10. Dominique ‘Dolo’ Shaw #2
“I don’t play about my grandchildren. None of them. Don’t let my age fool you, son. My .380 can still bust the way that I need it to,” she threatened my ass, and she got chuckles throughout the kitchen.
I laughed at that shit too because I didn’t expect her to say that. Here I am, thinking that she was innocent, but she proved me wrong. That’s the same feeling that Riot would give people. You’ll look at her, and think that she was quiet and innocent, but she was the complete fuckin opposite.
“We’ll talk,” she let me know, and then she let go of my hands.
I went over to the barstools that were sitting in front of the island, and from there, Riot’s auntie’s, and her mama started hitting me with question after question, straight drilling my ass.
In the middle of the drilling, my phone started ringing.
It was Riot calling. She didn’t know that I was here yet.
Shit, I didn’t get the chance to go outside and let her know that I was here because I was getting tackled in the kitchen.
I answered the phone for her, putting it on speaker.
“Dominique, where are you? I told you to be here by 6,” she said the second the call connected. She didn’t even give me a minute to greet her or anything.
“I’m inside bae. I been in here for a little minute with your mama, aunties, and grandma,” I let her know.
“Okay. I’m coming in,” she said, and then she hung the phone up.
I’m not sure what she thought these women were in here doing to me, but literally a second later, all I had to do was turn to my right, where the patio door was, leading outside to the backyard, and I spotted Riot standing there at the door.
I smiled seeing her. My baby looked pretty this evening, just like she always did.
She opened the patio sliding door and quickly closed it back.
After that, she made her way over to me.
My eyes couldn’t help but to linger on her bottom lip.
That shit was still swollen from me biting her the other night.
On my mama, I wanted to knock the shit out of her the other night in her room.
I probably never bit somebody since I was a kid.
I knew I couldn’t put hands on her, so I did the only thing that made a little bit of sense to me, and that’s why I chose to bite her.
This girl swung on me, landed all kinds of blows on me, broke my fuckin glasses, and was talking to me crazy.
Did all of that, and when I decided to leave, you would have thought that all the shit she did to me, that I was the one that did it to her.
Although I didn’t cause Riot any physical pain that night, my words hurt her.
She was still telling me that I broke her heart by breaking up with her.
A nigga didn’t even break up with her. I said that shit to her because she pissed me off, and I was trying to get the fuck from around her.
I never saw Riot cry like that. I’ve known that she’s loved me since the day that she told me, but when she acted a fool that night because she didn’t want me to leave, it was confirmed.
Straight fuckin crash out. That’s how I needed my lady to act behind me.
Jump on top of the car bae and kick and scream for me not to leave.
You gotta show me that your whole world going to come to an end if I leave you because if the roles were reversed, and Riot tried to leave me, I was going to crash the fuck out too.
“I didn’t know you were here. You should have texted me. What were they saying to you?” she asked the second she made it over to me.
She stood there, not knowing if she should jump on me, hug me, kiss me, dap me up, or what. I wanted to grab on her, kiss on her, tell her how pretty she looked, all that shit that I do when I get around her, but I wasn’t trying to be too crazy in front of her family.
“It’s cool baby. I wanted to face them on my own and meet them. We been chilling. Ain’t nothing too crazy been going on,” I let her know, standing up from my chair, so that I could hug her, plus I wanted to give her the seat that I had been sitting in.
I wrapped my arms around her waist like I always did, while hers wrapped around my neck.
When we pulled away, she looked at me with this goofy look on her face, still not knowing if she should kiss me or not.
I just went ahead, and kissed her on her cheek, and I moved out of the way, so that she could sit down, and I stood on the side of her.
“Ya’ll look good together. Really good together. What’s the plan with my niece, Dolo?” Rasheeda asked, getting on my ass again.
I could tell that Rasheeda was the cool auntie, but then again, you could also tell that she was the one that was going to get in the field, and she didn’t play that shit about the ones she loved.
“Auntie please,” Riot said, leaning back in her chair a little bit, and she folded her arms.
“Bae, it’s cool. She ain’t asking me anything that I wasn’t prepared for,” I let Riot know, placing my hand on her thigh, and squeezing it just a little bit.
“I want everything that comes with being in a relationship with someone. I want this to be something long term. I’ll be lying to you if I told you that I’m ready for marriage.
Marriage is the goal one day though. I’ve been around marriage.
I know what it looks like. My parents didn’t get it right the first time, but they eventually got married, and they made it work, and that was something good for my brother, and I to witness.
I have men in my life that I’m close with that are married, so just from watching them, I feel like when that day ever comes, I’ll make a good husband.
I just know it won’t be too soon,” I gave my honest answer.
I knew that Riot wouldn’t feel any kind of way about me saying this because her ass just told me the other day that she didn’t want to be a wife any time soon. She said that she felt like if she became my wife, that I was going to make her sit down from the drug game, and she wasn’t ready for that.
“I like that answer. I know your only twenty- five, right? I don’t expect you to sit here and tell me that you had plans on asking for my nieces hand in marriage tomorrow, so thank you for keeping it real with me,” Rasheeda said.
“Twenty-five is not that young to not want to get married. Me, and your daddy got married when we were both seventeen years old,” Riot’s grandmother turned around from the stove, so that she could get into the conversation too.
“Times were different back then ma,” Riot’s mama jumped in.
I felt movement going on behind me, and that’s when I turned to see what was going on. It was Riot’s grandfather that had stood up from the couch. He was a smooth, handsome old man. That tan linen suit that he was rocking was nice on him.
He walked into the area where all of us were, and out of everyone that he could have gone to, he went for Riot first, standing behind her, and he kissed her on her forehead.
You could see the way that she lit up when he did that because she quickly stood up from the chair, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning her head on his shoulder.
“What’s up young man? How you doing?” he asked, sticking his hand out for me to shake.
“I’m doing alright. How you doing?” I asked, firmly shaking his hand while looking him in his eyes.
“I don’t know yet. What’s this I’m hearing about my grandbaby having a boyfriend? I don’t know how I feel about that,” he said, and I laughed.
He didn’t even have to tell me that he didn’t play that shit when it came to Riot.
I saw it in his eyes. I heard it in his tone.
Because Riot still had her arms wrapped around his waist, it caused his shirt to rise a little bit on the side, so you could see the Glock that he had resting there.
I just knew that that Glock wasn’t there for decoration either.
He’ll probably air that shit out when it came to Riot, or any of the women that were in his life.
“You should feel good about it. Your grandbaby in good hands with me. Bae, tell your pop-pop your happy with me,” I said, putting the smoke on her, needing her ass to back me just a little bit for the first time since I’ve been here.
I could handle the ladies. Her grandaddy was the one that I needed to be worried about.
“Pop-pop, I’m good. I’m happy. He makes me so happy. If he ever gets out of line, I’m going to call you so you can get him for me, okay?” she asked him.
This man looked at her, and he smiled, flashing the deep dimples that he had, and that smile told me everything that I needed to know. He would go to hell and back for Riot.
I was glad that she had that though, you know?
She missed out on having a father because he was killed when she was just two.
Then, she lost her brother. Those were the two men in her life that were obligated to love her and protect her.
It made me smile knowing that she had her pop-pop that was still here for her, and she still got the chance to be a daddy’s girl, even if it had to come from her granddaddy.
“We going to talk,” her granddaddy told me, and I was cool with that.
The rest of the evening was smooth. I remember Riot telling me that her mom, aunties, and grandparents could cook, and all I had to say was that she wasn’t lying when she told me that because this food was so good that I fucked around and got seconds.
Most people would have probably tried to be modest, and not eat as much, especially since this was my first time around most of her family, but I didn’t give a damn.