Page 44 of All The Smoke

“I know we don’t have to ask, Solomon, but just for good measure we will.” The reporter laughed. “Did you vote for your dad?”

“Naw, actually I didn’t.” I grinned, stuffing my hands in my pockets.

“U-Uh, I’m sorry, did you say you didn’t?” she asked, looking between me, my parents, and her camera.

I nodded. “That’s exactly what I said. I made it my business to come up here and vote for the other mothafucka and if y’all had any sense, you would too. This mothafucka a fraud.”

“Solomon…” my mother called out. She looked like she could pass the fuck out while my father looked like he wanted to kill me.

Nigga knew better though.

“Oh.” The reporter tucked her hair behind her ear. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I know you wasn’t.” I chuckled. “But yeah, I voted for the other mothafucka that has intentions of helping out people who really need it. My pops ain’t gon’ do shit but make a bad situation worse. If you don’t believe me, ask the nigga what the fuck he did to his own fuckin’ son.”

With that, I was gone. I had to meet with Mase, Rock, and Cannon.

I’d planned to go to Cali with them to check out some of their legit businesses and see about partnering with them, but that had to be put on ice.

There was no way I could actually leave with my girl so close to birth.

Luckily, they were all fathers and understood.

The meeting was smooth with them. I actually signed a contract that would allow me to distribute my wax in their stores here, in Cali, and in Colorado.

I was already stoked as fuck hearing the news, but when the niggas gave me an upfront bonus of a million dollars for the shit, I almost passed out.

I wanted to decline at first because as much as a nigga appreciated it, I didn’t want to think about how long it would take me to generate that kind of money to pay them back before I actually started to see a profit.

Cannon assured me it wasn’t an advance, just a bonus, and we even signed paperwork on that.

Apparently he was impressed with my work ethic and all the money I made for them, so they all put some bread together to show their gratitude.

“Man, I wasn’t expecting this, but I really appreciate the shit for real.”

“No doubt,” Mase said, pulling me into a brotherly hug followed by Rock then Cannon.

“You ready to be a father of two, my nigga?” Rock asked.

“Hell yeah.” I smiled. “I really wish I could time jump to when she has my baby.”

“Shit, you and me both,” Cannon added. “My wife ain’t trying to give a nigga no more fuckin’ kids.”

“Nigga, have you met Kanyon?” Mase laughed. “Nigga give every fuckin’ body hell.”

“Ay, I don’t play about my son, aight.” Cannon frowned. “My baby is misunderstood.”

“Lil mothafucka a menace to society like his pops, but we love him to death,” Rock joked.

“Facts we do.”

“Anyways.” He mugged them both. “I saw the clips of the election today. That was nasty work with ya pops.”

“Facts, Willow sent it to me too,” Rock added.

“Same. Soraya couldn’t believe it.” Mase laughed.

“Fuck them,” I mumbled. “Nigga deserved that shit.”

“When you do fucked up shit, fucked up shit happens to you.” Cannon shrugged. “I pray everything with your brother turns out good. He got the best of the best working for him.”

Miles mentioned to me that he worked with all of the upper echelon in CF and Cannon’s cases were probably the biggest of him and his brother’s careers as well as the nigga Amon he had just gotten off.

Even without their reassurance, I believed in him.

He kept me in the loop with everything involving Noah’s appeal, making sure I understood. I appreciated the fuck out of him.

After dapping them all up and making plans to get them enough wax to last at least six months, I left.

I sent Bino a text to let him know how the meeting went and that we needed to link soon to get started on whipping the shit up.

He was one of the only people to know my recipe, Scoot was the other, but he clearly wouldn’t be helping me.

Wya?

My place. Come over.

Aight. Omw.

You and Solo ate?

Yes, but he stayed at my granny’s since my mom is there.

Bet. See you in a minute and be naked.

I headed to my crib first to put the bread away in the safe.

The shit was so much I could barely fit it in there, but it was cool.

I’d buy a new safe as well as start to deposit the shit into both of my kids’ accounts because I planned to split it between the two of them.

My brother was gon’ be straight and have bread because I had been stacking for him for a while now.

Once I got that done, I bounced and headed to Kaori’s crib.

When I reached her door, I noticed a big ass arrangement of balloons.

My brow dipped as I approached it because I knew I hadn’t bought shit for her ass today, so I knew like fuck no one was sending my girl shit.

Digging through the balloons, I finally found a card.

Ugh, you’re super nosy. I knew you were going to look for a card! Anyways, fix your face and come inside, handsome. I’ve been counting down the minutes until I kiss your lips again.

Oh. Happy birthday, my love.

-KK

A nigga felt like a hoe standing there blushing and shit.

No one had ever gotten me balloons before.

Using my free hand, I opened the door and entered her crib.

A trail of roses led to a big ass, clear tent in the middle of her living room.

She stood by the counter wearing a little two piece set that hugged her slim-thick frame perfectly, smiling and shit.

“Damn,” slipped from my lips as I set the balloons down then made my way over to her. Pulling her body into mine, I leaned down and kissed her nastily until she pulled back.

“Stop, I have plans.”

“Shit, me too.”

“No, Solomon, look.” She turned toward the counter and pointed to a rectangular box. “I have gifts.” There were other bags and boxes on the countertop as well, but she clearly wanted me to open that one first, so that was the one that I went for. “No, this one is last.”

Chuckling, I opened each of the other gifts, allowing her to record me the whole fucking time.

This was the first time anyone had gotten me anything for my birthday other than Bino and Scoot, at least in my adult years.

Bri’s ass was the kind of bitch that thought giving a nigga some pussy was a gift.

I used to go for that when I was a lil nigga, but this shit right here was how it was supposed to be.

I hadn’t even mentioned my birthday was coming or that I wanted anything, but she went the extra mile to pay attention and shit. That was why I loved her little ass.

“I wish you could put some of that on right now,” she groaned as I examined the cologne she’d gotten me. “It smells so good.”

It was 1 Million by Paco Rabanne and I couldn’t lie, the shit did smell good as a mothafucka, but I already had cologne on so she’d have to wait for another day to smell that shit on me.

The other gifts consisted of sneakers because she knew that a nigga loved that shit, clothes, a two thousand dollar gift card that she let me know was for me to buy the supplies I needed to make my wax, and a new gun.

I’d been saying I wanted some new shit and shorty made that happen and even threw a switch in the mix.

She must’ve wanted me to eat her ass inside out tonight.

“Okay, now this one.” She pushed the rectangular box my way.

“By Hand, By Heart, Love Is Like a Rose Picked From Gentle Deep Love,” I read out loud. “You got me flowers?”

“Just open it.”

Removing the lid, a wide smile stretched across my face.

A bottle of 1942 Don, I quickly realized, posed as the letter ‘I’.

In the middle were roses shaped like a heart also outlined with one hundred dollar bills, then next to it were roses that were shaped like the letter U.

Lastly, going across the roses was a ribbon and banner that said, for your haircut.

I laughed. “Really, bae. For my haircut?”

“Yes. You look a little rough.”

“Yeah, aight.”

“You like it?” she asked.

Setting the lid to the box down, I pulled her fine ass into my arms and kissed all over her face then her lips. “I love it, baby. Nobody ever did anything like this for me before.”

Smiling, she tossed her arms around my neck and said, “You deserve your flowers just as much as anyone else. From the very beginning, you’ve put my needs and our babies’ needs before your own, so this was so necessary.”

“Naw, that smile you rockin’ everyday lets a nigga know he’s doing his job, but this is a great gesture too. I really appreciate it and you.”

“Can we eat now? I’m starving.”

“I thought you ate.” I shook my head and chuckled.

“I did but only a little because I knew we were going to eat here.”

Because the rug she had in front of the tent was white, I kicked off the Travis Scott Dunks I wore and followed her inside.

There was a little table set for two with plenty of pillows and shit surrounding the table and the tent for us to sit on or maybe lie on after we were done eating, as well as lights on the floor and running along the tent’s interior.

There were lights on the outside too as well as little ass candles that lit the walkway into it.

On one side there was a sign that said, “Happy Birthday Baby” and on the other was a basket with a blue blanket that matched the theme, more pillows, and a tic tac toe board.

“What’s on the menu?”

“Seafood.”

“Of course it is.” I chuckled. “I don’t even know why I asked.”

“You like lobster, babe.”

“Yeah, not as much as you, but it’s straight.”

I helped her have a seat and made sure she was comfortable before descending into the spot next to her.

“I have been thinking about these crab stuffed mushrooms since I spoke to Teyon and Averi about catering for us.”

“Oh, you got fancy.” I grinned.

“I have to top Diablo’s and the horse and carriage.”