Chapter 7 #2
“Symphony.”
Their eyes locked. Block had never been corny. He didn’t do all that romance and kicking game shit, but the way her name fit her had him in a chokehold. He’d never been to see a symphony play, but he knew orchestras were classy and shit. Something real sophisticated, and that fit her to a T.
“Let me get your number, Symphony. I’ll put something together and call you with the details. Is that aight?”
Symphony had been on quite a few dates in her life but, she’d never dated the ‘bad boy’ type.
She could tell that Nasir as she knew him, had his shit together.
He was mature. But there was also that rugged street edge that turned her on, and she had no clue why.
Symphony didn’t grow up rich, but she was sheltered from a lot.
When it came to the streets, she could be very green.
The most she’d learned about drug dealers and the things that went on in that world was from her sister becoming an addict.
She doubted Nasir was dating to marry. Maybe he just wanted to have fun. Maybe he just wanted to have sex. Whatever the reason was, Symphony was down to take a walk on the wild side.
“Sounds like a plan. Have a nice day,” she smiled and left the room.
Block chuckled as he shook his head. Professional women weren’t foreign to him.
He’d dealt with a lawyer and a rocket scientist. Shorty was dead ass a rocket scientist that worked for NASA and shit.
Smart, gorgeous, mature. They were all attributes that Block preferred in his women, but he could still tell that he’d have to handle Symphony different.
The lawyer was married, but she was so thirsty for the D, she damn near begged for it.
Block didn’t have to wine and dine her. He had sex with her two times and called it quits.
If she didn’t respect her marriage then he didn’t give a damn about it but still, Tech had warned him that there were a lot of mentally unstable niggas who would be willing to risk it all behind some pussy.
If her husband came at him wrong over a woman that begged to have sex with him, Block knew it wouldn’t end well.
So, he gave ole girl what she’d been asking for and cut her off from it.
They couldn’t go out in public. There was no romance whatsoever involved.
The rocket scientist was goofy as hell and not his cup of tea.
They went to the movies and one alcoholic drink had her snorting like Steve Urkel and laughing overly loud at the goofiest things.
He was going to take the time to plan something really nice and classy for Symphony.
Block wasn’t going into the situation with any expectations.
He wanted to ask her out, so he did. In the car, he scrubbed a hand down his face and exhaled.
Block sat there for a few minutes contemplating his next move.
He was almost out of cough syrup, and he wanted more.
He smoked weed every day, but the feeling the codeine gave him was different.
It numbed and relaxed him to the point where he felt good as hell even when he didn’t smoke.
It also helped him to not go through withdrawals when he had to put the weed down for a bit.
He wanted to give his lungs a break from smoke, so he hit his homie and told him he wanted to buy some cough syrup.
Ja’don informed him that he wouldn’t have more syrup for a few days, but he told Block he had Percs and that they would do almost the same thing.
Block never desired to do any drug other than weed.
He knew Perc heads, and he felt it was a shame to see people so young gone off pain pills.
He’d even witnessed people crushing them up and snorting them.
That was wild as hell in his opinion, but he didn’t judge.
Folks were just out here trying to cope with life’s bullshit.
Finally, Block decided that he would only buy four pills.
That was it. Once all four pills had been taken, and he reupped on cough syrup, he was out of the opioid game.
Averi frowned as Blak entered her space.
Once again, he’d shown up without calling, and she was over it.
How he went from being so chill and laid back to damn near obsessed needed to be studied.
It was annoying her and throwing her for a loop.
She could get that he was getting married for reasons that she didn’t fully understand.
He had to do what he had to do to make his life better, but he shouldn’t be selfish enough to want her to be his mistress in the process.
Averi eyed the plastic bag in his hand. She could see through the clear bag that a pregnancy test was inside. “Take this,” he extended the bag toward her making her draw back.
“Nigga, you out yo’ mutha fuckin’ mind. Are you cool? Do you need to go see the lady?”
“I don’t have time for the bullshit, Averi.”
“And I do?! Had I poked a hole in the condom or tricked you into getting me pregnant, you’d literally view me like the scum of the earth. What you did wasn’t cool. In fact, I should have yo’ ass arrested.” She wasn’t sure if what he did was a crime but if it wasn’t it should be.
“You’re right, Averi. Got damn. I know it was fucked up and selfish. You got that. But I still need to know for sure. Can you just take the test?”
Averi wanted to claw his eyes out. She’d taken a plan B just as she said she was going to, but she’d been feeling off for the past two days.
Her period hadn’t come, and she was pissed.
The way Blak played in her face was messed up, and she damn near hated him.
But she didn’t hate him enough. He had legit trapped her, and if she was pregnant, she was going to have to get an abortion for the first time in her life.
Averi didn’t appreciate what he’d done to her, but she knew it was her fault too because she never should have taken his word for it that he would pull out.
She didn’t think he’d do something like that. He showed her ass.
“You got my abortion money if it’s positive?”
“Yeah man.” Averi didn’t miss the defeated look in his eyes. He should feel bad.
She didn’t have to have an abortion. She could make him take full custody of the baby but that wasn’t an option either.
There was no way she’d carry a child for nine months, give birth, then hand it over to the father, while she went along with her carefree life.
Averi snatched the bag from his hand and stalked to the bathroom.
The entire time she peed, she prayed that the plan B had worked.
If God got her out of this one, she’d go get on birth control immediately.
Nah fuck that. She wouldn’t need birth control because there would be no more sex.
This new breed of niggas didn’t deserve pussy. At least not hers anyway.
When Blak heard the toilet flush, he walked into the bathroom. As she stood at the sink washing her hands, Averi cut her eye at him. He’d forever be on her shit list. She dried her hands and leaned against the counter while he leaned against the wall staring at her.
“What?” she snapped.
“I love you.” His tone was low. Serious. She heard him, and her anger toward him doubled.
“One thing I’ve learned since becoming an adult is that a lot of grown niggas play little boy ass games.
Ten months, Justin!” She screamed out his government name.
“You had ten months to do whatever it was that you needed to do and say what it was you needed to say, and you wait until now. Fuck you.” She was so angry it felt as if her blood was boiling.
“I didn’t know man. Not until you tried to walk away.
I’ve never been in love before. That’s the main reason that I agreed to marry shorty.
I didn’t think I’d find a woman and want to do shit the traditional way.
That didn’t seem like it was in the cards for me.
When I saw you talking to another man something in me clicked. I can’t lose you.”
“If you choose to walk down that aisle that’s exactly what you’ll do.”
Blak’s jaw muscles flexed. He’d messed up royally.
He agreed to marry Naomi months ago. Had anyone told him he’d fall in love with Averi, he would have said it was cap.
But there he was. Loving the fuck out of her and not knowing what to do about it.
He had always referred to her as cool, but she was more than cool.
She was his friend. And from that friendship, his feelings grew.
He was at peace when he was with Averi. She didn’t nag him or constantly try to get him to put a title on what they were.
She just let him be and from that, something organic and unexpected had occurred.
Averi’s eyes landed on the test, and the results made her chest tighten.
She didn’t know why the hell a smiley face was staring back at her because she was doing the exact opposite of smiling.
When tears spilled over her eyelids, Blak’s heart sank.
Hell nah he wouldn’t mind having a baby with her, but if she was really against it, he’d have to take that L.
He peered at the results as Averi tried to push past him.
“Averi, man, stop. Come here,” he pleaded, and she cried harder.
“I will never forgive you for this shit.” She struggled to get away from him.
“Never.” Her voice croaked as more tears fell.
Blak truly felt like shit, but there was no way for him to fully express it.
He’d done some devious shit. His ego had him delusional.
The average female would kill to have his kid.
He didn’t think it would be that bad, but she had shown him, that she wasn’t average.
Having his child was the last thing on her mind.
Holding her wrists tight, he spoke into her ear.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that shit.
If you have this baby, you both will be taken care of for as long as I have breath in my body and after.
If you choose not to have it, I can only respect that. ”
There was a moment of silence before she spoke. “Please let me go. And give me my abortion money before you leave.”
Blak knew he’d never succeed in making it off her shit list. He continued to hold her until his phone vibrated in his pocket.
Blak was snatched back to the present and remembered that he was supposed to be meeting Naomi at three for cake tasting.
He didn’t give a damn what kind of cake they had at the reception, but she had invited him.
He promised to be there. He had no clue what time it was, but it had to be close to three.
And Averi lived twenty plus minutes away from the bakery.
Blak let her wrists go and pulled out all of the money that he had in his pockets. He had counted it, so he knew it was $11,000. Blak placed the money on the sink and walked out of the bathroom.
“Shit!” he hissed when he checked the time and saw that he had two missed calls from Naomi. It was 3:15. By the time he got to her, it would be around 3:40 and that was if traffic wasn’t bad.
Blak shot her a text message letting her know that something urgent had come up. He told her to get whatever she wanted. In his car, Blak’s head rested against the seat. He was in too fuckin’ deep, and he didn’t know how to fix the mess he’d made.