Chapter 11
Diric watched impressed as Raven fired shot after shot and hit the target between the eyes. She also got two head shots and one right where a person’s heart would be. His eyebrows shot up, and he spoke once she stopped shooting. “Damn you nice. Let me find out.”
Raven turned her face toward him and smiled. “Never underestimate a girl.” She winked, and he chuckled.
“I give you that. You’re damn near a better shot than me. No way this is your first time firing a gun. Who taught you how to shoot?”
“My dad. When I was sixteen. He bought me my first gun when I was eighteen. My last one was stolen though. Years ago, someone stole it out of my car. I never got another one.”
“You bugging. You need that. Niggas are crazy out here.”
“Yeah. You mean like you walk up in your house and find them sitting on your couch crazy?” she asked sarcastically.
Diric reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money. “For the glass that we broke. I damn sure never expected to be taking your ass out on dates and shit. Now Xander’s stupid ass is costing me.”
Raven giggled. “That’s what you get. It damn sure shouldn’t have cost me. With his cheating ass,” she rolled her eyes at the thought of him.
“I can tell you done with that nigga for real because most times, a bullet will make a woman forget all about a man’s indiscretions. Xander took several bullets and is still in the hospital, and you’re still on some fuck him shit.”
“And that’s what it’s gon’ be. I don’t wish death on him.
No one deserves to die for cheating, but I didn’t shoot him.
I didn’t make him cross Canyon, and his condition isn’t my problem.
He cheated on me and made a baby with someone else, after I’ve had two miscarriages.
Fuck that nigga,” she swallowed hard, and Diric could see the pain in her eyes.
He wasn’t trying to make her relive anything painful. “Fuck that nigga. Let’s go eat.”
In his car, she looked over at him curiously. “What’s your story?”
He glanced over at her. “My story?”
“Yesss,” she stated. “Your story. Siblings? Kids? Your last relationship?”
Diric focused back on the road. “I was a rape baby. My moms used to be fast as hell, and my grandma couldn’t do shit with her.
When she would put her on punishment, my moms would just sneak out the house.
Her father was sick, and he couldn’t do much either.
My grandma was already stressed from having a husband with health issues and at one point, she had to let my mom do her.
One night, my mom was at a party, got fucked up, and got raped.
She doesn’t even really know how many dudes it was, but she thinks it was two of them.
She was sixteen then and when she found out she was pregnant, she couldn’t afford an abortion.
Being raped straightened her up though. Two months after I was born, her dad died.
She just did what she had to do so she wouldn’t keep stressing her mom out.
My grandmother helped out with me and when my mom graduated from high school, she went to college and became a teacher.
She now has a husband, and I have a brother. ”
“Damn. I’m sorry she had to go through that, but at least it changed her for the better.”
“True.”
“So, you don’t have kids?”
“I had a son.” Diric cleared his throat. “He was born three years ago. He died when he was two months old of SIDS.”
Raven’s heart sank into her stomach. She hated that she had even asked. Having two miscarriages at one point had her on the brink of insanity, so she couldn’t imagine losing a child that had already been born. “I’m so sorry. I’m just going to stop asking questions now.”
“I’m good shawty. Life goes on. That shit hurt like hell.
Losing my lil’ man had me on some real angry shit for about three months.
I just didn’t understand why he had to go like that.
But, eventually, I had to come to terms with the fact that people die every day.
We’re all gonna die. Some just sooner than others.
His mom was really messed up behind it. She started begging me to get her pregnant again, but I wasn’t gon’ get her pregnant just because.
Another baby wasn’t going to replace my lil’ man.
Eventually, she found someone to give her what she wanted. I’m just glad that she’s happy.”
Raven truly felt bad for him, but she was glad that he seemed to be doing well. “Do you want more kids one day?”
Diric shrugged passively. “Probably. I don’t think about it that much. I might have to find a woman first. Why? You want to give me a baby?” he joked.
“I can’t even give myself one. I lowkey wish I could afford a surrogate. Knowing that there is a child growing inside of you then one day just hearing a doctor say it’s gone, that shit is hard. I’m not sure I can go through that again.”
“You do know that women miscarry every day, right? I’m sure it hurts, but it happens. How will you ever know that you can’t have a kid if you stop trying?”
“I get that, but you don’t understand the mental anguish women that suffer multiple miscarriages goes through. It goes from what did I do wrong, to what’s wrong with my body, why I don’t I deserve a child? It’s a lot.”
“I don’t doubt that. I’m just saying. A surrogate might be a reach unless that’s what a doctor suggests. It’s painful, but two miscarriages doesn’t mean that something is wrong with you.”
Raven gave a light head nod. She appreciated him trying to comfort her. Diric wasn’t such an asshole after all. They arrived at the restaurant and got to know each other even more over dinner. She found that his favorite sport was soccer, and his favorite food was steak and potatoes.
“I’d be wrong if I slapped that bitch,” Raven mumbled after their waitress brought Diric the bill. She had been flirting with his ass the entire time while acting like Raven barely existed.
Diric chuckled. “You jealous, ma?”
“No. She’s just rude and bold as fuck. Not only is she playing with her tip, but she’s playing with her job. Her customer service toward me was horrible. If I was a petty bitch, I’d complain to the manager.”
“What you want me to do? Leave her a shitty tip?”
“Yeap,” Raven replied adamantly.
“Bet. I’ll leave her a two-dollar tip.”
Raven smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah. That was kind of fucked up. What if you were my lady? I don’t do that disrespectful shit. She acting like it’s okay to disrespect a nigga’s woman in his face. She won’t be lusting over my ass when she sees that tip.”
A wide grin stretched across Raven’s face. “That’s what her ass gets.”
They stood up, and Raven was satisfied. She didn’t want to be the stereotypical black girl and start some shit in the restaurant, so she could appreciate how he had handled it. She had to admit that their date was fun. In his car, he looked over at her.
“Your company wasn’t hard to tolerate today.”
She laughed and playfully punched him in the arm. “Was that supposed to be a compliment?”
“I’m fucking with you.”
Raven bit the bullet. “So, you gonna ask me out again?” No, she wasn’t going to wait for him to ask. He was fine as hell, and she liked him.
“Sure. When we going out again?”
“I don’t know I have to check my schedule.” He shook his head, and she laughed. “I’m playing. What about this weekend? I don’t have any plans. I want to go to a bar and get drunk.”
“We can do that.”
When he arrived at her house, Raven was surprised when he left the car running and got out to walk her to the door.
Before she unlocked the door, she turned toward him, stood on the tips of her toes, and placed her lips on his.
Yeah, she made the first move. So, what?
When she got past his obnoxious ways, she really liked Diric.
A lot. Raven had no desire to play hard to get.
She was pleased when he gripped the fabric of her dress at her waist and parted her lips with his tongue.
They kissed passionately for all of thirty seconds before she pulled back.
She was getting all hot and bothered and for as much as she liked him, she couldn’t fuck him just yet.
“Goodnight,” she stated in a raspy voice.
“Goodnight, shawty.”
Raven went inside the house with the biggest smile on her face.
Yohana looked at the house before her very impressed.
In two days, her and Canyon were going on their short trip, but he had invited her over for dinner when he discovered that her son was at a football game at school.
Yohana accepted the invitation. His house was amazing.
It was along the lines of the kind of house that Morris had.
The one that the Feds seized. Zone was doing well before he got picked up, but they weren’t even living like this.
They had a cute spacious $300,000 house in a nice neighborhood with other working-class citizens.
Their neighbors consisted of teachers, lawyers, plumbers, electricians.
The house that Canyon lived in had to be at least $700,000 if not more.
He lived in the kind of neighborhood that judges, politicians, doctors, and other very successful people lived in.
There was a huge lake in the center of the neighborhood, so that all the houses for at least two blocks had the lake in the backyard.
There was also a golf course in the community.
Canyon could literally get in his golf cart and drive to the course to play golf.