Chapter 28 #2
Once we crossed the threshold, the restaurant buzzed to life.
The tables were empty but the lighting was dim, setting the perfect mood for a nice dinner.
A piano was playing while a singer serenaded the crowd somewhere in the distance.
My stomach growled from the spices permeating the air.
I hooked my arm inside of Shio’s and nearly melted into him as he ushered me through the restaurant.
Even with my heels on, he was still taller than me, and I loved that.
I knew, in due time, we would make giant babies.
We came to a door at the far end of the restaurant, and when he pushed the door open, the chatter ceased.
Beautiful women sat next to handsome men, some of the men familiar and others not so much.
I smiled nervously as everyone inspected me.
I didn’t know if I was expecting a warm greeting or what, but I surely wasn’t expecting to be eyed like the enemy.
“This nigga…” a handsome man whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.
Because the room had gone still, his voice echoed, making it easy to reach everyone’s ears.
He was sitting next to a woman who had to have had Asian roots.
By the large glacier on her hand and the diamond band on his, she was his wife.
“Demise!” She scolded him as softly as she could.
They were a beautiful couple, and she looked like she would be a woman of my caliber.
Looking around the room, all of the couples were a perfect pair with all of the women rocking large, unique rings and dressed appropriately and to my taste.
I was giddy thinking about how I would be joining the left-hand clan.
“Aye, y’all… This Bahati. Bahati, this is the family.”
“Umm, where’s Solana?” a dark-skinned beautiful lady stated with attitude, and the look on her face was as if she had smelled something sour.
“Baby, please.” Her husband, an attractive chocolate man, groaned.
“I’m just saying… Who the fuck is she?”
Shio either didn’t care that we were getting crazy stares or was used to his people’s indecent behavior because he guided us to our seats without replying.
I was seated next to Vello’s woman, and knew that in order to make tonight go in my favor, I would need to say whatever to get on these women’s good side.
“Hi. Your ring is beautiful… So is your dress.”
She turned slightly in her seat and planted a fake smile on her round face. “Thank you. I appreciate the compliment about the dress, especially since I’m postpartum.”
“Baby, I told you that you look good.”
“I know, but it’s different coming from a woman, Metavello.”
She smiled again, this one not as forced. “You know how babies can make you feel insecure…”
“I’m afraid not.”
She reared her head back. “You do have a child, right? You and Shio? You must have snapped back the same day you gave birth then.”
I choked on my spit. “Oh, no! I meant, yes… We have a daughter. I just didn’t think he’d told the family yet.”
“They know, Bahati.” Shio pushed my chair in before walking behind the woman’s chair.
“You look beautiful, Discover. You carried my nephews well.” Shio leaned over and kissed the top of her head, making her blush before Vello shoved him off.
“We told you ’bout all that romancing our women and shit.”
“Facts!” Nel backed his brother.
I picked up the glass of water and sipped it. “But to answer your question, my labor was terrible. I gained a lot of weight but lost it by the time she was six or seven months.”
“Um…”
To keep the conversation going, I asked, “You have twins?”
She nodded. “I do. A daughter, too, but she’s my big baby. Here…” Discover pulled her phone out and showed me a set of twins that had Renello and Metavello’s whole faces as a beautiful little girl held them while sitting on a huge sofa.
“The one on the left is Explore, and the one on the right is Adventure. Their sister, Discovery, is holding them. Although somebody kidnapped my baby,” she said the last part out loud.
“Discover, don’t start, man. She internin’ with Daddy for the summer.” The man across from us, next to a lady wearing a long weave, smirked. I had to do a double-take because it was Essex, Shio’s childhood friend.
“Oh! Hi, Essex!” I waved as his woman mugged me.
“Hey,” she spoke for him, sarcastically, causing the dark-skinned girl from earlier to snicker.
“Wait…” I turned to Discover. “You are married to Metavello and have kids by Essex? Their childhood friend?”
Discover locked her phone and turned away from me.
“Yo, you nosy as fuck. But she had Lil’ Chef before she knew me,” Metavello answered for his woman, and with that went the only ally that I possibly could’ve had amongst the women.
I would win them over before the night was done. I had no other option if I wanted Shio to marry me.
“Aye,”—The one with the half-Asian wife stood—“Gentleman, let’s step out back to smoke.”
All the men moved on his command, ending their separate conversations and following him out of the room. I had never seen anything like it, and the power move made my insides warm. The only indication that they had even been here a minute ago was the mix of their colognes.
“I’m not married to Metavello yet. We’re engaged,” Discovery divulged after a silent pause had passed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any harm… I was just trying to understand.”
“Girl.” She waved me off. “You’re fine. The only person who gets up in arms is Metavello because he hates sharing Discovery with anyone.”
“All of you are very beautiful.” I spoke up, and a few gave me tight-lipped smiles, while others gave dry “thank yous.”
“Anyway… Girls, look at this footage from the reveal.”
The one with the long ponytail pulled everyone’s attention toward her. She’d gotten up from her chair and the pregnancy looked so good on her. She pulled her phone out and the women gathered around her. I could see the screen from my position, so my nosy self watched.
“This shit so fuckin’ dumb.” Nel graced the screen with a frown. I could see balloon decorations in the background, and I leaned in because it looked like inflatable penises and breasts.
What on earth type of video is this?
“You cursin’ at me?” someone asked him off camera.
“No, Pia baby.” He rolled his eyes.
I knew it was Nel still, and not Vello, because of the way Nel was wearing his hair. Even today, the twins styled themselves differently from hair to clothes to jewelry.
A hand reached in the frame and swatted his arm.
“Aite. Fuck it… Just know yo’ pops ain’t on no homo shit,” Nel said clearly before mumbling, “I’m yo’ daddy, and I think you’re a dick.”
The ladies screamed in laughter, and even that sounded rich.
“This shit so fucking funny! I love your daddy real bad for that damn party!” The Asian-looking one cackled.
The screen flashed to the next person. “I’m yo’ big cousin, and I think you a dick.” Ezio lifted a glass to the screen.
The one with soft waves in her hair who was wearing a navy dress today came onto the screen. She’d been sitting beside Ezio, so that had to be his wife. “I’m your cousin-in-law, and I think you’re a dick. Junior is ready for a playmate.”
The next person had been sitting next to the man with locs, who’d been mean as ever on the plane from Mexico. Matteo was his name, if I remember correctly.
“I’m yo’ cousin, and I think you are a tit! Can’t wait to meet you, beautiful.”
Matteo was on the screen next and looked pissed. “I think you a girl. Ain’t sayin’ that weak-ass shit.”
“There go me and my man!” The dark beauty pointed to the screen. She and her man were equally brown and equally attractive.
“I’ll be your TeeTee, and I think you a dick.”
“Yeah, you gon’ have a dick…” Her husband pulled her into his side, which caused her to giggle.
The video spanned to the Asian-looking woman, whom I’d spotted first tonight. “I’m TeeTee Sani and… Come here, Demise!”
She reached out of the video screen and pulled the head man in charge into the frame.
He was their Don. He had just spoken with such influence.
Just as my pussy had throbbed many nights for Shio, it had done so for him too.
I usually liked my men dark as night, but the power he held couldn’t be denied.
“What’s this, Sani?” he spoke to her, ignoring the camera.
Shit, I nearly had to stop myself from fanning, and the ladies must have had the same feelings because they were oohing and ahhing when they hadn’t done so for their men.
“Don’t mind him, little baby. We are your auntie and uncle, and we think you’re a tit.”
“Nah, you think it’s a tit. We need dicks. We’re building an empire, baby.” He kissed the side of her face and walked off camera.
“According to biology, I’m yo’ daddy too.” Metavello snickered into the screen.
Discover chuckled beside me as Metavello continued his guess. “But I know they sayin’ it’s just one, but I ain’t buyin’ it. I think it’s two of y’all, and I think y’all boys. Y’all gonna walk ’round lookin’ like quadruplets, raisin’ straight hell.”
He then pulled Discover into the screen and wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her neck. The girls ahhed again.
“Stop, Metavello! I’m going to waste my drink!”
“That was my first drink in ten months too!” Discover fussed at the screen.
“Don’t worry ’bout me, just tell the camera what you think the babies are, Big Mama.”
“Well, it’s one baby. I don’t wish twins on them!”
“I really want to beat Metavello’s ass for cursing me like that!” Pia fussed in real time.
“Well, I’ma go with what your uncle-dada said. Twin boys!”
Pia cut her eyes at Discover, who was bent over laughing. “I’m sorry, girl. I really didn’t know.”
Pia flicked Discover off, who blew a kiss in return.
The screen then panned to Shio. Now, it all came together.
The day he had come home and teased me with dick, he was looking godly as fuck.
I had been craving Shio so bad that I had to talk myself down from breaking into his room and taking the dick.
I was pissed at his mixed actions, but he made up for it today by finally letting me meet everyone.
“I’m whatever you need me to be. Uncle, cousin, confidant.” He cheesed in the video.
My God.
“Solana’s man so fine…” one of the ladies tried to whisper.
“Mocha!” Don’s wife laughed.
I kept my eyes forward, sitting poised and unbothered. I was here, not Solana. They could have their jokes, but I’d be the one slow winding on Shio’s big dick tonight. That was something Solana couldn’t say she had ever done.
My purse vibrated, and I pulled the phone Shio had given me out.
I thought it was him since he was the only person who had contacted that phone outside of whoever the hell Uriah was.
The screen was black, and I cursed under my breath because I knew who it was now.
Excusing myself to no one in particular since they didn’t care and had made it clear they preferred Solana to be in their company, I exited the room and went out the same way we’d come in.
The men must have truly gone to the back of the building because no one was outside. The two teens valeting had even disappeared.
“Hello?”
“Bahati.”
I huffed into the phone. “Look! You shouldn’t have called.”
“Why not?”
Looking around, I covered my mouth when I saw the coast was clear. “Because he is proposing tonight. To me! He has this fancy dinner set up and—”
“That wasn’t the plan!”
“I know, but this plan is better.” I smiled and cleared my throat. “Look, all of the men are here. You can easily go and get her. It will be seamless.”
“How the fuck can I do that when I can’t find her? Unless she’s back at his home, si?”
“No. I don’t know where she is.”
“Bahati!”
“Truly, I don’t know where she is, but track the baby.”
“What do you mean?”
“Track the baby! She has the baby. You can grab them both. Look, I have to go! I’m standing outside, and one of the valet boys was acting suspicious of me earlier. The women also don’t like me very much.”
“What the fuck does that have to do with me?”
“Everything, Felipe! Go get your bitch! Get your bitch so I can get my nigga, baby.”
“You are cold-hearted to be a mother. Don’t have any more children, Bahati.” He laughed.
“Fuck you. Just go get that Solana bitch and kill her, for all I care. I didn’t need her popping back up, and I don’t need her popping back up again.”
I ended the call knowing Felipe hated to be hung up on. I was no longer his pawn, though. I was free and under the mob’s protection—under the protection of Shio.
Stuffing the phone back inside my purse, I turned on my heels and came face-to-face with a dark figure. “What the hell?!”
The valet boy that I’d just said was weird toward me was standing in front of me, blocking my path to reenter the building.
“You’re the one being nosy now. What did you hear, negro?”
His hands went to his left pocket, and I saw my life flash before my eyes. I had no way of protecting myself, so all I could do was scream. He pulled his hand from his pocket and opened it.
“Aye, all I wanted was to ask you if you wanted to buy some blow.” The powder baggie sat in his open palm.
“Ew! No. Get away from me.”
Pushing past him, I scurried back inside the restaurant. A waitress was walking past with Lemon Drops so I grabbed one off the tray, even though she was taking it into our room. I let her walk ahead and guzzled half of it down. By the time I got to the room, my nerves and jitters were dissipating.
This was my life now. Solana would be no more after tonight, so the women may as well get used to me. That Uriah character was next if she posed a threat.
“So, ladies… Let’s start over, shall we? I’m Bahati, the mother of Shio’s only child.”