Chapter 14
“Ah hell. You’re in the kitchen again. You’re about to fuck some shit up in Remedy’s clean kitchen,” Ernie huffed, easing down into the chair at the kitchen table. “Where is she?”
Erys swiped his tongue over his lips and groaned at the absence of her flavor.
Since he’d moved her and his father in, Remedy kept her room door cracked so she could hear Ernie get up or stir.
This morning, the door was closed and locked – like the insane man he was, he tried his hand at turning the knob.
The second popping the lock crossed his mind, he got a hold of himself and fought himself to fall asleep.
It was the muscle memory of the squeeze and throb of her depths that rocked him to sleep like a baby. If it hadn’t been for Ernie cussing on his way to the bathroom, Erys would have still been dreaming. Dreaming was something he hadn’t done in longer than he could remember.
“What time is it? Don’t we got a golf course to fuck up or something?
” Ernie questioned, trying to remember what Erys had told him the day before.
Erys could see he was foggy. It could’ve been that everyone in the house overslept and he was still getting acclimated to his new surroundings.
“When you gonna take me home? I couldn’t find your momma last night. Pissed me off so damn bad.”
“I heard. Remedy told me,” Erys shared, finalizing the order for lunch. He wouldn’t dare attempt to cook for either one of them again.
“You got to tell her to stop doing that,” Ernie muttered. “What time is it?”
“It’s twelve forty-five, Ernie,” Remedy answered as she eased into the kitchen. It was her walk and the avoidant eyes that made Erys stand to his full height, take her in and lean back on the other side of the counter. “You hungry?”
“You cooking or is your boyfriend going to ruin a good thing for me?” Ernie mused, observing the hair that was done the day before pulled back into a bun.
Remedy scrunched her face up. “Ernie, I haven’t had a boyfriend since I was like twenty. What do you want to eat?”
“I’ve already ordered lunch for us from the country club,” Erys stated.
Remedy checked Ernie’s blood pressure and graced his face with her puffy eyes. “You feelin’ okay today?”
“Hungry. Irritated as fuck,” Ernie muttered.
“Your birthday is tomorrow. You excited?” Remedy asked, touching his hair. “Birthday haircut?”
“I got it scheduled, first thing in the morning,” Erys spoke again. She was ignoring him and now that he already had a taste of her, he wasn’t going to let her pretend last night didn’t happen.
“Did you have water yet? You want coffee?” Remedy asked.
“Got damn it,” Ernie huffed. “How long am I going to have to sit through the post-fuck fuckin’ ignoring game?”
Remedy darted her eyes to Erys who wore a telling smirk. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, old man.”
“Mhmm. I’m hungry, not blind. I saw you bend the corner. That thieving ass nigga just like his daddy,” Ernie said, before twirling his hips and singing. “Got up in ittttttt.”
“You must be sleepy still, all the moving you were doing last night,” Remedy said, avoiding Erys as she inched over to where her phone was left the night before. What she found was a new phone. “Erys, what the fuck is this?”
“Never mind, he might not be like me. My women were sweet to me after I dug them guts out,” Ernie muttered, watching his son and his friend like he had courtside seats to a tennis match. “I had them making me sandwiches, rubbing my shoulders and purring. What the fuck did you do to her?”
“It’s a phone. One without a broken screen.
Numbers transferred, same number. You’re welcome.
While we’re out, take the Maybach to your eye appointment.
I made you another appointment for your hair too,” Erys declared, a full-blown grin on his face and she squinted even more.
He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Next time, I want you to see everything.”
“I was drunk and I don’t even remember the first time. Get out of my face, thank you very much,” she huffed, pushing him back. “I would ask you how you even got into my phone but you are out of your mind so it’s a wasted question.”
“Glad you know,” Erys stepped back and watched her snatch the phone and the cord off the counter. “You’re welcome.”
“Fuck you, Erys,” she shot back, walking away into the living room.
“Gladly,” he muttered to himself, watching her limited motion as she sat on the far end of the living room.
Ernie laughed from his spot at the table. “You tore her ass up, didn’t you?”
Erys shook his head. “Not yet.”
Ernie nodded. “You gave her stubborn ass that Moore taster. You might be my boy after all. Got to give them a little taste before you fuck their life up. Pimping 101.”
“And that’s where we different, ain’t no pimping over here,” Erys shared, moving to the door. “Just a hunter and his mean ass prey.”
“Give me a grandkid before I die at least. Make me sharing worth my damn while,” Ernie said to his back. While Erys collected the food from the delivery boy, Ernie shuffled to Remedy to do what he did best, play sides.
“Why you actin’ like that?” Ernie muttered, nudging Remedy. “Looking all pretty and mean, and mean and pretty.”
“I’m not acting. I overslept. You need to eat and I need to get these strippers here for your party tomorrow,” Remedy spoke, steadily texting away.
“I heard you crying this morning,” Ernie voiced, looking at her.
Remedy stopped texting and looked at him. “This has been a lot and it’s happening too fast and I’m holding on for you.”
“You got to stop holding on for me when you got a lot more to hold on to,” Ernie shared.
Erys watched silently from the kitchen while he unbagged the food.
Remedy shook her head. “If only you knew. For real. There is absolutely nothing to hold on to. You’re literally the anchor.”
“I’m not the anchor, Rem,” he shared, throwing his arm over his shoulder. “I’m just the vessel the anchor came from.”
Remedy settled and laid her head on his shoulder. “You get poetic and shit when you stay up all night.”
“I’m Sweet Lick Ernie, baby, I’m poetry in motion. Live action art. You better know me. I’ll give you something that’ll have you all domesticated and shit. Being sweet and outside on your knees playing in mother earth’s coochie,” Ernie said with confidence.
“Ernie,” Remedy started, fighting laughter. “What?”
“You know, Rem. Crazy ass nigga meets mean ass girl with thick ass glasses. He talks sweet and shit, all that lip service in her ear, you know. He takes the panties, puts a baby up in her. Builds her a house, makes sure her mean ass is only sweet for him. House full of proof that love and shit exist and it’s beautiful.
That mean ass woman makes that house a home and is outside making gardens and shit.
I’d say that’s a dream worth making reality.
Only thing is, your house is already built,” Ernie spoke lowly.
“You better wake up and see where you at, girl.”
She squinted.
“And get your pretty ass some more glasses so you can see the beauty of this thing.”
“There is not a thing to see because nothing is happening. And whose side are you on anyway?” Remedy questioned.
“The side of seeing the only two things I got left in this world build something so what I love don’t die with me either. Hear me, girl. You need this like I need you,” Ernie shared before kissing the top of her head. “Erys, where’s our food, nigga. You can’t fuck her and not feed her!”
“Oh my God, Ernest,” Remedy huffed, pushing herself up and walking away outside on the patio.
Erys’ chuckled as he strolled out holding two trays.
“Nigga, are those leaves?” Ernis started. “Take that rabbit food to one of those skinny bitches that be switching up and down the street.”
“The salad is mine,” Erys said with a chuckle.
“Oh, I was about to say you need cushion for the pushing. You need yams for the yams,” Ernie said, taking his tray, finding a BLT and pasta salad. “Yeah, that’s more like it.”
“God forbid you don’t have your bacon,” Erys mumbled, walking out on the porch.
“Uh uh that seat is taken,” Remedy sounded off after he placed her tray in front of her and started to sit. “Why are you grinnin’ at me like that, Franklin?”
“Same reason you firing off like that, Mouth,” he said, sitting down anyway. “Eat.”
“Stop tellin’ me what to do.”
“Start listening.”
“Never,” Remedy retorted. “Anyway, Ernie’s party…”
“Whatever he wants, get it. Them strippers gotta have rules though because you know he’ll try to take them upstairs. I don’t know what condition his heart is in and they’re not giving him a heart attack.”
“Okay…I guess while I’m out, I’ll pick up food too. I think that’s all the communication we need to have today, don’t you think?”
“Not by a long shot, but I’ll let you have this moment of push back so you can have some sense of control,” Erys shared.
“I do have control. And sense.”
He smirked. “Nah, you don’t. And neither do I, so prolong this as long as you want, I’m a man with long patience.”
Remedy opened her tray, finding the lemon butter chicken she was debating on the night before.
“He has an appointment on Monday, can you come?”
She nodded.
“Noo, baby. Words.”
She curled her lip. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Be prepared for him to cut a fool.”
“At this point, I’m just staying ready. He was off before you inched downstairs.”
Remedy waved him off. “I didn’t inch anywhere because nothing happened. Talking about Cherie?”
“Mad as hell about it too,” Erys shared. “What part of dementia is that? The hallucinations?”
“Mild…he’s still present so I don’t think he’s too far gone but the day will come when he doesn’t know who either of us are. I’m not ready for that. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll be able to handle it.”
“You’ll handle it. We’ll do it together.”
“Should you be so lucky. I don’t think you have much luck.”
Erys took another fork full of his salad. “Don’t need luck when I’m blessed and highly favored.”
“And that’s how I know you’re his son. Ain’t read a bible in your whole life.”
“And that’s where you’re wrong, Mouth. I had a lot of time on my hands. Read it three times, actually. You’ll see.”
“I’d rather stay blurry,” she quipped, cutting into her chicken breast. “But in the meantime, read it again so you can get convicted and never touch me again.”
“I thought you said it didn’t happen,” Erys toyed with a lopsided smirk.
“Fuck you, Erys.”
“You name the place and time. I’ll be ready.”