Chapter 5 #2
“The fuck you mean for what? Yeen just see me hand her my fucking black card? She ’boutta fuck my shit up. You couldn’t have held out for three more fucking hours?”
“Don’t listen to him, Reminisce. You came in perfect timing,” Beyah tossed over her shoulder before finding herself and the laptop at the dining room table.
I chuckled. “Nah, where my daughter at anyway?” I realized when I walked in the door I hadn’t heard her or any of the other kids.
“In there minding her business and eating.”
I nodded, ready to go fuck with her but deciding to chop it up with my brother for a while longer.
“You spoke to Indiri?” I asked.
“You must ain’t looked at the group chat?” G asked.
“Nah, I didn’t. Why?”
He shook his head. “He’s training here for his next fight. If it was an emergency, niggas would be fucked, huh?”
“Keeping it a buck, I got all y’all muted in there. And I feel like if it was a fucking emergency y’all wouldn’t pick your phones up and send a text,” I grumbled, moving to his refrigerator to grab something to drink.
“Nah, scratch that shit. Jade damn sure would.”
We shared a laugh. “Yeah, you right. I bet we get a text when she goes into labor. Gonna be saying some shit like, I didn’t wanna bother you guys, but my water broke.” I mimicked her voice.
“This isn’t an emergency, but it’s an emergency,” G mimicked as well.
“I’m glad y’all are in there having fun. I’m telling her.” Beyah’s voice had me looking toward the living room.
“Damn, that’s how you moving, sis? You a snitch?”
“When you talking about my girl I am.”
I threw my hands up in surrender. “So, that ain’t her?”
Beyah didn’t respond because she knew what G and I said was true.
“Exactly, now gon’ ahead and get what you need so I can put my card back in my wallet.
The way I keep up with my shit is by putting it back where it belongs.
” G teased his wife and I laughed. In my thirty-one years of living, I had never been in too many spaces with married people until them.
I mean of course they existed, but back home nobody I knew was married or committed to one person long-term unless they were doing a bid and wanted conjugal visits or it was some common law shit.
Either way, you didn’t see much of what was damn near a norm here, where I was from.
Even with all of that, I still saw the happiness I wanted someday.
What was wild was I hadn’t seen myself having anything remotely close, but then something kind of clicked.
It happened around the time I found out Romance was mine.
I was faced with what I could have if I stopped cheating myself.
"But Daddy, I not cold,” Romance sassed, walking her barefoot ass into the kitchen holding a caseless iPad. I needed to get a case for both of them expeditiously.
I mugged her little ass, because if I heard the words “but daddy” again, I was likely to pick her up by her fucking nose.
“I don’t care, Ro. I’m cold, I assume you cold. Now go put your socks on, shorty.”
“Fine.” She stomped off to find the socks I told her not to take off when she’d walked in the door.
I’d laughed at Caya when she beefed with Lil G plenty of times, but I never thought I’d end up here.
What made my situation worse was that I had a girl.
I just knew Romance was gonna be the death of me.
“Stop stomping on my damn floor and don’t drop that iPad. You break it, I’m not buying another one.” I was lying, but of course she didn’t know that. She didn’t need to.
When it was just me in the kitchen, I moved toward the tea cabinet Jade had set up for me and began removing everything I needed to catch this migraine and sack it.
I felt it coming on by the dull ache behind my left eye and the last thing I needed was to be laid up and her bad ass be running around here doing whatever.
When I had everything out, I grabbed the tea kettle and walked over to the sink to fill it.
While it filled in the sink, I cut the stove on.
Once full I screwed the top on and placed it on the stove.
I went over to the counter and grabbed the bag of loose tea Jade had put together for me.
From the moment she found out I had migraines, she put mixes together and always sent me links of stuff to try.
It was crazy because the way she’d been helping me treat them was better than the way those fucking doctors did.
Every medication they gave me had me stuck and tryna sleep the day away.
The teas cut my migraine days in half, working to prevent them and make them less debilitating when they did get through.
Then for the most part, when they did make it through, I’d smoke a blunt to ease the pain.
Long story short, my pain was managed through herbal ways and not all the pills those doctors pushed for kickbacks.
A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. Right before I could even leave the kitchen, I heard Romance’s feet pattering across the floor toward it. That let me know she hadn’t put on the socks like I told her to.
“Romance, if I walk out this kitchen and you don’t have socks on, I’m taking that tablet and you’re going to sleep.
” I set the mug down and moved around the center island toward the living room.
Before I made it there, I heard those same little feet going back toward her room which brought a smile to my face.
With a toddler, I was learning it was the little victories.
By the time she reached her room, I was opening the door. I expected it to be the pizza I’d ordered, but apparently the shop was having a slow night. Karim stood on the other side of my door with her natural mug plastered. Shit was so sexy.
“What took you so long?” She entered, looking around while I closed and locked the door.
“My bad.”
She didn’t respond. She was too busy looking around my spot. It was nothing spectacular to me, but to her I guess it was something to see. Jade had done the decorating, like everything else that needed any type of putting together.
“You looking for something in particular? I could for sure point you in the direction,” I offered, going back toward the kitchen.
“Nope, not at all. I’m just in awe. I finally get to see the bat lair.”
That caught me off guard and had me cracking up. “Fuck outta here.”
“It’s nice in here though, like even though I know Jade did your decorating, this space fits you.” She followed me into the kitchen.
“Good to know. Pizza is running behind, so make yourself comfortable.”
“I will but uh, damn, you’re not gonna greet me or anything? Got me feeling like I’m just a guest.”
I rounded the counter, pulling her into me by the loop of her cargo pants with my left hand. I gripped her neck with my right and tilted her head up with my index finger.
A few pecks later we parted. “My bad, you good now?”
“Nah I’m not, but that’ll suffice for now.”
I cut my eyes at her sexy ass. Yeah, she was just working on being difficult. It was her thing, even when things were running smoothly.
There was then another knock at the door at the same time the tea kettle started to whistle.
“Cut that off, I got it.” I left her in the kitchen and went to grab the food.
It was then I realized I hadn’t heard my child since before I opened the door.
Though it had only been a few minutes, I wasn’t fool enough to think she was quiet because she was asleep. Quiet kids were being sneaky.
“Romance, where are you?” I called out after grabbing the pizza from ol’ boy and handing him a couple dollars.
“I right here, Daddy,” she called out, running from her room.
“What were you doing?”
“My socks not match, Daddy.”
I looked down at her feet and laughed. She was wearing one lavender sock and the other one was blue. “Close enough. You want some pizza?”
“Yesss,” she sang before doing some lil dance then giggling when she was done.
I chuckled, then made my way to the kitchen. I set the pizza, wings, and cheese sticks on the island, then turned around, about to pick up Romance. It was at that moment that she laid eyes on Karim and a big ass smile planted itself on her lips.
“Rim,” she damn near squealed.
“Hey, pretty girl.” Karim leaned down and picked her up as soon as she hugged her legs. “How you been? I like your mismatched socks; they almost match mine.” Rim pointed down to the fact that she too had on a purple sock and a turquoise sock.
I shook my head, taking in their conversation. They had only met once, but Ro was convinced Karim was her friend too.
“Good. I played the game at my tete house. My cousin wasn’t good like you.”
“For real, he couldn’t beat our score?” Karim played all dramatic with Romance to appease her and apparently it worked.
“Nope. Can we play tonight?”
While they talked, I moved around the kitchen finishing my tea. I needed to get that shit in my system quickly.
“You’re making tea for who?” Karim asked after somehow shaking the toddler.
“Myself. Helps with the migraines.”
“Hmm. I didn’t know you had migraines.”
“’Cause you never cared past what was in my pants, shorty,” I said, just to fuck with her.
“If I didn’t think you were in pain, I’d hit you in your shit.”
“See, I told you. It’s something about beating on me that gets you off.”
She laughed. “Not even close but tell me about these migraines. Do you get them a lot? Or are they seldom with long episodes?”
“Out of thirty days, I probably get one ten of those days, and if I don’t catch them, I’m fucked up somewhere looking at a wall.”
“Could it be how you eat?”
“To be honest I never paid attention to that. The doctors tried to tell me it was caffeine, but I don’t drink it enough.”
“Crazy, I only get them when I don’t have my daily coffee. It’s like withdrawal symptoms.”
“So, you get the shakes if you don’t have a cup of coffee?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Yup, and I’m a whole lot of bitch. Before you ask, blame my mama. You saw when she was at my place this morning, she didn’t have shit done but that Café Bustelo. It’s probably hereditary.” She shrugged.
“Rim, I got the pad so we can play.” Romance’s voice announced her presence in the kitchen.
I sipped from my tea then looked at the Alexa monitor near the fridge for the time. “Nah, baby. You ’boutta eat and chill out before your bath.”
“But, Daddy,” she whined and I sighed. That “but daddy” shit was gonna be the end of me.
“Let the iPad charge and eat. You can play after that.” I’d never bargained so much in my fucking life. It required patience.
“Umm. Okay, You’re gonna play with me, right Rim?” She looked from me to Karim.
“Of course. Go make sure it’s charged so we can play all night.”
“Okay.” Romance left the kitchen seconds later.
My eyes immediately went to Karim. “Yo’ lying ass.”
She laughed. “How do you know I was lying. I had every intention of playin—”
“Nah, ’cause yeen come over here for her. You here for me.”
She laughed. “Selfish much?”
“Damn right. Now c’mon, let me feed you and her lil greedy ass.” I moved around her and went to wash my hands. Once finished, I grabbed paper plates from the cabinet and handed one to Karim before making Romance’s plate. I finished just in time for her to come back into the kitchen.
Once I got my baby set up at the table to eat her food, watching ol’ girl with the overalls, me and Karim ate at the island in the kitchen.
I was completely obsessed with this woman and it didn’t dawn on me until I stopped fighting it.
Maybe I wasn’t fighting shit, but instead afraid of fucking up whatever this was before it started.