12. Salem
My body was drained as fuck. I had always been careful about what I put in my body, but I had been so distracted about being with Koi that I had not questioned the shit that I ate from that little Mexican restaurant.
After we finished, and I told her how good it was, she told me that it was a little hole-in-the-wall place that she frequented because she loved their food and mojitos.
It didn’t bother me right away. I woke up through the night feeling a little queasy, but I hadn’t thought much of it.
I remained in bed holding my baby and not wanting to move from her side.
But when I woke up the next morning to her panicked frenzy over being late, I noticed that my stomach felt odd.
I tried going back to bed, but I couldn’t rest comfortably.
I kept tossing and turning and feeling nauseous every few minutes.
I finally got up when I couldn’t rest and ordered some food for Koi.
I knew her little ass wouldn’t eat, especially when she was running late.
It felt like I was always feeding her. If I didn’t, she wouldn’t eat, end of story.
I didn’t mind though. Nourishing her body and her soul was my job, and that was what I wanted to do to make sure that she was whole and complete.
I may have sold dope at an early age, and I may have had to get it out the mud with Ma Dukes, but she never failed to pour love, wisdom, and affirmations into me.
I had a damn good mama, who let me know that my cheating ass daddy had decided that he didn’t want to be a daddy if he couldn’t have her too.
She had decisions to make, and she decided raising me on her own was far better than raising me with a sometimey ass nigga who might be there and might not be, a man who disrespected her on every occasion.
It was important to my mama that, as a man, I knew how to behave toward women, treat women, and love them.
So she taught me that vital lesson herself.
And now, it was time for me to pour all of that back into Koi, if she would let me.
Not long after I ordered the food for her, my phone died, and I couldn’t find my charger. I gave up the search for it and tossed my phone somewhere, because a bout of nausea hit me that wouldn’t be ignored.
That shit rocked my body so hard, I felt like somebody came through and kicked my ass. As a grown man, I had been through some shit, but that brought me to my knees, literally.
I had spent Friday morning all the way through to Sunday evening in bed with a fever, throwing up, and fighting off chills. That shit made me feel like I had the flu. I couldn’t find my phone and lost all energy because I couldn’t keep shit down. I thought I was fucking dying for a minute.
I kept hoping that Koi would show up once she realized that I hadn’t called, texted, or shown up at school. When she didn’t, I knew that I was fucked. I suffered through the weekend on my own because my mama was in Vegas on a girls’ trip.
Sunday evening, when she returned, her first stop was to check on me.
When she found me sick, she nursed me back to health, spending the night and making sure that I had homemade chicken noodle soup, ginger ale, and crackers.
She told me that it was nothing but food poisoning.
When I thought back to the last thing I ate, I knew it was those damn birria tacos.
This morning, I felt as right as rain. I jumped up, showered, and got dressed. My mama told me she would have my house cleaned and disinfected and be gone by the time I returned.
I told my mama all about Koi. She advised me to be patient with Koi because it wasn’t easy for a woman to love again after she had been hurt. I knew that she knew what she was talking about. Still, the shit wasn’t easy.
“Professor H, can I holler at you for a minute?” I asked, walking up to her as she made her way across campus.
She had avoided me the entire class period, not calling on me for answers, not making eye contact, or anything.
I had arrived at school early and tried to get on her schedule for her early morning office hours, but her assistant told me she was booked.
I kind of felt like her ass was lying, but I let her make it.
After class, Koi had avoided me, saying that she was running late for a meeting.
That happened all day after every class.
Now that her class hours and office hours were over, I wasn’t taking no for an answer.
I didn’t give a shit who saw us. I had been leaning against a tree near the staff parking lot.
If she got fired, fuck ’em. I’d take care of my woman.
I hadn’t disclosed to Koi all my sources of income.
My paternal grandfather had passed while I was in prison. Apparently, he had learned about my existence when I was sixteen and had been looking for me. He had several properties that he transferred to my name before his death. He had left me a letter stating how he wished he had known about me.
He prayed that I would be nothing like my father, whom he said had never been shit. He told me that if my father hadn’t given me anything during my grandfather’s life, then he would leave nothing to my father after his death. He meant that shit.
He shut off all income to my sperm donor and advised that nigga to get it back in blood.
That nigga left four houses, some paintings, and some bonds to me in his will, along with half a million dollars.
All of which I would earn when I hit twenty-six, the age my father, Daniel Spears, was when he impregnated my mother, Prina, with me.
Hence, my reason for modeling, to earn money and keep a nigga out of jail.
The promise of that money didn’t change my path. I still wanted to help others and give back. My mama had taught me that valuable lesson too.
“I have somewhere I have to be,” Koi stated and rushed away.
That was fine. I would find her little ass at the studio tonight. And if she didn’t show up, Chelsea was gonna give me her address. She thought I was playing. I wasn’t leaving her ass alone.