Chapter 3 #3
“Aight, cool,” I said, and I put the phone back to my ear.
“It’s cool. You can come see him. How long is it going to take you to get here? Toni doing his hair,” I let her know.
“I’m still at the airport. I’m waiting for them to bring me a rental car. Once I have it, it’ll probably take me about thirty minutes to get to you. I’ll just text you when I’m on the way,” she said.
I told her that that was cool, and then we hung up. From there, I lay back on the bed, putting my hands behind my head, turning my head a little bit, so that I could watch my baby girl, who was still knocked out in the bed.
“That was my auntie Ivory?” Zayne asked, snapping me out of the daze that I was in.
“Yeah. She about to come see you for a little bit. You cool with that?” I asked him.
“I don’t mind,” he was nonchalant in his response.
“Baby, you sure you cool with her coming over? I know you in the middle of doing his hair. I don’t want you feeling like I’m forcing that shit on you,” I voiced, looking over at Toni.
In the past, we ran into an issue before where I wanted her to go to Atlanta with me, so that she could meet Sapphire’s mom.
Well, that wasn’t the purpose of the trip.
I was going to take Zayne to spend time with his grandma, but I wanted Toni to come with me.
She gave me flack about it, talked in circles about going with me, and I was so hell bent on her going with me, that I didn’t realize that I was lowkey forcing that shit on her.
I didn’t want this situation to be like that.
“Steel, I’m fine. You know I would never deny Zayne the chance to spend time with any of his family members.
While he’s down there with her, I’ll just stay up in the room, and finish looking over some of these papers.
I’m okay,” she replied, and I knew that she was telling the truth, so I went ahead, and dropped it.
Five minutes later, Ivory texted me, letting me know that she had the rental car, and that she was on the way. She gave me her ETA, and I laid back, just going to wait it out until she arrived.
I ended up dosing off, and the sound of my phone buzzing on my chest is what woke me up.
It was the security guard at the front gate calling me, letting me know that Ivory was here, and asking me if it was okay for me to let her in.
I told him it was fine, and that’s when I stood up from the bed.
Toni had a little more than half of Zayne’s hair finished.
From what I could see, it looked as if she only had two rows left to plait.
I walked up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist, burying my head into the crook of her neck, and I started placing light kisses there.
“That shit looks nice, baby. You have so many hidden talents. I swear you a jack of all trades. You got a lot of fashion sense, you know how to do your make-up, you can style your hair, you braid Zayne, and Brooklyn’s hair so nice.
Damn, is there anything that you can’t do?
” I asked, slipping my hands down to her ass, and holding it.
She laughed at what I said, but at the same time, she was eating it all up.
“You so corny, dad,” my son told me, hating on a nigga per usual. His comment made Toni laugh.
“Yeah aight. I can teach your young ass a thing or two,” I shot, and he chuckled.
“I don’t need help when it comes to the ladies. I got all the game in the world,” he replied, and Toni groaned at that because she hated when Zayne would talk about the little girls from his school, just as much as Brooklyn would talk to her about boys.
“Your young ass just found out how to spell game probably a year ago, but you think you got all the game in the world. Come on downstairs, so that you can chill with your auntie for a little bit,” I said, seeing that Toni just finished putting the last plait in for that section.
Zayne stood up, slapped hands with me, and then he walked out of the room.
“Don’t take a shower while you’re up here. We’ll shower together when you finish with his hair,” I said, and she nodded, while turning around in my arms, and wrapping her arms around my neck.
She was looking me deeply into my eyes, as if she wanted to say something, but for whatever reason, she was holding back.
“What?” I asked her, knowing that it was something.
“I’m sure she’s going to ask you why I didn’t come down. I really don’t care if she knows that I don’t like her but just don’t say that in front of Zayne. That’s all I’m asking,” she shared.
“You good. I won’t say it. Real shit, why you won’t fuck with her though?” I wanted to know.
She removed her arms from around my neck, and the chair that Zayne had originally been sitting in, she sat there, while crossing her legs, and looking up at me.
“She doesn’t like me, Steel. That night we were in Atlanta at the club; I could sense it.
I’m not her sister. I’m not the person that her brother-in-law was once married to, so she doesn’t like me for that.
Just go downstairs. Don’t let me hold you up,” she said because by this point, Ivory was ringing the doorbell, and we could hear Zayne running down the stairs, so that he could answer the door for her.
“We gotta finish talking about this when I come back upstairs,” I let her know.
She nodded, as if it was cool, and before I headed downstairs, I walked over to her, tongued her down really quick, and I headed out of the room.
I made it downstairs, and Zayne and Ivory were in the living room, and like a typical kid that was eager to open whatever gift was given to him, he was going through the clothes that his aunt had got him.
My son was only six, but his lil ass was fly, and he liked to wear nice clothes, so Ivory pulled up with some new clothes for him, and he was geeked, as he sat down on the floor, pulling the items out.
I made it to the bottom of the steps, and my eyes went on Ivory, who was standing there with a big smile on her face, but what stood out to me was the oversized frames that she was wearing.
It was after eight at night, meaning that the sun was down already outside, plus she was standing inside the house now, so there was no reason for her to be wearing sunglasses.
“What’s good?” I asked her, walking over, and we exchanged in a quick hug.
Ivory was beautiful. She looked exactly like Sapphire. She made a lot of fucked up choices, dealt with the wrong kind of men, but she was beautiful, nonetheless.
“Nothing much. Is that a candle burning or something? What’s that smell? It smells really good. I need that back home in my condo,” she said the same thing that most people would say whenever they came over.
“Nah, it’s a diffuser. Toni got them all throughout the house. I forgot the name of the scent. I gotta ask her,” I replied, and she looked up at me, while nodding her head.
“She’s upstairs? She knows that she could have come down, right? I don’t bite,” she said it in a joking kind of way.
“Nah. She stayed upstairs, so that you can have this moment with Zayne. What’s up? Why you got those frames on your face? Take them off. Let me see your eyes,” I challenged, naturally jumping into a brother mode with her.
There was this piece of me where I felt like I had to be protective when it came to Ivory.
I remember some of the deep talks that I used to have with Sapphire, and she would always express to me her fears when it came to her sister, and the men that she dealt with.
Her track record wasn’t good when it came to men.
The kind of niggas that she would fuck around with were always niggas with money, and most of them would treat her like shit.
Niggas have put their hands on her before in the past, and that’s why I was questioning why she had these sunglasses on.
“I’m recovering from an allergic reaction. Whatever your thinking happened… it didn’t, so don’t start,” she responded, but I could sense that her ass was lying.
“I got kids. I’ve seen plenty of allergic reactions, so let me see yours,” I wouldn’t let it go.
“Steel, move. Let it go. Let me have time with my nephew,” she tried to cut around me, so that she could get to Zayne, who had had the clothes laid out on the floor, and he was admiring them.
Zayne loved Nike, so she’d purchased him a couple of Nike tech sets.
One was baby blue, and the other one was red.
He didn’t have either of those colors. There were a couple of gym sets for him too, so he could wear that whenever he would be down in the basement with me, getting a workout in.
Some designer sets from Gucci and Burberry were in the mix too.
With all the items that she’d purchased for him, she had to have placed this stuff in a suitcase of its own because there was no way that all this stuff was able to fit in the suitcase that she probably flew down with.
I blocked her from getting to Zayne, and I was swift with removing the glasses from her face.
Her left eye was swollen, but it wasn’t swollen shut.
You could tell at one point that it was swollen shut though.
It was black and blue, and you could see the leftover blood that was in her eye.
When I saw that shit, it instantly made me angry.
I’m talking, my blood was fuckin boiling when I saw it.
“Zayne, leave those clothes right here, and go upstairs in your room for a second. Just for one second. Let me talk to your auntie,” my voice was firm, as I handed the glasses back to her, and she quickly placed them back on.
My son could tell by my tone that I meant business, so he quickly got up from the floor, and he dashed up the stairs, leaving just Ivory and I downstairs.
“Who the fuck did this shit to you? Nolan? You still fuckin around with that nigga?” I asked, just calling out who I thought it might have been.