31. Lawton #2
“What’s the fucking issue?” I asked when I stepped out of the truck.
“We got a problem,” Adele hissed.
“Aight, so what is it?”
“You can either speak to me in private or I can leave and take everything back with me?” she damn near shouted.
Swiping my thumb across my nose, I tried to keep myself from snapping out. “You gon’ lower your fucking tone when you’re speaking to me, Adele. That’s first.
Secondly, if we had an issue, you could have reached out to me before coming all the way here causing an uproar. The precint is right up the fucking street. The longer we sit here, the more at risk we are.”
“I called you.”
“When?”
“After your mother called me, threatening my life.”
“If I missed the call, it’s because I was busy Adele.”
“Too busy to reach back out?” her voice dropped.
“Aye, give me a minute to handle this. In the meantime, y’all start unloading this shit.” Grabbing Adele by the elbow, I drug her ass onto the private jet. As soon as her back hit the seat, I folded my arms across my chest and waited for her to speak.
“You told Val?”
“I did.” I nodded.
“Why?”
“She’s my mother, Adele. Why wouldn’t I? And the last time I checked, the shit wasn’t a secret.”
“She’s threatening to expose me, Harvey,” she fretted.
“Okay. I’ll handle that.”
“She accused me of rape and a bunch of other things.”
“We didn’t fuck until I was eighteen. You couldn’t have raped me if I was willing, and I explained that to her. Regardless, she’s pissed and has every right to be. You were her closest friend and we had a relationship. Give her time to process it… she will be okay eventually.”
“And what’s this I hear about you being in a relationship?”
Realization hit like a ton of bricks making me chuckle. “That’s what this is really about…”
Per usual, Adele’s true feelings only surfaced when she felt like she was being replaced. Instead of coming to terms with the fact that she ruined me when she denied me of her, she chose this.
The game was two weeks ago, and she was just now bringing this shit up. Somebody in attendance must’ve mentioned Talitha to Adele.
“Who is she?”
“It matters?”
“Of course it does Harvey!” she spat.
“Why? You don’t want me, Adele.”
“I’ve never not wanted you, Harvey.”
“Appease me for a second, Adele. What would a relationship between us look like?”
Her eyes dropped to the ground. “I don’t know.”
“Of course you don’t. You don’t want me, Adele. The days of you dangling the ‘what ifs’ in my face are over. I told you that before I got with Dah. You did that for years, and for years I allowed it. You don’t want me, love.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m ready to lose you to someone else. For six years I had to watch you be with Dah. Even if you claimed the relationship wasn’t prospering, you kept her around for six years. And for six years I had to play the role of the doting friend.”
Taking a seat across from her, I tucked my hand in the pocket of my jacket. “Why are you doing this?”
Adele shrugged her shoulders.
“Open your mouth, Adele. You’re a grown ass woman.”
“I don’t know Harvey, okay. I don’t fucking know.”
“Then why cause all of this commotion for some shit you don’t know.”
“I don’t want to lose you as my friend.”
“Have you ever?”
“No. But things may change. What if this new girl doesn’t feel comfortable with our friendship.”
“Why wouldn’t she be? I haven’t touched you in years. There is nothing between us but business.”
“What if I want to try again?”
“You don’t,” I exhaled. “She’s good for me. I can see myself truly being happy with her and as my friend I expect you to be okay with that. I’ve had to sit back and watch you run around the world with your boy toy. Why deny me of the same happiness, Adele?”
“I don’t love him.”
“You sure as hell don’t love me. I opened myself up to you. I was willing to give you everything. Ready to defend us to the world.
Adele, you walked out on that. It was you who decided that you weren’t ready for anything serious. You wanted to be friends and now that I’ve found someone that I can see myself settling down with, it’s a problem.”
“Do you love her?”
“Yeah. I kind of do,” I admitted.
“Shit Harvey!” she groaned. “I’ve really lost you.”
“Adele, my love. You lost me when you denied me of your heart.”
Squaring her shoulders, she wiped the corner of her eyes. “I won’t stand in the way of business again. I’m sorry Law.”
“You don’t owe me any apologies, Adele.”
“No, I do. I toyed with your heart and somewhere in my head I thought you’d always be there. I figured I could date around and when I got tired and was ready to settle down, I would do it with you.
Had I known that it would push you away, I wouldn’t have made that move to begin with. I would have accepted what you were offering.”
“You weren’t ready, and I understand that now. It was wrong of me to try and force something on you. You’re my oldest and closest friend, Adele. The love I feel for you extends far beyond words. Me being in a relationship doesn’t change anything between us.”
“It does,” she mumbled.
“Only if you allow it.”
“I really am sorry for the way I ended things, Harvey.”
“It’s in the past.” Rising from chair, I extended my hand out toward her. After a few seconds, she placed hers inside of mine. “I love you immensely and that’ll never change. We had our run, and it was fun while it lasted. Doesn’t mean I love you any less.”
“I know,” she declared.
Pulling her into my chest, I held onto her for as long as I could. When I pulled back, I kissed her on the forehead. “Stop giving my guys a hard time. They’ve got a job to do.”
“I will.” She laughed.
“We good?” I asked to make sure. I didn’t need anything like this to happen again. My reason for stepping back was so I could pursue other things.
The end goal was to hand everything over to Preme and Drix, so I needed the three of them to stay on one accord. Another slip up like this would have me abandoning business with Adele permanently, and because of our history I didn’t want it to result in that.
“We’re good.”
“Excellent. I’ve gotta jet. I left her in bed alone and if she wakes up before I make it back, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Go home, Harvey.”
“Let me know when you’ve landed back in Miami.”
“I can do that.”
“Be safe, Adele.” I pecked her cheek before turning to leave the jet.
“Harvey…” she called out. “Tell her if she fucks up, she’s gotta see me.”
“You along with a few other people.” I winked before descending the steps.
“Everything good?” Drix was the first one to ask when I walked in their direction.
“Yeah, it is. We shouldn’t have any more issues. Y’all should be good to go.”
“Bet. Everything is accounted for so we ‘bout to head to the warehouse and get this shit divided so we can distribute it.”
“Hit me up if y’all need me.”
After saluting them, I hopped back in my truck and headed for the house. I wasn’t lying when I said Talitha would have my ass if she woke up and I wasn’t there.
The last thing I needed was her thinking I slipped off to be with another woman. Bad enough, her ass had been asking me where the name Dutch came from.
Apparently while her and Promise was talking the day of the game, the shit slipped out of her mouth. I had to explain to her that it was something I was called when I was growing up and it kind of just stuck. I knew her ass ain’t believe me one bit, but she tried not to pry.
Every so often, to fuck with me, she would call me that shit. I stayed correcting her, but it didn’t matter. My baby was going to do what she wanted to do no matter how strongly I felt about it.