11. Old Thang
OLD THANG
About a week later…
Now that Eazy was pretty much running things at the Howard Hellum Gallery, his schedule was a bit more flexible, but he typically tried to show face within the same hours of every day.
It was almost three o’clock in the afternoon when he strolled inside.
Sporting a patchwork vest with a herringbone pattern over a white button up that was rolled a few inches from his wrist, and dark denim jeans with navy lace up dress shoes, he brought a whole new swag to being an art dealer.
Motherfuckers weren’t ready for him or what he brought to the table when he met with clients and artists.
Eazy was fluent, and charming. He educated himself on every piece that came across his desk, as well as his prospective buyers.
He wanted to know everything about them when they walked through the door.
Making the buying experience personal was something important to him.
He was building relationships with some prominent people and wanted to hold on to that.
“Well, I was wondering when you would make an appearance,” Alyssa said. So bitter. She hated him even more now that he’d surpassed her in position.
It wouldn’t be long before Eazy was sought out by another gallery or became a private dealer with all the connections he had, both legally and illegally.
Getting his hands on those four paintings that Sudan was after meant something to him too.
His position in the game would be locked. Everyone would know he had the juice.
“Miss me?” Eazy winked, knowing it both pissed her off and turned her on.
He wouldn’t touch Alyssa with a ten-foot pole. She came off as a pure narcissist. One dose of dope dick would have that bitch even crazier than she already was.
“Hardly.” She cleared her throat and held the folders in her arms against her chest. “There is someone waiting in your office for you, though. I have to go out and meet with a few clients to consult on some pieces. Remind Jewel that he’s closing tonight.”
“Jewel already knows what’s up. Have a good day, Alyssa.” He flashed his panty wetting smile, and she released an irritated growl before stomping off.
Shaking his head, Eazy chuckled and continued his stroll to his office, which was now on the second floor with a view.
He hit Lotus with a text to see what she was up to.
She’d moved into the house a few days ago, and he’d been by every day to make sure she was good.
It only infuriated her more when he left.
He was staying at her apartment for the time being until he got the rest of her things packed and could patch a few holes so she could get her security deposit back.
Everything else was moved into the new place within a five-hour time span.
When she saw the nursery, she was speechless.
He’d already had the walls painted with Navy stripes and a sailor, aquatic theme for his son.
If he could help it, his junior would be the opposite of him.
Eazy did all the dirt in his life so his seeds didn’t have to.
Slowly but surely, he realized that he was only torturing himself the longer he kept his distance from his woman.
Lotus was pregnant, and this was a sensitive time in her life.
He didn’t want her to ever look back and see it as anything other than a beautiful time.
When he pushed the door open, the last thing he expected to find was Niva propped on his desk, spandex dress hugging her curves and leaving very little to the imagination.
His ex was a baddie. The shit Instagram models were made of.
All home grown though. Flat stomach, wide hips.
Ass for days and a pair of titties that sat up, nipples poking through the paper thin material of her dress.
“The fuck?” Eazy’s face immediately crumpled into a frown. “Niva, the fuck you doing in my office?”
“It occurred to me that you’ve always been the kind of man to appreciate action.” Leaning forward, she brought her hands between her legs and propped herself up on them.
She wasn’t wearing any panties. Fat ma was perfectly trimmed, just the way he liked it. As a man, a natural arousal strengthened his dick. Niva’s tongue swept over her swollen lips, and Eazy shook his head, walking toward her.
“I got work to do.” He took the long route around his desk to set his phone down.
“You could work me.”
“Get the fuck out of here.”
“You can’t even take a minute to consider us again after everything?” she asked, hopping off the desk, titties and ass bouncing freely under her dress.
“Consider what exactly, Niva? How you let me think you were dead for four fucking years—”
“It was Oracle!” she screamed, hands reaching for her head. “Don’t you see?” She stepped closer, resting her arms against his shoulders. “This is his fault.”
“You had a choice, Niva. You’ve always had a choice. Take some fucking accountability.” Eazy brought his face closer to hers.
“I knew you still wanted me.” She grabbed his face, and before her lips could even brush across his, Eazy had her by both arms, keeping her far enough to resist any temptation.
She smelled and looked how he remembered for the most part, but she was no longer his. Any illusions she had died with her. The only thing he could think of in that moment was how this would hurt Lotus and how he couldn’t do that to her.
“Nah, you’re wrong.”
Emptiness fleeted through her gaze, and she shuddered at the dark glare in his. The warmth in his gaze, that far off glint, he only harbored that for one woman now, and it wasn’t her. Chest cracking, she yanked out of his arms. Her pain quickly morphed to anger.
“You can’t just forget about us,” she whimpered. “Aft—after everything we’ve been through. I came back to you.”
“You came back to a nigga who don’t exist no more, Niva. You ain’t the same either, shorty.”
“But, we can work on it,” she pleaded, fisting his shirt as tears blinded her.
“Niv… you gotta let this shit go. It ain’t good for you,” Eazy assured her.
Instant rage now resided in her stare as she pushed away from him.
“Oh, so I’m just some headcase to you now that don’t know how to let go, right?”
“You said that shit.” Eazy pulled away. “I been trying to be cool, but that ain’t gon’ ever work with us, Niv. Too much has happened.”
“Too much like that bitch and her baby?” she countered, drawing instant wrath in his eyes.
“The fuck you say?”
“I asked you for a baby, and you blew that shit off. Now you’re building a whole fucking family with a bitch you barely even know.”
“That’s the last time you get that off in front of me.” Eazy pointed a finger at her. “You don’t know Lotus to even be disrespecting her like that. You just mad shit didn’t work out with you and that nigga Oracle after the choices you made.”
“I fucked up! I wasn’t in the right state of mind.
Oracle knew that. He used that to take advantage of me and make me fall for him.
He knew all I wanted was to call you, but he always found some reason why it couldn’t happen or how you wouldn’t understand.
Weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, and now here we are. Except I’m here and you’re there. How?”
“That’s just the way shit is, Niv, and sometimes you can’t change it.”
“So, that’s it,” she muttered, breaking eye contact like something just hit her. “No more you and me. I’m alone. I don’t have anybody. Except Crystal. All she cares about is where her next payday is coming from. I don’t have anything, Eazy!”
“What you need, Niv? I can help you get on your feet—”
“I don’t want your fucking charity,” she sneered. “I want to be compensated. I was as much part of that night as the rest of you. I deserve whatever is coming to all of you. I know something is cooking. Midas all but said it himself.”
“Yeah? What else Midas been talking about?” Eazy demanded.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Niva perked up, a callous grin spreading across her cheeks.
“You might want to make sure you on the right side of this when shit hits the fan. I can’t promise anything.”
“Oh, is that your form of a threat, Eazy?” She cackled and marched over to one of the chairs in front of his desk to grab her patent leather Marc Jacobs bag.
“Find somebody else to play with.”
“But it’s so fun playing with you.” Yanking the door open, she winked before strutting into the hallway and closing it quietly behind her.
Eazy knew in that moment that she was bound to be a problem he didn’t need.
Clearly, the accident, shit with Oracle, and coming back to Prospect Pointe had performed a mind job on her.
She’d lost what was left of her mind, and she was already a little nutty before.
Crystal had Niva out there and on drugs at an early age.
If Eazy had never met and befriended her, helped get and kept her clean, there was no telling where she would have ended up.
At the end of the day, he’d done right by her and had no regrets.
He’d come to terms with the fact that his future no longer lied in what they thought they had.
“So, how are you after everything?” Lotus asked Toni as their guards lingered in the corner of the GAP store while they ransacked the kid and baby section. Lotus grabbed anything on sale and Toni had slung enough outfits over her arm for her kids to last a week each.
“Well, it was a little rocky at first. I wasn’t expecting to even get emotional after cremating Onika, but it is what it is.
” Toni shrugged and sifted through another rack where she found a jean jacket for Bijou.
“I got her cremated and shoved her ashes in a closet until I figure out what to do with them. Not like she had a lot of depth to her to begin with,” she muttered.
“Honestly, I’m just glad it’s over. Now I can focus on Bull and the kids. Our business. Positive shit.”
“Like getting to know your father,” Lotus mentioned, peering up from a pile of onesies she’d sifted through.