Chapter 15 #3
I didn’t know why I was even here, but I was here, begrudgingly.
My mama said it might’ve been his attempt at fixing our relationship or the lack thereof.
Immediately, I wanted to know why, but then again, I didn’t care.
After a much-needed long and meaningful conversation with my mother, I agreed to come.
However, I didn’t agree without a fair warning to her.
I let her know if her son showed his ass, I was leaving him right here at this table.
Once again, I didn’t even know why I was here.
My brother and I had been damn near estranged for a reason.
He didn’t like me as a child, and his attitude made me indifferent about him.
He was shitty to me our entire childhood for reasons beyond my knowledge, and now here he was, ready to tell his story.
I had half a mind to get up and leave. Damnit, he’s here. I’m too late.
I watched my brother ease through the crowded place as he approached the high table I was sitting at. I was currently on my first Earl Grey martini, and I knew this was my limit. However, I didn’t need to drive, because Taurus had insisted on me taking his driver.
“Lane,” he greeted sourly. He acted as if my name tasted like shit the way he said it.
“Joseph.” I smiled politely because it took too much energy to reciprocate negativity.
“How are you? I hope everything is good.” I could tell he didn’t mean that.
He was just making small talk. What I did find funny was the fact that I had never noticed some of his feminine qualities until now.
He spoke with his hands and then intertwined them, before bending them and resting his chin on them.
“I can’t complain. How about yourself? How are the kids?” I felt like I was making small talk with a judge or somebody who I didn’t wanna talk to. This entire conversation was forced, and I know he felt it like I did.
“They’re great.” He smiled and looked off because there was literally nothing else to make meaningless conversations about.
“Okay. Let’s cut the BS, Joseph. Why am I here?”
“I need you to marry Sabastian. He needs to marry a woman of your stature in order to get his trust fund in entire—”
I couldn’t even hold the laughter that radiated all the way from the pit of my stomach out of my mouth. He had to be out of his mind if he thought any part of this was okay. “Why don’t you marry him?” I couldn’t resist the urge to throw a petty jab.
“I knew you’d be childish and not understand the severity of the situation.” He tried to belittle me because I was of no use to him.
I couldn’t help but cackle in his face some more.
“Allow me to be whatever you need in order to help you think that I’m some sort of villain in your little love story.
Just remember that you are a middle-aged man with two daughters and two sons.
I’d definitely watch the plans I make that don’t involve their wellbeing.
Especially since you seem like you’re trying to find a way out of the life you built with your wife. ” I emphasized.
He shook his head. “Well, I apologize. Everybody can’t be like the perfect Lane. Lane this, and Lane that.” He started his shit, and that was my cue to leave him sitting his miserable ass right there.
I laughed. “I am not perfect, nor do I aspire to be. However, I do know—”
“How dare you talk down to me like I’m beneath you? We grew up in the same home with the same—”
“Yo, this what you got out of bed for? To hear your sister whine?” I recognized his voice, even though he was behind me.
I turned around, and the love of my life was standing behind me with a smirk.
Leave it to Taurus to wear an olive-green Ralph Lauren polo sweat suit into a business-casual restaurant and still look better than everyone in here.
“You’re here.” I giggled and hopped from the seat, immediately hugging him.
Around Taurus, I was a giddy kid. I had even forgot that my brother was at the table in the middle of him giving me one of his “you’re not better than me” speeches.
I was so caught up in the presence of a man who I spent almost every waking moment with.
When I did look in Joseph’s direction, he had a look of disdain on his face.
I mean, he was literally seething with hate, and it had nothing to do with Taurus.
It was with the fact that I was happy and there was no way he could intervene or bring me down.
Joseph and I would always be estranged because I loved who I was, and he hated it.
He hated it because he wasn’t me, and I saw that now.
I didn’t bother to introduce Taurus to Joseph.
Instead, I grabbed my purse and threw it on my shoulder.
“You finished here, or you—” He started to question, but I interrupted him.
“Yes. Where are we going?” I immediately grabbed his hand as he led the way from the restaurant.
“I know yo’ ass ain’t ate. It’s a nice ass burger joint right up the street, and I know they have some type of chicken on that fucking menu.”
I giggled. It was a quick walk to the restaurant because it was literally two storefronts away from where we were.
As soon as we walked in the restaurant, Taurus was pulling me in the direction of the back.
He led me to the back where I assumed it was private dining.
I assumed right because the moment I turned the corner there was a single booth in the corner.
“You’re so sweet.”
“I know. You be getting down, and I ain’t want these people to see my baby mama stuffing her face.”
“Baby mama? Where did that come from?” I questioned. He had referred to babies a few times, but I ignored it. Oh, great. First, my mama, and now, him. Was it some bug in the air biting everyone except me?
“Right here. I want a baby.” He looked with a serious expression.
“Why so soon?” I asked. Or at all?
“Why not soon?” he questioned. “Yeen going nowhere, and neither am I. So I say we get this show on the road.” He had a charming expression plaguing his face.
“Taurus.” I shot him a pointed look.
“Lane.” He returned the same look.
“Have you been talking to my mother or something?” I questioned.
“What?” He looked confused.
“She was talking about babies today… just like you are now. What is—”
“So you’re saying you don’t want to give me a baby?” he questioned, disregarding what I was about to ask.
“Of course I’d give you a baby, but I’m asking what the rush is.” I shocked the hell out of myself with my response. He was him though. He could get whatever he wanted out of me, and I bet he knew it.
“No rush. I just want you to stop taking that shit. I want whatever happens to happen on God’s time.” What he didn’t know was that we were on God’s time since before he got shot.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “You mean your time because we both know if I get off my pills tomorrow, I’ll be pregnant next week messing with you.” Who did this nigga think he was fooling?
A smile a mile long stretched across his face. “We don’t know that.”
“That we don’t, but you and this evil ass grin on your face makes me think that you’re trying to trap me.
” I tilted my head to the side. Having a child by him wouldn’t be bad, but I definitely never saw myself being anybody’s mother.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like children, because I did.
For Christ’s sake, I had a goddaughter that I adored, but that wasn’t the point.
I just felt like being a mother was something for women equipped to handle it.
The women who were blessed with that extra something that made them phenomenal mothers.
On the other hand, I feel like I could be a bomb ass godmother and auntie.
Then again, I never thought I’d find real love, and now here he was.
Maybe I was looking at it too hard or analyzing it like a potential case instead of what it was.
“Is this a plot for entrapment, Mr. White.”
Of course, this nigga laughed like I had just cracked a joke. “I don’t ever have to pop you off to trap you, Lane. I have you mentally, physically, and emotionally. You feel the entrapment to a nigga because I feel the same to you. So…” His sentence trailed off as he waited for my answer.
“Fine.” Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, or a baby would be just the thing to drive me insane.