Chapter 23 Khloe
Khloe
Coffee stood in my bathroom with one hip popped against the counter while she blended my foundation.
I watched her through the mirror and smiled.
It was her second day in town and I was already dreading her leaving the next day.
She’d come in a whole day early for Kennedi’s Sweet Sixteen, knowing how overwhelmed I’d been trying to pull everything together.
The fact that she came early just to give me girl time I desperately needed made my heart smile.
My phone lit up on the counter.
Stacks: I miss you.
I bit my lip, trying not to smile too hard as I typed back.
I miss you too.
Coffee looked down and caught the grin spreading across my face. She immediately shook her head.
“He wanted to see me last night before his son came for the weekend, but I told him we already had girl time planned.”
Coffee didn’t even stop doing my makeup to acknowledge what I said.
“I don’t give a fuck about Stacks,” she said, rolling her eyes. “He needs to understand I come first.”
“You know I couldn’t cancel our night. I needed that.”
“And you did,” she said, dabbing concealer beneath my eye. “Because you’ve been spiraling.”
She paused, looking at my makeup.
“So you don’t go over there when he has his kid?”
I shook my head. “No. Not unless his parents have him or something. That just feels like… we’re doing too much.”
I shrugged. “He knows I have a daughter, but I don’t share pictures. I don’t plan on them ever meeting. And I want to respect his space the same way.”
Coffee twisted her lip, unconvinced.
“I think getting emotionally and mentally attached to someone is actually worse than meeting kids,” she said. “Kids meet people every day. That emotional attachment isn’t an everyday thing.”
She never missed an opportunity to remind me she didn’t fully trust what I had going on with Stacks.
Deep down, I knew why. She wasn’t scared for the right now me.
She was scared for future me. The version of me who might have to survive a messy divorce or sit across from my daughter one day and explain choices I couldn’t undo.
But I was floating in a kind of bliss that made consequences feel unreal. I was too busy enjoying how alive I felt.
Coffee finished my makeup and stepped back.
“There,” she said. “You look perfect.”
I looked in the mirror, smiling at my reflection. “Only because it was done by the baddest,” I said.
She smirked. “Damn right.”
I slipped into my dress while she packed up her makeup brushes.
“What time is Kennedi supposed to be ready?” she asked.
“About an hour,” I said. “She booked her own hair stylist and makeup artist before telling everyone that she didn’t want to be seen until her grand entrance.”
Coffee laughed. “Oh she’s fully in her main character era.”
“She’s downstairs in the guest suite with her team,” I said, adjusting my earrings. “I’m apparently not allowed near her.”
Right on cue, the doorbell rang downstairs.
Coffee raised a brow. “Who is that?”
“That’s Niv,” I said, excited. “Good. I can finally introduce y’all properly. I just texted her to come upstairs.”
Coffee started talking again, but I turned quickly toward her.
“Wait,” I said. “When she comes in… please don’t say anything about Stacks. She doesn’t know.”
Coffee smacked her lips. “I won’t say nothing about you fucking on Stacks girl.”
The bedroom door opened and Niv stepped inside mid-sentence, stopping dead in her tracks.
Her eyes widened slowly as she looked between both of us. “…who the fuck,” she said, “is fucking on Stacks?”
I froze. Coffee froze. And for a solid three seconds, nobody breathed.
Then Coffee slowly turned toward me with the calm of someone who absolutely was not about to save me.
“Well,” she said, folding her arms, “looks like the universe wanted total transparency today.”
I looked exactly like a child who’d just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
Niv crossed her arms slowly, staring at me like she was actively fighting the urge to shake answers out of my body.
“Don’t do that,” she said with her hands on her hips. “Don’t look at me with those puppy dog eyes. What the fuck is going on?”
I sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, suddenly feeling tired. I looked between her and Coffee and knew there was no point trying to dance around it anymore.
So I told her everything. How it started. The first meetup. The conversations. The music. I made it my point to leave out the feelings I never meant to develop. And when I finished, I rubbed my hands together nervously.
“The reason I didn’t tell you is because I know you told me not to do it.”
Coffee rolled her eyes dramatically.
“Yeah,” she said. “And I’m glad I’m no longer the only one carrying this damn secret because she my girl, and I’ma stick beside her… but this shit stressful.”
Niv’s face stayed hard for a moment then suddenly she laughed. It wasn’t an amused laugh, it was more like I cannot believe this shit laughter.
“I seen that nigga last week in GunHill when I went to visit my mom,” she said. “And he ain’t say shit.”
I bit my lip. “…because I asked him not to.”
Niv blinked slowly. “Well if that ain’t some shit.”
She pointed at me. “I’m the one who brought that man to your feet for a hall pass and you ain’t even tell me you actually used it?”
Coffee snorted. “Hmph. She did more than go through with it.”
I shot Coffee a shut up look.
Niv’s head snapped toward her. “What you mean?”
Coffee smiled like she’d been waiting for this moment. “That man has been mentally and emotionally fucking my friend since day one.”
Niv turned back to me slowly.
“…wait,” she said. “You went back multiple times to fuck him?”
Coffee whispered, “More than that.”
I took a deep breath. “We’re really great friends,” I said, trying to make it make sense. “Yes, we’ve been intimate a few times… but we also just chill. We talk. We laugh. We do fun stuff together.”
I swallowed. “I really care about him. He’s a good man.”
Niv stared at me like I’d just confessed to joining a cult.
“Bitch,” she said slowly, “This was not the plan.”
“I know,” I admitted.
And I did know. Every time I told myself this is the last time, we’d end up laughing, talking, living inside moments that felt too good to walk away from. Ending our friendship never felt urgent while I was with him.
“He’s just…” I struggled to explain it. “He’s driven and intentional. Even with his job, he still makes time for me. That’s new for me.”
Niv burst out laughing. “Bitch… what job?”
Coffee and I both looked at her, confused. “His job,” I repeated. “His job-job.”
Niv shook her head. “Stacks has been selling drugs and running quick get-rich schemes since he was seventeen. I don’t know nothing about no job-job. And trust me, the hood talks. If that man had a legit job, I’d know.”
Coffee and I slowly turned to look at each other. What the fuck. Coffee laughed first, covering her mouth. I forced a laugh too, even though my stomach tightened painfully. My mind was racing, but I didn’t want them to really know how bothered I was.
Was Niv right? Or had Stacks really changed his life and just kept it low-key like he said?
He did say he moved quietly and that everyone didn’t know his business. I clung to that thought because the alternative meant every vulnerable conversation we’d shared might’ve been built on something… not real.
My phone started ringing, snapping me out of my spiral. It was Kennedi, so I answered quickly.
“Yes, baby?”
“I’m ready.”
I jumped up immediately, grabbing my heels.
“Well,” I said, forcing brightness back into my voice, “let’s get to this party. The queen says she’s finally ready.”
As we headed toward the door, laughter filling the hallway again, I pushed the questions about Stacks to the back of my mind. That night belonged to my daughter and my daughter only.
The room went dark and a spotlight hit the double doors. Everyone but the DJ were quiet, phones lifted in the air, and I felt my fingers automatically reach for Kairo’s hand beside me. The doors opened and my baby walked in.
Kennedi stood there smiling like she was on a magazine cover.
Her dress shimmered with every step. For a moment, I didn’t see my teenage daughter.
I saw every version of her at once. The newborn they placed in my arms, the little girl who used to sleep between us.
, and the kid who needed help tying her shoes.
But she was now a young woman walking confidently into her future.
My vision blurred immediately. “Oh my God!” I yelled, crying.
Kairo squeezed my hand tighter, and when I looked over at him, his eyes were wet too. Kennedi smiled wide as everyone stood clapping, cheering, crying right along with us. I tried not to focus on the fact that she walked in holding someone’s arm.
My first instinct as a mother was immediate panic because she didn’t run it by me.
But when I actually looked and seen that it was Niv’s brother, Huxley, I exhaled.
To my knowledge, they looked at each other like cousins since his sister dated her uncle, so I was happy that he agreed to escort her in.
Kairo had told me to let her enjoy herself and I listened. I watched my daughter laugh with her friends, spin across the dance floor, hug family members, and exist fully in her joy.
I felt proud after all the years of worrying, protecting, and loving harder than I ever loved myself. In that moment, I felt like a damn good mother.
Coffee suddenly appeared beside me, dancing with a drink in her hand.
“Who is the bartender?” she shouted over the music. “Because she’s making the hell out these drinks!”
I laughed, leaning closer so she could hear me.
“Her name is Lavender! She bartends at a few elite spots around the town.”
Coffee chugged the rest of her drink. “And she's fine as hell. I love her vibe.”
I nodded. “Yeah. She’s a single mom. But when she steps out, she’s a good time.”