Chapter 8 #3
“Didn’t you just come to plead the case of another? You move on fast.”
“Well, you’re like your mother in that aspect. When your mind is made up, there is no changing it or reasoning. So, how soon will you be inviting your friend for dinner?”
“I don’t know. It’s fairly new, but I’ll let you know.”
Once I was able to convince my father all was well and that I wouldn’t out my brother’s “phase” to his wife, he left.
I had to laugh at that because Joseph hated me but sent my father to beg me to keep his secret.
Phase my ass. Joseph had been married for five years.
He shouldn’t have had to test any got damn waters.
Part of me wanted to tell her for the hell of it, but I decided to wait for one of those boring ass family dinners when he’d be throwing jabs.
If I wasn’t mistaken, one was coming up.
When I finally did get home, I slipped out of my shoes and immediately curled up on my sofa.
I just needed a moment to breathe and do nothing.
Of course, that never happened because my phone was ringing less than five minutes later.
I already knew it was Taurus. He could damn near sense when I was about to go to sleep.
“How can I help you, Mr. White?” I answered without opening my eyes.
“Fuck you sound like that for?” he questioned. I could hear the attitude in his voice.
“Because I was on my way to sleep.”
“Cool. Close your eyes and get your few moments of beauty sleep while I kick this door in.”
“And whose door is that?” I asked, scooting closer to the corner of my sofa. I was too used to his brute ass, so I didn’t pay him saying he was kicking somebodies door in any attention.
“Yours.”
My eyes shot open as I jumped from my sofa. I rushed to the door and opened it just as that fool stood at my door with a smirk on his face. I hit him in the shoulder as he stood up straight and walked into my place. “Why must you be an asshole?”
He laughed as he looked around my space.
“How did you know I was gonna be home?” I asked.
“Why ask questions and shit that you already know the answer to?”
I didn’t respond. I made my way back to my sofa and sat down, looking at him.
He stopped walking around and looked at me. “What? You did some redecorating or something?”
“What do you mean?” I looked around and then my eyes landed on the boxes near the door. Damn. He was observant as fuck. “No. I just got a new bed.”
He nodded. Seconds later, he took a seat next to me.
“You must’ve missed me since you’re popping up on me unexpected like this.”
Of course, he laughed. “Nah. I came to see if you did as I asked.”
“Wasn’t necessary, and in actuality, you don’t have to check up on me. You should just trust me.”
“Who said I didn’t trust you? I ain’t asked you why it wasn’t necessary, so I trust you, baby girl.”
I smiled and climbed into his lap. “Good, because I trust you too, handsome.”
He leaned forward, kissing my neck and jaw before he rested back against the sofa with his eyes closed.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked.
“It’s been a long ass day.” He seemed to be tired.
“Then how about we order food and relax?” I asked. Suddenly, I was no longer tired, and I damn near wanted to crawl in his skin with him. I was enthralled with Taurus.
“I’on want no chicken, Lane. No matter how many times you change that shit, it’s still chicken. You can bake it, broil it, fry it, or air fr—”
“It’s all I eat.” I pouted because I knew for a fact that he hated chicken at that point, yet it was damn near all I ate. I wasn’t a big fan of red meat or any seafoods. Sometimes I’d eat turkey, but I was very fickle, and after all that time, he should’ve known that.
He laughed. “Yeen tired of it? Gonna fuck around and turn into a fucking wing.”
I just looked at him before I removed the baseball cap and started easing my fingers through his neatly twisted locks.
“Now you wanna touch me like yeen hungry.” He peered up at me with amusement in his eyes.
I shrugged. “We can get whatever. Just get me some hot wings on the side.” At that moment, the food didn’t even matter. A Friday night in with him was enough for me. Just being in his warm embrace was honestly enough after my long ass day.
I glanced at my mother, wondering what the hell had her so mentally confined and withdrawn.
Whatever it was had her off her square, and I picked up on it.
We had breakfast and yoga that morning, and she was mentally absent through it all.
Yoga was about balance and chakras, but she had none.
She wasn’t herself, and she was sitting next to me on the bench, staring out into thin air.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” I finally worked up the courage to ask the question that I probably had no desire for the answer to. I was too afraid that she might’ve been sick or something.
She finally looked over at me almost like she had realized that I was sitting there for the first time. “I feel like I just woke up, and I don’t know who the hell I am or have become.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was sitting down for breakfast with a friend when a woman approached my table. She had a teenager who she claimed to be sixteen years old, and she said the teenager belonged to my husband. Believe me when I tell you I wanted to argue her down and tell her how much of an absurdity that was, but I couldn’t. ”
I felt like I’d been hit with a pound of bricks. My lips had gone dry, and suddenly, the air thinned as I opened my lips to ask her why. “Why?”
“Because the little girl looked just like you did at her age. I’ve always told you that you looked like your father’s mother did at your age, and I was right because she looks just like Gam.”
Immediately, my hand went to her shoulder. “What did you say, Mom?”
“What could I say? This woman had tracked me down and was demanding a sit-down with me because she made a child with my husband. I told her to take him to court because I wasn’t the one who made a baby with her and didn’t take care of it.”
I nodded. “And what are you gonna do?”
She smirked and sipped from the bottle of water in front of her.
“I’ve had the papers drafted for about two years, but I never had a reason to have them served until now.
I won’t watch everything I worked for be given away in back child support or my reputation go up in flames.
I worked too damn hard and gave too much of myself to end up in a corner. ”
I nodded again. “Okay. That’s feasible.” It was news to me that she had the papers for so long, but then again, it was a reason they said never to marry a lawyer.
Some believed we didn’t love because we were so calculated, but of course that wasn’t true.
We just saw the worst of things and promised ourselves that we’d never be in such compromising positions.
It was the skill of easy detachment. I learned it early, and that was why I never allowed myself to get so lost in Sabastian, but with Taurus, it didn’t apply.
For some reason, I got lost in this man every time he stepped his bowlegged, beautiful ass in front of me.
“I’ve just realized that I have to get back to me.” My mother’s voice reminded me that I was still sitting with her.
“Are you coming back to the city?” I questioned.
“Yes, I’m looking fo—”
“Come stay with me until you find it,” I offered.
She giggled. “I don’t want to—”
“Please, Mom,” I begged. The funny thing was I barely went to my loft three days out of the week, so she’d basically have it to herself, and she’d have the space to do all of her soul-searching.
I just wanted to be there for her through whatever process because I just knew she felt it.
She was deceived by the very man she changed her whole way of life for.