10. Tahli
One year later…
Khalif came in the house while I was editing a video for my YouTube channel.
My baby had been working hard, and I was proud of him.
We were set to be married in two months, and he was working overtime like crazy because after the wedding, he was taking three weeks off.
He said after that, unless it was an emergency, he wasn’t missing work because when I got pregnant and had the baby, he was taking twelve weeks off.
Khalif talked about a baby every day. In an effort to prepare my body, I stopped taking birth control and had started taking prenatal vitamins. When we had sex, he pulled out. I told Khalif he couldn’t shoot my club up until after we were married, and he was fine with it.
“You were on one today, huh?” he asked leaning in and kissing me on the temple.
“What you mean?” I played dumb.
“You put $1,000 in Sierra’s account, and you put $3,000 in the joint account for the wedding.”
“Um, yeah. I got paid today.”
Khalif never asked me how much money I made from social media and to be honest, every time I got paid, I fell on my knees and thanked God.
When I woke up that morning $30,000 had been deposited into my account just from social media!
I was doing so good with social media that I didn’t have to touch my settlement money.
I made way more than Khalif, but that didn’t matter because he was a provider.
He was picking up extra shifts because once we were married, he wanted to use his money to put the down payment on our dream home. He didn’t want me to pay a dime.
Our joint account for the wedding had $19,000 in it, and he had put in at least $10,000. That was what we had left after we put deposits on the venue, DJ, caterer, photographer, and other things. I was happier than I’d been in a long time.
“Cooking on this grill, I’m just going to get smoky, so I’m not even taking a shower. ‘Bout to take this uniform off and get to it.”
“Okay, babe.”
He decided he wanted to cook on the grill, so we invited Sheniah and Tony over.
Not only were they still going strong, but my girl was six months pregnant with a little boy.
Nook and Khalif weren’t as close as they used to be, but they still talked here and there.
He was dealing with some young ass girl in her early twenties that was using the fuck out of him.
Everybody could see it but him. If he liked it, Khalif loved it, and I didn’t care at all.
The doorbell rang, and since Khalif was in the bedroom, I went to answer it. “Hi,” I gushed as Gina stood there with Sierra.
“Hey,” Gina smiled as Sierra ran inside the house. “I’ll be back to get lil’ lady next weekend.”
“She’ll be ready for you. I love that bob on you.”
“Thank you, boo. Sierra, I love you, and I’ll see you next weekend.”
“I love you too, mommy!”
I smiled as they hugged. I wasn’t sure what kind of epiphany Gina had, but she was doing much better.
We still had Sierra full-time, but Gina got her every weekend, and she kept her for a full month during the summer.
We met and had a conversation and had been cool ever since.
Even my mother had gotten it together. She lived in a one-bedroom apartment and worked full-time at a gas station.
I paid her rent, and she paid all of her other bills.
I was shocked when she said she didn’t want to date anytime soon, but so far, she had stuck to her word.
As far as I knew my mother hadn’t had any alcohol in seven months, and she was trying. That was all I could ask for.
We all have a past and most times, it isn’t pretty, but I was proof that anyone could overcome anything.
The end!