Chapter 29
Armias
“Smile for daddy, Louri,” Lourdes poked her chubby cheek and she revealed a huge smile, showing off her dimples and two bottom teeth.
It was a hot, spring day, so Lourdes and Alouri were putting our pool to use.
She had my baby decked out in a pink Hello Kitty tank top swimsuit with the matching hat, skirt, shades, and she was in a pink canopy floatie.
Of course Lourdes had on a pink Hello Kitty bikini of her own with big pink Dolce & Gabbana shades.
Her natural hair was up in a ponytail and she was bare faced, looking pretty as ever.
Coming home to her everyday was a blessing that I didn’t take for granted.
“Take one on my phone, too.”
“I gotta get this food, Lo-Lo.”
“You literally just put those burgers on the grill! Stop hating on me and my baby, and take our picture on my phone!”
“Hating? Man, I’m the reason your ass got a daughter. Don’t forget that.”
“You’re so right,” she stifled a smile. “A picture will help me remember it. Go get my phone and take it.”
“Alright, smart mouth ass,” I laughed while grabbing her phone off the white daybed.
She giggled. “I literally agreed with you.”
“You know what you was doing, but I got something for that later.”
“You promise, daddy?” She asked softly with lustful eyes.
My dick jumped. “Keep looking at me like that and I’ma do something about it sooner than later.”
“I mean…it is almost time for Louri’s nap.”
“Nasty ass,” I chuckled.
“I’m in good company, then.”
“Man, go ahead and smile.”
“Exactly, you can’t even deny it,” she giggled.
She was right. I really couldn’t deny it.
There wasn’t a day that went by where we didn’t have sex.
Sometimes we got it in more than once. I thought that might change when she returned to work two months ago, but it didn’t.
We were good for morning quickies and we always made love before we closed our eyes for the night.
I was aware that this probably wouldn’t be the norm forever as we got older, our businesses grew, and we had more kids.
We’d naturally be more busy and while sex was very important in our relationship, it wasn’t everything, and I loved Lourdes beyond what was between her legs.
So I was enjoying where we were in life right now, but I knew for a fact that I’d be happy as long as we were living life together.
“Armias, don’t piss me off,” she hissed.
“What you talking bout?” I laughed from my gut because I was doing something to deliberately annoy her.
“Turn my phone the right way!”
“What makes this the wrong way?” I asked while turning the phone from sideways to straight up.
“I’m not even finna play with you,” she uttered, before smiling at the camera and poking the top of Alouri’s belly. She giggled and I quickly snapped a picture.
“Take some more,” she demanded just as I was lowering her phone and about to hit the power button. “Just keep snapping. I want some off guards.”
“You don’t get enough of ordering me around, do you?” I asked, as I trained the camera back on them and did as she said.
“Ordering you around?” She gasped. “I’ve never done such a thing.”
“Man, I’m literally barbecuing because you demanded it. I wanted us to order out today.”
“Demanded is a reach. I asked if you could barbecue chicken wings, burgers, and steaks, and you agreed! And you know I hate ordering out from any food app because they either forget something or the shit don’t come right.”
“Or you just picky, bruh. Don’t nothing be wrong with the food we order.”
“Well look, either I was gon’ eat a home cooked meal today or we was gon’ have to go out to eat.”
“There you go, thinking you run shit.”
“I don’t think anything.”
“Oh, so you know it?”
“Hey, you said it, not me,” she giggled. “And that’s enough pictures. Damn, paparazzi!”
“Man, I know you lying,” I uttered while she laughed her head off. “Then you joked out. I should chuck this phone into the pool. I bet you won’t be laughing then.”
“And neither will you. I’ll get out of this pool and roll you out.”
“Alright, calm down, Clarissa. Ion want no smoke, baby.”
She beat Naz up months ago, but everytime she threatened me I’d poke fun at it by calling her Clarissa after the famous boxer, Clarissa Shields.
I wasn’t just gassing her head up, either.
I saw the fight from start to finish because there were multiple recordings of it.
They fought at a popular parade, so the fight being recorded by different people was inevitable.
But the main video that had been reposted and watched multiple times came from Nazaria’s friend.
Ole girl had the closest angle and the clearest view, so it only made sense that people chose to share her version more than the others.
Obviously the girl was a frenemy to Naz because she recorded her getting beat up.
She swore she only posted the video because Naz was spreading lies, and I couldn’t dispute that.
Getting her ass beat should have been enough to officially make Naz shut up on social media for once, but we weren’t that lucky.
She went home and hopped right on live with a swollen eye, a busted lip, and a bruised up face to explain her first public L.
She claimed Lourdes attacked her out of no where.
She lied and said my cousins were sneaking licks in.
She said that her two scary clout chasing friends just stood there and watched while she got jumped.
She even accused me of orchestrating the whole thing.
Kyomi killed two of those wild narratives because she had a video of Naz deliberately bumping into Lourdes.
She posted the evidence to her IG story and captioned it “Nobody attacked you & my cousin wasn’t near us to orchestrate a damn thing.
You was popping shit like you was a big dawg and you got put down by ONE person.
I know this might be your first L, but take it with grace, bookie!
@NazariaStylez.” That was embarrassing enough, but then Naz’s friend really fucked up her program by posting a video of her getting beat up.
She also went live to debunk all of Naz’s false claims, but all the videos were enough evidence for everyone to see that she wasn’t attacked and that she didn’t get jumped.
With the whole city clowning her ass, she went radio silent for days.
Since then, she hadn’t discussed me or Lourdes. It was a miracle!
“You can’t tell me with a straight face that we should’ve ordered out,” Lourdes said while eating a piece of barbecue chicken with her eyes closed.
An hour had passed by and we were eating at our circular patio table that was big enough to sit at least 12 people.
It was purchased with hosting family and friends in mind, but today it was just us and our baby.
That was rare, but I enjoyed alone time with my family.
Ironically, we had enough food for a small cookout.
We had a nice spread of barbecue chicken wings, burgers, steak, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, and baked beans.
“I prefer home cooked food, too. I just didn’t enjoy the labor behind this because this was supposed to be a chill Sunday.”
“You didn’t do all the work alone. I made all the sides.”
“That was slight work compared to barbecuing in the hot sun.”
“I knowww,” she stressed sympathetically. “And that’s why I came out here with Alouri to keep you company.”
“Y’all were in the pool, Lo.”
“Exactly. It’s too hot to be out here otherwise. If the sun wasn’t setting right now we’d be eating inside.”
“Man,” I laughed. “I’m not bouta entertain you.”
“You already have,” she giggled. “The real question is what are we going to do with all this food? Cause I can’t be eating like this for the rest of the week.”
She said that she would lock in with her fitness journey after Mardi Gras and she stayed true to that.
She’d lost all the weight she’d gained from carrying Alouri and giving birth.
Although I thought she was beautiful through it all, her being happy with herself was what mattered the most. She wasn’t on a strict diet anymore because she had reached her goal weight, but she still made it a habit to hit the gym a few times a week and eat well balanced meals majority of the time.
“We can pack it up and send it home with Neese if she comes over here tomorrow.”
“If? Please, that girl hasn’t missed a weekday evening with us since Louri was born.”
“Facts,” I chuckled before glancing down at Alouri who was laying comfortably in one of my arms and drinking her bottle.
“I bought her seat out here so she could sit in it and feed herself while we eat.”
“Man, my baby good. Mind your business.”
“Anything that comes from my coochie is my business.”
“Well she came from my ballsack first so…”
“Oh, whatever!” She scoffed. Her phone buzzed across the table and she picked it up way too fast for my liking. My laughter came to a halt just as quickly as she grabbed that phone.
“Who is that?”
She glanced up at me and tilted her head to the side.
“Who do you think it is?”
“Man, stop playing me.”
“Seriously,” she giggled. “Think about it!”
“Lourdes, I really don’t feel like playing.”
“I’m not playing,” she laughed. “If you stop being paranoid you’d know who it is. I’ve literally been talking about this for days.”
Suddenly, what she was talking about hit me and I relaxed.
“Oh, that must be Kiyor with your Mother’s Day pictures.”
“Yup,” she grinned while doing a dance in her seat. “Wanna see?”
“Of course I want to see.”