Chapter 12 Adore
I held on to Whodie and let him cry it out. When he was finished, I bathed him again and then myself. I wrapped myself in a towel and then dried him off with his towel. We didn’t speak any words as I helped him get in bed. I didn’t have any clothes over here, so I had to throw on one of his shirts.
“You hungry? I can throw you something together real quick. Thirsty? Anything?”
“Nah,” he said with his back turned to me.
I let him have his space as I went to the kitchen to fix something to eat.
I hadn’t eaten at all today because of the nervousness.
Now that Mazi was a thing of the past, I could finally breathe and go on with my life.
Something told me to make an extra sandwich, but I thought Whodie had gone to sleep.
As I was leaning on the counter, scrolling and eating, Whodie walked in and took a bite of my sandwich.
“I thought you weren’t hungry?” I said.
“I wasn’t, but yo’ sandwich looked good,” he said, grabbing a bottle of water.
We both leaned on opposite sides of the counter. You could feel the tension between us. Both of us wanted to reach out and touch, but were afraid the other would reject. Whodie grabbed me by my shirt and pulled me towards him.
“Thank you,” he said, kissing my lips.
“I got you.” I looked up at him.
“And I got you.”
“Since you got me, when you gon’ give me some pussy? You been cuffin’ that lil’ shit.”
“I hope you didn’t think I was going to give you some pussy and we’re not a couple.” I looked him up and down.
He laughed, “You want me to rest and wake up wit’ a clear head? If so, I need that pussy, baby,” he said, kissing my neck.
“Man, come on.” I grabbed his hand to lead him to his room.
“Nah!”
“What now?”
He nodded his head towards the balcony.
“Someone will see us,” I expressed.
“I don’t give a fuck ‘bout that. They can put us on Twitter all I care. What you on? Don’t tell me Big Bad Adore scared? You afraid of the people to see how this young nigga be havin’ yo’ ass stretched out?”
This was the side of Whodie that kept me youthful. I wasn’t super older than him, but I did try to keep things modest. Whodie didn’t give a fuck about what anyone had to say. He was the only one who could have me on a balcony riding his dick as we shared a blunt.
The next morning, my body was sore, and I had a headache.
We had a little too much fun on the balcony and now I could barely move my legs.
The sun coming through the condo didn’t make it any better.
We forgot to let the shades down, and now the sun was cooking my ass.
I rolled over to see Whodie laying on his stomach with his arms under his head.
We both struggled to sleep last night, but when we did go, we slept hard as fuck.
Reaching over, I rubbed the tattoos on his back.
“You gonna rub me right back to sleep,” he mumbled.
“I thought you were asleep.”
“Nah, I’ve been laying here listening to yo’ ass snore.”
“Nigga, please! I don’t snore.”
“Lie again. You only snore after sex, though.”
I scooted over and laid my head on his back.
“Whodie…have you ever thought of not being in the streets anymore?”
“Adore…”
“No, hear me out. I’m afraid I’m going to lose you to the streets.”
“Adore,” he said, turning over and pulling me back into him. “I’m not goin’ anywhere.”
“You can’t promise me that.”
“Aye, I said I’m not goin’ nowhere, and I mean that shit. Besides, you knew what it was when you met me. Shit, I knew what it was when I met you. We’ve been trappin’ since we found each other.”
“Yes…yes, we have, but after this crazy ass two weeks, I don’t know anymore. You got shot twice, and then last night just really got me unsettled.”
“The shit is dead and over wit’ now. We’re back to our regular program. That should be a lesson to any other nigga that thinks they can come and take what belongs to us.”
I heard everything he was saying, but I was still afraid that the streets were going to snatch him from me, whether it be jail or death.
“Adore, I’m here. I need you to swallow the anxiety and trust me.”
Shaking the feeling, I moved on to the next question.
“What you got planned for today?”
He reached over and grabbed his phone.
“I gotta meet ol’ girl to get this baby situation settled first.”
“I’m going,” I said.
“Nah, I don’t want no bullshit. Especially ‘round that lil’ boy.”
“Oh, you don’t want me to see your baby mama?”
“Man, bring yo’ ass on.”
We both got up, showered again, brushed our teeth, and washed our faces.
“Damn, I need you to take me to Walmart so I can get some tights or something to put on.”
Whodie looked me up and down as he threw his shirt on.
“Adore, trust me, you don’t want that girl to see you in no Walmart gear. We both kno’ that shit.”
“Well, I need to go home and get something to wear.”
Whodie looked at his phone and let out a sigh.
“Nigga, you gon’ have me late.” I pouted, and he picked up his phone and sent a text. “Bring yo’ ass on, and you better not take long. I told her to give me another hour.”
We hopped in Whodie’s truck and headed to my house. When he pulled up, he put the truck in park and grabbed his phone.
“You’re not coming in?”
“Fuck no! I’m not goin’ back in that house.”
“Why? I hope you don’t think I’mma keep laying up at that small ass condo.”
“Adore, go get dressed,” he said sternly. “We can discuss that shit later.”
Without saying anything back, I got out. The first thing I did was my hair. After that, I went into my walk-in closet to find something cute to wear. After fifteen minutes of deciding and Whodie sending me a text, I was walking out of the house.
“That’s what the fuck I’m talkin’ ‘bout,” Whodie said as he put the truck in drive.
On the drive to the clinic, we talked a little bit, but I was handling business on my phone as he nodded his head to his music.
I had to get the new store up and running because we were losing money.
Now that I was able to think clearly, I would be able to get it done and not worry about someone setting the shit on fire.
Whodie sighing is what made me look up. She was leaning on her truck as he parked next to her. He hopped out and came around to let me out. He didn’t acknowledge her or anything. Just grabbed my hand and headed towards the entrance.
“Damn, no hug or hello?” she said.
“Zhane, when have I ever hugged yo’ ass? Grab the lil’ boy and come on.”
“Who is this?” she asked.
“Adore,” I replied.
“Ohhh, this must be your little girlfriend. Does she know me?”
“Don’t have a desire to know you.”
“Aye!” Whodie stopped both of us as the nanny got out of the car with the little boy. “Cut the shit out,” he warned.
“You’re the one that brought your girlfriend in our business. She has no idea the extent of our relationship.”
“Two things, Zhane. One, whatever business I got, she’s in it. Two, we never had a fuckin’ relationship,” Whodie told her.
I had no idea what the beef was. She was a pretty girl.
Younger than me, but pretty. As we sat across from each other, I stared at the little boy with the curly hair.
I had never seen a baby picture of Whodie.
Shit, he never saw one. It was like his childhood never existed.
When they got called to the back, I didn’t move. Whodie stopped and waited for me.
“Go ahead. I’ll be right here when you come back,” I told him.
I saw the attitude all over Zhane’s face behind me when she saw he stopped for me. Deep down inside, I hoped this wasn’t his baby. It was going to be hard to deal with Zhane’s jealousy. It didn’t take as long as I expected.
“It will take a few days,” Whodie told me as we walked outside.
“Whodie!” Zhane called out.
“You don’t want to get to know your son at all? You ain’t even spoke one word to him.”
Whodie pulled me towards the truck.
“I’ll holla at him when the test comes back. You’ve been gone three years and want me to just agree to some shit like I ain’t got my own life goin’ on.”
“I came back when I was ready.”
“Nah, you came back when it was convenient,” I said.
“Tell your bitch to mind her business.”
“You tell me.” I stepped toward her.
Whodie gave me a stern look and then looked at the little boy standing there, looking confused. If this was his son, I didn’t want this to be his impression of me, so I backed off.
“Zhane, when I get the results, I’ll hit you up if it goes in yo’ favor. If not, then you kno’, go find the real nigga.”
“My bad,” I told him once we were pulling off.
“It’s cool. I’mma take you to grab something to eat and drop you off. I gotta go handle this wit’ Tone mama. Hollow has the body and I want to get these arrangements done so we can get some closure. You goin’ to the condo or home?”
“I’m going to the condo because we need to discuss our home situation.”
“Adore, we will discuss that shit when I get time. I need you to get the other store up and runnin’ while I’m doin’ this. That should keep you occupied.”
I didn’t press the issue. We had just gotten back in each other’s good graces. He was going through a lot, and our living situation should’ve been the last thing on my mind. He was right, I needed to focus on something else. When he dropped me off, I got back on my grind.