Chapter 30-Devon
“What’s good with you, boss?” Levi damn near yelled as he walked through the door of my office like I had invited him.
“I was enjoying the quiet, but that moment is over.”
“You wake up in the morning just to give me a hard time.”
“Something like that. What’s going on?”
“We can talk business later. Why do you look like you are stressed out? Oh, I know what it is.”
“I know that you’re about to say something ignorant, so let’s hear it.”
“You’re probably getting discouraged because you ain’t been able to bulk up like your boy. I’m right, right?”
“No. You are wrong, like always. You started working out and now you think that everybody wants to be walking around swole for no damn reason, like you. Nope, you can have that.”
“Sounds like denial,” he said as he rubbed his chin with his hand.
“Levi, what did you come up here for?”
“I was just messing with you. What’s good with you, real talk?”
I waited a minute to see if he was on his same bull before I decided to tell him what was on my mind.
“Renae called me the other day.”
“Word? What did she want?”
“She wanted me and Dreux to be a part of her and my biological father’s wedding day.”
“Am I missing the problem?”
“As always, yes, you are. She called me because she wanted to use us for a photo opp. This man ain’t said nothing to me my entire life, even though he had the resources to get in contact with me.
Now they expect me to bring my son around them so they can do the same to him.
No, they can keep that. I won’t allow him to be used. ”
“Damn, that is heavy.”
“Now you see why I have so much on my mind.”
“You ain’t never said too much about your pops. What’s the story?”
“He was married with kids, stepped out, and got Renae pregnant. Like an idiot, she thought that having me would make him leave his wife. Neither of them wanted me, so my grandparents took me in. When they died, Renae got me back, but I was never with her. She stayed in the streets, and I was always with one of her friends, until I got old enough for her to leave me by myself.”
“Man, I’m sorry to hear that. Cross always told me you didn’t have it easy growing up, but you know him, so you know he didn’t elaborate. Let me ask you this though; have you given her a chance? Maybe she has changed.”
“You sound like Kenya, but she hasn’t, trust me. He probably just doesn’t know that she wasn’t a good mother and is a sorry ass excuse for a grandmother, so she wants us to pop up and appear like a big happy family, but that’s not my problem.”
“I hear you, but life is too short not to forgive.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I responded just to end the conversation.
There was nothing to forgive, I accepted them for who they were a long time ago, and that was the reason I knew I didn’t need them in my life.
“I hope that you do. Anyway, I ain’t come up here to get my Doctor Phil on. I came up here to show you this,” he said as he handed me the folder that he walked in with.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the business plan for the spot I was talking about opening.”
“Nigga, you are lying,” I said, quickly snatching the file from him.
Levi was a big jokester, and sometimes, he joked so much that I forgot how smart he could be when he applied himself. To see him execute what I asked him to do on this level, had me smiling like he was my oldest son.
I took a few minutes to look the plan over, and when I looked up from the plan, I could see that he was sweating bullets.
“Man, this is what’s up. This is what I’m talking about.
You’ve made me proud. Not only because you did it, but because the plan looks good.
So, check it, on a business side, I will give you half of the startup cost for the hell of it.
You can think of it as a gift, and if you need more than that, I will give you an interest fee loan. ”
“You serious?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Man, thank you. Like, real talk. You don’t have to cut for me like you do, and I appreciate you.”
“Don’t be in here crying or nothing.”
“See, you can’t be nice to a light-skinned nigga.”
“I just didn’t want you crying, messing up my furniture. I’ll send you the contact information for my realtor and the lady that I work with to get my permits for the clubs.”
“Good looking. Is she fine?”
“Get out of my office,” I said, laughing at his foolishness.
“I’m gone, but real talk, I appreciate you, and that’s me being straight up with you.”
“That’s what family is for. You know that you are like the little brother that I never wanted.”
“And the feeling is mutual,” he said as he walked out of my office, leaving me with my thoughts.
Maybe he was right, and maybe Renae had changed. I pulled out my phone and sent her a text to see if she wanted to meet up for food and drinks. If the dinner went well, I would consider attending her wedding.
She agreed to meet me at a restaurant up the street from Crossroads .
I was a regular at the spot because they had some of the best smothered pork chops and cabbage that I had eaten to date.
Dreux and I had them to thank for our dinner whenever we didn’t order pizza and wings when I didn’t feel like cooking.
I worked through the rest of my day and made sure Dreux was still going with some of his friends to shoot hoops.
When it was time for me to meet Renae, I headed to the restaurant.
I wanted to make sure that I was a little early because it was just my nature to do so. Time wasn’t something that you could get back, so I made sure not to waste mine or anyone else’s.
During the two hours I waited for Renae, I became disappointed in myself. I knew the kind of person that she was, and I still allowed her to take me back to being a kid, stuck, waiting on his mother to come home and love him.
I paid for the drinks and appetizers I had while I was waiting and left so I could pick Dreux up.
As I was walking out the door, Renae and a tall, slender man with salt and pepper hair, who I assumed was my father, were getting out of a Bentley coupe. Aside from the texture in his hair, I’d look at him as a regular white boy.
I continued walking to my truck as if I didn’t see them.
“Devon! Devon!” I heard Renae yell from behind me.
I turned around to give her my attention. I had already made up my mind she was out of chances, and whether she realized it or not, it would be her last time seeing me.
“Devon, why are you leaving?”
“I’m leaving because I have been waiting in there for two hours.”
“Well, we had things to do. It didn’t kill you to wait on us,” she said as she folded her arms across her chest.
“As always, I wasn’t your priority. Some things never change.”
It was a damn shame that she was such a pretty woman externally, because she was a messed-up person on the inside.
She was a beautiful woman with a deep, dark brown complexion, full cheeks, doe eyes, full lips, and a slender, petite frame.
She had a beer belly the last time I saw her, but there wasn’t a trace of it now.
Knowing Renae, she’d gotten nipped and tucked.
“Richard, your son is throwing a fit about us running a little behind schedule.”
“Son, we apologize for being a few minutes late. Can we go back into the restaurant?”
“First things first, I’m not your son. Going in Renae raw and making a child doesn’t make you my father, just like her having me doesn’t make her my mother. Secondly, you aren’t a few minutes late; you are two hours late. Unlike either of you, I’m a parent, and I need to go pick up my son.”
“Devon, can we try this again?” Richard pleaded as he stepped closer to me.
There was an undeniable resemblance between Richard and me, but thankfully, I inherited Renae’s full lips. I took everything else from him though, especially his narrow nose and hazel eyes.
“That won’t be necessary. Y’all enjoy your night.”
“Devon, must you be so dramatic?”
“Renae, you have some damn nerve. I shouldn’t have initiated the meetup to begin with. You didn’t deserve that. Hell, you don’t even deserve the energy that I am giving you now,” I said with irritation dripping from each word.
“Renae, why is he acting like this toward you? You told me you had a great relationship with him, but that seems far from the truth.”
I looked at Renae whose eyes were fixed on the ground. I gave her a few seconds to be honest before I answered his question for her.
“Richard, I don’t know what Renae told you, but the reason I am acting like this toward her is cause she’s never been there for me.
That may be a surprise to you because you were too busy living your life to care about my well-being.
If I had a dollar for every time Renae left me at home by myself for days, and even weeks at a time, I’d be pushing a whip like yours. ”
“Devon, I apologize to you on her behalf, but please don’t punish me for her actions.”
“What do you mean her actions? You are no better than her. Hell, if anything, she has one up on you because at least I saw her every once in a while, and she let me stay in her house. Did she make sure that I was fed? Hell no. Did she make sure that the lights and water stayed on? Nah. Did I always have food? Not at all. But at least this isn’t my first time seeing her. ”
“Devon, I can understand your frustration, but —”
“No, you can’t understand a damn thing about me. I’m done with this conversation. I can tell the two of you belong together. Congratulations.”
I got in my truck and burned off. When I looked in my rearview mirror, I could tell they were going back and forth. Their problems didn’t concern me, though. Just like I wasn’t their problem or responsibility back then, they weren’t mine now.