10. Darius
Even with the TV playing at a decent volume, I could hear laughter and loud talking coming from the kitchen.
It was the day before Thanksgiving, and it was my mother’s turn to host dinner.
Vani was spending the first part of Thanksgiving Day with her family, so I took her to meet my parents, and she offered to help my mom, grandma, and aunt get started on Thanksgiving dinner.
I had never brought a girl home for my parents to meet, and they were hype.
Neither one of my parents could believe I had a girlfriend.
My mother always used to tell me since she never had a daughter, her sons had to give her daughter-n-laws.
Anytime she said it in the past, I didn’t acknowledge it but now, shit, maybe Vani could be her daughter-n-law one day. Only time would tell.
My father and I were chilling in the den watching TV, sipping cognac, and talking.
He was disappointed when I started hustling.
He wasn’t necessarily mad that I was a drug dealer, he was afraid of the consequences that came with selling drugs.
He couldn’t understand why I was risking my freedom to hustle.
It wasn’t like I was dumb. My father had always drilled it into my head that I could be anything I wanted to be.
Just like he was drilling it into Kyle’s head that he could make it to the NFL if he locked in, continued to take the sport serious, and watched who he hung around.
There was no way for me to look my father in the eyes and tell him that I would rather risk my freedom for fast money than to get up every day and punch a clock to make the next person rich while I was barely surviving.
I was nice when it came to football myself but not NFL nice.
I had to create the future that I wanted for myself.
Sports Management was the only career I could see myself doing, and nobody was standing in line to give me a scholarship.
If I was going to enroll in school, it was going to be on my own terms and when I was ready because I was going to be the one footing the bill.
When Vani finally came in the den to tell me she was ready, I had started dosing off. It was two in the morning. “Damn,” I sat up and stretched. “Y’all sure you were just prepping in there?”
“Yes,” Vani giggled. “We started the turkey and greens. The eggs are boiled for the potato salad, the potatoes are boiled for the potato salad, the chicken is cooked and chopped for the chicken salad, and there are two pies, and two cakes done.”
“Period.”
Vani narrowed her eyes at me because she said it was suspect when I used that word.
She knew better than anybody, however, there wasn’t shit suspect about me.
I just liked getting underneath her skin.
Playfully, she delivered a pillow soft punch to my midsection.
I gave my pops dap, and mom, aunt, and grandma hugs before we left the house.
Kyle wasn’t at home. It was crazy to me that when I was in high school, they had a fit when I stayed out past two, but then again, they knew the kind of things I was into.
Kyle wasn’t selling drugs, beefing with niggas, or doing anything else that could get him time in prison or chilling in a casket.
He was either somewhere laid up with a girl or playing video games with his friends.
Kyle was a ladies’ man, and my pops gave him the ‘you better not get anybody pregnant’ speech at least once a week.
“You had fun?” I glanced over at Vani in the car.
“Ummhmm,” she hummed. “The fact that you really haven’t had a girlfriend since middle school is frying me. Your poor mother sounded afraid that she’d never meet a woman of yours.”
“Man,” I chuckled. “My moms is overly dramatic. I’m not bringing just anybody to the crib because once they meet someone and like them, they’re going to ask me about that person until I’m old and gray.
Even if we break up. She still asks about Kyle’s girlfriend from freshman year, and he has a whole new shorty. ”
“As long as they don’t ask about her in front of the new girl, that’s not too weird.”
“My mom doesn’t like the new girl. She’ll ask about the ex just because she can. While looking shorty dead in the eyes.”
“Nooooo,” Vani squealed. “Your mom seems so nice.”
“That’s because she likes you.”
“Damn,” she laughed. “I know that’s right. If you bring another hoe home, she better keep that same energy.”
“I’m not taking anybody else to meet my parents. Ever. You’re the only hoe I wanted them to meet.”
I dodged the hit that I knew was coming as Vani laughed. “Fuck outta here.”
The life I lived was one that I chose but that didn’t mean it wasn’t stressful at times.
Stressful and exhausting. I could finally see what Wally meant when he told me the benefits of having a good woman.
Vani came along and made life so much easier for me in so many ways.
Even coming in after a long ass day and having her roll my blunt then serving me a big ass plate of whatever meal she cooked.
Her stroking my hair or my face while I laid with my head in her lap watching movies and inhaling her scent.
Rocking in and out of her at night while she made sexy noises and told me she loved me.
All those things helped the stress from whatever I went through that day ooze off me like someone waved a magic wand.
Vani had brought a sense of calm into my life that had me understanding what being with a good woman was about.
I also saw the teamwork of it all because as long as I didn’t stress her, she didn’t stress me.
I didn’t want nagging and arguing, so I didn’t give her shit to nag and argue about.
Females that I’d been dealing with for years were actually shocked that I was being faithful.
They tested me whenever they could, and I passed every test with flying colors.
Women in the city could envy my woman, but they never got an opportunity to laugh at her.
At home, Vani knew what it was when I left the car running and got out to open the door for her. “I should have known there was a catch to you being still for hours.” She looked up at me. “Where you going?”
“AB has $5,600 for me, and Rick has $8,400. I shouldn’t be more than two hours.”
“Be safe.” Even when she stood on her tip toes Vani’s little ass didn’t come close to reaching my lips.
I bent down and pecked her lips three times. “Always.”
Despite having an alarm system, I checked every room of the house to make sure it was good before heading back out and leaving my lady alone.
In the car, I reached underneath the seat, grabbed my gun, and placed it in my lap.
I headed back toward the city blasting Gucci Mane.
Three stops. Three stops were all I had to make before I went back home with $14,000 in my pocket.
Earlier that morning, I had made double that.
So yeah, in my eyes, it was worth the risk involved.
Unlocking my phone, I went to one of my contacts and waited for her to answer.
“Hello?” Mya’s voice was deep and filled with sleep.
“I’m about to come in.”
“Okay.”
Every time I tried to think of someone to replace Mya with, I came up blank.
Mya was a chick that I had been fucking with on and off for three years.
She was a good girl. The kind that went to work every day, paid her bills on time, didn’t smoke weed or do any kind of drugs, and she barely drank for real.
Mya was a flight attendant, and it took a lot, I mean a lot of convincing for her to allow me to start keeping my drugs in her home.
Her grandfather died and left her a house.
The house was in a nice neighborhood, but he had lived in it for forty years before he died.
The house needed a lot of work, and Mya couldn’t afford it even though she could barely afford the $1,800 a month rent in the apartment she had, and she wanted to live in the home she’d been given.
I agreed to upgrade her kitchen, the bathrooms, and give her $10,000 a month if she let me keep my dope in her crib.
She was hesitant as fuck, but after I pled my case for about a month, she finally agreed.
I wasn’t worried about her crossing me and for the two years that she’d been holding my dope, everything had gone smoothly.
I spent around $25,000 getting the renovations done to her home, but I didn’t mind.
I refused to keep my dope in the same crib that I laid my head in.
Along with the renovations that I had done and the fact that Mya worked, plus I gave her $10,000 a month, she had paid for some renovations herself.
The house had three bedrooms, and she lived alone, so she had turned one of the rooms into a huge closet.
The house was dope and the best part about it was that, she didn’t have mortgage to pay.
I didn’t know how much she made as a flight attendant, but the money I gave her each month was a very nice added bonus.
I had a key to the house since there were times I might need to get in that she wasn’t home.
I hadn’t had sex with her since I got with Vani, and she didn’t really trip.
I respected the fact that she might have a man over sometimes, so I always checked to see if she was home before I went over.
The only thing I warned her about was watching who she let in her house because if my dope ever came up missing, after I killed whoever took it, I was going to kill her for letting them take it.