Chapter 11 #2
“Fruity Pebbles. I love pancakes. I think you should move in,” Hanii told him.
He chuckled. “That’s something to think about.”
“Hanii, hurry and eat, baby. Aunt Jaz is on her way over to pick you up, and you’re going to stay with her for a couple of days,” I told her, and she smiled.
My baby never turned down an opportunity to be with Auntie Jaz.
Truth is, I just sent Jaz a text and asked her to come get her.
I didn’t really get a chance to tell her why, but now I think I should have explained because we’re talking about Jaz here.
“Ahhh, man, I had plans on taking the lil beauty on a date.” Legacy smiled as he pinched her cheek.
“I’ll be back in two days. We can go on a date then.
My mommy likes dates. Don’t you, Mommy?” She turned to look at me, blinking both of her eyes, and I guess that was supposed to be a wink for me to secretly go along with what she was saying.
But my baby doesn’t know how to wink one eye, she does both.
Legacy and I both laughed because she was the cutest little thing.
I heard my front door open, so I knew it was Jaz.
“Come and talk to me. I really wanna meet you; girl, I really wanna know your name.” She was singing a Jodeci song.
“Toot toot! Get your stuff and come on! We don’t wanna be nowhere we ain’t wanted. We been in betta places. Who da hell kicks they baby out at nine in the morning?” she questioned, walking into the kitchen, and I was shaking my damn head.
“Ohhhhh shit! We got us a chef. A fine ass one, at that. Girl, all you had to say is that we had some real food in here.” She looked at the spread that Legacy had laid out on the counter.
“How you doing? I’ll take some bacon, pancakes, hash browns, and yo ass on a platter.” She winked at Legacy, and he laughed.
“I can give you everything but that last one,” he said to her.
“Auntie Jaz. That’s Mommy’s new boyfriend. His name is Boyfriend,” Hanii told her as she stuffed some pancakes in her mouth. Jaz whipped her head in my direction.
“Boyfriend! Girl, since when? Yo ass ain’t seen a boyfriend since a boyfriend seen you!” She spat.
“Clock it!” Hanii blurted, and I almost choked on my latte. Because both they asses was embarrassing as hell, and they had to get out.
“Jaz and Hanii!!” I shook my head.
“Well introduce us, bitch,” Jaz leaned in and whispered. But clearly Legacy heard her.
“How you doing? I’m Legacy Porter.” He held his hand out.
“A Legacy whoo?” She shook his hand and stared at him for a long minute. It must’ve hit her because she jumped up like her ass was on fire. “Mmmm-mmmm. Toots, get yo shit this could cause some jail time, and you know we don’t look good in orange or beige.”
“Jail! We can’t go to jail. I’m with you when you right, Auntie.” Hanii jumped out of her seat, and she ran off to change and get her things. Legacy was laughing so hard he was holding his chest.
“Come on, bihh. We gotta pack this girl bag.” Jaz gritted and nodded for me to come on.
“Legacy, excuse me for a minute. I’ll be right back.” I smiled, getting up from my seat and heading out the kitchen.
“Girl, why the fuck you didn’t tell me they got the drop on yo ass.
Bitch, what the hell happened? I knew that nigga looked fine and familiar.
Damn, I see why yo ass was going bat shit crazy and turning stalker.
Fuck sending a letter, I woulda been at the front doe!
That driver's license picture don’t do no justice for what’s standing in yo kitchen.
Bruh, this might be a setup, and he just waiting on the police to get here.
Feeding you that bullshit before the bullshit arrives.
Unt-Unt, and we out here trying to help his fine piss poe ass become Picasso in real time.
Dats why you can’t help all Black folk, and yeah, I’m talking shit ’bout my black folk ’cause it’s coming from my Black half of me, not my white half.
Don’t even get me started on the white half!
My Black be ready to jump huh ass every time we gotta interact with her ass. ” Jaz went on and on.
“Jaz, everything is fine.” I laughed. “He came yesterday, and we had a long talk and everything is fine. To be honest, he really didn’t trip about it.
He’s so laid back and down to earth. I’m not gonna lie when I went to that door and saw him standing there, girl, I almost flatlined.
His friend that was with him beat up Chauncey too,” I told her.
“Wait, what! Chauncey! What was his fish mouth ass doing here?” she questioned. “Girl, you’re throwing too much at me.”
“He showed up at my house talking about we really need to talk. That he didn’t like the run-in that we had, and he wanted to make efforts to be in Hanii’s life.
I let him in because Hanii was upstairs watching television.
But when he started talking shit about us getting together, I told him to leave.
He stood to leave, and I ran to the bathroom because I had to use the bathroom so bad.
I heard the doorbell, but I couldn’t just get up off the toilet.
So, they all got into it because Chauncey answered my door like he was in the fuckin’ right.
That girl beat him up and had a gun to his face. ” I shrugged.
“Gun! Oh, so she was a bad bitch, huh?” Jaz smiled.
“Girl, yes. She was so pretty, and baby was dressed to the nines with stilettos and the baddest suit on and all.”
Telling Jaz about what happened had me thinking about the girl.
I wondered who she really was to Legacy.
We never really talked about her, he just said they were friends.
But she was stunning. Lord, I was trying not to put doubts in my mind and rejection because if he had a friend like that, why would he want anything to do with me?
I wasn’t ugly, and in my eyes, I was pretty, but that rejection just always reared its ugly head.
“Well, girl, don’t worry about Toots. We about to have a good time, you just figure out what this is with him.
Now if this is all a setup... Just know I got Hanii, you gon’ be on some love after lock up shit.
Oh, on a serious note, my dad called me last night about Mr. Porter.
He asked me how I knew the Porter’s and said that the family was a political powerhouse.
Did you know that shit?” she questioned.
“No.” I shook my head.
“Girl, they big time. I looked them up last night and every damn body is in power the daddy is Senator Porter. Anyway, my dad is loving his paintings and said he was at his art exhibit in New York some months back. He’s planning to reach out to his agent.
Now make sure your girl run them draws…I mean the digits.
” She fell out laughing. We got Hanii together and her and Jaz were ready to go.
When we made it back downstairs, Hanii took off for the kitchen. We walked in behind her.
“Bye, Boyfriend. Please don’t send my mommy to jail. Besides Auntie Jaz, she’s all I got.” Hanii pouted and wrapped her arms around his waist. And I swear I almost lost it. I had to turn to wipe the tears that fell.
“Awww, baby girl. I promise your mom isn’t going to jail. I don’t want you thinking any bad thoughts. Boyfriend is here, and you and Mommy will be okay,” he assured her and pinched her cheek. Oh my God, my stomach was doing flips because did he just say boyfriend?
“Mmmm-mmmm. Shit ’bout to get real. Anywho. Let’s go, Toots. Nice to meet you, and Fev, do everything I would do. It’ll be the best release of your life! I can tell.” Jaz patted me on my back, and I held my head down in embarrassment. I hugged and kissed my babygirl extra tight and they left out.
“Your friend is funny as hell.” He smirked, placing a plate in front of me. “Yeah, she’s a mess, but I don’t know what I would do without her. She’s held me down through all of this.” I wiped the tear that fell. He walked around to me and pulled me in for a hug.
“No more tears, we’re going to fill this day with happy thoughts. Do you have vacation time at work?” he asked.
“Yeah. I do.” I looked at him, confused.
“Good. Use it for a few days. Eat your food and then get yourself together, we’re going out. Pack a bag as well.”
I did as he requested and didn’t put up a fight. I started all of this with my letters, and never did I think he would show up and be so attentive. He seemed so hard on the outside, and yet, he’s a genuinely a nice person.
The entire day we just rode around the city talking.
Real conversations, too. Not surface-level small talk.
We talked about our childhood, the good and bad, the music that we were both into, our dreams, relationships, and he told me about his family and issues he had with his father.
I felt bad for him regarding that because it sounded like he really wanted to have that father and son connection with him.
We talked about him being an artist and the way his creative mind works.
Everything about this man is amazing. We also talked about his best friend, Gizelle.
He loved her, and I did get a chance to meet her and Rome officially before they left to go back to Philly.
Being with him just felt so easy, it was like we’d known each other for years.