11. The Recap #2
While they all seemed shocked by my response, well, everyone except for Amil, I felt I was making perfect sense.
And it was the truth. I really didn’t have any feelings about Mehki having two women.
So far, I’d been enjoying his company. He was easy to be around, could go toe to toe with my wit, fine, had his own money, and was an eater.
Now, did the whole meeting his girlfriends’ thing blindside me, sure.
I also noticed that the Karima chick wasn’t open to meeting new people or Mehki meeting new people for that matter.
Julissa seemed to be cool. Still, I wasn’t in the market for new female friends, so whether they felt good about me or not meant nothing to the bigger picture.
That bigger picture being when I wanted to make time for Mehki, I would.
Danae rested her elbows on the table and pointed at me. “You like that man.”
“I like a lotta men,” I countered, taking a bite of my fish.
“Bullshit,” she replied. “You like that man. I know chemistry when I see it. And y’all had that at the diner.”
Amil nodded, chewing. “Same thing Maverick said.”
“Who’s Maverick?” Thyri asked. Although she was quiet, she was picking up on everything.
“Oh, that’s Mehki’s friend… and Amil’s potential boo.”
Amil shook her head. “She’s only right about one of those statements, and that’s him being her boo friend. We were partners at the spades table, nothing more than that.”
“If you say so, Amilly,” I teased.
“Shut up.” She laughed. “Can we pause and eat now? I need to know what y’all think about the food. I’ll tell y’all why later.”
We all picked up our forks and commenced to eating.
With the conversation on hold, the only sounds that could be heard at the table were forks clinking against plates and the occasional hum of approval when one of us liked something.
I caught Amil scanning the dining room, her eyes bouncing between the lighting and the overall layout.
The wheels in her head were spinning, and she was filing every detail for her new venture.
I smiled to myself and went to focus back on my plate when I noticed our waiter making his way back over to our table.
He wasn’t alone. Following behind him were Thing 1, Thing 2, Mr. Grinch bringing up the rear…
and a baby. I looked over at Adai grinning wildly, obviously happy to see her little family.
“Now, who invited them?” I asked out loud, making Danae, Thyri, and Amil turn around.
“Gentlemen,” our waiter gestured to the table, “I’ll have a few chairs brought over for you.”
“Good looking,” Aura said. “I won’t need one. Wassup, y’all?” he greeted with Enzo and Pryce following suit.
“You gon’ stand?” Danae asked.
“Nah, my wife gon’ sit on my lap.” He held his hand out to her, and she stood for him to sit.
“Oh, y’all make me wanna throw up,” I joked, pretending to gag as she sat on his lap.
Enzo made his way over to Thyri and kissed her all over her face, while Pryce walked around the table to Dai with Ari strapped to his chest, head moving around, trying to figure out where she was.
“I told you not to come, bae,” she said to him, leaning her head back for him to kiss her lips. “And why you bring the baby?”
“You ain’t tell me not to come. You said you missed her, so I brought her to you. I’m doing that considerate thing you love so much.” He kissed her forehead.
“And what’s your excuse?” Danae asked Aura, feeding him a piece of her asparagus.
“Don’t have one,” he replied, chewing. “So long as you rocking that rock I put on your finger, I’m gon’ pull up and never pull out.”
“Oh, Aura, please,” Amil let out.
Danae didn’t say anything though. She happily fed him another asparagus. She knew her man was unhinged, and I was convinced that she loved every minute of it. Our waiter brought two chairs over, and all of a sudden, our party of six became a party of nine.
“Hi, my girl,” I cooed at Ari, who made spit bubbles and did her baby babbling. “She wanna talk so bad.”
“Yeah,” Dai agreed, reaching over to play with Ari’s tiny fingers. “Her daddy swears she can.”
“She can,” Pryce defended. “Me and my baby talk all the time. We were just talkin’ ‘bout Key before we got here.”
The table erupted in laughter.
“Yo’ ass a fool,” Enzo said, waving him off. “What she say? ‘Cause we was in the same car on the way here.”
“She said she don’t know how she feel about Key fuckin’ wit’ that nigga HVAC.”
“Pryce,” Dai nudged him.
All of a sudden, all eyes were on me.
“Well, for one, y’all baby messy.” I laughed. “Two, stay out my business. Had I known y’all knew him well, I would’ve passed on getting to know him.”
“Why?” Aura asked, taking a sip of Danae’s drink. “I don’t have a problem with y’all fuckin’ wit’ each other. I already told you he good peoples.”
“I’ve been in rooms with him before, so I can vouch for him too,” Enzo added.
I looked over at Pryce.
“Don’t look over here. The jury is still out.”
“Good thing you grown and don’t need none of these niggas’ permission, Key,” Amil said at the end of the table.
“And you see where her not getting our approval got the nigga she was wit’, right?” Aura commented, and Amil shot him the finger.
“Welp, on another note,” Ebone spoke, changing the subject, “since y’all here or whatever, who’s picking up the check?”
“Ohhhh, y’all got a problem wit’ us pulling up, but y’all want niggas to pay the tab?” Pryce questioned, appalled.
“Sounds about right. And since I know y’all was raised right and will, I’ma go ahead and add me something to go.” I waved the waiter over, and Pryce shook his head.
“You betta call that nigga, HVAC, ‘cause I ain’t paying for extras.”
I couldn’t get my comeback out fast enough because my phone vibrated with a message from Tobias.
Potential: Wassup, beautiful? Is that you in the cream at Peak?
I smiled, texting back.
Me: Maybe. Or maybe it’s a figment of your imagination.
Potential: Nah, I know that smile anywhere.
Me: I don’t like that you can see me, and I can’t see you.
Potential: Look straight to the back, Ma. I’m wrapping up lunch with a client.
I turned my head and found him sitting across from someone. He raised his glass in acknowledgement.
Potential: Make some time for me after this. I wanna make up for missing dinner.
I thought about the text still sitting in my text thread unread from Mehki and shrugged. Why not give Tobias a chance to make it up to me? Worst case scenario, I hated his company and ended up back home before nightfall. Reading the message once more, I replied back.
Me: Sure. I can make that happen. You have about thirty minutes to come up with some plans though.
Potential: Bet.
Grinning, I locked my phone and looked up to find all eyes on me again.
“Y’all gotta stop doing that shit.”
“You the one smiling all hard,” Dai said.
“Same way you was smiling when you was on the phone with HVAC,” Pryce called me out. “That was him? He coming to get you?”
“No, nosey.”
My phone vibrated again. It was another message from Tobias, this time with an address.
Potential: There’s a spa not too far from here. We can hit that up and then go from there. How that sound?
Me: Like a plan I can get with.
Potential: Bet. Meet there in a half hour? I’m wrapping up in a few minutes.
Me: Works for me.
I’d hit send on the message when one came through from Mehki.
B.D.E: I wanna see your face. Make that happen for me.
He had impeccable timing. Although I was tempted to respond, I didn’t. With my read receipts on, I read the message and locked my phone. If Mehki wanted more of my attention, he’d have to come get it.