Chapter 2
Asylum
Me and my brothers were huddled in the corner at Shiloh’s first birthday party talking shit about True’s so-called date.
Doe made sure I was on my best behavior, but that proved to be a lot harder than she expected.
I tried to be on my best behavior, but the more I thought about the little nigga being up to no good with my baby girl, the harder it was for me to remain calm.
Regardless of how ready True thought she was to date, I wasn’t ready at all.
Honestly, I probably never would be. Doe was right.
If I had it my way, her ass would never date.
She would be one of those women who stayed with their parents forever.
Then, I had moments where I thought about the joy and love I experienced with Dauterive and wanted my kids to experience that too—just not this damn soon.
“Wait.” Beethoven lifted his hands as laughter erupted from his core. “Please shut the fuck up, bruh. I’m too high for this damn conversation.”
“Nah, I need all the details,” Bully countered with a small smile. “I need to know what I have to look forward to with Innah. You say the lil nigga did what?”
Sucking my teeth, I crossed my arms over my chest as I continued the story. “He straight up pulled the old move of yawning and wrapping his arm around her chair. Then her soft ass looked at him, smiled, and leaned against him. I don’t really know what happened after that.”
“Oh, we know,” Merc said with a grin. “Doe told our wives who already relayed the story to us, so it really ain’t no point in you acting like you don’t know.”
“Yeah, from what I heard, you hopped from your seat, took the stairs by two, and yanked the young man up from his seat,” Aspen’s snitching ass said.
“And then put him out the theater. Like he owned that shit,” Karrington added.
“Man, say. If y’all already knew what happened, why y’all ask me?”
“To see if your ass was gon’ lie,” Merc muttered, and we all laughed.
What they’d said was true. I may have overreacted and kicked the little nigga out the theater, but I let him come back in when True yelled at me and threatened not to talk to me again.
Once our laughter settled down, I confessed, “I’m not used to teenaged True yet.
I knew she’d have mood swings and shit but damn.
I never thought I’d see the day my princess would betray me and choose someone else over me, but she literally said if I didn’t go get that lil boy that she’d never speak to me again. ”
“Aww, that hurt your feelings, didn’t it, bruh?” Bully asked with more compassion than I expected from his usually unserious ass.
“Hell yeah that shit hurt my feelings. If I could depend on no one else to choose me, I knew True always would. Now she done tossed me to the side for a lil nigga with big feet and chapped lips.”
I didn’t even care about them laughing at my expense at that point. I was still a little tender over that shit and didn’t know how long it would take me to get over it.
“Well when is she going out with him again?” Bully asked. “I need to meet him because clearly you’re too emotional to navigate this shit.”
“He supposed to be coming here. Y’all better grill the fuck outta him too.”
“Unh uh,” Doe said from behind me, making my heart skip a beat—and not in a good way. “Y’all better leave Daniel alone when he gets here.”
“Sis, you know we gotta do our big one. True is our oldest child. We about to give the little nigga hell,” Merc warned her.
As the rest of my brothers nodded and spoke their agreement, Dauterive rolled her eyes and pulled me away by my hand.
“Wassup, sweetheart?” I asked, eyes lowering to her ass as she led me toward the table where the birthday boy was seated with my grandparents, her parents, and True.
“It’s time for the pictures. I’m about to change his outfit. Are you keeping that on or matching us?”
“Matching y’all, for sure.”
“Okay, perfect. True is too. She already has her dress laid out.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get him changed while my two beautiful ladies do their thing.”
She smiled and gave me a quick kiss before I scooped Shiloh up and we headed inside our home. Since this was his first birthday, we decided to do more intentional and sentimental things instead of spending a lot of money on things he was too young to even remember.
We had everyone sign a guest book and leave a letter for him, and he’d get the guestbook on his thirteenth birthday.
Anyone that brought money, that money was going in a bank account for him as well.
He had a random obsession with The Lion King, so that was the theme.
We set it up so that he’d have his own musical rendition of the movie done outside.
That was going to happen after we took a few family pictures, then every guest would take pictures with him as well.
Once I had him and myself dressed, I met Doe and True back outside.
As we took the pictures, gratitude swept over me as it normally did when I thought about how good God had been to me by bringing my wife back into my life.
Now, we were celebrating our son’s first year of life.
I meant it when I told her I didn’t want to be greedy and ask God for anything more, but if He decided to expand our family, I’d be the best steward of His gifts to me that I could possibly be.
Nothing meant more to me than my family.
Nothing gave me a higher honor than being a husband and father.
Doe, True, and Shiloh were truly my heart in human form, and every day with them was a day that made me more and more grateful for this thing called life.