Chapter 2
“So, you think this is it, huh?” my mother asked me as she folded the clothes she’d just taken from the dryer.
“You know you don’t have to do this, right, Ma? You know I’m a grown man, who’s fully capable of folding his own clothes.”
She waved me off in a dismissive manner. “I want to do this for you, Son. I don’t get to . . . take care of you anymore. And I came all this way to take care of you, . . . so let me!” She fake fussed.
I grinned at her. “You got that. Go ’head and lock all the way in. Pack my last suitcase while you’re at it.”
We both laughed.
“Answer my question. Do you think this is finally it?”
“I think so,” I admitted on a wistful sigh. “I think she’s finally ready to stop running. I mean, I know she’s still . . .”
I wasn’t going to . . . out Skyy’s real feelings to my mother.
Skyy liked to present as badass and fearless at all times.
And for the most part, she was. But when it came to sharing her heart with somebody that might not be worthy, she was scared shitless.
I knew that. I understood. I had nothing but patience, but I had to admit that my patience was waning.
I wanted my girl. I was tired of waiting.
“She’s still,” I began again, “trepidatious. But she knows we have an agreement. She’ll honor it.”
“And that’s the only way you feel you can get her?”
I knew my mother loved Skyy. She had watched her grow up.
She also felt some type of way because she thought that Skyy was doing me wrong.
As my mother, she couldn’t stand the idea of anybody doing me wrong.
But Skyy never asked me to gift wrap my heart and hand it to her.
Actually, she probably would’ve preferred it if I’d kept my heart to myself all these years.
But there was no way. From the moment I started to notice girls in a .
. . different way, I never . . . noticed any girl the way I noticed Skyy.
My mother posed a good question: Was the agreement the only way?
“Nah, it’s not the only way,” I said finally. “It’s just the way that will force her to move her feet.”
The agreement.
There was nothing complex, modern, or clever about it.
It was actually simple, classic, and basic.
It was an agreement that men and women had been making with each other probably since the beginning of time.
It typically went something like, if we reach (this certain age, this certain level of status, blah, blah, blah) and we haven’t (fill in the blank), we’ll do it with each other.
Skyy and I agreed back on T.A.M.U.’s campus that if we got to be thirty years old, and weren’t otherwise entangled, we would see what was up with each other.
While I couldn’t pretend that I lived like a priest in the eight years since we made the agreement, I could admit that I always left a piece of my heart off the table when dealing with women.
There was always a piece of my heart that they couldn’t have, because it belonged to Skyy.
“Well, I’m praying that everything works out just the way it’s supposed to.”
“Come on, First Lady McKissick. Just the way it’s supposed to ?
You gotta do better than that. I need one of those God is about to blow your mind type prayers.
Not only am I gonna be much closer to you, I’ll be playing ball with my closest road dog, and finally, finally making Skyy mine.
You’re gonna get those grandkids you keep whining about,” I teased.
“You’re right. You’re right. Let me pray a serious prayer.
” She stopped what she was doing and bowed her head.
“Lord God, as your child Jaxxon embarks on this new path you have set before him of moving to Chicago, playing for the Coyotes, and reuniting with the only woman he’s ever truly been smitten with, may Your favor fall upon him.
May You rain down unprecedented blessings on him, the team, the town, and his union with Skyy. In Your holy name we pray, amen.
“Amen.”
The doorbell rang.
“Who is that?”
“Oh.” I turned my head and looked in the general vicinity of the front door. “That’s probably Tempest. She was determined to come through today, even though I told her you were coming to help me wrap things up.”
Phaedra McKissick released a heavy sigh. “What are you going to do about her, Jaxx? You just had me praying about you and Skyy finally getting this thing going, and you have your current girlfriend coming by to help you pack?”
“Tempest isn’t my girlfriend. I’m single. She’s the chick I can’t seem to shake.”
She shook her head in disgust. “If you pull this stuff in front of Skyy, you’re going to lose her before you get her. You know how she is about honesty and trust.”
“Skyy knows that I don’t love these hos.”
“Get the door.” She sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “Let her in so I can pretend to like her. I want to get it over with. Being overly cordial to people you’re never going to see again in life is tiring. I can’t wait until you and Skyy settle down.”
“Me, either.” I agreed on my way to answer the front door.
I set my phone on one of the end tables, face down, while Tempest and I went around my living room and dining room. We were tagging everything the movers needed to take with blue masking tape.
“Jaxxon!” My mother called from the back of the condo.
“Coming!”
I quickly dipped out of the room to reach a stack of sweaters at the top of the closet for her. When I came back into the room, Tempest had my phone to her ear.
“Who is this?” Tempest asked.
“Ay!” I walked toward her. “Who told you to answer my phone?”
She turned to me, moved to the other side of the coffee table, and put the phone on speaker in time for me to hear Skyy’s voice.
“Who is this? And why are you answering his phone?”
That made me smile. Skyy was always going to be Skyy.
“I asked you a question,” Tempest told her. “Who is this?”
“Who did the screen say it was?”
“It said, ‘homie.’ So, what’s with all the bass in your voice if you’re just the homie?”
Tempest’s head and neck were going a mile a minute.
Skyy scoffed. “You might need to read it again, lil bird. Because are you sure the screen didn’t say ‘Home’ and not homie? He calls me Home . . . because I’m his home. You know, as in home is where the heart is ?”
While Tempest was distracted, with her face moving through every expression that read that she couldn’t believe Skyy had just said that, I crossed the room.
I was barely able to cover my guffaw as I snatched the phone from Tempest’s hand.
Skyy’s mouthpiece had always lived on the cusp of being too much to take.
She didn’t give a damn. If she thought it, chances were, she would say it.
I called her “Home” exactly for the reason she told Tempest, but she usually told strangers that I called her home because her last name was House.
“Possessive ass,” I said loud enough for her to hear me.
Before she could respond to me, Tempest leaned toward the phone and spoke. “Well, I’m his girlfriend, so I don’t know how you would be his home.”
“Why are you lying?” I asked, shocked that she would say some shit like that, . . . particularly in front of me.
Tempest took and sucked dick well, but she wasn’t my girlfriend.
“Does he know you’re his girlfriend, or is that you trying to . . . manifest it?”
“Oh, he’s very well aware,” Tempest said, attitude creeping into her tone.
I spoke directly into the phone. “Ay, answer the video chat request.”
I heard her suck her teeth, but a few seconds later, her pretty ass face appeared on the screen.
“What disillusioned broad do you have me going back and forth with, Jay? You know I don’t play that shit.”
Even frowned up, her face would always be my favorite view. I couldn’t help smiling at her. That pissed her off even more.
“See, this is that stuff I can’t stand. You got that . . . broad over there all smart in the mouth and too dumb to realize that when it comes to you, she’s cooked.”
“I’m not cooked!” Tempest insisted dumbly, because she was, in fact, cooked. “Look,” Tempest continued, “I don’t know who you are, but I don’t play about Jaxxon. I?—”
Skyy cut her off. “I don’t know who you are, but I know it’s not who you think you are. I don’t play about him, either. And unlike you, who doesn’t play about him because of what you’re hoping to get from him, I don’t play about him because of who he is to me. Now?—”
“Slow up.” I interrupted her. “You’re getting mad and frustrated for no reason.”
“Nothing is ever serious to you?—”
“Everything regarding you is serious to me, Home. I’m just not one to wild out. You know this. Chill, and let me make the formal introductions.” I turned to Tempest. “Tempest, this is my home, my heart. Home, this is Tempest, my friend and homegirl.”
Tempest’s eyes squinted, and her hands flew to her hips. “I know you fuckin’ lyin’.”
My mother chose that moment to walk into the room. “What’s going on?” She looked between both me and Tempest.
“Not a damn thing!” Tempest told her.
Next thing I knew, she flounced to the apartment door and turned back to me with hate in her eyes. Then she disappeared into the hallway, slamming the door behind her.
My mother took the phone out of my hand. “Skyy, please come get your man and put him out of his misery. He’s out here breaking hearts, all because he can’t have the person that he truly wants.”