Chapter 6 #4
There was no need for him to pay attention to the path Nae had taken.
After he dismissed her presence, he dismissed any thoughts of her as well.
East’s focus was on a dispute at the poker table.
He had already motioned for Bad Boy to head that way just in case, but the men settled it on their own without getting physical.
With the stakes as high as they were, people tended to act out when they lost and felt cheated by a loss.
“Friend of yours?”
“Something like that.” East brought his eyes back to Joi to read her mood. He had already assumed what it was but wanted to know for sure.
“You have a lot of those types of friends?”
An easy smile surfaced before East laughed under his breath. “I might. You have an issue with me having friends? Because last I recall, you had a whole ass man you were claiming.”
Joi narrowed her eyes at him before she eased up and shrugged off his comment. “I do, so your friends don’t matter to me.”
This time, East’s laugh was vocal. “You sure? Because the way you were checking for Nae was like you wanted to put your hands on her.”
Joi smirked and shrugged again, this time with one shoulder. “I did, but not because of you.”
“Then what was it about? She didn’t do shit to you. All she did was talk to me.”
“While I was talking to you. I didn’t like it.”
East chuckled again and moved his hand over his head once before he raked his fingers through the curls.
“What else don’t you like?”
“Depends on the situation, but disrespect from anyone is at the top of that list. Even your little friends.”
His eyes found hers, but East didn’t speak for a minute. “Even your dude? Because he seems like the disrespectful type.”
“You must know something about him that I don’t.” Joi waited eagerly, but East quickly shut it down.
“I don’t know shit about him. Just making an observation.”
“Bye, East.” Another woman walked over to him but kept a safe distance.
He only looked up at her briefly before he gave his attention back to Joi. Her face was so twisted with the annoyance of yet another friendly interruption that he wanted to laugh.
“You’ll send out an invite when you’re having the next one of these, right?”
The fuck is up with these women tonight? East never looked at Malaysia, but he did answer her.
“You know I don’t handle invites. Chuck does.”
“Oh, well I—”
“You was just being nosy, which I don’t appreciate.” This time, East gave her his eyes, delivering the same threat he had issued to Nae.
Malaysia received hers and walked away the same as Nae had done.
“How many of these women in here have you been with?”
East smirked before his eyes swept the room. There were about eight to ten women, not including Joi and her girl.
“All of them except you and her.” He pointed to Nyelle and Joi sucked her teeth.
“I knew you had hoe tendencies.”
East found that amusing. “Nah, your man has hoe tendencies. I don’t claim anybody and nobody claims me. How many women I choose to spend my time with is not being a hoe, which is a very feminine word, in my opinion, so don’t use that shit in reference to me. It is just me spending time with women.”
“A hoe is someone who moves around from person to person with no regard for the consequences caused by it.”
“I strap up, I never lie to the people I deal with, and I always allow it to be their choice whether or not they want to spend time with me. How is that having no regard for the consequences?” he challenged.
“Because women are emotional. Well, most are. Even the ones who act like they’re not, really are. If we give you our bodies, ninety percent of the time, you already have our minds. The emotions are attached to the mind.”
“And how is that my problem when I make it undeniably clear that my emotions won’t be?”
Joi stared at him for a minute, unsure of the answer. Maybe he wasn’t a hoe, but she just felt men should be more responsible. Her reaction could be blamed on the fact that she was just annoyed with Reg. He was cheating, she just couldn’t prove it.
East noticed her thinking too hard about the answer, so he gave one of his own.
“Exactly. It’s not my problem. I do my part. How they handle it is on them.”
“It’s late. I’m about to go see if Ny is ready to go.”
East knew Joi was in her feelings, but he was only speaking his truth. Hers might be a little different, but that didn’t mean he was about to lie to her.
“You mad now, Grinch?”
“No, and I asked you not to call me that.”
“Aight, you got that, but you are in your feelings a little bit. If you’re ready to leave, I can take you home. Your girl seems to be chilling right now. Don’t make her leave because you’re trying to get away from me.”
“Whatever. This is your thing. You can’t leave.”
“That’s exactly why I can leave. Chuck can shut things down. It’s his job anyway. He doesn’t need me here.”
“They might.” Joi shot her eyes over to Malaysia, who was across the room watching them.
“But you’re not in your feelings, right?” East chuckled and leaned back in his chair, keeping his eyes on Joi. “Let me take you home.”
“No, thank you. I don’t want to join the SHTC.”
East laughed hard. “The fuck is the SHTC?”
“The Silly Hoe Thirst Crew you treat like servicing agents. Two members just left here and I’m not trying to be your third strike.”
“You’re wild for that shit. Who says you will?”
“I’m telling you I won’t.”
“Nah, you won’t, but only because you wouldn’t let me. I respect that shit even more than my so-called silly hoe crew.”
“Silly hoe thirst crew. Let’s not leave that out.”
“Why they gotta be thirsty, though?”
The look Joi gave him had East laughing again.
“But, real shit, I give women what they ask for to a certain degree. They’re very clear about what they want, and that’s cool, but I already know that’s not you.”
East wasn’t sure why he was admitting his thoughts out loud. Most women couldn’t even get acknowledgment from him, but here he was, trying to kick it with Joi, and not in a way that would end with him making her cum. He was just feeling her at that moment and wanted more of whatever that was.
Grinning, Joi blushed and shook her head. “You’re damn right I wouldn’t, but I’m still not leaving with you.”
“So, you just hopped in the car with Vega after your girl knew him for ten minutes, while I spent the entire night with you and can’t take you home?”
East waited for her to explain the logic in her decision-making process and she couldn’t. He was right, she and Ny had both been making some irresponsible decisions lately. If she were being honest, she felt comfortable with East and wasn’t ready for their time to end.
Contemplating her next move, Joi looked over at Nyelle, who seemed to be enjoying her time with Vega just as much as Joi had been with East.
“Okay, fine. Hold on.”
East offered a nod while she left to tell Nyelle she was leaving with him.
He watched their interaction, which was a lot of smiling and staring at him before East handled his own situation by letting Chuck know he was heading out.
He gave simple instructions about shutting things down as well as locking the money in the safe.
By the time he was done, Joi was on her way to him.
“We can go.”
“You sure she’s not gonna put out an Amber Alert on you?”
“Boy, I’m grown.”
Indeed, you are!
East simply nodded in agreement, placed his hand on the small of Joi’s back, and allowed her to lead while he followed closely. Once they made it to his car, he opened the passenger side for her, but she placed her hand on it before getting in.
“How old is your kid?” She gave him a straight face while she waited.
If he had a toddler then that meant he still had a very active relationship with his baby mom and Joi wasn’t about the shits. Men and their baby moms meant issues. The kind Joi wasn’t beat for.
East flashed Joi a charming smile and eyed her carefully. “I don’t have a kid.”
Sucking her teeth aggressively, she cocked her head to the side and pointed to the back of his car where there was a pink flowered car seat positioned behind the passenger seat.
“Then who does that belong to?”
“My sister. She’s three, loves to cheat at Go Fish, and her favorite food is chicken fingers.”
“Oh so you have jokes. You really expect me to believe that?”
“Nah, I don’t because your hateful ass doesn’t want to believe shit that’s in plain sight as it is, so let me see your phone.”
“My phone? For what?”
“Just give me your phone, Grinch. I’m going to show you something.”
Joi stared at him quizzically for a moment before she unlocked and handed over her phone.
East searched her screen for a minute, annoyed at all the damn icons.
She had too much shit on her screen, so it took him a minute to locate the folder she had labeled social media.
Once he found her Instagram, he typed in his handle and pulled up his page, handing it over to Joi right after.
Her eyes scanned the page, moving from picture to picture.
Most were of cuts he had done, some of tattoos she recognized from her keen inspection of his arms, neck, and hands after spending time with him tonight.
Most recently, there were pictures of him and a pretty-faced, brown-skinned girl with a lot of hair, deep dimples, and a smile too big for her face.
“Read the caption,” East rattled off when he noticed Joi smiling at the most recent picture of him and Kelsey. It was in his bed and she was sitting on his chest while taking a selfie of the two of them with his phone.
In the three months he had Kelsey with him, East was positive she had placed at a minimum three hundred selfies and random photos on his phone.
Joi’s eyes moved across the first caption. My lil rider. Baby sis caught me slipping. She moved to another picture and read the caption. Fuck with baby sis and I’m comin’ for your lineage.
“I had to check. Dudes are quick to lie.”