Chapter 3
Just like every morning, I had to drag myself out of bed to get ready for the day.
I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Legacy and the incident in the bathroom.
That shit had me so damn nervous, and to see his dick!
Oh my God! That man had no shame in his game, and the mere fact that he was holding me while pissing had me shaking.
I have never in my life been that close to a man of his caliber.
It was like all of my womanly senses had awakened.
I’d be dreaming of having the kind of love that would sweep me off my feet daily.
I wanted that unconditional love and a man that would walk on water for me.
I knew that was hopeful thinking, but a girl could dream.
I knew I would never have that type of love.
Leaving my bedroom, I walked down the hall to wake Hanii up.
I eased her door open, and I had to chuckle because this girl was stretched out like she had been working double shifts for the last week.
Her silk hair bonnet was hanging to one side of her head as one leg hung off the side of the bed. Baby was tired.
“Hanii, get up, baby. I have an early meeting, and it’s time for me to drop you off.”
“Mommy, nooooo,” she groaned.
“Tahanii More, get your butt up. You got school.”
She huffed. “I don’t wanna be educated right now.”
“What?” That caught me so off guard I had to laugh because you gon’ get this education, lil girl. She opened one eye to look at me.
“I need health mental today, Mommy.”
I burst into laughter. “Hanii, you’re eight. And it’s mental health, not health mental. Besides, your mental health is in good shape. You don’t have a care in the world right now but being the beautiful little girl that you are.”
“Mmmm mmmm, I get stressed. Them kids in my class be wearing me out, Mommy. Especially Kamora. She be on my nerves.” I wanted to laugh again so bad, but I held it in. My daughter had been here before. This girl had an old soul, and that mouth of hers never clocked out.
“You better be up by the time I come back because I’ma drag you out by your ponytail,” I warned her.
“People would call that child abuse, Mommy.”
“And I call it motivation, lil girl.” I walked out of her room then went to get myself together.
By the time we were both dressed and ready to go, it was a little after seven. Thirty minutes later, I pulled up to Jaz’s house because she was going to take Hanii to school. I tapped the code into the keypad on her door, and we walked inside. Hanii ran straight for the kitchen.
“Girl, you better be glad I was only out drinking, anddddd not hoe-hopping ’cause I almost forgot that your ass was coming this morning.
Ohhh,” she said, snapping her fingers like she was recalling something.
“It was late when I got home, but I wanted to call you so bad. I saw yo bucket head, knock-kneed, cross-eyed, buck tooth ass baby daddy last night. I swear this nigga is a poor excuse of a nigga. Then he had the nerve to ask me how his daughter was doing. I swear I almost pulled my gun out and shot his ass. God is giving the wrong person the bad times I swear. It should be his ass!” She paused and devastation washed over her face, and I knew exactly what she was thinking, but I didn’t want to get into it right now.
“Life ain’t fair, man, and this shit is really fucking with me, Fev. ” Jaz wiped the tears from her eyes.
“I know. But everything is going to be alright.” I hugged her. “It’s way too early for this.” I smiled, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“You look cute. Yo ass trying to go in there and give that man in the penthouse suite all your goodies. I know that’s right, fren!
Pop that shit on a real nigga this time.
’Cause that shit you was poppin’ on to have my goddaughter ain’t it.
With his ant-looking ass. I’m so glad she came out looking like us, ’cause you know I always say we favor.
I love my baby and all, but fren, I woulda had to take her out at night.
Ain’t nothing worse then getting with a ugly ass nigga and then getting pregnant and having his ugly ass baby.
” Jaz shrugged, and I fell out laughing. This girl was always talking crazy.
“You going to hell for that shit. Leave the babies out of yo mess,” I told her.
“Nah. What would’ve been a mess is you having an ugly baby.
But God took our baby’s looks into careful consideration and erased that nigga’s ugly genes away.
He must’ve seen that nigga trying to finesse you and knew you was about to give up the ass.
He was probably calling all the angels to the yard saying somebody come look at this, we gonna have work to do.
He knew then what he had to do. I told yo ass to stay off that Cutwater and Casamigos.
I know when yo ass woke up to see that nigga sleeping next to you, you regretted all your life decisions,” she laughed and so did I.
“You get on my damn nerves. I gotta go. Hanii, I’m leaving, baby girl,” I called out as my daughter came running from the kitchen.
“See you later, Mommy.” She wrapped her arms around my waist, and I leaned down to kiss her cheek.
“Have a good day, baby. Jaz, I’ll call you in a little while,” I told her and headed out the door.
New York was a city that seemed like everyone was in a rush to get wherever they were trying to go, even if it was just the damn grocery store.
As always, traffic was crazy, but I finally made it to work.
I didn’t have time to stop by Starbucks, so I had to settle for coffee from the hotel restaurant.
As soon as I walked into my office, things were hectic.
I had a few meetings and some interviews set for today.
For the early part of the day, I was so busy that I could barely think straight, which was good because my mind went straight to him.
Legacy. Just as I sat back down at my desk, my office phone started ringing.
“Ms. More,” I answered, placing the call on speaker.
“Ms. More, this is James. I just wanted to notify you that Mr. Porter went out for a couple of hours and that your staff can go in to clean his suite.”
“Okay, thank you, James. We will be right up.”
I ended the call then went to change my clothes.
I never knew how long Legacy would be out, and I never wanted him to know that I was the one cleaning his suite.
So, I always tried to be in and out. I decided to go down to the housekeeper’s locker room to change my clothes.
Just as I finished getting dressed, a couple of the girls walked in.
“Boss lady, you decided to keep that fine man to yourself, huh? I know that’s right,” Nesha said, fanning herself.
“Girlll. That man ain’t thinking about me. It’s all professional over here, y’all know I’m not into that,” I told them.
“Shiddd. I am, let’s switch places and I’ma come walking out bowlegged.” She fell out laughing and high-fived Lisa.
“Bye ladies.” I left them standing in the locker room to finish their gossiping. I didn’t have time to mess with them; I had to get this suite cleaned.
Grabbing an unused cleaning cart, I took the service elevator up to the penthouse suites.
I kept telling myself that I was doing this because he was a special guest, and we wanted to make sure things were perfect for him.
However, I could’ve easily passed this off to one of the penthouse suite housekeepers.
I didn’t want to do that though; I wanted to be the one to take care of his needs.
While most of that was the truth, it wasn’t the entire truth.
Holding up my keycard to the magnetic lock, I let myself inside the suite.
The curtains were already pulled back with the sunlight beaming into the living room.
All of the paintings had wrapping over them with the exception of one.
It was another painting of a woman, but it wasn’t the same one I saw the first day that I came into the suite.
The contrast colors were neutral colors of cream and gold, with some splashes of burnt orange in it.
The woman in the painting was standing as the scene behind her was chaotic, even though she appeared to be unbothered.
Her back was facing away from all the chaos while hand shadows seemingly reached for her, but they still couldn’t quite reach her.
The painting screamed defeat and loneliness and like there was something holding her back from her traumas.
Taking in the painting, my chest felt like it was tight as hell.
I’d never seen this type of art before, but the feeling seemed familiar.
“My God,” I whispered, inching closer to the painting, then stood in deep thought.
I couldn’t help but to wonder who Legacy really was.
Because the man I had been admiring from afar, made me feel like he was just a little rough around the edges.
Never did I expect him to be painting something so conscious like this though.
I finally pulled myself away from the painting, but not before taking a picture of it like I did with the last one.
I started cleaning the bathrooms, bedroom, and replaced his linen with the new linen that he had laid out.
It took me a little over an hour to finish everything to my liking.
One thing about me, I’d been doing this for so long that I was efficient, but quick.
Everything in here was flawless and it smelled amazing.
I stared at his bed, and my thoughts went into overdrive, wishing that it was me that shared his bed with him.
I shook off those thoughts and gave everything another glance before focusing on the painting for one last view of it.
There was something about it that stayed with me.
Maybe because I could relate to the loneliness and vulnerability of the woman.
I loved the rawness of it so much I’d definitely consider purchasing it.
An hour later, I was redressed and heading back to my office.
I decided to go grab some lunch from the restaurant, and when I walked in, I was surprised to see Legacy sitting at one of the tables having lunch.
His eyes were on me the second I walked in, and that shit had me feeling so vulnerable and exposed.
The man didn’t even break his stare; I was a little taken back.
Was he staring because he was attracted to me?
He was a very hard man to read. I smiled and quickly turned away then went over to the bar and placed my to-go order.
“I got that.” The familiar voice from behind me said. His deep rich voice had my insides doing flips.
“Mr. Porter, you don’t have to do that,” I said to him.
“I don’t have to do a lot of things in life, beautiful. But when I want something… I mean, when I want to do something nice for someone, I do it. I owe you this, I’m sorry about the other day. That shouldn’t have happened.” He smiled.
“Ohhh. No, apologies needed. It’s truly okay.” I looked away because it was just something about his eyes staring into mine. Jesus, I could look at him all day. We made small talk for about ten minutes until the bartender handed me my food.
“Well, it was good talking to you, Mr. Porter,” I said to him.
“Likewise, Ms. More. Likewise.”
I went back to my office and daydreamed about love and the man I left in that restaurant.
If only for one night, I swear I would be satisfied.
I got back to work, and before I knew it, it was time to leave.
Traffic was crazy, and me and Hanii didn’t get home until after seven.
I decided to cook burgers and fries since that was quick and easy.
“How was your day, baby?” I asked Hanii.
“Stressful, Mommy.” This child was too much.
I laughed. “What, why?”
“Kyle said his mama got a Mercedes, and I told him my mommy got a Kia and still make it look like money.”
“You said what?”
She shrugged. “He was trying to brag too much for me.”
“You betta let ’em know.”
Once we ate dinner, Hanii took her bath, then we watched a movie together, cuddled up on the couch.
After it went off, it was time for her to go to bed.
I did our usual routine and tucked her in after reading her a bedtime story.
When she was all tucked away for the night, I took a warm shower then I crawled into bed with a glass of wine and relaxed.
I was exhausted but couldn’t sleep because my mind was on Legacy again.
My heart was beating so damn hard and fast that it scared me.
“Girl, please cut this shit out,” I whispered to myself.
That’s just it, I didn’t think that I could “cut it out.” Something between us was brewing, and even as intrigued as I was, I knew that I couldn’t let it go anywhere.
Needing to release my inner thoughts, I grabbed my journal and started penning my feelings about today’s events and prayed that it made me feel better.