Chapter 13 #2
I hadn't heard from Tunan since he left, and I hated to admit that it stung. When he was around, I was constantly reminding him that what we had wasn’t real.
The sex was good, and yes, he was attractive, but we were just doing each other a favor.
Still, it was when he wasn’t around that my mind got the best of me.
I didn’t know if I missed him or just missed having a man in my space and a dick in my guts. It was all confusing.
“Glee told you, hunh?” I shifted my thoughts once I realized what she was insinuating.
“Yep. And if you weren’t recovering, I’d drag your ass all up and through this house for how you handled my baby. She didn’t want to tell me; I had to force her because I know you. I knew you were here being mean. I knew you were in here using her life as an excuse to starve yourself.”
“Mama—”
“Let me finish, Charisma… I should have been here, so I can’t talk too much.
But you were dead wrong. We both failed Glee to some degree.
I should have stopped everything and run here, and I’ll forever regret that.
This city just has this dark cloud over me.
I let your father make me forget how much I loved Jagoda Bay.
I was the one to convince him to take the job here. ”
My mama and daddy were college sweethearts.
They were both attending JBU before it was torn down and rebuilt.
She was originally from southern Florida, and he was from here.
When they graduated, he had several job offers and was about to take the one in New York, but she convinced him to stay here.
She never went back home after that. When she divorced him, she took a job in Sparkling City, packed us up, and we lived out the remainder of our childhood there.
She wanted to go back to Florida, but I wasn’t having it.
My dad wasn’t a good husband, but he was a great father.
We all agreed that he at least deserved to be our dad, even though my mama hated his guts for many years.
“Anyway, the cloud is gone now, and I see very clearly that I should’ve been here when my baby girl gave birth.
I should have paid more attention to what Glee had going on at BU, and I’ll forever have to live with that.
But we can’t be nasty to her. As much as you hate it, Glee is an adult, and she looks up to you, Glow. ”
My mama paused, clenched her eyes closed, and then looked back at me. “She’d looked up to you so much so that at one point, she tried to stop eating like you.”
I remembered that, even though I tried to force the memory from my memory bank. That incident was when I started forcing myself to eat more. I didn’t want my sister to become anorexic, so I put on a front and hid it as much as I could. Above all, I tried for Glee’s sake.
“She’s my baby, and now she has a baby.” I wiped at my eye that was misting.
“And she is also an adult. She is free to make her own decisions. Just like you went and married the brother of your boo, your sister is free to live her life. You don’t hear me calling you outside your name and trying to attack you.
Besides, your sister did good. I see y’all got the taste for attractive men from me.
At least they ain’t light skinned.” She scoffed.
“I saw one at the hospital with colored eyes, and I know he’s hell. ”
I giggled. “Mama, stop. That’s Jisei’s husband, Ezio. He’s in love with her, and he doesn’t cheat.”
Don would kill him if he did, and then we would raise him from the dead and jump him.
“I should have known that was Little Ezee’s daddy. I wanted to slap his ass just off the strength. But he did make a cute little boy, so I guess he’s alright.”
My daddy did a number on my mama. She was nearly a colorist, treating all light-skinned people with disdain, like she wasn’t one herself, with two light-skinned daughters. She told us to date only men with melanin and said she wanted melanated grandkids. My mother was way too much.
“Glee can be your baby, but just remember she’s my baby girl. She’s your baby sister. You were madder than your no-good-ass daddy. He’s actually excited to be a Paw-Paw.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Mama, you and Daddy looked kinda cozy, no lie.”
“Girl, I almost forgot you were my daughter and called you something real nasty. Your daddy ain't shit to me. He is always trying to be nice. He is especially laying it on thick because he wants to bring his ole lady to meet Lee Lee.”
With amusement in my tone, I straightened my spine and asked, “And what did you say?”
“I said, ‘hell nawl!’ I ain’t that damn healed. Bitch better see her from the pictures he took on his phone.”
I tossed my head back in laughter. I was always guaranteed a good laugh with my mama.
She threw herself into work when Glee went to BU, and we didn’t spend enough time together during that time.
I knew she was lonely, but she was adamant about not living in Jagoda Bay.
I was so happy she was here now, no matter how much shit she talked about my dad.
I honestly didn’t blame my mama for how she felt about my daddy or his wife.
He’d married one of the women he’d cheated on her with.
The new marriage was signed before the ink dried on the one to my mama.
Glee and I didn’t attend the wedding because my mama was not going for it, and when I moved in with them at nineteen, my mama caused so much hell that I moved back home just weeks later.
“You can’t lie. Daddy did look good.”
“As fuck.” She agreed with a scoff, and I was no more good. “But that doesn’t mean shit, Glow. He still ain’t no good. Begged me to let him sniff it, and when I declined, he still handed me his whole credit card.”
She reached into her bra and pulled out a silver Amex that had my daddy’s name on it.
“I’m going to spend his money because I need to pay for movers to pack my house up. The bastard owes me anyway. Other than that, he can eat dirt.”
I shook my head as I eyed the card. “Y’all are too much. Let me find out us being hospitalized is bringing y’all back together.”
“Keep finding out. You’re gonna be searching till the end of time. Fuuuuck yo’ red-ass daddy.”
I was cracking up.
“But”—she placed the card back in her bra—“Stop playing my baby like she isn’t her mama’s daughter. She and my grandbaby will be just fine.”
“So he came to the hospital when I was out? You met him, didn’t you?”
“Let me ask you this… That man in the suit, with the bodyguards and the men carrying all those pistols… If Glee wakes up and wonders why she has guards at her door, will you provide her with answers about who your husband and your friends are married to? Will you tell her the truth?”
My tongue swiped across my teeth, and I pushed my back into the headboard.
“Yeah, exactly. So stop trying to get in her business. She may be young, but she will be twenty in a few days. She ain’t dumb enough to let no broke nigga get her pregnant.
Now, y’all daddy went the corporate route, so that gangster shit y’all into…
Y’all didn’t get that from me. But with the way those young men were all up and through that hospital, swaggering around and calling shots, has my taste shifting. Give me the daddy!”
Everybody’s daddy was six feet under, and in Pia’s case, gay, but I kept that to myself.
“So she went and got a street nigga? Oh, God. He’s going to run circles ’round my sister.” I shook my head.
“He is not, Glow. From what I could tell, he loves your sister something serious. He didn’t know about the baby, and that’s all I am willing to share.
Anything else will have to come from your sister, but just like you have loyalty to you and your friends, and their men, and your man, she has loyalty to hers. Respect that.”
“Okay, so he didn’t know about the baby. He knows now, and where is he?” I popped my lips. I couldn’t believe Glee would like some hood nigga knock her up.
“And where is your husband?”
My lips perched.
“Ummhmm. Get out of her business, as I said! Give your sister some credit. I would have preferred her to wait, but I don’t blame her for getting pregnant. Just like I don’t blame you for getting hitched to your boo’s brother.”
“Shio was not my boo.”
“Either way, both my son-in-laws look damn good.”
“But what about her dreams of being a doctor?”
“What about it, Charisma? A baby doesn’t stop shit.
I was pregnant with you when I received my degree.
Good and pregnant, so I went through most of my senior year sick as a dog.
She can still be a doctor if that’s what she wants to do.
If not, oh well. You can make doctor money in many fields these days.
The great thing about life is you can start over as many times as you want.
I’m proud of her and you, either way. If you pressure her, you’re gonna lose her.
Just be her big sister, Glow. And stop using her life as a reason to stress about shit that doesn’t concern you. Glee is going to be just fine.”
My mama grabbed my chin. I could smell the faint hint of Johnson and Johnson lotion from her handling Lee Lee.
“All I wanted for y’all to do was get good men who would love, protect, and spoil y’all.
As much as I hate your daddy, he has always taken care of home.
Except for that fighting and cheating shit, he was decent.
I don’t care how good a man looks; if he’s mentally and physically abusive, get the fuck on.
Your husband and her baby daddy don’t give me those vibes. ”
She stood. “We gone be aite, my little gangster princesses.”
“Mama, please. Go add some fantasy or something to your Kindle. You too deep in them urban streets.”
“Oh, girl, please! Them dragons and vampires gets down and dirty too.”