Chapter 18
Yacht Nyori
Two days later…
This was my third day with Renza’s family, and at this point, I wasn’t even questionin’ what I was feelin’ anymore because it had been sittin’ on me the whole time we’d been out here.
It wasn’t nothin’ I had to figure out or sit and think about. I knew exactly what it was, and it kept showin’ up in little ways that made it harder to ignore the longer we stayed out there.
Pluto was the problem…
To most people, and her damn family, it might not have been in an obvious way, but I peeped it.
It was all in the way she carried herself like everything was supposed to move through her whether she said it out loud or not.
It was the way plans changed dependin’ on how she felt.
It was the way she could say she didn’t feel like doin’ somethin’ and suddenly nobody else felt like doin’ it either.
It was the way Pressure hovered over her like she couldn’t breathe without him adjustin’ somethin’ for her, and after a while, it stopped feelin’ like we were all just out here enjoyin’ ourselves and started feelin’ like everybody was movin’ around her.
I didn’t care that she was pregnant, and that wasn’t my issue.
My issue was how everything kept bendin’ in her direction like she was the center of it, and nobody ever checked it or even looked at it like it was somethin’ worth questionin’.
They just moved with it like that shit was normal, and after three days of watchin’ it, I was tired of actin’ like I didn’t see it.
The more I sat here payin’ attention, the more it started rubbin’ me wrong, because I wasn’t built to just fall in line behind nobody like that.
I ran my own shit. I made my own decisions, and I moved how I wanted to move, so watchin’ everybody shift their plans, their energy, and the whole direction of the day around one person just because she said so wasn’t somethin’ I was ever goin’ to be comfortable with.
I didn’t care who she was to them or how they chose to move around her because that shit had nothin’ to do with me at the end of the day.
Pluto might’ve ran how shit go when it came to them, but she didn’t run me, and that was the part that kept sittin’ in the back of my mind every time a plan got switched up or redirected.
I wasn’t about to sit here and let a pregnant, unemployed woman who did nothin’ but lay up and have babies back-to-back try to make me feel like I was supposed to follow behind her.
I had my own life. I had my own responsibilities, and I moved how I wanted to move.
Listenin’ to someone like Pluto wasn’t how I was built, and it wasn’t the type of woman I was.
On top of that, she had been movin’ like I wasn’t even here on the damn yacht.
She wouldn’t look my way unless she had to. If I spoke, she heard me, but she only responded when it involved everybody else. Other than that, it was like I didn’t even exist, and that type of shit got old real quick with me because I saw it for exactly what it was.
I had been keepin’ it cool for Renza and for his family, because I wasn’t about to come out here and start problems, but that didn’t mean I was about to keep sittin’ here actin’ blind either.
At some point, that shit started spillin’ over whether I wanted it to or not, and me and him had been feelin’ it without really sayin’ too much about it.
We wasn’t sittin’ the same. We wasn’t sleepin’ the same. It had got to the point where we was layin’ in the same bed with our backs turned like we both knew somethin’ was off but neither one of us was tryin’ to be the one to push it there.
He kept tryin’ to smooth it over, keepin’ his hands on me, kissin’ on me like that was enough to fix it, and I let him because I wasn’t tryin’ to turn every moment into an argument in front of his family. But that didn’t mean how I felt about the shit was goin’ away.
If anything, it was just sittin’ here, buildin’, and both of us was playin’ along like everything was still good when it wasn’t.
It started feelin’ like we was fakin’ it just to get through the trip, and that alone didn’t sit right with me because I wasn’t used to movin’ like this with somebody I was dealin’ with.
That’s why I started stickin’ close to his mama.
Nyori didn’t move funny. When she talked to me, she talked to me. When she laughed, it felt real. I didn’t have to question where I stood with her, and that alone made it easier for me to relax in a space that had started feelin’ off everywhere else.
By the time we got to the dock that day, I was already over just goin’ along with whatever, so I finally spoke up instead of sittin’ there like I had been.
I looked out at the water for a second, then back at them and said we should do somethin’ different, like jet skis or parasailin’, just to switch it up and actually do somethin’ that hadn’t already been decided.
Toni glanced at me, then looked over at Pluto like she was waitin’ on her to respond, which already told me enough before Pluto even opened her mouth.
Pluto took her time like she wasn’t in no rush to acknowledge me, then answered like the decision had already been made without me.
“I think we’re just gonna keep it light today,” she said, her tone easy like it wasn’t nothin’. “I don’t really feel like doing too much because I’m not feeling well.”
I frowned, lookin’ at her. “That’s not what was told to me.”
She gave a small shrug, not pressed at all. “That’s just what we ended up deciding.”
The way she said it was what did it because it wasn’t even about what we was or wasn’t doin’. It was how she said it like the decision had already been made. It was like her word was final, and once she spoke, that was it for me.
I sat here for a second, then shook my head. “Every day we been out here, it’s been whatever you wanted to do, as if we celebratin’ your birthday. If it gotta be like that, I’ll just go back to my room.”
That made her look at me for real.
Toni looked between us, and the way she did it let me know she was already ready to back whatever Pluto said before anything even got said.
I sat up straighter, already knowin’ what type of time it was, but I wasn’t about to fold.
When Pluto finally asked me what my problem with her was, I didn’t hesitate.
“Everything don’t revolve around you,” I told her.
Pluto’s eyes stayed on mine, and for a second, she didn’t even respond. Then she sat up a little straighter. “You’ve been having an attitude with me since the day you met me, so let’s not act like this just started today.”
I let out a breath and shook my head. “No, what I’ve been doin’ is watchin’ you move like everything gotta go your way, and everybody just fall in line behind you like that shit normal. I don’t know what you used to, but I don’t move like that.”
Toni shifted in her seat, already lookin’ at me sideways. “Ain’t nobody fallin’ in line. You just doin’ too much.”
I turned my head and looked at her. “Girl…” I said, rollin’ my eyes and wavin’ her off. “I’m not even fuckin’ talkin’ to you. You can just be quiet.”
Her face tightened. “Girl, you need to go take a pill to calm yo’ damn nerves ’cause you stay with a mug on yo’ face.”
“Girl, shut up,” I shot back, ready to be on whatever the fuck she was on.
Pluto let out a breath like she was already tired of me. “Somebody come get Renza for this damn girl, ’cause she doin’ too much.”
That made me laugh, but it wasn’t funny. “You ain’t gotta go get nan nigga for me, and that’s the problem right there. Everything with you go back to a nigga like you can’t stand on your own. That’s bad business right there.”
Her expression changed just enough for me to catch it.
“I know you used to callin’ on your husband for every little thing,” I continued, lookin’ at her dead in her face. “But that don’t got nothin’ to do with me. You don’t run me, and whoever you try to go get for me ain’t gon’ run me.”
She sat there for a second, then nodded once like she heard me.
“Yes,” she said, calm as ever. “Keyword… husband. Somethin’ you don’t have or know nothin’ about.”
I laughed under my breath and shook my head.
“Girl, you can go to hell with that.”
That’s when Toni stood up.
“Nah, you can go ahead and get the fuck on somewhere with that bullshit you talkin’ about,” she said, her tone sharp now, with all that laid-back shit gone.
I looked at her and leaned back like she was the least of my concerns. “Girl, you a lap dog. You do everything this girl say, so I know it ain’t shit you can do with me.”
Her whole face went flat.
“At least I never been with a nigga who hid me. “And…” she said, steppin’ forward a little. “Come show me it ain’t shit I can do with you.”
Before I could even respond, I heard chairs movin’ behind us.
Next thing I knew, Nyori was at my side before I even realized she moved, her hand comin’ to my arm while Abeni stepped up next to Pluto.
“What is going on?” Nyori asked, her voice calm but firm.
I opened my mouth to say somethin’, but before I could even get it out, my attention shifted.
Pressure’s mama stood there watchin’ me, and the way she was lookin’ at me made me pause without even thinkin’ about it.
She wasn’t sayin’ nothin’, and she wasn’t raisin’ her voice or movin’ around like the rest of us.
She just stood there, locked in on me like she was readin’ straight through me without blinkin’, and it was somethin’ about that shit that didn’t sit right.
It carried enough weight to make me check myself for a second, and I didn’t even like that I did.
Kay’Lo’s mama stepped in quick, her hands liftin’ slightly like she was tryin’ to settle everybody at once. “Ladies, please calm down. I think it might be something in the water that’s making everyone seasick.”
Pressure’s mama didn’t move her eyes off me when she spoke.
“I think the water is just fine.”
The way she said it made the whole moment feel tighter without her doin’ anything extra.
Nyori gently caressed my arm, and she didn’t look at nobody else when she spoke. “Come on.”