Chapter 6 #4
“You might want to watch who you putting your hands on.” Deviance’s deep voice conveyed.
Lock backed off, but not without one last glance in my direction.
“We don’t have anything else to discuss.” I bobbed my head at him. “I’ll get everything drawn up.” My eyes fell on the ground and I walked away.
There was nothing more left to say, and yet there was so much, if that makes sense.
Right now, I legit didn’t have the energy for it.
I loaded up in the car and Deviance drove me home.
I walked slowly up to the house and found the door unlocked, so I let myself in.
Dropping my work bag, I also left my shoes at the door.
Ivy came sprinting from the living room, nearly tackling me with her arms wrapped around me.
She buried her face in my chest and squealed.
“I made it!” She kept me encased but pulled back a little to gaze up at me.
Her bright eyes were full of excitement.
“I made the pep squad! They loved the routine I came up with and want to use it in their performances!”
“Ivy, that is amazing!” I hugged her back.
“Thanks for helping me.” She was so humble that it was adorable.
“You’re welcome.” I grinned and she finally pulled away.
“Are you doing okay?” Worry clouded her face.
“It’s been a long day. Kind of tired. How about we find a movie to watch and eat some snacks?” I suggested, both brows going up.
Frequency and I hadn’t talked about what we were going to tell her about the baby. And I wasn’t about to dare try to spill the beans without him there.
“Sounds good to me! I’ll go make popcorn.”
“I’m going to get changed and meet you in the den in about ten minutes.” I said, yawning.
I was beat like I had been doing manual labor.
But popcorn and a movie sounded like the perfect way to end the night.
After changing into my silk pajama shorts and camisole top, Ivy and I met up in the den.
She had quite the spread going for us. Every snack food you could think of, plus chocolate, popcorn and soda was gathered.
Curled up with the remote to the TV in hand.
As soon as she set her sights on me, she perked up.
“Hey, so what should we watch?” I watched her scroll the movies on Disney Plus.
“Hmmm… I don’t know. No singing.” I turned my nose up while taking a seat down beside her.
“Okay, well that kind of limits us then,” Ivy replied, rolling her eyes with a giggle.
“What about The Sandlot?” I suggested.
“What is that?” She asked, lifting one brow questionably.
“You’ve never seen it? Oh, well that’s it, we are watching that.” I grabbed the remote from her hand and began searching for the movie. “So you have to give me all the dates for your performances so I can put them on the calendar.” The phone rang, and I wasn’t sure if Celine was even around.
I snatched up the cordless off the base beside me and answered like I had done it a million times before.
“Hello.” There was silence, and then breathing. “Hello!” I repeated myself.
Still nothing. I glanced at Ivy, shrugged, and hung up. There was still this eerie feeling resonating in my gut after placing the phone back where it belonged.
“Guess they didn’t want anything.”
“What was it like growing up for you? Your childhood?” Ivy stuffed her face with M&M’s.
“Hmmm, it was okay. My parents were married. My mother, she uh… she disappeared when I was very young though. My daddy got remarried when I was fifteen. I do have an older sister too, but we haven’t been the closest.”
“Why not?” Ivy wondered, tossing her head back into the pillow behind her.
“Harmonie and I just aren’t the same.” I noted.
“And what happened to your mom? Did you ever find out anything?” Ivy interrogated.
“Why so curious, kid?” I faced her.
“I want to know more about you.” She stated honestly. “You seem sad sometimes. Not as much anymore, but before—”
“I was… unhappy. Your daddy helped with that, and so did you.” I insisted, grinning while grabbing a handful of popcorn.
We were about an hour into the movie and Ivy had already dozed off.
She was curled up on the sofa with a throw draped over her and her head resting in my lap.
I was still watching the movie and stuffing junk into my mouth when I felt Frequency’s presence.
Glancing up, I found him standing in the doorway watching us.
I couldn’t quite read his expression as eventually strolled into the room.
He knelt over, kissing her forehead first before his lips gently swiped against mine.
“Mmm, I have missed you today,” I announced as he slid behind me on the couch and embraced me.
His cologne hit my nostrils and I inhaled. For the first time in days it didn’t make me sick. My morning sickness legit came in the morning and left me alone the rest of the day. Free’s hand fell on my flat stomach and he held me while watching Ivy sleep.
“She looks like she had a good time.” His deep voice was in my ear.
“We both did. She got picked for the squad at school and she was very happy about it when I got home.” I told him, smiling.
“That’s good. How was the rest of your day?” He buried his face in my neck and took a deep breath.
“Tiring,” I answered, yawning.
“Oh yeah, and how did things go with your boy?” Frequency asked, not even wanting to speak Lock’s name.
Typical ass man. For them, they didn’t want to even consider the man that came before them. He didn’t have anything to worry about though since he was my first.
“I made the sale.” I intertwined my fingers with his and suddenly began thinking about Lock and Alba again.
I wasn’t content with how things ended up, but there was nothing I could really do about it. Too much time had passed, and everything had changed. None of us were the same people anymore, so there was no way that we could go back to before.
“Yeah? You wanna talk about it?”
Lifting my gaze, I met his as he studied my face. He thumbed my chin and watched my lips as I tucked one between my teeth.
“Not really.”
“Harbor—”
“What do you want me to say, Free? I can’t change anything about this.” I pulled away from him and my shoulders tensed.
“Do you want to change anything?” He questioned, a dent appearing in his forehead from his scowl.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” I sighed and gently pushed Ivy’s head to a pillow, doing my best not to disturb her so that I could stand up. “This isn’t some average situation, Free. Naturally, I am left with some residual feelings—”
“Feelings for who? For a nigga that fucked another bitch and got her pregnant while he thought you were missing?” He was offensive as he watched me.
His words stung. My heart lurched in my chest and suddenly, my eyes glossed over.
Flaring my nostrils, I tried my best to calm down, but he had definitely pressed a button.
I would be lying if I said that shit didn’t bruise my ego in some kind of way.
For all they knew I was in some ditch ready to be found or serving ass in some brothel.
Either way, they weren’t driving themselves crazy with worry about my absence.
Yeah, that shit left me feeling some kind of way.
The fixed glare I nailed on him caused him to straighten up where he was seated.
“That’s not fucking fair, and you know it!” I hissed.
“What you want from me, Harbor? Hmm? You want me to be understanding? Fuck that. You want to trip off a nigga that obviously didn’t give a fuck about you, do that. Just don’t look to me for any kind of empathy. I’m tapped out on that.”
“This is your fault to begin with, and you just want me to get over it!” I argued.
Shaking his head, he stood and moved closer to the door to leave.
“You process this shit how you need to. That fuck nigga don’t deserve that energy.” He articulated.
“You don’t even know him.” I folded my arms over my chest.
“So go take a trip down memory fucking lane! You need to get that shit out of your system, cool.” He waved his hand and moved to the door. “Maybe I need to take the time and evaluate some shit too.”
“Free!” I shouted after him, but he gave me his back.
Tears stung my eyes while my stomach did flips. Sniveling, I used my hand to wipe the tears that had fallen and moved my head back and forth. What the fuck had just happened? This damn sure wasn’t what I wanted. Was this our first real fight?
Chevy
All my life I told myself that I would never end up like my mama.
She let men control her every move in life.
From her hairstyle to her fashion, it was all based on how a man would perceive her.
I grew up thinking my looks were the only way for me to get by.
When I met Ledge, I thought I had found that roughneck that would treat me like a princess.
At first it was all good. He showered me with gifts, we took trips, I even let him meet the part of my family that I actually fucked with.
I thought he was just some thug ass nigga off the street.
I had no idea the kind of man he really was.
Once I found out, I was pregnant with our son and head over heels in love.
These days, that shit seemed like almost an eternity ago.
“Mama, when is daddy coming back?” My adorable son questioned from the sofa with his sister.
We were having movie night. I was alerted hours ago that I had company in the form of two large guards waiting outside my house.
I knew that only meant one thing, something was going on with Ledge and business and he was taking precautions.
I had been living this life so long that I was used to it by now.
I set the bowl of chocolate covered pretzels on the table and sat between them while the movie Soul opened on the large TV screen ahead.
“I don’t know, baby,” I answered honestly.
“Can we call him and talk to him?” Laiyah asked, her innocent eyes bright.