6. JB
JB
Icould always tell when Lee was about to start her period. The week before, she’d be mean as hell to me. Then again, this time I hadn’t exactly given her a reason to be nice.
I knew my baby was mad because I left her last night, but going home to Hannah was part of the deal.
Hannah knew Lee was coming home. She knew about the apartment, the Benz, and everything else I had been getting together for her.
That didn’t mean she liked any of it. We had already had enough arguments over the years about Lee and where she fit into my life for me to know better than that.
Still, when it came time for Lee to get out, Hannah ain’t try to stop me from picking her up or doing what I felt like I needed to do for her.
She asked me for one thing. After I got Lee settled, gave her everything I had waiting on her, and made sure she was straight, I needed to come back home to her and my kids that night.
At the time, I agreed. It ain’t seem like too much to ask. Then I actually had to leave Lee and that shit was harder than I expected.
So today, I lied to Hannah and told her one of my drivers had a family emergency and I had to cover his load. Truth was, I planned on spending the whole weekend with Lee. I was even thinking about getting us out the city for a couple days so I ain’t have to worry about Hannah seeing us together.
Crazy as hell when I thought about it. I was hiding my main bitch from my side bitch.
Shit with Hannah was never supposed to go as far as it did. When we first started fucking around, that was all it was supposed to be. Then she got pregnant with JJ, and somewhere between doctor’s appointments, feeling him kick, and watching her stomach get bigger with my son, shit changed.
I loved Hannah. I couldn’t lie about that. That was my woman, and them was my kids.
Still, I had been straight with her from the beginning about Lee.
I wasn’t leaving Lee behind just because she was locked up, and I damn sure wasn’t gonna act like what she did for me didn’t matter.
Hannah knew that. What she hadn’t expected was for years to pass, for us to build a whole family together, and for Lee to still have the same place in my life she had before she went in.
That was where most of our problems came from.
Hannah wanted what we had to stop being something we kept inside the house.
I understood why. She had my son, another baby on the way, and I came home to her every night.
But too many people still rode hard for Lee, especially them girls from Love-Lee.
Hannah had worked there before Lee went in, then bought the building after it was sold and opened her own shop in the same spot.
If people found out she had been fucking Lee’s man and had two kids by me, half them women would’ve looked at her different.
Some of them probably would’ve done a whole lot more than look, especially since the only bitches who ever really had a problem with Lee were the ones who lowkey wanted to fuck me anyway.
I pushed all that shit out my head and went into the kitchen for a butter knife. Lee really thought locking that bedroom door was gonna keep me out. I slid the knife into the lock, worked it around for a few seconds, and the door popped open.
The shower was still running, so I stretched out across her bed to wait. That’s when I noticed a phone sitting on the charger beside me.
I picked it up. “Damn, she got a phone already.”
I had planned on taking her to get one today, but by the time I got over here, her ass was gone. She’d been gone damn near all day, so I figured her and Anika must’ve handled it.
I tapped the screen and saw she already had a passcode on it. That shit ain’t sit right with me because what the fuck did she have to hide already?
I tried her birthday first, but that wasn’t it.
Then I tried mine and got denied again. That pissed me off a little more than it probably should’ve, but fuck it.
Me and Lee had never been the type to keep shit from each other, so I couldn’t help wondering what she had put on there that I wasn’t supposed to see.
I sat there thinking about what else she might’ve used. I ain’t know Anika’s birthday off the top of my head, and I knew damn well she hadn’t used her mama’s. Then another date crossed my mind.
I typed in our son’s birthday, and the phone unlocked.
For a minute, I just sat there looking at the screen.
Losing him had fucked both of us up, but we handled it different.
Lee eventually found nails and had something to pour herself into.
I went harder in the streets, moving more weight and stacking more money, telling myself I was doing it for us and whatever future we still had left.
Before long, I had more product and cash than I had places to keep it, and that was how the shit ended up in the walls of her shop.
The contractor I paid to hide everything was the only other person who knew it was there.
After Lee got arrested, that nigga disappeared and his whole business disappeared right along with him.
I hadn’t seen or heard from his ass since.
I pushed that out of my head and started going through Lee’s phone.
There wasn’t much in it yet, just a couple pictures of her nails, some of her braids, and a few pictures of Anika posing in front of the Benz.
What threw me off was that I didn’t see a single picture of Lee herself.
Before she went in, that girl stayed taking pictures.
Hair done, nails done, laying around the house in one of my shirts, it didn’t matter.
Her camera roll used to be full of her face.
Before I could think too hard about it, I heard the shower cut off. I put the phone back on the charger exactly where I found it and laid back against the headboard. A drawer opened in the bathroom, then I heard her moving around in there for another minute before the door finally opened.
Lee walked out butt naked with her braids wrapped up in a silk scarf.
I’d seen her plenty of times during visits, but them prison uniforms never really showed me how much weight she’d lost. She was smaller everywhere now, her waist narrower and some of the softness gone from her hips and thighs.
Her face had thinned out too, making them big dark eyes stand out even more beneath her thick brows.
Same full lips, same warm-brown skin, just a little less softness in her cheeks than I remembered.
Even that chip in her front tooth couldn’t change the fact that she was still fine as hell to me.
She took a couple steps into the room before she noticed me stretched across her bed and damn near jumped out her skin.
“What the fuck you still doing in my house?” she yelled.
I stayed right where I was. “Waiting on you to come to bed. I been waiting on you all day.”
Lee stared at me like she couldn’t believe I had the nerve. “Like I waited on you to come back all night.”
I almost smiled because I already knew what time she was on. My baby was pissed, and I couldn’t even blame her.
“I told you I had work.”
She turned toward her dresser and started pulling open drawers. “What bitch house you had to drop it off at?”
I watched her snatch through her clothes, still standing there naked like she wasn’t giving me exactly what I wanted. “Why you rushing to put clothes on? I been waiting five years to see that pussy.”
Lee looked back over her shoulder. “Nigga, fuck you. I’m hungry, sleepy, and my head hurt. I ain’t got time for your shit.”
“I’m hungry too.” I got off the bed and started toward her. “Let me eat that pussy.”
Lee stopped digging through the drawer and turned all the way around before pointing between her legs. “I ain’t had a proper shave in five years, and me and you both know you ain’t finna eat no hairy-ass pussy.”
“Come here, Lee.”
She ain’t move an inch. Just stood there naked, looking at me like she already knew I wasn’t about to listen to shit she said.
“If I have to come get you, it’s gonna be worse on you,” I warned her.
She still didn’t tell me to stop when I came toward her, and when I got close enough, she grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me in.
I caught her around the waist and tossed her onto the bed.
Lee squealed when she hit the mattress, but before she could sit back up and start cussing me out, I was already between her legs.
She could talk all that shit she wanted to, but her body ain’t give a damn about none of it.
Her hands grabbed at the sheets while I held her thighs open, and it didn’t take long before she was moving against my mouth.
Even after all that time apart, I still knew exactly what she liked, and apparently five years hadn’t changed that.
“Fuck, JB.”
Her whole body tightened before she came, her legs closing around my head while she tried to catch her breath.
“That’s it, baby,” I told her, keeping my mouth on her while she came down. “I missed how that pussy taste. You hear me? I missed it so damn much.”
By the time I came back up over her, neither one of us was thinking about being tired or hungry anymore. Lee wrapped her arms around me, and shit heated up fast from there. But right when I shifted between her legs to take it farther, she planted both hands against my chest.
“Wait.”
I stopped and looked down at her. “What?”
“There are condoms in the bathroom.”
I stared at her like she had lost her damn mind. “Don’t play with me, Lee. We ain’t never used a condom in our lives. Plus, you owe me a son.”
Her face changed immediately. “Nigga, I already gave up five years of my life for you. I don’t owe you shit.”
I couldn’t even argue with that.
“Baby, I’m trying to feel this pussy, not argue.”
“Well, let me go grab these condoms.”
I looked at her. “Man, you serious right now?”
“Yes, I’m serious.” Lee pushed against my chest again. “You just told me last night you been with other people. When was the last time you were tested?”
I sucked my teeth and moved off her. “Man, just go get the damn condoms.”
“That’s what I thought.”
She slipped out from under me and headed toward the bathroom. I laid there watching her ass walk away, still not believing Lee was really making me put on a fucking condom.
She came back a few seconds later and tossed one onto the bed beside me.
I picked it up and looked at her. “You really getting on my nerves.”
“Put it on, JB.”
I sucked my teeth, ripped the wrapper open, and did what she said. “You happy now?”
Lee looked down at me with a little smirk. “I will be when that dick inside me.”
I grabbed her by the hips and pulled her back toward me. “Well, be a big girl and come sit on it.”
Lee didn’t hesitate. She climbed over me and planted her hands against my chest before slowly lowering herself onto me.
Even with the condom between us, the second she took all of me, I had to grip her hips and get myself together.
Five years apart, and that pussy still had me ready to lose my damn mind.
She started moving, slow at first, watching my face like she knew exactly what she was doing to me. I tightened my hands around her hips and helped set the pace.
“I love you, Lee,” I told her.
Her eyes stayed on mine.
“You hear me? I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too, JB.” She leaned down closer, her nails pressing into my shoulders. “I missed you. Baby, I missed you so damn much.”
Hearing her say that fucked me up a little. After everything she had lost because of me, after all those years she spent behind that wall, she was still looking at me like I was the man she loved.
“I missed you too, ma.” I pulled her closer. “More than you know.”
Lee started moving faster, and it wasn’t long before I could tell she was getting close again. Her breathing changed, her nails dug harder into my shoulders, and then she came with my name falling out her mouth.
“Jabari…”
I held her through it, but hearing her say my name like that was enough to finish me too. I came right behind her, pulling her down against my chest while we both tried to catch our breath.
Afterward, Lee curled up beside me the same way she used to, with her head against my chest and one leg thrown over mine. I wrapped my arm around her and kissed her forehead.
“Still us,” I said.
She tucked herself closer. “Always.”
I held her there, but that word didn’t sit the same with me as it probably did with her. Hannah was at home five months pregnant with my daughter, and JJ was probably sleep by now. When he woke up in the morning, he’d be looking for me, and here I was laid up with Lee like ain’t shit changed.
She didn’t know about Hannah, JJ, or the baby. I knew I had to tell her because I couldn’t keep that shit from her forever, just not tonight.