Chapter 2 A Gentle Reminder Text
A Gentle Reminder Text
PRYCE
Isat on the edge of Alexis’ couch, staring at the message I’d sent Adai hours ago.
The bright light from my screen was the only light in the room.
It was three in the morning, and I was getting dressed to head home.
My jeans and wife beater were on, and my sneakers sat on the floor beside my feet.
My thumb hovered over the screen as I contemplated whether I should send a third message.
My text stared back at me unread. Or even worse, read and unanswered. The thought of being ignored further pissed me off. We didn’t carry each other like that. No matter what, we always answered, even if the response was short and dry. But it had been over six months since we last spoke.
Her silence felt intentional. And the fact that I hadn’t seen a typing bubble to indicate that she at least thought about responding bothered me. Shit didn’t really bother me. And if you looked up the definition of unbothered, my picture sat next to it.
My jaw flexed. Running my hand down my face, I exhaled slowly and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
I was more tired than I cared to admit in the text.
My sleep pattern had been thrown off ever since she abandoned a nigga.
I could sleep for days under Dai. Her body always curled perfectly into mine.
I missed her giggling and mumbling in her sleep.
I didn’t think she ever had a bad dream.
I was sure that if she’d ever told me she had, I’d find a way to get in that muthafucka to handle who or whatever was fucking with her.
I missed those days. Being able to hold her and listen to her talk about any and everything until I fell asleep.
Now, I had to force myself to sleep most nights.
Some nights, I just laid in bed and stared up at the ceiling, thinking.
Tonight was one of those nights, and I found myself here.
Alexis called and asked if I could come over, aka she wanted some dick. Bored, I took her up on her offer.
I’d sent the text to Dai before leaving my crib and took my phone off DND as I entered Alexis’ place. I wanted to make sure that Dai got through. Only she’d made it clear that she wasn’t fucking with a nigga by not answering.
I heard a door creak open, followed by footsteps across the floor.
Then, the light flickered on. I looked up, and Alexis stood at the entryway of her living room, leaned up against the wall.
She had on an oversized shirt, big enough to let me know that it didn’t belong to her or me.
Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and she sported a lazy smirk.
Alexis was a new waitress at my cousin Amil’s diner.
She’d been flirting with me for months, and the more I ignored her, the more persistent she was.
That shit was annoying at first. Unlike most niggas nowadays, I didn’t like to be chased.
I had no desire to trade places like that nigga, Usher.
She’d slid her number under my check one night at the diner, and I called her on it.
Instead of backing down, she confidently said she wanted to see what was up with me.
She was cute. Her body was stacked, and she had a cool personality. But she wasn’t Dai. Still, I was a man who had needs, so that night when she posed that we link after her shift, I agreed. I bussed her down in her car in the parking lot of the diner.
The pussy was good, and she ain’t press me afterwards, which led to us eventually chilling.
I was clear that she didn’t need to expect anything from me because I didn’t have anything to give other than dick.
I couldn’t promise her much conversation either.
Half the time, I just didn’t want to be bothered with people.
She agreed to the terms, but lately, it seemed like she’d been wanting more of my time.
“You alright?” she asked, walking into the living room and sitting on the arm of the couch. “You sitting in the dark like you plottin’ on something.” She laughed lightly.
“I’m straight,” I said, grabbing my shirt from next to me and pulling it over my head.
She studied me for a few seconds. “You sure?”
“Yep,” I replied, checking my phone again before locking it.
On the screen was a picture of the inside of mine and Dai’s wrists where we had each other’s initials tatted. She’d made the picture my screensaver the day we got the tattoos.
“Pryce.” Alexis called to me.
“Wassup?”
“You know you can talk to me. I know you’re not the talkative type, but maybe I can provide some insight on what has you sitting in my living room in the dark.”
I didn’t reply. There was nothing to say.
I damn sure wasn’t about to sit and talk about Dai with a woman I’d just finished fucking.
And pushing me to put words to thoughts that had nothing to do with her would only piss me off, so silence was best. Picking up my sneakers, I stepped into them.
Out the corner of my eye, I could see her slide down off the arm of the chair and onto the cushion.
“You know,” she started slowly, “for someone so handsome, you sure are mean as hell.”
I glanced up at her with a straight face. She wasn’t wrong, so I wasn’t about to argue with her assessment. I preferred people think of me in that light. This way, they thought twice about playing with me. Dai always said I was too serious. My family seemed to think the same.
“I’m glad you’re not that way in the bedroom,” she added with a giggle.
“Treat the pussy nice so it do what you say,” I simplified while standing up from the couch.
She licked her lips. “And that you do.”
I pulled my car keys from my pocket and looked down at them. “I’ma head out. Come lock up.”
She got up and stood in front of me. I was six foot three, so I towered over her. “Anytime I hit you, you pull up late, and you look tired. When’s the last time you got a good night’s rest?”
“Six months ago,” I replied then walked around her to the front door.
She followed behind me and leaned against the doorframe. “You ever gonna spend the night? We both know my bed is comfortable.” She smiled.
“Yeah… to fuck in. But as long as I got a bed to sleep in, I won’t be sleeping in yours.”
She let out a laugh. It was the kind of laugh you released when you’d been rejected, and you made an attempt to hold it down. I didn’t try to clean up what I said either because I meant it.
“You know, soon, that woman you’ve been missing will no longer be a thought. I try not to come on too hard, but I see I’ma have to show you that the grass can be greener if I’m on the other side.”
“If that’ll help you sleep tonight, then I’ll let you have it. Be cool.”
With no further words, I opened the door and walked out into the hallway.
Headed for the stairs, my phone vibrated in my hand.
My chest jumped. For a split second, I thought it was Dai finally responding.
I looked down at the screen, and it was a message from one of my workers.
I read it quickly and determined it wasn’t an emergency that I needed to address.
Forwarding his message to the manager of my business, I proceeded to take the steps downstairs to my car.
Hopping inside, I thought about what Alexis said about the grass being greener on her side. What she needed to understand was that so long as Adai Heaven Townsend walked this earth, there wasn’t shit that she or any other female could offer me better than her.
“Forty-eight hours,” I muttered to myself.
Adai may have been gone a while, but I was still that nigga that meant what I said. I didn’t mind showing her better than I could tell her.
After an hour of sitting in silence with my thoughts once I got home, I eventually fell asleep in the living room.
Out of habit, I was up at eight a.m. when my alarm went off.
The first thing I did was check my phone that sat face up on the coffee table.
There were text notifications but still nothing from Dai.
Locking it, I tossed it back on the table and laid back down on the couch for a few to map out my day.
After a few minutes, I got up to shower, change clothes, and tidy up the crib.
That was something that rubbed off on me from Dai.
She’d always be around the house cleaning up shit that didn’t need to be cleaned.
I guess it was my weird way of connecting with her in her absence.
By the time I was done, it was a little after ten.
I made my way to the kitchen to make myself a protein smoothie –– banana, peanut butter, vanilla protein powder, and almond milk.
I went to grab the Ninja blender from under the sink and found a note written in her script.
It read, USE ME THEN WASH ME. THANK YOU.
Chuckling, I shook my head and set the note aside. After blending the ingredients to my liking, I transferred it to a glass. Before I could try it, my doorbell rang. I wasn’t expecting company, so I walked toward it with no sense of urgency.
“Who is it?” I called out once in front of the door.
“It’s Key,” my cousin, Kyiris, replied.
I opened the door, and she stood with her back facing me and her phone pressed to her ear, talking.
“No, no, no, what we’re not gonna do is make y’all problem my problem,” she spoke quickly. “I paid for delivery at a set time and pick up at a set time. There’s no compromising.” Turning toward me, she walked straight past me, into my house, like I was invisible.
She didn’t get far before I pulled her back by the collar of her shirt.
“What the hell?!” she snapped, yanking the fabric free from my grip and spinning around. “Let me call you back,” she said into the phone. “Don’t be pulling on me like that, nigga!”
Hanging up, she slid her phone into her bag. Staring at me like I’d personally offended her, she brought her hand to her hip. “What’s wrong with you today, Mr. Grinch?”
“Ain’t shit wrong. It’s disrespectful to walk through somebody’s crib without speaking. You a Sullivan, so I know you have manners.”
She sucked her teeth, waving her hand dismissively. “Whatever. Grand rising, king,” she said sarcastically.
I nodded once. “Proceed.”
Shaking her head, she continued toward my kitchen.
Key had been calling me Mr. Grinch since we were kids.
One Christmas we all spent at Grandma Lettie’s, she made us watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and apparently, I reminded everybody of the green nigga who hated joy.
I didn’t see it. Just because I didn’t always have a smile on my face and want to be on the scene all the time didn’t make me a grinch. I was just Pryce.
“What’s that?” She pointed to my shake on the counter while taking a seat at the island.
“Protein.”
She scrunched her nose. “That shit look thick and nasty.”
“It’s good for you.”
“Mmhmm. Any who, you know why I’m here. You got that for me?”
I reached into the kitchen drawer and handed her a white envelope with the letter G written on it. “Five hunnit, right?”
“Yep.” She opened the envelope and checked the bills.
“Okay, cool. You’re the last person I had to collect from.
This bout to be the biggest party Grandma ever had.
” She pulled her phone back out, and her fingers moved quickly before dropping it back in her bag.
“We got cousins from Atlanta, Jersey, Florida, and Chicago coming. We going all out.”
“Damn, you put out a bulletin or somethin’?” The question was kinda dumb. Anybody who knew Key knew she didn’t do celebrations on a small scale.
“Pretty much. This Grandma Lettie’s 70th birthday party. You know everybody poppin’ out for the matriarch. Relax your face a little. You can be happy bout this.”
“I am happy for her. Just not in a party mood.”
“It’s this weekend, Mr. Grinch. You don’t know what kinda mood you gon’ be in then.”
“Yes, I do. Which is why I’ma sit this one out.”
“Welp, that’s not an option, Pryce. She’d want everyone there.”
I gulped down some of my shake and licked my lips. “I’ll do something special with her beforehand.”
Leaning forward, she folded her hands on the island and stared at me like she was trying to figure me out. “What’s wrong witchu?”
“Why something gotta be wrong wit’ me?”
“Cause I know you.”
She did know me. We were only a year apart in age, but Key always found herself latched to my hip growing up.
Although she referred to me as Mr. Grinch, she didn’t allow anyone else to do it.
While she could get on my head about my attitude, she checked anybody else for doing it.
Well, everybody except for Grandma Lettie, my parents, and Dai.
“I’m good, Key. Don’t ask me again.”
She sighed, knowing it was her sign to chill. “You know, I saw Adai’s mom the other day at Marli’s salon. She asked about you.”
My grip tightened around the glass as I put it back to my lips and took another gulp.
“I told her you were good,” she continued. “She said she hope you gettin’ it together for when Dai decide to come back.”
My brow raised. “The fuck I gotta get together?”
“All that.” She gestured with her hands.
“All what? Ain’t shit wrong with me.”
“And the fact that you think that is the problem.”
“Whatever, man.”
“Have you heard from her?”
“Who, Dai?”
“Yeah.”
“I texted her last night. Told her I was tired of this distance shit, and she had forty-eight hours to get back here, or I was coming to her.”
Key chuckled. “Between you and Aura, I don’t know who’s more delusional. Well, I can’t really say him anymore. His wedding is next month.”
I thought about how Aura had finally locked Nae down and smirked. I was happy it worked out for him. I didn’t expect for him to set a date so fast, but you never knew with Aura.
“I ain’t delusional. I mean everything I say.”
She stood and smiled. “Yeah. And so did he.” Tapping her fingers on the counter, she nodded. “You know what? I hope she takes heed to the warning. I miss my girl. Right now, she’d be running with me like a chicken with her head cut off.”
“I’m sure.”
Adai and Kyiris locked in from the moment they met.
It was the same with the rest of my family.
Adai had a personality like a magnet. She didn’t take herself too seriously and knew how to command a room.
She fit in with the women in the family.
During her absence, I wanted to ask Key had she spoken to her, but I already knew the answer was yes.
I didn’t want to put my cousin in the position where she had to lie for her friend, so I left it alone.
“Well, let me go. I still have errands to run.”
“Aight.”
I walked her to the door, and she gave me a half hug.
“She’ll be back, Mr. Grinch. I feel it,” she said. “Love always has a way of bringing people back home.”
“Where she’s supposed to be.”