Part One… #2
“Adair, that’s amazing! I’m so happy for you!
” Sabine threw herself into his arms giving him a hug.
The news was new to her but pretty much settled in and planned out for him.
It was a big accomplishment for a kid from the projects.
His mother threw a party every day for him seven nights in a row when he got accepted.
Everybody was proud and rooting for Adair.
“Thank you…” Adair sniffed her hair which smelled like lavender. “What about you?” he asked when she pulled away. “What are your plans?”
“Oh, this is the end of the road for me. I wanted to go for my masters, but I’d rather jump headfirst into my career. I have an idea for my own analytical software that I want to develop. It’s in the early stages but I’ve been working on it for some time now.”
“That’s dope as fuck.”
“Yea,” Sabine nodded.
“What made you get into that?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. I just like solving problems. It started with math, then in high school there was an extracurricular course I took for beginners marketing and it kind of took off after that.
“Before you told me your major I kinda thought you would’ve been pre-law too.”
“Why is that?”
“I…I maybe looked you up.”
“Oh God…” Sabine groaned moving away from him. Just when she thought Adair was someone she could actually get to know. “And what did you find?”
“It ain’t even like that. I honestly just wanted to know if you went here after that night, then…your Facebook told it all. I’m pre-law so of course I know who Charles Knight is, Sabine. I mean who the hell doesn’t?”
“That’s not who I know,” Sabine spoke lowly with her head down.
“What you mean?”
Sabine sighed, turning to Adair wondering if she could trust him with her secrets. Her father was a big deal in the political world. He was a state senator set to run for governor but who he was behind the scenes wasn’t what he portrayed to public. Everything was about his image.
“Can I trust you?”
“With your life,” Adair promised kissing the back of her hand.
The intensity and sincerity in his profession really made her feel that she could tell him her deepest darkest secrets and he’d guard them with his life.
“My…my daddy cheated on his wife and that’s how my mom had me. She was his dirty little secret that he tricked off with her for years. I honestly think they still mess around, but I mind my business because they’ve put me through enough drama.”
“Charles Knight?” Adair asked in shock. He’d followed her father’s career for quite some time, and he was the epitome of what he would’ve thought was a successful, wealthy, smart, black man.
A well-respected prosecutor, turned district attorney, now state senator who practically everyone predicted had being governor in the bag. He was that popular and admired.
Adair was set to start law school after he graduated next year.
Charles was a big inspiration and influence behind that; Sabine who was his child, verbally illustrated a much different person.
They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, well in this case, their daughters.
He would’ve never guessed the girl who held the beautiful smile that lit up a room with absolutely no rhythm was a side baby to a very affluent man.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Sabine shrugged, “it is what it is. Don’t get me wrong, I love my daddy but…what people see isn’t always what it looks like. I know Charles the father…my mother’s boyfriend,” she rolled her eyes. “Who she’s been a proud mistress to for years.”
“But…” Adair shook his head nixing off whatever thought he was about to convey.
“No, go ahead.”
“You’re always with his wife and—”
“My other sister,” she finished. “Yea, I’ve been trained since I was little how to pretend for the media. In public, Karen is my mother. Me and Parthenia are the same age, but we’ve had to say we were a year apart.”
“So how old are you?”
“I’m twenty.”
“Wow.” Adair’s mind was blown. He did notice her profile said nineteen. “That’s some crazy shit.”
“Tell me about it…” Sabine rubbed her hands down her thighs now feeling exposed. “I think I’m gonna go.”
“No, don’t…” he grabbed her hand. “I’m not judging you, your dad or anything like that. I just woulda never thought that you were going through all that.”
“Why not?”
“You…you just seem perfect. Like you came from…perfection.”
Sabine fought hard not to blush. “I appreciate that but I’m far from it.”
They sat in silence but this time it wasn’t as comfortable.
“Do you wanna watch another stand up?” Adair offered and Sabine shook her head no.
He didn’t want her to feel like he was judging her life because in no way was he in any position to.
“My daddy went to prison when my mom was pregnant with me. We grew up poor as fuck…when I say poor, I mean poor. My mom was only fourteen when she had me and my granny, God rest her soul was thirteen when she had my mom. It was a nasty cycle, but…” he shrugged.
“That’s life. I watched my mother struggle to put food on the table, clothes on my back and…
that shit, it tore me up as a kid. Growing up, I had a lot of big homies on the block who looked out for us because my mom was a lil hoe and shit—”
“Oh my gosh!” Sabine laughed covering her mouth. “Don’t say that about your mother!”
“Shit, it’s the truth,” Adair shrugged. “I love my mom to death, but she’ll tell you the same thing. It just was what it was…I think that’s why we stopped struggling so hard because she…she did what she had to do to feed us.”
“I’m sorry…”
“Aye, it’s life…when I turned sixteen, I felt like I was too old to be taken care of. Like I couldn’t sit around and let my mother pay my way.
“But you were a still a kid.”
“The mind, Sabine…” Adair gently poked her temple. “It’s the mind, the environment, upbringing, influence. I felt like I had to be a man at sixteen.”
“She let you?”
“There wasn’t much she did or could do to stop me. So, I got on the block, and you know…”
“Sold drugs?” Sabine whispered as if someone would hear.
“Yea man,” Adair laughed. He figured if she could tell him something so deep about her life, he could return the favor to make her more comfortable. “I had to do what I had to do,” he shrugged. “But that’s how I decided I wanted to be a lawyer.”
“Really? How?”
“Well, I got a lot of friends and some of them are still out there. They used to hate when I would play the block. They always said it wasn’t for me because I was good in school, and I never missed a day before deciding to step up for my family.
The homies always said, take your ass back to school so you can get a education and get us off if we catch a charge… ”
“Oh my gosh, Adair,” Sabine laughed. “So, you’re getting a law degree to defend—”
“What? Criminals? Drug dealers?”
“I’m sorry…I…I didn’t mean to imply—”
“I know, it’s all good. I’m not wanting to be a lawyer for that specifically though but…
if they were to ever need me, you better believe I’ma look out for the cookout.
Shit, they the ones who inspired me from rip to do something more with my life, if it wasn’t for them, I probably still be on the block. ”
“No,” Sabine shook her head. “I see you as a kingpin.”
“What?!” Adair hollered. “The hell you know about kingpins?”
“Enough…shoot, everybody has seen American Gangster. I wouldn’t snitch though.”
“Oh really?” he laughed. “You woulda went out like a G?”
“For sure.”
“Fa sho,” Adair corrected her slang.
“You know what I meant!” Sabine playfully shoved him. “I appreciate you for sharing that with me though.”
“I appreciate you for sharing with me too. I didn’t want you to feel like you the only one who come from some fucked up shit.
I ain’t perfect, Sabine but I’m trying my best to do better.
That’s why I’m here, every day fighting against stereotypes, a system that wants me to fail, poverty, these white girls, the urges for fast money… all the outside noise.”
“Me too…I…I don’t want to hear the outside noise in either.”
Adair slid closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “We can block all that out together.”
NOVEMBER 19, 2010
“Keep up!” Adair huffed as he effortlessly jogged on the treadmill. He worked out nearly every day and since he couldn’t go much time without Sabine, she too now exercised.
“I can’t…” she stopped the machine, placing her hands on her knees. “I feel like…my chest is going to fall out my butt.”
Adair laughed shaking his head and continued his run.
Sabine grabbed her water bottle stepping off and took it to the head.
She stood to the side watching his sweaty body contort as he ran with perfect stride.
His tight hard abs were glistening in sweat, dripping down into the shorts that stretched around his toned thighs.
He had every woman in the gym ogling with no shame.
“What time your class?” Adair asked, running as if he were training for a marathon.
“Ten.”
“You wanna get lunch afterwards?”
“Sure,” Sabine shrugged. She looked over at the girls who were boldly staring at Adair with lust while she was standing right there.
They hadn’t made anything official, but they were definitely dating. That didn’t mean much though because wherever they went, he was noticed, and women went out of their way to speak to him flirtatiously right in her face.
Sabine felt slightly insecure especially when she learned who he’d actually slept with in the past. Adair was very lowkey about his dealings but there were many and she was the complete opposite in every way. So sometimes she wondered what he saw in her. What made him so interested in her.
“Hey Adair…” the two gawkers approached clutching their towels and water bottles as if they were meeting a celebrity.
“Sup,” he responded, staring straight ahead not paying them much mind.