Chapter 12
twelve
From the spot Kamilla deemed the crying boulder, to the shore watching the sunset and water washing over their feet, Cairo couldn’t help but take in her beauty. Not that she wasn’t beautiful before, but there was something about some of her walls dropping that was indeed captivating.
“I got to figure out how I’m going to pay for school,” Kamille spoke with a huff.
While the natural response he wanted to give her was that he’d figure it out, he knew she didn’t need to be dependent on him.
Knowing now that the two people she depended on the most were gone, he couldn’t cripple her further.
Truth was as much as he could see his life on a highlight reel in her eyes, the possibility of him leaving her before they really got started was high.
So, he held his commentary and chose to do the opposite of what her parents had done.
“What you good at? Besides not listening?” he questioned in a teasing tone.
Kamilla nudged him and moved from his side, further into the water just enough for the bottom of her rolled pants to get wet.
“Outside of my inherited ear, I can clean the hell out of anything. My mother was a clean freak. When dad died, she started a little cleaning business. We cleaned houses for pretty much everyone I went to school with.”
“Damn,” he blew.
“Yeah. Imagine being at prom in your thrift store dress and then changing to clean the venue. Anyway, I guess I can figure out how to do that,” Kamilla muttered.
“I know I’ve bulldozed myself into your space, but in this instance, I feel like I should ask if you want my help” Cairo responded.
“And I’m also stubborn, but I would like your help,” Kamilla said with a smirk, looking up at him. “What you got?”
Cairo reached down to move a curl from her face. “I’ll let you know but for the meantime, I should probably feed you. You gon’ sleep like a champ tonight.”
Kamilla chuckled. “Yeah, like a bad ass kid after a whooping. First one to the car gets to pay for dinner though.”
Before she finished the statement she took off in the wrong direction of course.
The playfulness might’ve been a rare occurrence but he wasn’t going to let it pass him by.
Taking off behind her, scooping her up in his arms earned him the most soul-stirring laugh.
It was infectious. The mango-drenched curls fell over his face and he gladly welcomed it.
“There you go again not even going the right way,” he replied, placing her on her feet. “How do you run in slow motion?”
“I just knew I was doing something,” Kamilla spoke through her smile.
Cairo allowed his to mirror and craned his neck. “Your sense of direction is terrible.”
“Small fish even smaller pond,” Kamilla recited KP’s lyrics.
Cairo swayed his head. “Mm, nah. Big fish dumped into a big pond but you’ll figure it out.”
His comment was punctuated by a peck to her lips. All of this out of both of their comfort zones, but they welcomed it.
“You kiss all your friends?” Kamilla asked, popping a brow.
“You want me to stop? Say the word,” he offered. The nonverbal cue of her swaying her head was stopped by the hook of her chin and his body erasing space between them. “And no. Only you.”
“Might think you want to be more than my friend,” she buzzed. “I’m new to this, you shouldn’t fill my head up with ideas.”
“The danger of this is I already got ideas. But say what you want, I’ll listen,” Cairo offered an approach he wasn’t used to.
Kamilla nipped her lip and pulled in a deep inhale. She was caging her thoughts again. “We should eat, yeah?”
Cairo subtly clenched his jaw. “Yeah.”
From the tucked away beach back into the city, he took her to Sunset Pizzeria. A tiny food truck where the owner slung more than firestone pizzas. Cairo had done plenty of transactions here. Since he called for a slowdown, it was a safe night to bring Kamilla out.
“I know that ain’t Cairo with a girl,” Dania’s voice met him first before he spotted her fully.
“See,” Kamilla huffed playfully. “You got other homies to kiss.”
“Chill out,” Cairo grumbled with laughter. “That’s my homie’s girl. She’s aggravating as hell.”
“I am not aggravating,” Dania spoke up, coming into view and nudging him out the way. “I’m the little sister he’s never had and the one he won’t get rid of. Whether he admits it or not. And you’re beautiful. Blink twice if he’s holding you against your will.”
Kamilla laughed nervously. Dania’s personality was big, radiant, and welcoming.
“Dania,” she further introduced.
“Kamilla. And I’m not being held against my will. Anymore,” Kamilla added, cutting Cairo a playful side-eye.
“Any more? What’d you do to her?” Dania asked, her hands on her hips, cutting her eyes at Cairo.
“Saved her damn life if you must know. Nate, get her,” Cairo huffed.
“No. Uh uh. I gotta figure out how you got someone this pretty when you look like that,” Dania shot back.
“Like what?” Cairo grumbled.
“Like you got your hair braided three years ago and brushed them every day,” Dania fired back, making Kamilla cover her mouth.
Cairo swung his finger between her and Nate and grumbled, “YouYo two deserve each other.”
“Mhmm. I’m going to take your girlfriend to get some food. Give her some money,” Dania demanded.
“I’m okay,” Kamilla spoke up, simultaneous with Cairo digging in his pocket to hand her a small knot of cash. She turned to block him only for him to stuff it in her pocket. “I won.”
“You lost. Get what you want.”
“What do you want?” Kamilla asked in a quieted tone.
Cairo masked his need to take her in again and matched her tone. “Tell him the C4 special. He’ll know.”
“Alright, come on,” Dania quipped, hooking her arm in Kamilla’s and pulling her in the direction of the food truck. “I want to get all up in your business.”
“K, watch out she’s nosy as hell,” Cairo called to her back.
“Shut up, boy,” Dania shot back.
“Nah, see, I knew you were too fuckin’ quiet. Where the hell did you find her? She can’t be from around here,” Nate whooped.
Cairo hit him with the back of his hand in response.
“Oh, nigga, it’s like that?” Nate posed.
“Straight like that,” Cairo muttered. “It’s some complications around it that I’m not getting into out here.”
“Complications…you finna get active behind that? You hit already?” Nate asked.
“Everything ain’t about getting pussy, nigga,” Cairo gritted, making sure Kamilla couldn’t hear Nate’s loud ass.
“Pussy is always the end goal,” Nate gritted back. “Anyway, we getting active. You know how I get when I sit still.”
“It’s because your mama drank when she was pregnant with you. You off, for real. And furthermore, I’m getting active. You’re still sitting the fuck down,” Cairo corrected. “Activity is already in motion.”
“At least tell me what the fuck happened,” Nate queried, just as nosy as Dania.
Cairo clenched his jaw. “Two parts – she’s Martez’s fake cousin.”
“Nigga, is this some get-back shit?” Nate whooped. “I knew you were crazy. But to go there?”
“Would you shut the fuck up? No. That shit is deeper than I even wanna dive into. Just know the nigga’s heart is still going because of her. But that leads me to the second part. QaMeesha attacked her today on some jealous shit. So I hollered at Sapphire to make a move,” Cairo shared.
“Ohh shit. You know Sapph been itching to put QaMeesha in the pavement for what she did to her brother,” Nate jeered.
Sapphire Jones was the one the Azul Hearts called on when it came to a female getting correction.
She didn’t mind fighting until her opponent was left bloodied on the pavement.
A paid handler but when it came to QaMeesha, she took the mission for free.
Before QaMeesha turned to a life of hoing and working at a dead-end job, she was heavily involved with Gunna Jones.
He crowned her his woman and the only thing he asked for in turn was loyalty.
However, when the Feds came and the streets got hot, she turned on him landing him in prison for twenty years.
Sapphire vowed to never forget and anytime she could get her hands on QaMeesha, she would.
Cairo was sure by the time his phone dinged, QaMeesha would be unrecognizable and where he stood would be crystal clear.
“I know.”
Nate looked over at Cairo. “You about to take this a step forward, huh?”
“What’s my name, nigga?” Cairo questioned.
“C4,” Nate answered coolly.
“The way I see it, if she can’t go there and work peacefully, ain’t nobody going to work. Feel me?”
“Thought we was laying low?” Nate teased.
“You and your nigga, Tiny, laying low. Sometime you got to send shit up in smoke.”
Nate looked at him for a long moment. “Nigga, you in love.”
“Relax, that’s my friend. We kicking it.”
A hearty laugh left Nate’s lips. “Remember when I said that about D? Now look at us. You ain’t never been a man to lie. But I see you, though. But riddle me this, how you moving in and out of CK territory with her?”
“First of all, we know I can move anywhere in L.O. without fuckin’ issue. Second of all, I’m not.”
Nate’s mouth dropped and he peered at Cairo in amazement. “And you ain’t hit that?”
“Nah. Fix your face, nigga, they coming back,” Cairo muttered. He walked away, leaving Nate astounded. Meeting Kamilla halfway, he retrieved the food from her hands and led her to a table.
“Where’s the food?” Nate asked, looking at Dania.
“Up there waiting on you to grab it,” she returned, taking a seat next to Kamilla. “I never thought the day would come where we could double date with Cairo.”
Cairo rolled his eyes. “You see?”
Kamilla laughed and nodded. “My bad. I won’t say it again.”
“Nate, look,” Dania crooned. “They are locked in.”
“Mhmm, I see it. Where you from, Kamilla?”
“Greenwood,” she asked, simply not wanting to get too deep into the particulars.
“How you get here?” Nate questioned. “Better yet, with this crazy ass Azul.”
“She’s going to OSU in the fall and they met at the corner store. Get out of their business,” Dania huffed.