Chapter 16
“She’s good.” Amari stood.
They stepped to the side, granting her entry.
Amari took her in from head to toe. She was light skin with light brown, almond-shaped eyes.
Her plump pink lips were coated in gloss that were outlined in a dark brown pencil.
The sheer black dress she had on clung to her every curb.
It left little to imagination but she was in a strip club.
A pair of black high-heel boots decorated her feet.
Her curls were popping in her Afro as it framed her face.
She hugged him, squeezing him tight. She stepped back, putting a respectable amount of space in between them.
“I didn’t know if I would ever see you again. I just wanted to come thank you for everything you did for me and my son.” She leaned in so he could hear her over the music.
“What?” Amari asked. He heard a little of what she was saying but not all of it. She grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the patio where no one was.
“I said I didn’t know if I would see you again. I just wanted to thank you for everything you did for us.”
“You’re welcome, y’all good. Did y’all find somewhere to go?”
“We move in our apartment in a month. You should let me cook you dinner to properly thank you. I started working here a couple of weeks ago. Come see me sometimes so I can give you your money back.”
“I told you that you don’t have to pay me back. We good. I’m glad y’all doing okay. Take care of yourself.” He walked back inside. He sat down and all eyes were on him.
“Nigga who was that?” Nyke was the first to ask.
“Nobody.”
“Nigga, Greer gon’ shoot the shit out yo’ dumbass,” Shadow warned.
“We ain’t got nothing going on. I was on my way to meet y’all one day.
Her nigga was beating her ass. I intervened.
I took her and her son to a room booked it for three months and gave her some bread.
She was just coming to thank me and let me know she moving into her own place in a month. ” He shrugged.
“Y’all saw what I saw, right?” Nautica asked everyone. Shadow laughed.
“Y’all didn’t see nothing ‘cause it ain’t nothing to see.” Amari waved them off.
“Shid y’all was in this bitch gazing into each other’s eyes. Then she grabbed your hand and you allowed that shit is all I’m saying.” Nautica shrugged that time, pissing Amari off.
“Man y’all shut the fuck up what was I supposed to do snatch away?” He snapped, and they fell out laughing.
“We just trying to help you when Greer find out you cheating. She gon’ leave your ass if she don’t kill you first,” Nyke warned.
Amari knew that to be truthful; he didn’t want no smoke with his wife. Klover was beautiful, he couldn’t deny that. He was a man with eyes he could look but that’s as far as it went. He got up, grabbing his bottle. He turned it up as he walked off, leaving them behind.
He walked outside. Klover stood on the sidewalk with her phone in hand.
“You good?” He asked as he stepped into the street, walking around to the driver side of his chrome McLaren. He opened the door.
“Yeah, I’m waiting on my uber.”
“Come on,” he demanded, and her eyes lit up. She got inside, pulling her seatbelt on.
“Thank you.” She canceled her uber as he zoomed off. He turned the music up. The ride to the hotel was done in silence. Amari was glad after listening to his siblings. Stupid muthafuckas! He turned his bottle up.
“You shouldn’t drink and drive, Amari.”
“It’s a lot of shit I shouldn’t be doing but here I am,” he mumbled.
“I could have waited for my uber.”
He turned the music down. “My bad, I ain’t even mean it like that. My brothers pissed me off. They were saying shit about us.”
“Like what? We don’t even know each other.”
“It don’t matter, ma.”
“Ouu so you don’t want to tell me?” She teased, getting a smile out of him.
“Does it have to do with why you won’t let me cook for you?” She noticed his ring for the first time as he sped down the interstate. His hands were the least thing on her mind after she had gotten her ass whooped.
“Yes,” he replied, truthfully. He pulled into the parking lot of the hotel.
“Your wife is a lucky girl.” She leaned over the arm rest, invading his personal space. She pressed her lips against his, kissing him softly.
“Bye, Amari.” She opened the door and walked inside. She left him stunned. He rode in silence all the way back home.
“Baby, come here,” Greer’s voice blared through the intercom in his man cave. Amari walked in the kitchen where she was.
“What you doing in Underground every week?” She cut her eyes at him, daring him to lie.
“What you mean? I go out, sometimes, that ain’t nothing new.” He shrugged as if it was nothing.
“You go by yourself and sit at the bar, talking to the same bitch every time you in there, too? If you cheating, let me know now.”
“She’s a friend. I met her and her son three months ago.
She was getting abused by her dude in front of the lil boy.
I stopped it. I took them to a room and booked it for three months and gave her some money,” he admitted.
The night Klover kissed him wasn’t the last time he saw her.
He’d seen her a few times since then but only at the club.
He couldn’t read the look his pregnant wife was giving him.
“I’m glad that you could help her in her time of need. Friends though? You playing with me, Amari. You and I both know it. If I had a friend that I was seeing every week, you would be pissed.”
“No I wouldn’t because I trust you. Do you want to meet her? I ain’t got nothing to hide ‘cause I ain’t did shit.”
“Not yet.” Greer cut her eyes at him.
“Man.”
“I’ma tell you this, though, and you can do what you want with it.
If I catch you cheating, I’m leaving you.
That’s on my kids. So whatever you and your lil friend doing, I bet not ever find out.
Knowing me if I even think you doing something, I’m out ‘cause we didn’t have to get married.
” Greer walked out of the room, leaving him to his thoughts.
He loved Greer more than anything. He wasn’t losing her for nobody. She meant too much to him.
Amari sighed in annoyance but he heard her loud in clear.
He enjoyed seeing Klover; he couldn’t deny that.
She was cool, laid back, and funny as hell.
He actually had plans to link with her later.
As if they talked her up, his phone vibrated in his pocket with a text from her.
She’d sent a picture of the keys to her new place.
Klover: No more hotel for us!
Amari: Congratulations.
Klover: I ain’t working tonight. I changed my mind.
Amari: Why?
Klover: I got a date!
Amari: Man
Klover: You jelly?
He locked his phone, shoving it in his pocket. He went to find Greer who was in the bed watching TV with Amaya, who rushed towards him. He stood on Greer’s side of the bed. Amaya was against his torso while she stared at the TV.
“Baby, I love you,” Amari said to Greer, who rolled her eyes.
“Don’t try to be in my face tonight. Your lil girlfriend busy or something?”
He shook his head at her. He walked in the closet and got dressed in army fatigue shorts with the matching jacket with a white shirt underneath.
He stepped into a pair of all white Forces.
He secured his diamond-studded Cuban link around his neck after securing his white Richard Mille on his wrist. He brushed his hair then he walked in the bathroom to brush his teeth. He walked out, locking eyes with Greer.
“You know I would never ever let you leave me. We had to get married, fuck what you talking about because you’re mine no matter what.” He thought back to her statement, We didn’t have to get married. He didn’t like that because they indeed have to get married. She was only for him.
“So you would force me to stay with you while you cheat on me? Boy, you got me fucked up.”
“Man, nobody’s cheating on you.” He got mad that time.
“Okay, enjoy your night, Amari.” He tried to kiss her but she pushed his head back, making his neck snap back.
“That’s crazy. I love you. Moo, tell your momma stop tripping.” He kissed Amaya’s lips. He walked out, headed for the garage. His phone rang with a call from Klover.
“What?” He answered as he got in his truck.
“Eww, don’t talk to me like that. I just left my date. It was a waste of time I’m so irritated. I got dressed up for that shit.”
Amari lifted the garage, driving out. “That’s what you get. Why you calling me?”
She hung up in his face, causing him to laugh. His phone vibrated in his lap.
Klover: I bet I won’t call you no more.
Amari: Where you at? I’m about to pull up.
Klover: I’m at home. Get something to drink. I need it.
He stared at her location, thinking about the conversation he’d just had with his wife.
They had never linked outside of the club.
He pulled up outside of the liquor store that was five minutes from her house.
He grabbed a bottle of 1942. He got back in his truck and was at her home in no time.
He pulled into a parking spot. She stood in the doorway dressed in a red pajama button-up and the matching bottoms.
“Hi, mean ass,” she greeted him with a smile.
“What you in here doing? It’s empty as hell in here.”
“You are so rude at times. I just moved in, not everybody has money like you. I’m trying to save first before I go splurging on furniture.”
He sat the bottle on the table then he sat on the couch.
“You want to order all that shit tonight?” He reached in his wallet for his card.
“Really? Why you always helping me?”
“‘Cause it ain’t nothing. Here.” He passed her the card.
“Thank you.”
“Where Keyon?”
“His daddy flew in to get him for the summer. I ordered pizza. I went to the store and got stuff to clean and dishes and little snacks but that’s about it.” She turned on the sixty-inch that was mounted on the wall.
“Make sure you get another couch. This small as hell. What you been sleeping on?” He frowned while she laughed, not believing the way he was carrying on.
“I have a bed, smart ass! You make me sick.”
Knock, knock