Chapter 16 #3
When he stepped out, he was holding a bouquet of roses that were so big that it covered his entire face.
I guess just like me, he remembered that today was my mom’s anniversary as well.
I knew that it meant a lot to my mom that the two of us got along.
She told me all the time that she didn’t expect me to carry on as if Major was my daddy, but she did want us to be cordial.
Any other time, if he had walked over, I would have probably gone back into the salon.
I wanted to do the mature thing today, so I stayed out here, and I watched as he went over to my mom with the flowers, and she gushed over them.
I had to accept the fact that she loved him.
It was in the way she looked at him. All those recordings that I’ve watched over the years, seeing her and my dad together, seeing the way that she would look at Grim, that’s the same manner in which she looked at Major, and that’s how I knew that her love was strong for him.
“I’m just getting surprise after surprise today.
You remembered too?” she asked, having to use all the muscles in her arms to not only hold the flowers that I’d gotten her, but to also hold the ones that Major had placed in her hands too.
He kissed her on top of her head. It was the same forehead kiss that Dolo would do with me.
“I have it on my calendar. How could I forget? Riot, what’s good?” Major asked, taking his eyes off my mom for a second, just so that he could turn, and look over at me.
He was dressed in his company’s black polo shirt, with black jeans, and a fresh pair of Jordan 12’s on his feet.
Major was handsome as hell. I’ll give him that.
He always dressed nice, always smelled good, and the nigga was successful.
I could see why my mom would be head over heels for him the way that she was.
“Hey,” I said, keeping it short with him like I did pretty much any other time that he would come around.
“Happy anniversary to you, baby. I have some more shit for you in the car, but I’ll give it to you in a second. Did you eat yet? Let me and Riot go next door, and get you something to eat,” he said, including me in his little plans.
Again, today was all about my mom, and I didn’t want to fuck up her day, so if going next door with him to get lunch for her would make her happy, then I was down for it.
My mom looked down at me. You could tell that she liked Major’s plan, but she didn’t know how I was going to feel about it. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to choose, so nervously, and against my will, I scratched at my head, sighed, and prepared to say what I had to say.
“Go ahead, ma. We’ll go next door to get you something to eat,” my response was mature, and it made her smile because I could tell that for us to get along was all she ever wanted.
“Okay. Ya’ll know what I like to get from there,” she said, and then turned on her heels, so that she could go back inside the salon.
It was a soul food spot next door. My mom was the main person that kept that place in business.
They had healthy options too, so it wasn’t like she had to eat a bunch of fried shit for lunch every day.
She liked to get their baked chicken. She loved that with the yellow rice, and mixed vegetables.
I’ve had the food a few times myself, and it was pretty good.
That spot opened while I was locked up. For the longest, the spot next door to my mom’s salon had been vacant. Now it was a small, mom and pop styled restaurant, but you could tell that the people in Miami fucked with it because the few times that I’ve been inside, it’s always been crowded.
“Come on. You ready?” Major asked me, and I nodded, letting him know that I was.
He walked on the side of me. He was on the side that was closest to the road. He was a damn giant compared to me. Super tall, and super cocky. With each step that we took, I could smell his cologne.
The restaurant was literally just a skip away, so we made it over to the door in no time.
I could hear Dolo’s voice in my head, telling me to never reach for a door handle when I was with a nigga, so I stopped, allowing Major to reach over me, and he was the one to open the door for us. I thanked him and walked inside.
Because it was the afternoon, it wasn’t that bad in here. Still a good amount of people in here, but nothing too crazy.
“I’ll order Shawn’s shit to go. Me, and you can eat here. I just want to sit and talk with you. That’s cool?” he asked me. I nodded my head, letting him know that I didn’t mind.
We reached the cashier, who was a black girl, that looked to have been my age.
She smiled when we approached her, followed by asking us what we wanted.
I did the baked chicken wing dinner. For my sides, I did macaroni and cheese, and mixed vegetables.
Major put an order in, and I found myself laughing to myself because his ass had an appetite like Dolo.
He ordered damn near everything on the menu and had the nerve to ask me if I was sure that what I ordered was all that I wanted.
I paid attention to the way he ordered my mom’s food.
He knew this woman to a t. He knew how to order for her.
He knew the kind of sauces that she was going to want.
They had dessert here as well, so he knew to ask which dessert was available, so that he could pick the one that he knew she would like the most. That was a man that paid attention, and even though it was something small, I gave him his brownie points for it.
We were given the drinks that we ordered and told that the food was going to take about fifteen minutes. Everything was cooked to order. It was going to be fresh once we got it.
While we waited, Major found a spot for us at a booth.
He sat on one side, while I sat on the other.
He folded his arms on the table, and naturally, my eyes went for his wrist. He wore a nice Patek Philippe.
I only knew what the brand was by taking one look at it because of Dolo.
My man was a watch fanatic. His collection went crazy.
“I know you probably hate my fuckin guts, but I swear I’m not a bad person Riot.
I’m a good nigga to your mama. Had this would have been twenty years ago, I wouldn’t be able to confidently look you in your eyes and tell you that.
I have a past. I was once living on the wild side, not treating women the way that they deserved.
I grew up though. Prior to your mom, I’ve only been in one serious relationship.
That ended a few years ago, and my ex can’t tell you anything terrible that I’ve ever done to her.
Our shit just didn’t work out. I met Keyshawn, and she was my friend before she was anything else to me.
She was a broken woman. Lost her husband, and her son.
It took her awhile to fully open up to me, and when she did give me a chance, I made a promise to her that I wouldn’t fuck it up,” he started, and I sat back, hanging onto his every word, wanting to respect him, and give him the floor to speak.
“Your mama can’t come to you and tell you nothing bad about me.
I love her so much that I can’t see me doing anything out the way to ever hurt her.
I know that it means a lot to her for me, and you to get along.
She expresses that to me. I don’t want to force this shit on you though, and that’s why I’m fragile when it comes to you.
I know how it feels to have to accept the person that your parent is dealing with.
I was raised by a stepfather. Gave that nigga hell in the beginning, but once I opened, and gave him a chance, he became someone in my life that I truly loved.
To this day, I call him dad. I’m not telling you that you gotta call me that though.
I wouldn’t expect you to. I just want you to see what it looks like when you give someone a chance.
I know I’m not your daddy. I don’t want you to think that I’m coming into your life, trying to take over Grim’s place.
Just want you to see that I’m a good person,” he finished, and I respected everything that he said, so when he finished, I nodded my head.
“The only thing that I disagree with what you said is the part about me hating you. I don’t hate you.
Your someone that’s come into my mom’s life, and you’re making her happy, so for that I can’t hate you.
I just didn’t know how to like you, you know?
I’m grown, but there’s still this little girl that lives in me, that would have loved for my dad to still be here, so that I could witness him, and my mom together.
I’ve had a hard time accepting that over the years.
I’m at a stage in my life where I’m growing up, and a lot of the sacrifices and shit that my mom made for me and my brother over the years are coming at me full force.
These days, I’m just trying to do the things that I know are going to make her happy,” I started, and then I took a quick break, looking out of the window for a little bit.
I gave it a few seconds, and then I placed my gaze back on him.
“Me, coming and having lunch with you is big for me. I know I wouldn’t have agreed to do this shit two months ago.
I’m trying to change though. Bear with me.
I’m not calling your ass daddy though,” I finished, and when I did, he laughed, while throwing his hands up, basically letting me know that he didn’t want any smoke with me. His laugh caused me to laugh.
“Nah. I wouldn’t expect you to. I wouldn’t ask you to do that,” he said, and I was glad that we could agree on it.
I sat, thinking about the next question that I wanted to ask him. It came to me out of nowhere.
“You going to marry her?” I asked, and that made him smile. He had such a nice smile too.
“That’s the plan. I wasn’t asking her until me, and you got to a decent place.
This is a start. Let me and you get somewhere first with our relationship, and the plan is to eventually pop the question.
Well, I gotta go through her daddy first. I need his blessing.
Truth be told, I need your blessing too,” was his response, and I respected that.
This is how I knew I was coming around because the old Riot wouldn’t have even entertained a conversation about my mom getting married.
The old Riot would have probably gotten mad at my mom for accepting his proposal.
I had to rid myself of that mindset. It was a fucked up acceptance, and it was a huge pill to swallow, but the truth was that my dad was gone, and he wasn’t coming back.
My mom deserved happiness. All the fucked up cards she was dealt, all the shit that me, and my brother put her through, she deserved to have this happiness, and I didn’t want to get in the way of that.
“Just don’t get her pregnant. I’ll probably have to beat your ass for that,” I let him know, and he laughed.
“Nah. We good on that end. Your mama makes it clear any chance that she gets that she’s not having any more kids.
It’s no pressure though. I was never one of those men that dwelled on having children of my own.
My businesses are my children. I ain’t going to lie though, you cool Riot.
Your mama always rants, and raves about you.
If we get in good, and if you can see the good in me, you’ll be the closest thing that I’ll ever get to having a daughter of my own,” that was real of him to say.
I know that I wasn’t the easiest to deal with, but what I heard him say just now was that he understood that my mom came with a child, and he was willing to accept her, and accept me.
That was real. Since I didn’t make it easy for him, he could have said fuck me and just pursued my mom, but he didn’t.
I was glad that we had this talk. Our relationship wasn’t going to blossom overnight, but it was a start. This was growth.
I guess those anger management courses that I’m always complaining about were paying off. I could see the change in me.