Chapter 6
“Where you going?” Creed was walking past his mother’s bedroom door but backtracked when he caught a glimpse of her standing in front of her full-length mirror dressed like she was going out and placing earrings in her ear.
His question caused a subtle smile to dance on her lips. She wasn’t sure which of her sons tried to be her father the most. Creed or Chosen.
“I’m going to dinner.” Once the diamond stud was secured in her ear, Blossom took a step back to analyze her appearance.
She chose to wear a simple black dress that hugged her body and stopped past her knees.
The dress hung off her shoulders and while it didn’t do too much, she still looked good.
Blossom wore very light makeup and added accessories that complemented the dress.
On her feet, she was going to wear red platform, peep-toe heels.
It was time for her braids to come out, and she’d been too lazy to complete the task, so she wrapped them in a bun on top of her head and laid the edges.
After placing a scarf on her head for an hour, her braids were good enough for the night.
“With Fancy?”
Turning around, Blossom grinned at her oldest child. “Creed, which one of us is the parent?”
The spitting image of his father hiked his brows. “I didn’t know I couldn’t be concerned because I’m your child. You don’t have a game tonight, so I was just curious.”
Telling him she was going on a date was on the tip of her tongue, but she refrained.
Her sons were overprotective and nosey, but over the years, she’d done a good job of dating in private.
Their father had moved on, so if she really decided to be with someone, she wouldn’t feel guilty about it.
Blossom was a firm believer that her sons didn’t have to know about every man she encountered.
Ty coming to her home even when her sons weren’t there wasn’t an option because she didn’t want them to see him on the Ring camera.
If a man wasn’t going to be around for the long haul, her sons didn’t need to know about him.
“I’m going out to dinner with a friend that you don’t know. I shouldn’t be gone more than two and a half hours.”
Eyeing her skeptically, Creed didn’t answer right away. “I need you to share your location with me.”
The expression on his face made her aware that he was serious, but his comment still made her laugh. “I will share my location with you, Creed. You in for the night?”
Creed was on his way to college, and he was a good kid.
At the beginning of his senior year, she smelled the odor of marijuana on him one night, but Blossom didn’t spazz out.
Creed was a straight-A student, and he had inherited her love of basketball.
He never got into trouble, and he was respectful.
Blossom sat down with him and had a conversation about everything from people lacing weed with other drugs to the harmful effects that weed could have on him as an athlete.
She educated him rather than judging and yelling at him.
Creed told her he didn’t do it on a regular basis, and all she could do was take his word for it. Basketball took up a lot of his time, but Creed worked part-time at a cell phone store. He was in a relationship and if he wasn’t playing ball, working, or out with his girlfriend, he was at home.
“Yeah. Jalissa doesn’t get off until midnight.”
“Okay. I’m about to head out. Your father is picking Chosen up from track practice and bringing him home. You know how he forgets his key, so if you do leave, text him before and see where he is and if he has his key.”
“Got it.” He nodded, obediently.
In the car, Blossom took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure why she was nervous because the date wasn’t that deep.
The more she thought about it, Blossom concluded that more than likely, she was afraid of wasting her time.
Her first conversation with Tech hadn’t been a super long one, and they had texted a few times, but it wasn’t like she knew him.
He didn’t give off creep vibes, but she elected to meet him at the restaurant rather than giving him her address.
He seemed mature, and Southern Smoke was a very upscale restaurant, so he got points for that.
Calling Fancy to distract her and calm her nerves wasn’t an option because she was performing an emergency C-section.
Before she could think about who else she could call to pass the time on the drive, she got an incoming call.
Upon seeing Cedric’s name, the eye roll that occurred was a reflex.
Even before the separation occurred, Blossom and Cedric only talked when it concerned the children.
She had to heal and take accountability for the part she played in the dissolution of the marriage, but Blossom was no longer resentful.
She wasn’t upset, and she was in a good place.
Cedric still did for the boys, and he spent time with them.
That was all she could ask for. When they were in one another’s presence, she could smile and be polite.
Cedric, on the other hand, had a stick up his ass.
He walked around with an attitude like he’d been done wrong.
Blossom felt like she kissed his ass enough during their marriage.
Coddling and appeasing him after the marriage wasn’t going to happen.
“Hello.” Her tone wasn’t super friendly, but it wasn’t snippy or rude either.
“Hey. So, I’m getting married, and I’m adding my fiancée and her daughter to my insurance.
With me, them, and the boys, it will be well over $1,500 a month taken out of my paychecks.
So, I was calling to see if you could add Creed to your insurance.
It would be even better if you can add both the boys.
I have been paying their insurance since they were born. ”
The audacity was at an all-time high, and she was stunned.
So stunned that for a few seconds, silence hung between them.
“Um, so you want to drop your children from your insurance, so you can add your fiancée and her child?” Blossom asked for clarity.
The question garnered a sarcastic laugh from Cedric.
“Sure, make me seem like the bad guy. For eighteen and thirteen years, I’ve paid their insurance. You wanted to have a career. You make good money. Shit, you got more than me. You can’t add them to your insurance? I tried to be the man and provide. You didn’t want that.”
“Oh my God.” Her voice rose several octaves. “You are still bat shit crazy. Don’t even worry about it, Cedric. I got them. Just make sure your new boo and her kid are straight. I got mine.”
“That’s that cocky shit right there. Being single, lonely, and horny isn’t a flex.”
His words made Blossom’s jaw slack. She’d never been interested in trying to prove anything to Cedric since they broke up.
It didn’t matter to her what he thought, but she was in a rare mood.
“I am very single, but lonely and horny aren’t accurate words to describe me.
I’m out right now with company, and the dick might just come later,” she lied.
Blossom had no plans of sleeping with Tech no matter how well the date went.
“So you think being a hoe is cute?”
A loud laugh pushed from Blossom’s throat.
One that she was certain had Cedric foaming at the mouth.
“Which one is it? Now, you said being lonely, horny, and single isn’t a flex.
I simply let you know that I’m not lonely or horny.
I could have been with one man since we divorced.
How does that make me a hoe? You thought you were the only one that moved on?
Ohhh, you thought there were plenty of other insecure men out here, and that the only men I’d encounter were ones like you?
Nope. Real men do exist. Men that aren’t threatened by a successful woman. ”
“Yeah, you have to be around somebody, and I’m going to let you go. Obviously, the nigga got you feeling yourself. No real man that works and takes care of home wants a woman spending more time outside the home traveling and working than she does inside when she doesn’t have to. Fuck outta here.”
Running her tongue across her top row of teeth, Blossom chortled. “You have a good night, and don’t forget to take my kids off your bum-ass insurance.” Blossom ended the call with a roll of her eyes.
She knew the bum-ass insurance line had Cedric pissed.
It annoyed her that years later, she was still letting Cedric and his immature ways upset her.
Going a date with negative energy wasn’t ideal.
Even if she didn’t have high hopes for Tech, she wanted to give him a fair shot.
Lowkey, she felt sorry for Cedric’s bride-to-be.
Blossom was sure the woman thought she had a prize, but little did she know, she was about to marry a controlling, narcissistic, gas lighter.
Pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant, Blossom gave herself an internal pep talk.
There didn’t have to be a love connection between her and Tech for it to possibly grow into something fun.
Ty was the only man she’d been with since her divorce, and she was ready for something different.
Blossom knew she wasn’t a hoe but even if she decided to be, hoe well.
Too many of her years had been spent unhappy because the man she was married to felt threatened by her living her dream.
She never cheated. Prior to him, she’d only been with one other man.
Blossom was damn near forty and had only been with three men in her life.
Fuck Cedric and his opinion of her. If she wanted to have sex with two or three more men, that was her business.
Blossom didn’t even realize she was frowning until she flipped the visor down to check her appearance.