Lois and Kie. These two are the sisters I never had, baby.” I watched them shake hands.
“That was probably the worst introduction I’ve ever experienced, but it is nice to meet you, Jade. I love your whole outfit for the second time in a row. Please tell me where you get your pieces,” Kie complimented.
“Thank you so much. A little bit of shameless promotion. I own a boutique in Fulton Market and I’m technically in the middle of opening another location.
Everything I own with the exception of a few other pieces is from there.
The name of it is Très Bien, French for very good.
I can show you some pics from social media if you’d like.
” I could tell she was in her element when talking to Kie because she was on her feet in seconds, swiping through her phone and showing the photos.
“Oh, so you’re a business owner as well. Then good, while we have you here… I was trying to have a business meeting with Oden here, but it doesn’t seem to be happening. So can I ask you a question?” Lois asked, getting both Jade and her wife’s attention.
“Of course.” Jade nodded.
“What made you decide to open a new location rather than expanding the one you already have?”
“Honestly, the initial space I already have didn’t have much to give to me.
If anything, I felt like it was appropriate when I was just getting my feet wet and new to the idea.
What made me decide to open a second location rather than moving and expanding was not only the location, but also the way I could create two different atmospheres that don’t necessarily have to be the same.
They can coexist and be their own spaces without having to mirror.
While my first boutique is small and intimate, my second one will be larger and offer more in terms of products, vibes, and even variety.
” I could see the light in Jade’s eyes when she spoke about her business.
She loved her boutique and what she did. That shit was sexy.
“I like that, a lot. It’s set. We’re opening a new location. Thank you, Jade.”
“Anytime.” She beamed.
“I’m gonna take you up on that.” She spoke to Jade, then her eyes narrowed on me. “And you, don’t be hogging her and making her a stranger. We need to have dinner one of these days.”
I laughed and waved her off. “Yeah, alright.”
“Don’t alright me, Oden. I mean it.”
We spoke for a while longer before I dragged Jade out of the restaurant and into my car. I knew if I didn’t get her out of here Kie and Lois would talk her ears off. Jade was a people person, so people naturally gravitated toward her.
“You look fucking beautiful,” I complimented as soon as I was in the driver’s side of my truck.
“Thank you. Reminisce told me I looked like a piece of lone asparagus.”
I chuckled hard as hell because I could see where he got that.
“Don’t laugh too hard now, I’ll start to think you agree with him.” She sent a mug in my direction.
“Nah, you look good as a motherfucker.” I winked at her. My phone ringing stole my attention as I started the car. I glanced down and saw it was my brother. After tapping the green circle on the screen, I mashed the phone against my ear.
“Yeah, Kinga?” I answered, maneuvering out of the parking lot.
“Y’all be talking shit to me ’bout that lil boy, but just when I picked Aja up from school why was he waiting out there to open the door for her? Why the fuck is he opening my car door for her to get into the car?”
“You just said it, fool. He was opening the door for her to get in.” Harlem’s voice in the background had me shaking my head.
“Nah, he was being disrespectful.”
“Yo, you’re wild as fuck, man. That little boy isn’t stutting you.”
“Yeah, because he’s trying to get some of my niece right up under my nose.” He grunted.
“Yeah, whatever. I’ma call you back. I’m in the middle of something, have her call me when she leaves ballet.” I knew Mondays and Wednesdays this season Harlem had her into different programs.
“Okay. Both you and Harlem are gonna stop acting like I’m overreact—” I hung up before this fool could finish, because he was indeed overreacting.
I dropped my phone into my lap and glanced over at Jade.
“My bad, baby girl, that was my brother. He has beef with this little boy who goes to Aja’s school. ”
“Beef with a teen.”
I laughed. “Same shit I said. But apparently, he called Kinga Old School and was trying to mack Aja in front of him.”
Jade laughed so damn hard you would have thought I told a joke. “And how do you feel about this?”
I shrugged. “Like kids will be kids and I know my daughter. Ain’t shit there, but my brother is new to this parenting shit, so err’thing has him overreacting. He is ready to mush toddlers in the park over the twins.”
She laughed more. “So, he’s just overprotective.”
I nodded and kept my eyes on the road. “Extremely, but to an extent it’s necessary I guess.”
In my peripheral vision I could see her nod.
“Can I ask you something?” she asked as I felt her eyes before her hand found its way into mine.
“Sure, what’s up, love?” I glanced at her briefly before looking back at the road.
“Why doesn’t Aja live with you?”
I swallowed hard, not mentally ready to talk about what had haunted me for the last few years of my life. I guess I had to though. I had to come to grips with it and move on.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to.
” Her voice crept into my thoughts, letting me know I had gone silent after she asked why Aja lived with Kinga.
I could have given her the short version, but I didn’t.
Something in me wanted to deliver her a truth as close to the one I had been hiding from.
I held her hand in mine firmly, focusing my attention on the road ahead.
“She has been living with my brother since everything happened with her mother. Her absence and my guilt for being the reason made it hard for me to look at my child. I had to leave and find myself outside of what had become a place of nothing but pain for me. I never wanted Aja to have half of anything, let alone an absentee ass parent. So I gave her the next best thing. Kinga didn’t know shit about being a parent, but he stepped up and handled it in my absence. Him and Harlem hold that shit down.”
“Where did you go?”
I cut my eyes from the road to see her face. “What do you mean?”
“You said you had to leave to find yourself. Where did you go to find yourself?”
“Felt like I went to the end of the earth, but in all honesty, I spent a while in the mountains, some time with a small community in the dry lands, then from there to the middle of nowhere. I did a lot of thinking and pondering. Feeling and carrying a lot of shit I didn’t know I would until one thing was very clear.
I missed my baby, no matter how bad I felt about what she didn’t have. ”
She squeezed my hand. When she didn’t ask any more questions, relief washed over me. I wondered if I’d tell her the full truth if she asked for it. Would I tell her that I caught my wife cheating on me and killed her along with the nigga she had in my bed?
She perked up and changed the subject. “So, what are we cooking again?”