CHAPTER THREE #3
"You know I love you, right?" she said plainly. "I’ve known you since we was kids. You family to me. But I ain't looking for a relationship right now. With you or nobody else."
I laughed from relief. This whole time I was thinking she wanted to lock shit down, make it official.
“What’s so fucking funny?” she snapped.
"That's what got you stressed? Thinking I'm trying to wife you or something?"
She rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself. I just know how niggas get. We been doing this thing for months now, and I don't want no confusion."
"Trust me, it ain’t no confusion ova here," I assured her, "I got way too much shit going on to be playing house."
"My point exactly. You scared of relationships anyway, and that's fine. So am I." She pointed her fork at me. "We both seen too much shit go wrong."
She was right, but something about her saying it out loud irritated me. "I ain't scared of shit. I just got other priorities to worry about right now."
"Call it what you want."
Nova let out a loud burp, making us both laugh and breaking the tension.
"Damn, shorty! You ain’t got no manners? You a rude lil’ nigga." I joked, wiping her mouth with her bib.
"Bring her ova here, while you eat." Kynessa said, reaching across the table.
I handed Nova over, watching as Kynessa cradled her with the ease of someone who'd been around babies her whole life. Truth was, she was right about everything. I was scared of relationships. I just didn’t feel the need to have that extra drama.
Dealing with a woman full time to me was too much fucking stress.
I didn’t know if it irritated me that being in a relationship meant you would have to let someone get close enough to see all your flaws, your fears, and insecurities.
Every example of a relationship I had ever known ended badly, from my parents' toxic ass marriage to my homies getting played by bitches they trusted.
"Nova's room all set up?" I asked, changing the subject.
"Yeah," she nodded. "I washed her sheets yesterday and set up that little night light you got her. The one with the stars that spin around."
. "Good looking out. She can't sleep without that thing now."
After we finished eating, I cleaned up while Kynessa got Nova ready for bed. I could hear her in the second bedroom, Kynessa had painted one wall light purple, hung up pictures of Tasha, and bought a little white dresser for Nova's clothes.
I leaned against the doorway, watching as Kynessa rocked my niece gently, singing some song I didn't recognize. The room was dim, just that star projector casting blue and purple dots across the ceiling and walls.
"There we go," Kynessa whispered as Nova's eyes finally closed. She carefully placed her in the crib, tucking a small blanket around her legs. She tiptoed out, gently closing the door until it was just cracked open.
"I left it open a little so we can hear her if she wakes up," she explained, as she headed towards her bedroom door, she looked back at me and smirked.
“You coming?”
“You know I am,”
Back in her bedroom, Kynessa was sitting on her bed, scrolling through her phone, her long weave now pulled up in a messy bun on top of her head. She changed into just an oversized t-shirt that barely covered her ass.
"She went to sleep quick," I said, kicking off my Jordans and sitting beside her.
"She always does for me." She set her phone down, giving me a smirk. "It must be my magic touch."
"Is that right?" I raised an eyebrow, leaning back against her headboard. "What else your magic touch good for?"
She rolled her eyes but moved closer, her hand sliding up my thigh. "You must aint tryna find out, after bringing me some cold-ass Red Lobster, and on top of that you look just as tired as Nova."
"Shorty, that food wasn't cold," I protested, but my body was already responding to her touch. "And I got plenty of energy for you. I aways do."
That wasn't a lie. No matter how tired I was, how stressed, how fucked up things got, being with Kynessa was the one time my mind shut off completely. Maybe that's why I kept coming back, even knowing we wasn’t going no further than this.
"Mmhmm." She was already unbuckling my belt. "Let's see about that."
She slid down between my legs, looking up at me with those big brown eyes as she pulled my jeans down just enough.
"The baby monitor is on," she whispered, nodding toward the little screen on her nightstand showing Nova sleeping peacefully.
"We good."
Before I could respond, her mouth was on me, warm and wet. My head fell back against the headboard, one hand instinctively going to the back of her head. She knew exactly what I liked.
"Fuck," I whispered, my other hand gripping her sheets.
She hummed in response, the vibration nearly sending me over the edge. Her hands jagged my dick as her mouth applied pressure in all the right places. Shit was fucking fire.
"Nessa... I'm about to—" She didn't stop, she just looked up at me with big doe eyes that said she knew exactly what she was doing. A few moments later, I bit down on my bottom lip to keep me from crying out like a bitch as I came down her throat. My whole body tensed then relaxed all at once.
Kynessa sat up, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, looking entirely too pleased with herself.
"A bitch still got it," she said with a smirk. I pulled her up beside me, my breathing still uneven.
"I never said you didn't."
She curled up against my chest, and for a minute, we just laid there in comfortable silence. I could feel her heartbeat against my side, steady and familiar.
"You spending the night?" she asked, already sounding half asleep.
"Nah, I got a meeting with the team in the morning." It wasn't entirely a lie. We did have a meeting, but not as early as I was making it sound.
She nodded against my chest, not pushing it. That was another thing about Kynessa, she never pushed. Shorty never asked for more than I was willing to give. And that’s why I fucked with her the way that I did.
As her breathing deepened, signaling she was drifting off, my mind started racing again. Thoughts about Tasha, about Nova's future, about business, about whether this lawyer Sosa found was actually gonna come through or just take our money.
Once Kynessa was fully sleep, I carefully slipped out from under her. She stirred slightly but didn't wake up, she just curled around her pillow instead. I covered her with her blanket.
I grabbed my wallet pulling out six crisp hundreds.
For a second I hesitated, knowing Kynessa would probably be pissed when she found the money.
She always said she wasn't doing this for money, that she was helping with Nova because she loved Tasha and Nova.
But I also knew that she spent her own money on stuff for Nova all the time.
So, I placed some money on her nightstand, weighed down by her bottle of Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume. Maybe it was fucked up, leaving money like that. But in my mind, it was the least I could do for the woman who had no problem offering a hand in helping me take care of my niece.
I went to check on Nova one more time. She was still sleeping peacefully in her crib, with her tiny hands balled into fists beside her head. I kissed her cheek and left out her room.
I slipped out of Kynessa’s apartment quietly, locking the door with the spare key she had given me. As I walked to my car, the cool night air cleared my head a little, and it was very much needed. I always had too much shit on my mind.
* * *
The next morning, I rolled up to the spot on 79th and Aberdeen.
The trap was jumping, niggas coming in and out and money flowing like water.
We had been running this particular house for about three years now, and it had become one of our most profitable locations.
It was an old two-story building, which looked like it had seen better days on the outside, but inside we kept that shit tight.
Security cameras, reinforced doors, the works.
I parked my Charger a block away like always, I hopped out my ride and walked towards the trap.
Rah was sitting on the porch with Doobie and BooMan, all three of them was passing a blunt back and forth, while laughing about something. Rah spotted me first, raising his chin in greeting.
"Look who finally decided to grace us with his presence," he called out as I walked up the cracked sidewalk. "Mr. Shoota himself." He said. That’s where I got the name Trigg from, because I didn’t hesitate to pop a nigga if it came down to it.
"Fuck you mean 'finally'?" I shot back, dapping him up. "It's barely noon, and I bet y'all asses just rolled out of bed."
Doobie laughed, his gold fronts catching the sunlight. "Shit, I been here since six, baby boy. Some of us actually work for a living."
"Six?" I raised an eyebrow. "The only thing you doing at six is turning over in your sleep, fat ass nigga."
That got everybody laughing, even Doobie, who was actually built solid as fuck, but we'd been calling him fat since high school.
Nicknames stuck in the hood, regardless if they made sense or not.
"How Lil’ mama doing?" Rah asked as we headed inside, referring to Nova.
"She good. I left her with Kynessa for the weekend."
BooMan smirked. "I bet you did more than just drop lil’ mama off, huh?"
I shot him a look but didn't deny it. These niggas knew too much about my business already. "Where Sosa at?" I asked, changing the subject.
"He said he had a meeting this morning," Rah explained, leading the way to the kitchen where a duffel bag sat on the table. "He said he would be back around three. He wanted us to count this up before he gets here though."
I nodded, pulling out a chair. The kitchen was the cleanest room in the house. It had white tiles, stainless steel appliances, and granite countertops. We renovated it last year, and made it look like something out of a home improvement show.
"How much we looking at?" I asked, unzipping the bag.
"Should be about forty grand," Rah said, sitting across from me.
"Gremlin got the Northside popping right now."