Chapter 23 #4
“No, don’t be. It’s done. But I sold mine, so if I could go back, I would have waited and given it to my husband on our wedding night.
But then, my baby wouldn’t be here. And that very thought makes me feel guilty.
” She squeezed my hands. “What I’m saying is, all of our endgames lead to, or are leading to, marriage one way or another.
We know for a fact that you will not be going back to Mexico. That’s done. We like you too much and—”
“You know too damn much.” Dasani finished with a straight face that had me stiffening.
“Yes, that’s true,” Scarlett softened Dasani’s words, but I knew what Dasani meant.
“It’s nothing wrong with giving it to your forever person.
For me, sex is a beautiful thing. Women process sex differently.
But sex with my husband is just… different.
Matteo has a way about himself that… I don’t know how to explain it except the nigga can fuck.
Like he can fuck, and in the same breath, he can make love so good that it brings me to tears.
If I didn’t have him, I wouldn’t want to have sex at all. ”
Pia nodded. “I enjoyed sex with the other men I slept with, but Nel is definitely the best I’ve ever had.”
“Yeah, same with Ezio. You’d think he was still on the percs the way he be having my ass folded like a pretzel every other day.”
Mocha clapped her hands. “That’s how I got my fast-ass pregnant, so you know Lorenzo is definitely that nigga in and outside of the bedroom.”
“See! The man you marry is definitely going to make all the other guys irrelevant.” Scarlett smiled, and I swear she was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever known—inside and out.
“Bitch, please!” Dasani stole my attention.
“Demise a beast and all, but I done had some good-ass runner-ups! I was running through them ballers that brought their asses in the emergency room. Them niggas was stuffing my pussy and my pockets. Ion know what these bitches talking ’bout, but for some people, hoe is life.
I met my husband being on some hoe shit. ” Dasani shrugged.
“Emergencia room?”
“Yeah, I used to be a nurse before I got locked up, girl.”
There was so much I didn’t know about these women, and each time they opened their mouths, I was more intrigued.
I shrugged, not willing to ask Dasani to elaborate.
“I think what worries me the most is… Um, not knowing what is next for me. When I was at Shio’s home, I had just started to get comfortable when I was kicked out.
Now, I am comfortable here and can’t help but feel like the same thing will happen. I don’t know what my next plan is.”
“Well, this is my muthafuckin’ house. Can’t a soul put you out.
When you’re comfortable, you can come out of this basement and take over my primary bedroom.
I still have clothes and stuff up there with the tags on them, and though you’re thicker than me, you can do something with a lot of them clothes, I’m sure.
“As Dasani said, you’re here to stay. I can’t tell you if you and Shio are endgame…
I really wish I could. But what I will say is, you don’t have to worry about not one of those Mexicans coming for you.
We gone make sure you good. We got money and connections just like our husbands, and for the bitches we love, we don’t mind tricking! ”
“Yeap! Just like our tricking-ass husbands.” Dasani pointed at Jisei.
“Oh my God! He is my brother! Long-lost brother, at that. So he can’t buy me shit, Dasani?”
“Rare bags? Hell nawl, he can’t. You got a husband!”
Jisei rolled her eyes. “I never thought when I finally got a sister she’d be a hater.”
“That’s why you ain’t expected to think. Just look pretty, Jae Bae. But, anywho! I have to start adding this disclaimer now.”
Dasani sat up and looked me directly in the eyes.
“Solana, you are not a wife, so there are things that will be filtered around you. There are times that you will be excluded. There will be sidebar conversations only because the big dicks we ride every night come first before anything and anybody. I fucks with you, and although Demise Rinaldi irks my soul, I will not see my nigga back in jail. As long as you cool with that, you in the clique.”
“Really, Dasani?” Jisei folded her arms as Pia and Mocha giggled.
“Yes, really! I ain’t going to go into details, because I ain’t no fake-ass bitch, but I thought it was common knowledge that if we are around you, you are in our circle.
It’s plenty of niggas that work for my husband, and we don’t fuck with their wives like that, at all.
Not because we are some mean girls, but they have their own lil’ cliques like we got our own.
The fact of the matter is… We bring women in without being married, which lets them know we fuck with them the long way.
So, please… Don’t do anything drastic to fit in with us because you’re already in.
Okay?” Dasani blinked at me with a smile.
“You messy.” Mocha laughed, and Pia wiped tears from her eyes from laughing.
“I’m real!” Dasani spat. I noticed a slight shift from Scarlett and Jisei, but I knew not to ask.
Dasani clicked her tongue and shifted back on the bed to get comfortable again.
“I know you’re on cocaine and all, but what was the breaking point for Shio?
Did he really not know? How did you hide it?
I’m sorry, there are so many gaps in the story, and I’m a nosy bitch.
My husband don’t pillow talk to me like he does to his sister. ”
Jisei picked up a throw pillow and tossed it at Dasani, who caught it and tossed it back.
Wringing my hands, the day I was brought here came back to me. It was one that I tried not to think about. In less than twenty-four hours, I’d been put out and was looked at by Shio with so much hate that I felt his emotions in my gut.
“He’d just come back from taking Bahati to the hospital. I was in the kitchen, sitting on the countertop.”
“Uggh! Weird-ass, back-from-the-dead-ass baby mama.” Scarlett scoffed.
Her name-calling made me smirk.
“Her arm was broken—is broken…” I paused, unsure of what I could share, so I skipped past the entire kidnapping-rescue situation.
“Her ass should’ve been broken! Like… Shio should have put his whole foot so far in her ass that it should still be stuck. Who the fuck hides a baby?”
“Right!” Mocha backed Pia’s statement.
I didn’t understand why she hid Shya, but she was very much unhidden now. Shya was at Shio’s home, being raised by both of her parents. The thought of them being a family made my chest burn.
“They came in, and she accused me of being careless with drugs. Before I could get an explanation out, she attacked me.”
When Bahati snatched me from the counter with her one arm, I was in complete shock, but hours later, my back was on fire.
“That bitch put her hands on you?” Pia screamed.
“All, hella nawl!” Dasani spat, sitting up on the bed again.
“I was so surprised… I didn’t have much time to react. I was trying to explain to Shio that I would never do that. I have smaller siblings back home. I would never leave drugs around. I didn’t have much left, and what I did have left was in the closet on the island. Not in some baggie.”
“You didn’t fight back, Solana? The bitch had one arm so you was supposed to mop her ass all up and through that fucking kitchen! When I got done with the hoe, she would’ve had two broken arms!” Dasani fumed as Mocha agreed.
“Sadly, no… I did not want to fight with the mother of his child. And the baby was there.”
“Man, fuck that baby!” Mocha punched her fist to her palm. “You mean to tell me you didn’t at least pinch the bitch? Shio would have just had to kill me because I would have dog-walked that hoe! Ohhhhh! See, we should’ve been there!”
“I can’t believe she put her hands on you,” Scarlett said. “What did Shio do because now I’m about to forget he’s my cousin and curse him the fuck out!”
“He broke it up. But then, he put me in his car and brought me here. I’ve been here ever since.”
“And your first course of action when you get out this bitch is whooping that hoe’s ass! See, Demise didn’t tell me this!” Dasani was growing red in the face, and I warmed to the fact that she really cared for me.
Jisei tsked. “I heard the baby doesn’t talk. She’s probably too traumatized.”
I didn’t want to discuss Shio’s daughter’s shortcomings, so I didn’t add commentary.
“And who told you that? See, I swear you be knowing shit and keeping it to yourself.”
“My brother didn’t tell me, Dasani! You know Ezio and Shio are tight. Well, not as of late because Shio been busy… I’m guessing with the new baby and all this.” Jisei’s eyes swept the room before landing on me.
“Okay, and Ezio and me are tight, and he didn’t tell me!” Scarlett spoke up.
Scarlett sighed. “I’m gonna have to meet her. The baby, I mean. Maybe she just needs to get around Princess. You know kids help other kids get over stuff.”
“Unh unh. Fuck that bitch and her baby.”
“Dasaniiiii!” Scarlett yelled as the other women snickered.
Dasani stood, dusting invisible lint off her bottom. “What? I’m team Solana. Until DNA proves he’s the daddy, fuck that baby. And even if or when it does, if Solana ain’t on that, I ain’t either. We ain’t either.”
“You shol’ ain’t do all this with Glow.” Jisei smacked her lips.
I tensed at her name. I wondered where the beautiful woman was. Since Bahati had come into Shio’s life, I had forgotten about Glow.
“Girl, boo. Glow been my bitch. You think I’d allow her in my house and in my space if I didn’t fuck with her? I just don’t fuck with the way she went about shit, and I told her that to her face.” Dasani nodded at me. “And what the hell you tensing for? Glow is married to Shio’s brother.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, oh. We don’t need no tension in our circle. Leave that shit to them other wives and girlfriends. Glow ain’t stuttin’ Shio.”
“You so damn messy.” Mocha snickered.
“My husband had some food for us delivered.” She held her phone up, revealing a text thread that I couldn’t read.
“I’m going to go upstairs and get it, and y’all settle on a movie.
Looks like we having us a sleepover! Them drinks at brunch put me on my ass.
I ain’t trying to go home and deal with no nigga or no baby. ”
Dasani nearly tripped on her heel but recovered and sauntered to the door.
“Awl shit! We done locked ourselves in. Solana, come over and do the call or whatever you do when you summon the grown-ass littles. Jisei talking about sex, knowing damn well they be fucking all up and through this townhouse.”
“Girl, please. They better not be.” She pointed the TV at the remote, shifting through apps. “Y’all, let’s watch Selena!”
“One of my favorite movies.” I stood from the bed and stretched.
“Oh, God. Yeah, you’ll definitely fit right in. I’m so damn tired of Neltz and Nel with that shit. And I hope like hell ain’t no fucking going on over here. Them littles get pregnant, and I swear, the twins gone start a war.”
“Um… Y’all trying to have us crying. We already drunk and sad that our bitch is locked away and strung out,” Mocha said before the loud sound stole our attention.
Boom boom boom boom
“Open this damn door!”
Dasani had asked me to come help, but she was already beating on the door by the time I made it next to her. “My thing is, what if you gotta pee, boo?”
She continued to beat on the door as I stood uselessly. I never called for anyone because I had everything I needed here or was given to me routinely.
Jisei huffed. “Girl, you just peed in the bathroom!”
“Jae Bae, please!”
The locks turned, and just as she slammed her fist on the door again, it was snatched open.
“Who the hell is you?” Dasani asked with her normal attitude and tone.
Instead of facing Italian, there was another boy in his place. My mouth began to water, my nose itched, and my fingers twitched. The tall, slim, brown-skinned boy shifted his eyes from Dasani to me, and when realization set in, his face fell. Ours expressions nearly mimicked each other.
You can fight this, Solana.
“Umm… Hello!” Dasani snapped her fingers. “Who are you?”
His eyes stayed on me. “I… Italian is upstairs putting the baby to sleep. He asked me to open the door for y’all if y’all knocked.”
“Okay, what’s your name? You look familiar.”
“I… I… I do valet for your husband from time to time, ma’am.”
He finally focused on Dasani while I was trying my best to control my breathing. Control my craving. Control my mind to overcome the feeling of need. I could feel the heat creep up my neck. My mouth was full of saliva, and my senses began to spin.
“Okay… What’s your name, though?”
“Oh, Ro.”
He shifted his gaze back to me, bushy brows furrowed. I was trying my hardest to focus on the present instead of the yearning. It was him. He had what I needed. He had what would put me out of my misery.
“It’s Sorrow.” He cleared his throat, visibly shaken by my presence, it seemed. Or it could have been Dasani’s, but I had a feeling it was me.
“My, uhhh, name is Sorrow.”
“Well, Sorrow… Keep this door open and come help me bring this food back down.”
Dasani moved past him, and after a few seconds of him holding my gaze, he trailed behind her. When he was out of view, the craving left. My senses returned to normal, and three blinks later, I was back to myself.
“Come on, Solana. We about to start the movie. Wait till Dasani finds out the only reason my brother ordered food is that I texted him.” Jisei snickered while Scarlett shook her head.
Pia sat up and rubbed her eyes after dozing off again. “I’m with Mocha. You and Dasani so messy.”