8. Old Enemies, New Friends #2
“You want to get on the streetcar? They’re giving the town history tour. I thought we could do that before heading home. All this food has me sleepy.”
“Anything for you, baby.” Midas knelt to kiss the top of her head.
Kissa and Javon agreed to drive Lotus home, and she was more than ready to go.
Nerves shot, stomach in knots, all she could think about was the look on Eazy’s face.
She should have told him, but she didn’t want to put any type of strain on what they had and Evren was in the past. Seated on a bench at the end of the block where there was a large parking lot, Lotus took a breath and looked around.
“You’re beautiful.” A familiar voice sent a cold chill up her spine.
Slightly turning, she faced Evren, hands in the pockets of his linen shorts as he smiled but remained behind her on the bench.
“I’ve been out of town recently, relocating Michelle and the kids to Colorado. You changed your number.”
“What do you want, Evren?”
“I want to know why you’re lying.”
“Excuse you?” Sneering, Lotus turned and faced him.
“That’s my baby, Lotus. We both know it.”
“You don’t know shit, Evren. This baby was conceived after I left you. With Eazy. My boyfriend.”
“Prove it.”
“I don’t have to prove shit to you. Go back to your wife and family.” She stood, and he snatched her by the arm.
“So that’s what this is about? I told you, Lotus baby. I just needed some time to get my shit together. It’s always about me and you. I been trying to keep my distance and give you the space to come back to me—”
“Back to you? I never fucking belonged to you!” she spat, jerking out of his grasp. “While you’re getting the family moved, you should try some fucking therapy. You’ve lost your mind!”
“Don’t talk to me like that! You going around here with some…. goon, parading around with my baby—”
“This isn’t your fucking baby! I don’t have to lie about that!
I could easily blow up your life and stick you with a hefty child support payment, but I’m not.
It’s not even worth it, Evren! There’s something wrong with you in the fucking head, and I pray to God neither of your children inherit whatever the hell it is. ”
“What’s good, sis? You straight?” Jewel popped up in the nick of time with Rhema and the girls behind him.
“This your brother?” Evren nodded to Jewel.
“Who the fuck is you?” Jewel stepped protectively in front of his sister.
“I’m the father to that baby she’s carrying.” Evren pointed to Lotus’s stomach.
“Oh my God! You’re delusional! Get the fuck away from me, Evren.”
“You heard her.” Jewel gritted his teeth and got in Evren’s face.
The two were about the same height, but Jewel was stockier.
Evren worked out, but he didn’t have shit on Lotus’s brother.
He got taunted too much as a child for being light skinned and handsome as fuck, so he had to learn how to defend himself early on.
It was his Pops and Lotus showing him how to throw hands before anybody.
Evren threw his hands up but shot one last lingering stare at Lotus.
“This ain’t over.”
“She said step, nigga!” Jewel shoved Evren so hard he lost his footing and collided with a large metal trash can bolted to the ground.
“Jewel, let’s go! Leave it alone,” Lotus told him.
She sprinted off with Rhema and the girls not far behind. Jewel caught up to them as Lotus spotted her parents on the sidewalk near the parking lot.
“Lo, the fuck was that about? Who was that nigga? Is he really your baby daddy?”
“Hell no! And I don’t want to talk about it right now, Jewel. I already had enough words with Eazy tonight.”
“Oh, is that why he mad? Got this fuck nigga going around claiming his baby? I’d be pissed off too.”
“Did he say that?” Lotus paused and turned, eyes misting.
“Obviously something is wrong with the nigga. You came together but leaving separately,” Jewel pointed out.
“Stay out of my business!” Lotus yelled, tears stinging her eyes.
“What is going on?” Kissa questioned when they got closer and Jewel wouldn’t let up. “Why you two out here yelling like you don’t know each other?”
“Lotus, what’s wrong?” Javon asked, stepping closer to his daughter.
“Daddy was yelling at her, and some man too!” Cyn chimed in.
“Girls, come on. Let’s stay out of grown folks’ business and get you to the car.” Rhema urged them along and Lotus remained on the sidewalk trembling.
“Y’all just… go. I don’t want a ride anymore. I’ll just call an Uber or something.”
“No, you’re not,” Javon declared. “Jewel, take your mama home. I’ll take Lotus.”
“You call me if you need to talk, Lo.” Kissa pulled her into a hug, and Lotus held on a little tighter than normal but nodded in agreement.
“Thanks, Ma.” She sniffled and pushed away from her.
“I love you.” Kissa reached for her belly and gave it a rub.
“Love you too.” Lotus gave her a small smile but grilled Jewel, who shook his head and marched behind Rhema and the girls.
“Come on.” Javon pulled Lotus toward his black Lincoln Sedan while the rest of his family went in the opposite direction.
He placed an arm over his daughter’s shoulders and looked down at her while falling in stride beside her.
“Now, I don’t want to press, but you know you can talk about anything with me, right?”
“Not the kind of stuff you exactly want to share with your father,” Lotus muttered.
“Well, obviously something is going on with you and Eazy since he’s not taking you home. You saw the house?”
“Yeah,” Lotus croaked, tears building in her eyes. “It’s perfect.”
“I thought so too. He’s got a good eye. Good taste,” Javon said, reaching his car and pulling the passenger door open.
“I messed up, Daddy.”
“I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think it is.” He stepped forward and pulled her into an embrace.
“Now Jewel’s mad at me too,” she pouted.
“You and Jewel are brother and sister, Lo. You always fight, and you always make up. That’s not going to change.”
“But I’ve never had what I’ve had with Eazy before.” Lotus peered up into her father’s warm, loving eyes.
She’d been able to lean on him through the hardest times of her life, and Javon was always able to make her feel better. This was something different. Eazy was the real deal.
“I miss him as soon as he walks out the door. I want to be up under him all the time, and you know that’s never been me.
It’s not just about the baby. The first night I met him, talking to him, looking into his eyes…
it was the first time nobody had any expectations of me, and I didn’t have any of him.
Then, somehow, he became everything I didn’t know I wanted. How does that happen?”
Javon reached down to touch her face, a soft smile claiming his lips as his baby girl batted her big brown eyes at him.
“That’s what we call love, baby girl.”
“Well, I don’t like it. I can’t control it, and I feel sick as hell knowing I’m going to walk into that apartment, and he’s not going to be there tonight.”
“Did he say it was over?” Javon questioned.
“No. He said he needed some space, and he was going to stay at Summit and Taci’s.”
“Then let him cool off. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure Eazy ain’t just walking away from you or this baby,” Javon assured her.
Lotus climbed into the car, and he shut the door then rounded the front so he could get into the driver’s seat.
She was nearly asleep by the time he arrived outside her apartment building.
Her Pops got out and walked his baby girl all the way up to her floor.
She reluctantly dug her keys out of her purse and faced him in the hallway.
“Thanks for the ride, Daddy, and everything else.”
Stepping forward, he kissed the top of her head, and she accepted it.
“I love you.”
“Love you too.” Lotus let herself into her apartment, and Javon exited her building minutes later.
On the curb, he spotted something a couple of cars down that caught his attention. Eazy was parked, smoking a blunt with his eyes on the building. Shaking his head, Javon approached the car, and Eazy let the passenger window down.
“What’s up, OG?”
“How long you plan on sitting down here?” Javon questioned, resting his arms against the side of Eazy’s ride.
“Until she turns that light out and takes her ass to sleep.” Eazy tugged on his blunt, and Javon chuckled. “Thanks for getting her home.”
“That’s my baby.”
“Well, your baby is my woman. I’m in my feelings right now and not trying to hurt hers.” He rested his head against the back of his seat.
“I overstand that.” Javon nodded. “You know she’s going to stay up hoping, wishing, and praying you walk through that door tonight.”
“I’m not going nowhere. Just need a minute to wrap my head around some shit. If I’m not here, she always got eyes on her, though.”
“I know you won’t let anything happen to them. I’m going home to my own wife. Goodnight.”
Eazy chucked the deuces, and Javon strolled back to his car and got inside.
He pulled off, and Eazy sat on the curb, blowing the rest of his blunt and watching the bedroom window to Lotus’s apartment.
She kept that lamp on beside the bed for at least another hour before finally turning it off.
Eazy got comfortable in the driver’s seat, deciding to stay put for now.
“Bull, I appreciate the sit down.” Sudan extended his hand to Bull when he approached the table where he, Eazy, and Jewel were seated inside Black Oak.
It was two o’clock in the afternoon on a Monday, and they’d agreed to meet Sudan to give him their official word.
Both dapper in black suits, Eazy dug into his mixed greens chef’s salad, and Bull sipped his whiskey neat.
Jewel loved a good three-piece look, so his cream and peanut butter patterned vest with a matching blazer and slacks coordinated with his high yellow skin tone.
Sudan shook all their hands before taking the empty chair.
“First things first.” Bull sat forward and looked Sudan in his eyes across the table. “My wife and kids, off limits. Don’t ever approach her again—”