8. Old Enemies, New Friends
OLD ENEMIES, NEW FRIENDS
“That’s your ‘I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it’ face.” Niva’s voice pierced Eazy’s ear.
Seated on a bench on the quieter edge of the market near vendor row, he gripped a fresh cup of whiskey he hadn’t touched.
Still spiraling off his conversation with Lotus, he finished a much needed blunt not long ago.
He didn’t like that keeping shit from each other nonsense.
Wasn’t no point in being a relationship to him if you couldn’t keep it a buck.
He might have ghosted her in the beginning a couple of times, but it wasn’t to hurt her.
He honestly thought he wasn’t the best thing for her at the time.
Now, it was hard trying to picture life without Lotus in it. The thought of it made his chest tight.
“Then why you talking?” Eazy didn’t bother looking at her as he tipped his cup to his lips.
Niva actually laughed, taking it upon herself to sit beside him.
Eazy didn’t budge, but being this close to her did stir something inside him he wasn’t expecting.
She still smelled the same and sounded the same.
There was a time he couldn’t stop touching her or wanting to be up under her.
It was natural for them. Now, awkwardness lived between them.
“My bad. I thought everything was good in your world.”
“Never said it wasn’t.” Eazy stared into his cup.
“Then why you sitting over here with that face like somebody did something to you?” Niva looked at him.
Eazy didn’t answer. He didn’t want to give her any kind of power over him and Lotus, so it was best he just shut the fuck up. He noticed she was riding solo, though.
“Oracle around here lurking? Or did you show up with my sister and her husband?”
“Which answer would bother you the most?” Niva mocked.
“I don’t really care either way?”
“Look, Essence and I were friends. Not just because I was with her brother either. We were cool. There were times I’d vent and talk shit. I’d tell her shit before I told you.”
“And it wasn’t shit for you to lie and leave her behind either.” Eazy sipped his whiskey, and Niva sighed.
“How long you plan to hold that against me, E? Aren’t you even glad a bitch is alive?” she asked, watching his head swerve in her direction.
For the first time, he looked at her, taking in every inch of her face.
She was still pretty, sexy, cute. Natural features accompanied by a platinum blonde pixie cut that he wasn’t used to.
She’d switched up her styles in the past, but this was different.
She’d taken on a whole new personality with it.
One he didn’t recognize. For a moment, he remembered when everything he knew or wanted began and ended with this woman in front of him.
“You remember when we used to just disappear?” she asked, changing the subject and looking to the sky. “Hop in the car, roll the windows down, and smoke while cruising down the highway with no destination.”
Eazy half smiled, reminiscing with her. He still liked to do that shit on a late, breezy night.
In the distance, Lotus searched for him and thought he’d disappeared until her eyes landed on him seated with his ex.
Nothing seemed inappropriate. Just talking, but there was intimacy and history, which somehow made it worse since she knew he was mad at her.
Had she just opened the door for the next woman to step in?
Not just any woman, one that already knew him.
“You always did get quiet when somebody hurt your feelings,” Niva observed.
Eazy side eyed her. “Ain’t nobody hurt shit.”
“Mmm-hmm. Still capping when you know it’s the truth too.”
For a minute, it felt like old times, and Eazy let her get her shit off.
“We used to have so much fun, E.”
“We did,” he agreed, then silence.
“We could again.” She leaned in, but Eazy hiked a brow.
“What happened, Niva? Where’s Oracle? How come he ain’t here with you?”
Suddenly, her face dissolved somberly, and her eyes drifted to the street. Eazy studied her, not in the least tempted by the past. Just aware and trying to make sense of things now.
“I guess that didn’t work out.” He filled in the blanks. “And to speak on what you just suggested, nah, ain’t no going back.”
“Why not?”
Eazy’s eyes drifted, catching Lotus some feet away, watching them with misting eyes.
“Because I’m mad at my woman, but that don’t make me single.” Eazy stood, cup in his hand, and paused before leaving her side. “I hope whatever you’re going through, you’re able to find some kind of happiness, though.”
Marching off, he met up with Lotus, who was putting on a brave face, which for her meant attitude. Arms tucked across her swollen breasts, she grilled him when he stopped in front of her and sipped his drink.
“So, you need space from me so you can sit around reminiscing with your ex?”
Eazy stared blankly at her. “You really want to have a conversation about people leaving shit out tonight?” he quipped.
“You want to know why I didn’t tell you, Ezekiel?”
“Oh, you want to keep it a buck now? Yeah, Lo, do tell,” he encouraged sarcastically.
“Because I knew exactly what you’d do.”
“And what’s that?”
“This.” She gestured to him. “You would’ve made it your problem, and it wasn’t your problem. He was mine, and I handled it.”
Eazy’s jaw tightened at that statement.
“You changing your number because a nigga won’t leave you alone ain’t handling it.”
“I made him stop.”
“He stopped being able to fucking reach you, Lo! There’s a difference! Right now, you got me feeling like I can’t trust shit you tell me! This nigga been in the background the whole fucking time we been together, and you ain’t said shit!”
“I haven’t been with him since the day I met you,” she whispered through tears.
Eazy paused, hating the hurt behind her gorgeous eyes, but not willing to forgive just yet. Trust was big with him. Especially now. All this was new to Lotus. It cut a little deeper because he’d already put them on a pedestal.
“I believe you, aight.”
“Then what are we arguing about?” she asked, brow wrinkling into a frown.
“You changed your damn number because of him. How I ain’t know that?”
“He wouldn’t stop calling. Different numbers. Apps. Messages. I handled it, and I didn’t want to bring him into what we were already building.”
“But he was already in it, Lo,” Eazy pointed out. “If we hadn’t ran into the nigga tonight, were you even gon’ tell me?”
Lotus didn’t have an answer . Eyes drifting to the ground, she avoided looking into his disappointed stare.
“That’s what I thought.” Eazy nodded, hurt also visible in his eyes that Lotus wished she could take back.
“So, now what?”
“Now, I take you home and spend the night at my grandparents’ place,” Eazy voiced, watching hurt flicker through her eyes.
“So, that’s it? You not even coming home to me?” she croaked, fighting the urge break in front of him.
“It’s been a long day. I’m hot. Tired. And I need a little space from you, Lo. This ain’t no get back shit or none of that. I just need a minute.” Eazy swiped his hand down his beard.
“Then take your space. I know what that means. Don’t worry about me. I’ll have my parents take me home.” Lotus turned, and as bad as he wanted to go after her, he let her stomp away.
Tonight, he needed to be away from her, even though his heart knew better. Bull and Jewel approached when Lotus stomped off, both watching her then turning to Eazy.
“What you do to her?” Jewel frowned.
“I ain’t do shit. Just taking a little break.” Eazy swallowed the last of his drink. “She got me fucked up. I need to cool off so I don’t hurt her hormonal ass feelings.”
“This nigga Midas gotta fucking go. Ion like running into that nigga. Shit awkward as fuck.” Jewel took a bite from the last Puff in his paper boat.
Standing behind the Mama Lila’s booth together, the three gathered in a semi-circle. Music thumped in the distance, old heads danced in the street, kids laughed and chased each other with balloons flowing behind them in the wind.
“Midas ain’t slick.” Bull shoved his hands into the pockets of his cargo shorts. “That nice guy shit ain’t gon’ work. He think marrying Essence puts him in the inner circle.”
“Or as close to it as he’s gonna get.” Eazy pulled a rolled Backwood from the pack in his pocket and brought it to his lips.
“He’s after what everybody else is after. Those fucking paintings,” Bull surmised, swiping his beard pensively. “So is Sudan. He approached Toni with my kids at the park. Wants me to reach out.”
“Why we can’t just let all these muhfuckas kill themselves over them shits? We ain’t never gon’ find ’em. Bronx is dead, and that nigga loved a good treasure hunt,” Jewel suggested.
“Everybody we care about is at risk if we don’t deal with this shit. This why we can’t just let them have it.”
“So, we don’t pick a lesser of two evils. Let’s find these muhfuckas ourselves. If Midas gets them, he controls the board. If Sudan has them, so does he. What if we have them, though?”
“Find ’em before them, then we hold the cards,” Bull stated, nodding. “We can make anybody pretty much do what we want. We talk to Sudan, make him think the play is to get the paintings for him.”
“I’m with that shit.” Eazy sparked his blunt and took a puff.
“I gotta go talk to Bronx’s ex, Fancy. See if she can give me some insight and see if she still has any of his paperwork around that I can go through. This nigga left a trail somewhere, somehow. We just gotta find it.”
Across the market, Midas watched. He couldn’t hear the conversation between the three men as he bit into his classic Puff, but he didn’t need to.
He knew exactly what men looked like when they were plotting some shit.
Especially those three. Essence walked up beside him with a to-go container filled with street tacos and birria tacos.
“What you looking at?” she asked, picking one up and taking a bite.
Midas swallowed and sipped the cup of water he also copped.
“Nothing, baby,” he answered, eyes never leaving his old crew. “Just enjoying the view.”