Chapter 12 Solae
SOLAE
Priest’s hands were on my waist, and his mouth was at my ear saying things that gave me goosebumps.
The DJ flipped another holiday classic into something dirty, and I let myself move, let myself want, let myself be a woman in a bar with a fine ass dope boy in her ear, not a brokenhearted woman or a mother fighting fires.
“You better stop throwing all that ass back on me like that,” he murmured against my ear with his hands on my waist.
As I continued to dance on him, I playfully rolled my eyes like I wasn’t melting. “Or what?”
He smirked as his eyes dropped to my mouth. “Want me to show you?”
He let me go, and when he started to unbuckle his pants in the middle of the dance floor, my eyes bulged. “Okay, okay, okay!”
He lustfully bit down on his bottom lip. “Then stop playing with me.”
I playfully lifted my hands in surrender. “I quit.”
He took my hand, saying, “Let’s go see if our wings are ready.”
I allowed him to lead me through the crowd. The bar was hot and loud. It was our third stop of the night; Priest had me party-hopping through a loop of his friends’ holiday get-togethers—ugly sweater parties, trap karaoke, and Friendsmas get-togethers.
At our booth, he slid in beside me instead of across, thigh to thigh. The bartender dropped fresh drinks and a plate of wings within minutes, like she had been waiting on us to return.
Priest didn’t touch either. He was watching me. “I like you.”
I stared at him for a moment, realizing that I didn’t just hear those words, I’d felt them too.
I took a sip of my drink just to stall. “Why?”
His fingers traced the line of my jaw. “You’re loyal. You love your kids out loud. You don’t fake for rooms like this. And you look at me like I’m peace and trouble at the same time.”
Heat crawled up my throat. “You rehearsed that?”
“Nope.” His thumb grazed my bottom lip. “I just pay attention.”
I wished my life wasn’t so loud so I could just sink into this.
If it weren’t for everything else, I could give him my whole mind and body and see where we landed.
But my life was still so chaotic. Elijah was still just happy to be home.
But Essence still had a bad attitude. She was fussing, stank, and didn’t want to be bothered.
I could barely get her to come out of her room.
I knew she was mad at me for letting her get taken away, especially during the holidays.
Any teenager would be pissed at their mom for that.
I didn’t know how to explain to her that I had nothing to do with it, despite ridiculously loving her father beyond the expiration date.
I was only out tonight because my mother had been at my house to ensure that the kids were okay. Between her constant nagging and Essence’s mood, I needed air.
He tipped my chin, pulling me back from the spin of my thoughts. “Stay with me,” he said softly. “Right here.”
“I’m trying,” I whispered.
“Let me help.” He leaned in with his lips a breath from mine. “Tell me to stop.”
I didn’t.
The kiss was soft at first. Then it deepened. His hand slid to the small of my back, and I arched without thinking, meeting him. He tasted like whiskey, mint, and want.
When we finally broke, I pressed my forehead to his, greedy for the quiet we’d made in the middle of all this noise.
I said breathlessly, “You keep looking at me like that, I’m gonna start believing you.”
“Good,” he murmured, mouth curving upward. “Believe me.”
He finally gave me permission to breathe when he broke eye contact and started eating his wings. To give my trembling body something to do, I started searching my purse for my phone. I was a bit intoxicated, and the bar was dark, so I had to fight to see my phone inside of the bag.
Once I found my phone, I unlocked it, hoping that I hadn’t missed any calls from my mom.
I had several missed calls. But as I scrolled the call log, I saw that they were all from Kahlani.
Inside of the dark bar, I squinted my eyes to ensure that I was reading her message correctly.
Kahlani: I’m at the University of Chicago. It’s Moses. Please answer the phone!
My eyes bulged, as I started to panic.
Priest saw the sudden change in my mood and lay a comforting hand on my thigh. “You okay?”
“I gotta go!”
He started to panic as well. “What’s wrong?”
“I gotta go,” I repeated as I began to walk towards the door.
I didn’t even know where I was going. Priest had driven. I realized that when I walked out of the door and he was behind me, guiding me towards the curb by the small of my back, because I was walking aimlessly in the wrong direction.
“The car is over here.”
“My cousin. Something happened to her boyfriend, I think,” I tried to explain as he unlocked the door.
“You think?”
“She just said that she is at the University of Chicago. Will you take me, please?”
Priest looked at me as if I were ridiculous for asking. “Of course.”
He opened the door and helped me inside of the car, even reaching down to push the hem of my knee length coat into the car. I was frantically dialing Kahlani’s number over and over again. She wouldn’t answer, so I would text her. Despite my anger, I even called Rah.
As usual, he didn’t answer.
Priest’s hand on my thigh brought me out of my panicked trance. He was pulling off while giving me quick sympathetic glances. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I just want to know what’s going on,” I said as I fought the anxiety.
I continued to blow up everyone’s phone during the ride to the hospital. The entire way, Priest held my hand, only steering with the other. I had been so wrapped up in my drama that I didn’t realize how much he had been there for me over the past few days until right at that moment.
Unfortunately, there was too much drama still going on for me to thank him properly. When he pulled up in front of Cook County, the first face that I saw was Rah’s.
I quickly told Priest, “Thank you”, and hopped out.
Rah was more focused on the car than me. Priest’s windows were tinted, so Rah couldn’t see inside. When he finally stopped staring lustfully at the foreign whip, he noticed me. His admiration turned to anger.
“You didn’t see me calling you?! What’s going on?! Is Moses okay?!”
This son of a bitch turned his back to me!
He didn’t even have enough compassion to speak to me during a moment of grief.
That hurt. I wondered where his compassion for the mother of his children had gone so quickly.
I wondered if it had ever been in him. I wondered was I that wrapped up that I didn’t see how cruel this man really was.
After what he’d put me through over the past few days, I refused to let him see me sweat. Besides, I knew that his petty ass was just acting like a bitch because he saw me get out of a car that his broke ass couldn’t even afford.
“Solae!” Luckily, Kahlani came rushing out of the emergency room doors. It was as if she saw me through the glass and came running out.
I threw my arms around her. She was crying and shaking.
I regretted asking. “What happened? Is Moses okay?”
“I don’t know yet. He’s in surgery.”
He wasn’t dead, so I let out the breath that I had been holding since Priest and I left the club.
“What the hell happened?”
Before Kahlani could answer that, I noticed Priest walking up. I looked at him curiously. I was sure that he had left, once I got out of his car. But he must have just left to find a parking space.
Kahlani looked at him enquiringly as well, wondering who he was, but kept talking past tears that fell silently from her eyes.
“Moses and Rah were at a gas station when some guys tried to take his car. Rah was inside the store paying for the gas. He didn’t see anything until he heard the gun shot outside the store.
As he ran out, the kids took off on foot.
Moses was inside of the car bleeding from the abdomen.
Rah first attempted to drive him to the hospital until he passed out.
Then, Rah pulled into a nearby alley and called 9–1–1.
I’m relieved he’s still alive, but I can’t take not knowing if he'll survive.”
I put my arm around her to console her while Priest stood next to me like a bodyguard. I caught Rah glaring at us. I was sure that he was pissed that I had the nerve to have another man with me around our family and friends.
I didn’t care. It hurts a man to see another man getting his woman’s attention. Yet, it was all fun and games when he was in the streets entertaining hoes.