Chapter 30
Two weeks passed and Summer was doing excellent.
Our relationship was doing great and I was finally to the point I could leave from the hospital for hours at a time without her questioning me.
For a week, her blood pressure has been good and she was able to stop contracting.
As bad as she wanted to go home, they weren’t hearing it.
“You need anything else before I leave?” I rubbed the coconut oil over her feet and slipped her socks on.
“No, just please be back to bring me something to eat. They having meatloaf tonight and I don’t want that shit.”
“Text me and let me know what your fat ass wants to eat, and it needs to be healthy.”
“So, I can’t have no fried chicken?”
“Nope! Nothing to bring your blood pressure up. Matter of fact, I’ll bring you what I want you to have because I’ve been letting you get away with a lot of sorry ass eating and you put on ten pounds in two weeks.”
“What you saying?”
“I’m not calling you fat.”
“But nigga you did call me fat.”
“You know I’m not talking about like that, Summer. The more I let you eat gummy bears and fatty foods, the more I’m contributing to your situation. I need you and my baby. That’s all I’m saying.”
She smiled and motioned for me to come closer. “I love you.” She placed a soft kiss on my lips.
“I love you more. I’ll be back in a few hours. Call me if you need me.”
The same nigga that I bumped into a few weeks ago was right outside of Summer’s door like he was ready to walk in.
Looking briefly at his name tag, I noticed his name was Trey.
It didn’t ring a bell that I could recall.
So much shit went on in my life that if it wasn’t about my money or Summer, I pushed that shit out of my mind.
“You need something?” I asked him before moving from in front of the door.
“I got a request to check the beds on this floor. It’s routine, especially on this floor, being that they have to break the bed down for them to start pushing, you know.”
“Oh, okay cool. She’s in the bed so do I need to get her up?”
“No, she can stay in the bed.”
“I don’t think she’ll be comfortable with you in the room, so I’ll stay until you finish.”
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll make sure to keep the door open. The nurse's station is right here. I take my job very seriously.”
“I hope you do, Trey.” I looked him up and down before moving from in front of the door.
It felt so good to get out. Besides running home to grab something for Summer and I, most of my time was spent with her.
I didn’t want to miss anything. When the doctor came in, I wanted him to see me.
I wanted Summer to know she wasn’t in this alone.
After a while though, the walls started to close in on me.
The gambling house was my first stop. Since we moved, this was big for me and LJ.
My money came from this among other shit but this was my number one money maker.
LJ was pulling up at the same time. Tonight was poker and dominoes.
Dominos brought out the old heads, but poker brought out the folks that were making good money.
“Summer let you out, huh?”
“Summer don’t run shit. I’m a grown ass nigga, and I move when I want to.”
“Nigga, please. Let that phone ring right now and you hauling ass.”
“Only because I don’t want to miss nothing. Summer knows she doesn’t run shit in my life.”
“I don’t know how you plan on marrying her. Shit about to change once she gets that last name.”
“On my mama, ain’t shit gon’ change.”
LJ shrugged as we walked up to the house. The spot was set up like any other house. It was fully furnished but this time we bought a house with a basement. We had one of our dope fiends build a wall to separate the space so we could run two things at one time.
I liked this spot more than the last one. Summer didn’t know where it was so she couldn’t pop up and show out. LJ baby mama didn’t know either and we liked it that way because business was business with us. We didn’t need them busting our shit up and then the cops are called.
It was now seven at night and Summer had called me twice but I was in the process of counting money.
Gambling started an hour ago and we were damn near over on the pots.
The first of the month was important. The hustlers took all the crackheads social security checks, snatched up baby mama food stamp cards and sold the stamps, and there were the ones that really had money like Pinkie who was sitting across the table, winking at me.
“Stop fucking looking at her,” LJ nudged me as I focused back on the money.
“Fuck she doing here? I’ve never known her to gamble.”
“Shit, her ass be on those slot machines at the Indian store. Nobody ever sees her ass ducked off back there. Rumor has it that’s where she got her large sum of money to start her club.”
“How the fuck she heard about us? Our shit is exclusive.” I placed the winnings in a duffel bag as I stared at her.
“She knows somebody that know somebody, I guess.”
Pinkie sat there talking shit with the niggas. Her hair was laid and pulled up into a high ponytail that trailed down to her wide plump ass. She didn’t wear much makeup on her face. Some clear gloss and lashes. With her being the only woman in the room, I could clearly smell her perfume.
“Maybe you should head back to the hospital and I can handle this shit,” LJ suggested.
“I’m good.”
“I’m trying to save your ass here. Summer done called your ass over and over again. Do you want her to worry and get sick?”
My phone buzzed in my hand. Thinking it was Summer sending a threatening text, I opened it but it was Pinkie.
Do Not Answer: I can meet you upstairs in the bedroom. No one would know.
I deleted the text and slipped my phone in my pocket.
She wasn’t about to get me fucked up like the last time.
I was standing in a room full of men and my dick was hard from a side bitch.
As hard as I tried to keep my mind on dumb shit, my mind kept thinking about Pinkie and all the nasty shit she does.
“I’m ‘bout to head out, my nigga. Call me if anything pops off.”
“I’ll be good. Go be with your wife,” LJ said loudly so Pinkie could hear him.
She blew me a kiss as I walked out of the basement. This bitch was going to fuck my world up if I didn’t stay away from her.
Me: Stop texting me
I sent the text and headed back to the hospital, but not before stopping to grab Summer something to eat.
I was about two hours late, and I didn’t intend on really staying at the gambling house but my dick got hard from being around gambling.
Since I was a little kid, I ran numbers. Nobody understood that shit but LJ.
Summer had an attitude when I walked in but it was a sarcastic ass attitude. The kind where you stick your tongue out at a muthafucka. She sat up in the bed eating her fried chicken, mashed potatoes and had a bag of gummy bears to finish the shit off. All I had was a salmon and a side salad.
“Had fun?” she asked as she bit off a piece of chicken.
“Don’t be funny. Why the fuck you eating that shit?”
“Well, I was hungry. I called you about four times and you didn’t answer so I had my side nigga bring me something to eat.”
Laughing to keep from spazzing, I sat the food down and prepared the plastic sofa for the night.
“Let that be the last time you mention something about a side nigga unless you want me to mention a side bitch.”
“That’s fine. She been texting your shit anyway.”
I turned around quickly to see what the fuck she was talking about. Summer had her phone in her hand and looking at me.
“What you mean?”
“You texted me and said don’t text you anymore. I’m sure that was for her and not me.”
My red skin went flush. These damn smartphones were good at getting a nigga trapped up. At least this time, it was an effort to stop a bitch from contacting me. Summer could give me some credit on that.
“How she get your new number, Law?”
“Before you get all worked up, I just want to let you know that she didn’t get it from me and as you can see, I wanted her to stop contacting me. Give a nigga some credit.”
“When did you plan on telling me?”
“I was going to talk to you tonight,” I lied.
You lying, but it’s cool. Just like the last time, the shit will come to the light. You better hope it doesn’t though.”
“I ain’t hiding shit.”
“Okay, Law.” She wiped her hands and pushed her table away from the bed. She was asking me questions but I wanted to know how she got this food.
“Who bought the food?”
“A friend.”
“What kind of friend?”
“A friend, nigga. When they came to visit, I was hungry.”
“It’ll come to the light.”
“It always does, baby,” she replied with an eye roll.