Chapter 31
Smiling More
My day off started just the way I needed it to. My man fucked me back to sleep a few times, and when I did finally get up, he had breakfast waiting for me.
We ate together while I texted the girls, figuring out what time we were going to link up. But my baby put a pause to all of that when he took my phone outta my hand, led me to the shower, and fucked me one more time before we got dressed.
Love was already handling phone calls before we left the house, but he kept an eye on me, watching me move around, gathering all I needed.
Once we were in the hallway, my hand was in his tight; he kissed it in the elevator, in between responding to his conversation. As we walked through the lobby, I saw a black truck waiting in front of the door. I looked at Love, and without missing a beat, he winked at me.
When we got outside, the driver opened the door.
“This is for you and your girls today,” Love said, helping me in the back.
I smiled. “Are you sure, baby?”
Love took the phone away from his ear, reached in, and kissed me. “You got a nigga that can provide for you, the right way. Let me do it.”
I smiled, and Love pulled out his wallet and handed me his credit card.
“Take the black one; do whatever you want today.”
“Babyyyy!!” I said, sticking my tongue out. “Don’t get mad when I start acting different! Yelling my man, my man, my man!”
We laughed.
“Do one thing for me… don’t think about that nigga. You are safe with me, I wouldn’t let anybody hurt you.”
I nodded. “Okay, baby, I will try.”
Love raised an eyebrow. “Don’t try, mamas, do it. That nigga is your past, I’m your future.”
I kissed him one more time, then he closed the door and dapped the driver up before walking to his car.
The driver hopped in, asked me ‘bout my first stop, and I gave him Kenya’s address.
I texted the group chats letting them know I was on the way to scoop them, and they already knew what type of time we were on.
Kenya walked out before the truck came to a complete stop; the driver didn’t even have to open the door for her.
“I take it Love is sponsoring this ride?” she asked.
I laughed. “He wanted his girl to have a good day.” I then showed her his card. “On him.”
Kenya clapped. “Girl, why couldn’t I find a nigga like him that night? You have been on Cloud 9 for months.”
I agreed. “I am happy I met Love. I swear I’m not coming off him.”
Kenya gave me a look, half-joking, half-serious. “I see that your glow is different.”
I shrugged, trying to hide my smile, but couldn’t. “He’s just… consistent, real, caring. Everything my ex wasn’t…Love is everything I was asking for, and more.”
Kenya nodded. “That’s rare, but I’m not surprised. I never heard a bad thing about him.”
We continued talking while the driver moved through the city; we picked up Deja next, then Renee. Once we were all together, the vibes were set, talking, laughing, joking, and planning out the rest of the day.
We got to the spa, and as soon as we walked through the door, we all let out a nice, deep sigh. The soft music, the sound of the waterfall, and the smell of lavender and chamomile wrapped around us.
“Ooou, I don’t know about y’all,” I said, looking around. “But I needed this.”
They all nodded.
“Girl, yes, and I’m not rushing through nothing in here,” Kenya added. “I need it all.”
Deja sucked her teeth. “Girl, you always need everything.”
We laughed.
“Come on,” I said, before they get stuck clowning each other. “Let’s get checked in.”
After getting settled in the locker room, we changed into our robes, and I sent Love some pictures. Then we broke off into our services.
We each went into a different room that was next to each other. As soon as I laid on that table, closed my eyes, and let that masseuse get to work on my back, I felt all the tension slowly coming out of me.
“You are very stressed,” the masseuse said.
“I am. I’ve had a lot going on,” I softly said.
“Don’t worry, ma’am, I got you.”
I said nothing else, and that lady worked out every kink that man put in my body for a full hour, and when I walked out of that room, I felt more relaxed than I had been.
We all met back in the café area in line, grabbing something to snack on.
“I’m not leaving here the same,” Deja said.
Renne nodded. “I feel brand new already.”
We grabbed a table and munched on our fruit.
“Listen, we need to become regulars here; I’m thinking every week,” Kenya added.
I laughed. “You may be onto something, Kenya. That lady worked out all my kinks.”
“Girl, I know Love is blowing your back out; you damn sure shouldn’t have any kinks,” Renee added.
We all laughed.
“And he is,” I responded. “It’s Gio that’s stressing me out with his shit. You know that nigga came here to try to find me. I told our friend to get his as back home!”
They all looked at me, shook.
“Did he listen?” Deja asked.
“Yeah, did he? That nigga sound crazy,” Kenya added.
I shook my head. “I don’t know, I hope so. Gio is not thinking straight, and I don’t have time for it.”
They all agreed with me; then Deja cleared her throat. “You don’t have time for it, and we are not gonna give that nigga no type of energy, this is our day.”
I smiled, laughing. “You’re right, and I could use a drink.”
“Sooo, brunch and mimosas on a rooftop?” Renee asked.
We looked at each other, smirked, and without a word, hopped up from the table and went straight to the locker room, changed back into our clothes, and walked out feeling like a set of new bitches piling in the back of the truck.
Kenya gave the driver the address of the spot she picked for lunch, and we were on the way.
The girls talked while I checked in with Love, asking him how his day was going and telling him that the massage was more than needed.
I was in the middle of letting him know where we were heading when Renee snatched my phone outta my hand.
“You see that nigga every night! You’re ours right now!”
“Mannn, I’ma need y’all to get a man! So I can cake in peace,” I said, playing.
They laughed. “Put us on to Love friends, and we can be one big happy family!” Kenya added. “But nah, for real, the spa felt good with no phones. Let’s leave our shit in the truck.”
Kenya looked at Deja, who signed off on the idea. Deja looked at Renee, who also agreed, then all eyes were on me…
“Well, I guess I have to agree; my phone already gone.”
Not long after, we reached the restaurant and took the elevator up to the rooftop. The doors opened, and the first thing that hit was a light breeze.
“Okayyy,” Kenya said, stepping off first. “This is just what we needed.”
We followed behind her to the host and were led to our table. I smiled to myself, thinking about the first rooftop I went to with Love.
Our table had a nice view, the place wasn’t too crowded, and the music playing fit the vibe they were trying to give. As soon as the waiter came over, she couldn’t get out her greeting fast enough before Deja blurted out, “Mimosas for the whole table—bottomless.”
The lady laughed. “I got you.”
Kenya added some food to the order, and the lady walked off, and we all settled in. Kenya leaned back, looking out over the edge. “Yeah… this is nice after the spa.”
Renee nodded, eyes on the view. “Yesss… very much needed.”
Deja was looking around. “This is better than the last place we had lunch at; might need to make this a regular spot too.”
I smiled a lil’, letting them talk while I took it in for a second. The breeze, the view, the noise from the city under us… Everything felt right.
Our drinks came out fast, and our food not long after, and we were set for a lil’ bit. We talked and laughed like always, enjoying each other's company, singing along to the music off-key and laughing loudly, making a couple of heads turn to see what was so funny.
I leaned back in my chair and wiped my eyes from laughing so hard and just smiled at my girls.
“Thank y’all,” I said, changing the subject.
“Girl, what are you thinking us for?” Kenya asked.
I paused for a second. “For being real friends. Y’all just don’t know how much I needed a group like this.”
Deja pulled me closer to her. “Islah, you was the missing piece to our group for real; we love you.”
We went to the bathroom as a group, ordering some drinks and food before we went. In the bathroom, we checked our hair and touched up our makeup. When we walked back out, arms locked together, we saw a man standing behind our table, looking over the side.
“Who the fuck is that?” Kenya asked.
We all shrugged and headed over. At the same time we got to our table, the waitress was bringing our refills over. The nigga still didn’t move.
We all picked up our glasses, letting Kenya handle the nigga that was not budging.
“Umm… excuse me brah, I’ma need you to move away from us.”
The nigga turned around and had a smirk on his face. I dropped my glass.
“Gio?” I said low. “Why are you here?”
The glass hit the ground hard. Everybody turned and looked. My girl stood close to me.
Gio didn’t rush to answer me. His eyes dragged up and down my body slow.
“Why do you look so surprised, baby girl?” he asked, his voice low, calm… like the shit he was doing was normal.
My chest tightened, but I kept my face straight. “Because you’re not supposed to be here.”
Kenya stepped in front of me a lil’ bit. “You need to leave from here. Islah don’t want to see you.”
Gio looked Kenya up and down. “Bitch, I wasn’t talking to you.”
His eyes shot back to me. He didn’t look like the nigga I was in love with for seven years.
“Gio, are you okay?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nah, boo, I’m not. I need you; I miss you. I told you I’m sorry for fuckin’ up, but you need to come home.”
I exhaled loudly, trying to keep my voice low and calm. “Gio, I’m home, and I told you we are over.”
Gio shook his head with a grin on his face. “Islah, you don’t get it. It wasn’t a question… You are coming back to Cali with me.”
Some of the staff came over to see if they could control what was going on because people were starting to stare. I looked back and forth at the girls. We were trying to come up with a plan while a manager offered Gio a drink, food, anything for him to leave, but he wasn’t goin’ for it.
“Our phones are in the car,” Renee said.
“You were right, Islah,” Deja added. “This nigga is crazy.”
We tried to back out slowly while the servers and the managers had him cornered, but he caught me and rushed over.
“Where the fuck do you think you going?!” he asked, grabbing my wrist.
The manager yelled out about callin’ the police.
“You coming with me!”
I tried to pull away from him, my girls tried to pull me away from him, but his grip was too tight. For some reason, I stopped struggling with him, letting my girls pull me, but I wasn’t putting up a fight.
I pulled my hand free from my girls and slapped him across the face, making the whole rooftop gasp as he grabbed his face.
“You must have forgotten what we had,” Gio stated.
I shook my head. “What we had was built on lies, Gio. I don’t know what the fuck you are on, but I’ma need you to find yourself.
” I walked closer to him. I wanted him to know I wasn’t scared of him and that I was serious.
“We are done, you are not my nigga no more!” I showed him my hand with the ring on it.
“I’m with somebody, and I’m happy…I love him.
It’s time for you to go back to Cali and leave me alone. ”
Getting that off my chest felt so freeing. Gio gave me a dirty look, not saying anything to me, just staring like he wanted me dead.
I could hear sirens in the distance. Deja grabbed my arm and pulled me to the elevator that Renee had waiting.
Before the door closed, Gio stood up. “I’ma be seeing you again, this ain’t over.”
“Girl, what the fuck!” Kenya blurted out. “I see why you moved; that nigga looks crazy.”
I nodded. “That is not the nigga I was with, I don’t know whoever that was.”
We reached the ground floor and rushed out to the car. I told the driver to do the dash to Love’s store. He nodded and took off.
The girls talked to themselves about what happened. I stared out the window, not believing that my leaving him was the reason why he snapped. His eyes weren’t his; the grip on my wrist wasn’t the same; he looked at me like his property and not a person.
Kenya tapped my leg and made me jump.
“Awe, baby, it’s okay, we are here,” she said softly.
I looked out the window and saw Love’s car in front of us. We hopped out and rushed inside.
There were a few customers in there. Keith saw me and called for Love to come out of his office. Love came out of his office, looking confused.
“He found me.” That was all I said.
“Come here,” Love said.
We all walked into Love’s office. He hugged me and made sure I was okay before he did anything else. After Keith got the customers out of the store, he came back to the office to join us.
“What happened?” Love asked.
I swallowed hard. “We went to the spa, then out to eat. He must have followed us and had to be watching because we didn’t see him until we came back from the bathroom.”
“He grabbed her!” Kenya added. “He tried to get her to leave with him.”
Love raised a brow. “He grabbed you?”
I nodded. “Baby, that is not the nigga I spent seven years with.”
“Find out where them niggas are staying,” Love said to Keith.
“I told him that we were done, that I was in a relationship, and to go home.”
Love nodded slowly and pulled me into him. “Do you think he’s going to listen?”
I paused. “I don’t know; I hope he does.”