Chapter 9 #5
“You must really like this bitch to be on the phone with her after you were in my bed this morning,” I spat, moving my chair so I was out of his reach.
“You better watch your mouth when you speak on this one. I don’t play about her, and I’ll beat your ass for calling her out of her name.” The humor in his tone annoyed me because he must have thought shit was sweet.
“I’m sorry, baby. Let me see your dress.” East cooed into the phone. “Oh, you look so pretty, mamas.”
It was then that something clicked in my head. I stood up to see who he was talking to and couldn’t help but laugh at myself. On the other side of the camera was my miniature twin dressed in one of the princess costumes with a tiara on her head.
“Yeah, that’s your egg head momma.” East had his headphones in, so I couldn’t hear her response, but she waved her little hand in the camera.
“Let me see.” I took the phone from his hand and stood in front of him. His arm naturally gravitated to my waist, and I melted into his embrace. He removed his earbud and placed it in my ear.
“Hi, Noodle girl. You look so pretty, baby. What are you doing?”
Aunt Pam came into the camera view in a red dress shirt with a black hat on top of her locs, holding a teapot. She had retired her Jerry curl over a year ago and her locs were already long. I snickered when I noticed her wife, Jojo, was dressed up too.
“What in the world is going on? It’s a little early to be playing dress-up, isn’t it?”
“Our baby said she wanted a tea party, so she’s getting a tea party. Wifey stopped by the bakery and picked up some donuts and scones for us. We’re having coffee, and our Noodle is having freshly squeezed apple juice from the Walmart orchard,” Aunt Pam informed us.
I snorted from laughing so hard. Meanwhile, my baby was in the background sitting at her little table at their house.
“You guys are ridiculous. Not to mention, you are creating a monster because her little ass is gonna be expecting this all the time.” I fussed, even though it made my heart burst.
“We gotta get her trained early. She’s gonna know her worth, and if a man won’t have a tea party with you in the middle of the day, he’s not worth the energy. We’re fancy in this mothafucka.” Aunt Pam held her pinky up while she sipped from her cup.
East and I were both laughing as they all took their seats and made a toast. Noodle no longer cared about us being on the phone as she was living it up with a mouth full of donut.
“Alright, y’all are interrupting our date. We picked her up from Mom’s house so she could take care of some business. We’ll more than likely have her when y’all get back home,” Aunt Pam informed us.
“Is everything okay? I know she didn’t pass my daughter off so she could run around with the deacon.” East scoffed.
“Umm, no. She—uhh needed to go check on a family member. I—umm, I’m gonna call y’all later. Can’t keep my girls waiting.” She hung up the phone before we could say anything else.
“Did she seem off to you?” I asked to make sure I wasn’t tripping.
“Yeah, they’re hiding something, but I’m not gonna worry about it. If she wanted me to know, she’d tell me. You ready to hit the mall?” he whispered in my ear, letting his lips trail down my neck. I stood there frozen, relishing the moment. East wasn’t the PDA type, so it caught me off guard.
“Hell yeah. I need to know what my limit is, so I know where I want to spend it.”
“Limit? What type of lame ass niggas are you used to? We don’t do limits over here, baby. I work too fuckin’ hard to be on a budget. If you want it, get that shit.”
I shifted my body so we were facing each other. He leaned down and kissed my forehead, then rested his against mine.
“Thank you for the flowers and my Stitch plushie. I’m telling you now, I’m not sharing it with your daughter. I don’t care how much her little butt cries,” I warned.
“It’s all good. You already know if my baby wants something I’ma go get it. Both of my babies.” The smirk on his face made me blush.
“You spoil us too much. Nobody else is gonna want to put up with us.”
East pulled back with a deep frown on his face. “Good, because y’all are mine. Nobody has to deal with y’all except me,” he declared coolly.
There was something on my mind, but I wasn’t sure how to express it. On one hand, I wanted to know the truth, but there was a part of me that feared what the truth meant for us.
“Valor showed me an interesting article in the paper. There was a really bad accident this morning, and three NFL players died.” Our eyes were locked on one another as I tried to read his body language.
“Oh, yeah? How do you feel about it?” His face was emotionless as he observed me.
“I feel sorry for their families, but people die every day.”
He nodded, allowing his eyes to linger on me a while longer as if he was waiting for something else.
“You never know when it’s gonna be your last day.
One minute you could be living it up, and the next you’re on a T-shirt.
It’s the circle of life, I suppose. Hopefully, there’s a heaven for bitch ass niggas.
” He shrugged. “I may not always agree with the decisions you make, but I’m always gonna show up when you need me. Believe that.”
I wrapped my arms around him, taking in his scent. I never thought I would have someone in my life who cared for me the way my big brother had, but for the first time in a long time, I felt protected.