Liana #2
“Not really. I’m still recovering from the market festival. Whose idea was it to have it so close together?”
“Your great grandparents. Eugene and Harriet. Granny liked summer, and Papa liked spring.”
My dad was always so full of pride we he spoke of his family. Especially his grandparents. I wish I had been able to have them longer, but we still had our grandparents. We, as in, my cousins, Clover, Gardeniah, Magnolia, and the rest.
“I’m just complaining. Pay me no mind.”
“What’s wrong baby girl?”
“Nothing Daddy. I feel behind. I haven’t figured out what I’m doing differently this year. It falls on a Sunday, and I don’t serve alcohol. But I’ve got a little time to think.”
“It’ll come to you,” he said. “Always does or you can help with our section of the farm this year.”
Our family has been in Bloomington for generations. Before the town boomed in the seventies, most of this side carried the Bloom name in one way or another. Every year on the first day of summer, the family hosted Bloom Day, a town festival that somehow got bigger with every generation.
The parade was our biggest tradition; each business and a few families designed floats, and there was also live music, food, free bouquet-making from the flower farm, and bouncy houses for the kids.
The Bloom normally handed out special shots at the bar.
And now, Beau’s camp put on a flag football tournament to raise money for the community, which had become its own tradition in just one summer.
The whole town showed up for events like this. That was Bloomington for you. People here believed in pouring back into the folks who poured into them.
I was mid-bite thinking about the float lineup when the house phone rang.
My daddy reached for it without looking up from his plate. “Bloom residence.”
A pause.
“Hell no. I don’t think so. She’s healed, and you want to call now.”
Mama and I exchanged a look because I could count on one hand the times I had heard my daddy’s voice go that cold. Whoever was on the other end kept talking, but Daddy let the silence sit long enough to make the other person uncomfortable before speaking again.
“I let you make it once. I let you take my baby away and mistreat her. I should’ve put you six feet under when you broke her heart. I should’ve shown you a thing or two then.”
The laugh that came out of my father scared me.
Not because it was angry but because it was free, unburdened, the laugh of a man who had been patient a very long time and was done being patient, and I had never heard Lawrence Bloom sound like that over another person in my entire life.
It told me everything about how much he had been holding.
“Always been a coward. Just like that father of yours. What do you want, Odeal?”
“Odeal?” we asked in unison.
“Yeah, this fool is on the line. Pumpkin, if you don’t want to talk to this idiot, I’ll hang up right now and go pay him a personal visit.”
My father extended the phone towards me.
“Please, it’s important,” Odeal said, and the frantic edge in his voice stopped me for a second. I stood there and let myself feel it. Three years of silence, now he was on my daddy’s house phone, unraveling. I wasn’t proud of how good that felt. But I wasn’t ashamed of it either.
Curiosity got the best of me, and I took the phone.
“What?”
“Liana.” His composure sounded thin for the first time in six years. Whatever was happening on his end had gotten past all of the control and measure he always had on display. “Someone accessed my accounts. The settlement account. Everything is gone.”
I blinked.
“Okay,” I said with an incredulous laugh. “What settlement account?”
“Okay?” His voice cracked slightly. “Liana, I’m talking about a significant amount of money that?—”
“Odeal. Why are you calling my parents’ house phone about your money problems?”
Silence.
“Do you have my money?”
“I’m so confused right now. It’s been three years, and I have suddenly learned about an undisclosed account. Sounds like a little bit of karma to me.”
“Liana, I swear to God if you—” I hung up. He had his fucking nerve calling my daddy’s house to accuse me of something I had nothing to do with. He could go to hell, where his grimy ass belonged.
My phone buzzed in my back pocket.
Unknown: Spin bout u… link
I was afraid to click it, but went against my better judgment. The link opened to the song art. However, my banking app was pushing notifications, small deposits hitting my account one after another. I closed out of it fast and damn near grew faint before I gathered myself.
“Everything okay?” my mama asked, looking over my shoulder.
“Yeah, ma. All good. Karma catching up to that musty loser.”
“Good for him,” she said, and went back to clearing the table like it was settled.
I did my best to ignore the deposits filtering in. I was up forty thousand dollars. I needed it to stop. I was terrified I’d been scammed into a situation I couldn’t explain. Dinner was over, but I was exhausted and confused.
I said my goodbyes and loaded up the leftovers because I still needed to drop food at The Bloom.
My nerves were shot the whole drive over. Odeal accusing me and money suddenly appearing back-to-back made my stomach twist.
As scared as I was, I could use this money. Who couldn’t? And how dare Odeal hide it from me in the first place, forcing me to walk away from six years with nothing but his pissy ass last name.
I pulled up to the bar, and it was packed. Warm weather always brought people out.
I carried the leftovers inside and set them on the bar.
Roya spotted me and glided over. “Neicy pooh, I was about to call you. We are packed tonight.”
Her eyes narrowed once she got closer.
“Girl, why you look like that? What happened now?”
My phone buzzed before I could answer.
Unknown: Open Me!
I turned the phone face down against the bar instantly.
I had zero interest in anybody connecting me to whatever the hell Odeal had going on.
“I’m fine, where do you need me?”
I threw myself into helping Roya, cleaning tables, manning the bar, doing anything to stop thinking about Odeal, the deposits, or that damn song link.
It almost worked.
Then a video game sound made me jump.
My phone screen was lit up with a Pac-Man emblem shifting from happy to sad to kissy faces and heart eyes. I stared at it. I had seen that before. I couldn’t place it, but I had seen it somewhere, and not placing it was making me crazy.
I looked back at GAME OVER flashing across the screen while coins poured from the top.
My phone buzzed again.
Another deposit.
I massaged my temple and laughed to myself because what else could I do. Only me. This kind of thing only happened to me.
I was still shaking my head when the door opened and Jaheim walked in like a breath of fresh air.
Today he was in grey Nike Tech and clean Air Force Ones. He didn’t see me right away which gave me exactly two seconds to decide what my face was going to do.
I chose nothing. Bartender face. Professional. The same face I gave everybody who walked through that door on a busy Sunday night.
That wasn’t going to work. I had been riding his dick less than twenty-four hours ago. He knew my moans. I knew the exact weight of his hands on my body. Standing behind this bar pretending otherwise would be a waste of time.
My body had already made up its mind by the time he scanned the room.
When his eyes landed on me, the smile that crossed his face sent heat crawling up my neck.
He moved through the crowd with swagger in an unhurried manner, nodding at a few people who already knew who he was because Bloomington was Bloomington. I held my breath as he sat down at the end of the bar.
His end.
I finished the drink I was making and slid it down to its owner and made my way over. My phone was still face down on the bar next to the register. The deposits had stopped. At least I hoped.
“Hey, Trini girl,” he said.
“Hey yourself.” I smiled and pulled his glass without asking. “Didn’t know you were coming in tonight.”
“I didn’t know I was either.”
“You hungry? I brought leftovers from my parents. It’s on the house.”
“Liana Bloom. You’ve got a real heart of gold, you know that? I hope you get all the good karma you can handle.”
“You make me sound way better than I am.” I shrugged, my mind drifting briefly to the seventy-five thousand dollars sitting in my account. “These are my people. I don’t need karma to look out for them.”
“Even more reason why you deserve it.”
I watched the dip in his walk as he settled back onto his stool and shook my head. This man was pure tempting madness. I forced myself to look away before making his Sundown and setting it in his usual spot.
Then I went back to helping Roya while the crowd slowly thinned out.
Every now and then, I’d catch him eating with barbecue sauce at the corner of his mouth, licking it away like he didn’t have a woman across the bar trying hard not to stare.
“I’d like to lick that off him, you know what I mean?” Roya appeared at my elbow.
“Auntie. He is too young for you.”
“He over twenty-five?”
“Yes, but?—”
“No buts. All his lobes are developed, and the doctor said my heart is good. I can take that ride.”
“Auntie please,” I laughed.
I was on my tiptoes behind the bar reaching for a bottle on the top shelf when Steelo switched songs.
Spin Bout U came through the speakers. I tripped over my own feet trying to stand up.
Jaheim hopped over the bar like he knew parkour and was at my side before I could process what happened.
“Trini, you good? What’s up?” He helped me off the floor and checked me over before stepping back. “Did you eat while you were worried about everybody else eating?”
“It’s not that.” I steadied myself. “It’s this song. I’ve had a long day.”
His eyes settled on mine and suddenly the room mattered a whole lot less.
“Long how?” he asked quietly.
“Old news popping back up. Dinner with my parents. I’m running on fumes.”
I picked up my rag and found something to wipe down that didn’t need wiping.
The song kept playing and that alone was odd. Steelo didn’t have that song loaded. The program that allowed outside music cost more than I was willing to pay, so I’d never sprung for it. My mind went back into overdrive as he stopped near my hip.
I inhaled and melted slightly against the bar before catching myself.
“You straight, shorty? You look flustered.”
Behind the bar was darker than the rest of the room. A small detail on Jaheim’s neck caught the low light beneath his collar.
My stomach tightened instantly.
I stared a second too long trying to place what I’d seen, but the thought slipped away before I could fully process it.
My attention moved across the rest of his tattoos after that. Ink covered both arms, florals mixed with script and symbols that clearly carried meaning.
I’d spent a whole night with this man thinking I was starting to understand him.
Apparently, I hadn’t even scratched the surface.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you,” I said, sidestepping because I needed more information before accusing him of something I couldn’t take back. “You need anything else?”
“Nah,” he said. “I’m good right here. I’m helping you close tonight. Cool?”
“Should I put you on payroll?”
“Maybe, you got it. I know you do.”
His smirk made my mouth drop.
I moved down the bar and sensed him watching me. I kept moving because I needed to think, and I couldn’t think under his intense, sexy ass glare.
He was toying with me, and the splinter was working itself to the surface.