4. Major
It had been a few days since Brax informed me that Dynastie wasn’t interested in co-writing my memoir. I knew asking her was a long shot, so I wasn’t surprised by her denial, but I was disappointed and hurt.
Honestly, I had no right to be either. Had I been man enough, years ago, to own up to my fuckups, we’d probably be in a much better place. I basically ghosted her for six years, and now, I had the nerve to have my fucking manager reach out to her.
“You’re quiet,” my father, Godfrey, said.
I’d come to their house to pick up my daughter, Maja, who had begged to spend the night with Nani and Papi last night. My parents loved being grandparents and demanded that I bring her over immediately.
My mother, Marjorie, had taken Maja to the mall to get something I was sure my daughter didn’t need. While I waited for them to return, I joined my father in his man cave.
“I got a lot on my mind.”
“Are you having second thoughts about retiring?”
“Nah. I’m actually excited to focus on my art. I already have several pieces in mind that I want to show first, and a few ideas I’ve sketched.
“Really? Are you ready to show the world the person behind the canvas?”
“I will be when it’s time.”
“If it’s not retiring that’s on your mind, what is it?”
“It’s not what, it’s who.”
“In that case, I don’t even have to ask who because there’s only one person who puts you in this mood. Have you talked to her?”
“No, but I had Brax reach out.”
“You had Brax reach out to Dynastie?” I nodded. “Son, why the hell would you do that? You haven’t talked to her in years, and you sent your friend and manager? Yeah, retiring is a good move because, clearly, you’ve been hit in the head a few too many times.”
“It was business-related,” I defended.
“I don’t give a damn what it was. Regardless of your romantic relationship, she was your best friend. What made you think it was a good idea to have Brax reach out to her after all this time instead of doing it your damn self?”
“I don’t know, Pops. I guess I was afraid of being rejected, which is exactly what happened.”
“Boy, you beat people up for a living. You got no business being afraid of a little rejection.”
“When it comes to Dynastie, all that tough guy shit goes out the window.”
“The only business you should be trying to do with her is fix what you messed up.”
“I planned to, if she’d agreed to write my memoir.”
“Your memoir? Son, start from the beginning.”
For the next few minutes, I shared with my father how the idea for my memoir came about. When I finished, I was met with silence.
“You got nothing to say?” I asked.
“Nothing that would be helpful.”
“I don’t know how to handle this, Pops.”
“There’s nothing to handle. No is a complete sentence, and she told Brax no. What else you got going on?”
“Nothing but a few photo shoots over the next few weeks and training.”
“It’s best you focus on that. Leave Dynastie alone unless you’re ready to do what needs to be done to make things right between you two.”
“I am ready.”
“Then you know what you need to do. Maybe after you make amends, she’ll be willing to work with you on your memoir.”
I didn’t respond verbally, but I nodded. We sat in silence as he flipped through the TV channels. When I heard what I assumed to be the footsteps of my mother and daughter, I decided to head upstairs.
“I’ll hit you up later, Pops. Let me see what your granddaughter talked your wife into buying today.”
I slowly walked up the stairs, and as soon as I opened the door, my baby girl ran toward me.
“Daddy,” she sang.
I squatted down to her level and scooped her into my arms.
“Hey, baby girl,” I greeted before kissing her forehead.
She wrapped her little arms around my neck and kissed my cheek. I carried her to the kitchen, where my mother was.
“Hey, Ma.”
“Hey, Son. This child of yours tried to run me ragged at the mall. Go get the bags from the car for me, please.”
I kissed her cheek before responding.
“You created a little monster. I’m not taking any of the blame.”
I put Maja down and went to the garage. When I opened the trunk to my mother’s car, all I could do was shake my head. There were so many bags that I had to make two trips.
“Maja, all this stuff is not coming home with us.”
“But Daddy—”
“No, Maja. You got enough stuff at home. Nani had no business buying all this stuff.”
Maja folded her arms across her chest and pouted, which didn’t move me at all.
“Excuse me. I thought I was the parent here. You don’t tell me what I had no business doing. If I want to spoil my grandbaby, that’s what I’ll do,” my mother said, putting her hand on her hip as she spoke.
“You’re absolutely right, Ma. I have no right to tell you what to do with your money, but I do have a say in what’s allowed in my house, and this is staying here.”
I waved my hand over all the bags I’d just retrieved from her truck.
“Nani, can I stay with you and Papi again so I can play with my toys?”
My mother kneeled to meet Maja at eye level before saying in a soft voice, “You can stay with Nani and Papi as long as you want.”
I shook my head at the two of them.
“You don’t want to come home with Daddy?” I asked, a little hurt by how easily my daughter kicked me to the curb.
“No, Daddy. I want to play with my new toys. I’ll come to your house tomorrow. Nani, can I eat my food now?”
“Of course. Go and wash your hands, and let me get it ready.”
“Yay! Can I have ice cream with strawberries later?”
“If you eat all your dinner,” Ma replied.
My mother and daughter moved around the kitchen like I wasn’t there. I’d been looking forward to chilling with my baby girl for the next couple of days, but she had other plans, so I kissed them on their foreheads and took my ass home.
I ended up spending only a day and a half with my daughter before I had to take her back to her mother, Rahkia. We split custody, so I typically got her the first half of the week and her mother the second half.
Although the days Maja was with each of us were outlined in our agreement, we didn’t always follow it by the book. If either of us had something to do that interfered with our time with her, we adjusted accordingly.
Rahkia was cool, and we had a platonic, cordial friendship, but that wasn’t always the case.
When she found out she was pregnant, we’d been fucking around pretty heavily for about six months.
It was nothing serious as far as I was concerned, and we were on the same page until she caught feelings about three months in.
She did her damnedest to win me over, but I didn’t want her like that. When I realized she’d cut me off, I didn’t chase her or make any attempts to see her again. If she hadn’t gotten pregnant, I probably would’ve forgotten her name and what she looked like sooner rather than later.
I took care of all her wants and needs while she was pregnant, and although I wasn’t physically around much, I was there when Maja was born. Baby girl looked just like me, but a DNA test confirmed she was mine.
My career had taken off, and my schedule was busy, so I hired a twenty-four-hour nurse for three months. For a while, Rahkia thought I’d give a relationship with her a shot. When that didn’t happen, she made things tough for me for several months.
Our mothers teamed up on her to talk some sense into her. After their conversation, Rahkia and I had a civil conversation. We agreed on an amount for child support and to split custody. Since then, we’d happily co-parented with little to no issues.
My phone rang, interrupting my music and pulling me out of my thoughts as I ran a few miles on my treadmill. Brax’s name appeared on my screen, and I answered it.
“Wassup?”
“Guess what,” he said.
“Nigga, I’m too old to be playing guessing games, and I’m not in the mood.”
“She agreed.”
“Who agreed to what?”
“Dynastie called me and agreed to do your memoir.”
“You fucking with me.”
“Nah, not this time. She wants us to send over a contract with the specific details and requirements by the end of the day.”
“The end of the—shit, never mind. Can you and Willis be here in an hour?”
Willis was my attorney. I hadn’t run any of this by him yet, and he had to draw up the contract.
“See you in an hour.”
As I finished my workout, I couldn’t help but wonder why Dynastie changed her mind. I was grateful, but she wasn’t the kind of woman who second-guessed herself, which was part of the reason we weren’t in a good place.
Once her mind was made up about something or someone, it was hard to convince her of anything different. There was no telling what kind of story she’d conjured up in her head about my relationship with Rahkia.
Ever since I’d shared my idea with Brax and Jrue, I couldn’t stop thinking about the plans I’d made for us before I fucked up.
I’d taken a few wrong turns that sent us in different directions, but I’d always believed our paths would cross again.
Now was that time, and I would do everything in my power to ensure that it wasn’t wasted.