Chapter 8 #4
Jisei’s spoiled ass folded her arms and turned to face her husband, as if she wasn’t already in his lap.
Mocha wasn’t sitting on Zo’s lap, but she might as well have been, considering how she was leaning on him.
All she did was snicker at our friend without looking my way.
I could feel Tunan’s eyes on me, but I refused to look at him or Shio’s.
When we first approached, they were engaged in a conversation that didn’t look heated but also didn’t look pleasant. I was hoping it wasn’t about me.
“Well, well, well… If it isn’t the brother fucker herself. What’s good, Glow?”
Leave it up to Nel to crack a joke. I rolled my eyes and threw a tight-lipped smile his way. I could feel my skin heating and knew the tinted moisturizer wouldn’t hide the embarrassment on my face.
“Stop, bae…” Pia playfully hit his chest.
“Glow know it’s all love. These niggas just found out they were brothers three days ago, so it don’t count. But I will say… You chose the right brother. T.D Jakes here come with too much shit. I’m talking… long-lost daughters, Mexican princesses, grenades—”
Matteo grunted, which I knew was his way of telling Renello to shut up, but the whole conversation further embarrassed me.
“Nel, shut the fuck up,” Shio said as he stood. “Glow ain’t fuck us both. She ain’t on no Jerry Springer shit.” Shio turned and slapped his brother on the back. “Congratulations, you two!”
As he swaggered past me, I stilled. He looked and smelled good, even though he looked like he had a lot on his mind.
He winked at me, and shamefully, I had to swallow the saliva that had formed from the gesture.
Shio was undeniably fine, but Nel was right.
I married the right man because there was just something about Tunan that made me want to come from just looking at him.
However, I was standing on business about our arrangement.
He was my play husband and nothing more.
“Ain’t no need to act modest now. Y’all done fucked and took vows before God.”
“Nel!” Pia laughed. “Please leave Glow alone.”
Wishing I could ball up in a corner and die, I avoided Tunan’s gaze and took the now-empty seat next to him, ensuring I left some space between us.
I wasn’t particularly upset with Tunan. He’d done what I asked, but the woman in me was not happy that he could easily let days go by and not feel an urge to even check on me.
I knew I had some sorting out to do when it came to my feelings for Tunan, but in the meantime, I wanted him to want me.
Play husband or not, I was still a woman who liked to be desired.
The waitress from earlier came over and handed out drinks to all the women.
I took the cold glass and nodded curtly in thanks.
There were two more waitresses behind her, passing out bottles to the men.
I couldn’t see the labels, but they looked expensive from the shaped of the bottle and the deep color of the liquor.
It was early in the afternoon, but that didn’t matter to this crew.
There had been plenty of days when the ladies got drunk at brunch, and most of the time, it was early morning.
The Rinaldi Mob was made up of young, rich, and flashy men and women.
They had a lot to celebrate, and most of the time, bottles were flying, and blunts were in rotation for even the smallest occasion.
With my hand gripping the cold glass, I sat stiff as a mannequin. Nel wasn’t letting up as he peered at me from behind Pia, whose belly had grown even more in my absence. She hadn’t gained any more weight in her face, so that was a plus.
“Damn, it’s trouble in paradise already? Y’all just got married last night.”
Only then did all the ladies snap their heads our way. I could feel heat creep up my neck, so I placed the cold glass to my lips and took a sip. I needed something to take the edge off. I also wished Nel would shut the hell up.
“Aye.”
Peering at Tunan with my peripheral vision, he was removing weed buds from a clear baggie and dumping them into the wrapper held in his left hand.
“Glow.” His voice was stern.
Turning my head completely, I licked my lips out of nervousness.
Tunan, as always, had a hat propped on his head, but it sat sideways.
The short-sleeved Fear of God T-shirt hung from his broad shoulders, but I could see his biceps and chest muscles through the fabric.
On his lower half were the matching shorts in the same gray color, and on his feet, a pair of white and gray Nike Air Maxes.
He looked too damn good. He looked like his last couple of days had been well spent, unlike mine.
Jealousy shivered down my spine thinking of who he’d been spending his time with, but I shook it off just as it appeared.
I have a whole baby in my house now. My business needed my attention.
I had content to post, money to make, and a sister to look after.
That was all I needed on my mind at the moment.
Still, my pussy didn’t get the memo because she was thudding to the point I had to squeeze my thighs together.
To make matters worse, our gray and yellow complemented each other nicely.
Ugh, I thought until we locked eyes.
His brown, lid-covered orbs bore into mine, stirring something in my chest. I had to fight the overwhelming need to be next to him as he silently assessed me.
He liked what he saw, just like I did, but if we didn’t stop this now, it could crash and burn.
Tunan was fresh out of jail, probably for selling drugs.
Truthfully, I didn’t care why, but it was clear he was trying to get his life together now.
He hadn’t bought a car, he lived with his sister, and he’d bought my ring off the street.
This setup was meant to help him get on his feet and fix his life.
I supported that, but I didn’t want to participate.
I couldn’t keep falling victim to the weapon between his legs because, just like he had things going on, thanks to Glee, I had my own issues now.
“When the last time you ate sum’n, Glow?”
Tunan licked the blunt closed while waiting for a response.
Tightening my grip on the glass, my hand was numb from the temperature now, while my heart pounded like a fist against my chest.
“I…I—”
“Don’t lie, Glow. I know you’ve been over there giving Glee hell, forgetting to eat, and throwing up and shit. You need to put sum’n on your stomach before you get to drinking.”
He ran the lighter down the length of his blunt, still eyeing me. I visibly relaxed. I didn’t know where he was going with that question. I’d thought he’d known for a second, but there was no way he could know what I had been up to the last few days.
“I’m good, Tunan. And I haven’t been giving Glee hell. Not that it’s any of your business, but I was babysitting for her today since she had to go to school to handle business.”
Tunan’s brow rose. “School business in Cove City, huh?”
I eyed him because I heard the questioning tone in his words. “Yeah. She was at BU, remember? I told you this.”
“Oh, I remember, my baby… I remember what you told me ’bout Lil’ Glee.”
His tone still had me uneasy. Glee had already snuck a baby on my ass, and I would hate to find out she was keeping more from me.
From Tunan’s tone, he knew something I didn’t, and I didn’t like that.
When it came to Calista Glee, I needed all the details.
The last thing she needed was another baby on top of the one she already had.
“What you been on the last couple days?” Tunan cleared his throat and drove his back further into the couch.
I watched as his legs gapped, smoke flowing from his mouth and dancing into the air.
I could still feel the cold stare and cold shoulders of my girls to the right of me, and I felt terrible about ghosting them.
Still, I kept my attention on Tunan because my eyes couldn’t concentrate on anyone else here, even if I tried.
“Had you called, you would have known,” I blurted out before I could catch myself.
Tunan hadn’t been a thought—not while I was locked in my room.
But the moment I got up and realized he hadn’t reached out, I felt a way.
There hadn’t even been a “hey boo” text.
We’d gotten married, had that fiasco at the hospital, had breakfast on Mother’s Day, and then he came and fucked me into a coma.
I was conflicted because I wasn’t sure if I was madder about him being M.I.A.
or that he looked like a fucking God, even simply dressed.
Before I pulled myself together, I looked like death.
Even when Dasani showed up, the lack of care I’d given myself over the past week was evident.
“Come ’ere,” he ordered, but his voice was smooth and weed-induced.
I hated the way my body reacted around Tunan.
He was walking temptation, and I didn’t know if it was some shit he picked up while being locked up and deprived of pussy or if it had been on him his entire life.
Since I’d met his family, I concluded that they’d been little charmers since the day they slid out of their mother.
I didn’t sit on his lap like the other women, but I did scoot closer to him. Still in his relaxed posture, he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me in further until we were hip to hip.
“Is dis shit on paper, or are we puttin’ dis shit in motion, Glow? Lemme know, cuz… I ain’t gonna be tussling with yo’ pretty ass.”
Before I could respond, he placed his lips inches from mine and blew a gun. The herbs entered my system, calming my nerves but igniting my hormones. His lips were always so soft and moisturized, and with how tough he was and how much weed he smoked, you would think they’d be crusty.