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“You lucky I’m tired anyway.” She laughed. Sliding out of my lap, Talitha stood in front of me and undressed. If today had been a better day, I wouldn’t have a problem taking her down. However, I knew what she really needed was for me to be there. Today had been emotional and I felt like tomorrow would have the exact same outcome.
Once she was done with her little strip show, she sauntered into the bathroom. While she showered, I scoured the internet in search of something that looked appealing enough to eat for the night.
“Love,” I called out when my phone chimed from Uber Eats alerting me that they were pulling up.
“Huh?”
“You gotta let me up. The food is here.”
“Okay,” she sighed. When she sat up, she had the cutest little mug on her face. Just like I thought, her ass was exhausted. After she finished her shower, she got dressed and climbed into my lap. She had been sitting here the entire time with her head laid on my chest half sleep.
Halfway through my search for food, Supreme called to check in. I’d spent majority of Talitha’s shower on the phone with him. I ended up hitting the shower before placing the order, giving her plenty of time to fall asleep. Tapping her on the leg, I slid her out of my lap and stood. “Give me a second.” After swiping the room key off the counter, I left the room.
Once the bag of food was in my hand, I tipped the driver and headed back upstairs. Slipping the card out of my pocket, I waved it across the lock and pushed the door opened.
Reaching her arms out of the cover Talitha yawned and stretched. “I can smell the food through the bag.”
“You’re hungry and that’s my fault. I should’ve made sure you ate something before we jumped on the road.”
“I was in a hurry so I probably wouldn’t have been able to eat anything.”
“Come on.” Placing the bag down on the table, I pulled out the contents and laid everything out.
“Why didn’t you get me steak?” she pouted, looking over at my plate.
“I specifically asked if you wanted steak or fish, and you said fish.”
“I didn’t know it was going to look that good,” she lied and picked up her plasticware.
I took a seat at the table and pushed my takeout container over to her so she could get a piece of my food. For someone who didn’t like medium rare steak, she ate it enough.
“Gema said if a man shares his food with you that means he loves you.” She smirked while cutting into my steak.
“Gema is full of analogies, I see.”
“Yep,” she popped. I watched her fork the piece of meat in her mouth and groan. “This is so good,” she sang and did a little dance in her seat.
After she passed the plate back, I sparked up a conversation. “Tell me more about your family.”
“Who you wanna hear about now?” She laughed.
“Doesn’t matter. What was the dynamic like with you and your grandfather? I see how close you and Gema are. What was it like when he was alive?”
“The three of us were the ultimate trio.” She giggled. “Papa Joe was the best father a girl could ever ask for. He never missed anything. He worked at a plant most of my life, well until he retired, but even with the early mornings and late nights, he made sure he attended every event.
I remember I was the eighth-grade prom queen. Papa Joe took me to Macy’s in Atlanta to go find the perfect dress. Gema couldn’t take me cause she had to work. We spent all day in Atlanta, he and I did. He took me to the Old Spaghetti Factoryfor dinner and took me for ice cream afterwards.
He did all of that and in the back of his mind, he just knew I was going to ask my daddy to be my escort.My absent father who was never around. The same father that didn’t hesitate to sign over his rights so Gema and Papa Joe could take me in.”She laughed. “Yeah... No, I remember we had hopped back on the highway and was headed back home. I looked over at him and asked why he didn’t get something to wear for himself and his response was ‘I didn’t know you wanted me to go.’ I’m like… Papa Joe who else would I ask?”
“Did you ever have a relationship with your biological father?”
“Hell no. When my Mama got pregnant, his ass was married. He didn’t want anything to do with me cause he didn’t wanna lose his family. That’s why it was so easy for him to give me away.”
“That’s tragic.”
“His absence wasn’t felt. Papa Joe was my daddy and that was all that mattered to me. When I won homecoming queen, he escorted me on the field. All of my important moments… he was there for them.”
“What about your mom?”