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CHAPTER SIX

FERRIS

M ilana looked so good in those tight ass jeans.

She wore some strappy heels with them and a graphic tee.

It looked to have something about the Hendersons on it.

Her braids were gorgeous. I wished I would have said more to her, but she looked to be on a mission to get out of there.

When a man, Asad informed me was her uncle, walked out not long after her, I had to assume there was something going on.

Maybe it was best that I didn’t go after her.

She seemed to have a lot of drama, . . .

family drama. Why was I still thinking about her then?

After getting my stuffed fried chicken, we sat near her cousins that were with her at the rodeo.

Ashanni was staring at us for a while when she finally stood and came to our table.

“Hey, y’all,” she said.

“What’s up,” I said.

Asad looked to be in a damn trance. He scanned her from her head to her feet and back up. “How you doing, Ashanni?”

She gave him a slight smile. “I’m good.”

She sat and stared at me for a moment. “You still feeling her?” she asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Give me your number, and I’ll get it to her.”

I frowned slightly. “Why you getting my number for her? Why couldn’t she get it for herself?”

“Because Uncle Storm was being a jackass. Milana doesn’t like confrontation.”

He walked back inside right after she said that with a slight frown on his face. He rubbed his hand down his face then sat at the table with three other men. Giving my attention back to Ashanni, I took a deep breath and said, “Okay.”

She smiled. “She has a rodeo in Birmingham this weekend, so she’s digging out tomorrow morning.

She probably won’t be back until Sunday night.

So don’t think she’s being funny by not calling until she gets back.

When she has a rodeo, she likes to stay clearheaded, .

. . more of a reason she needed to get out of here. ”

I saw her uncle glance at us. He’d heard her.

That nigga was ear hustling hard. I gave her my number, and she saved it in her cell phone, then winked and smiled.

“I think the two of you look great together. I noticed at the rodeo. Once y’all talk, hopefully you’ll find that your personalities are compatible too. ”

She smiled at Asad and grabbed his hand as she stood.

He stood, too, as he glanced back at me.

I gave him a head nod, and he walked away with her.

Maybe those years between them wouldn’t matter after their talk.

I bit into my chicken to find what I was used to.

She stuffed it with mac and cheese and greens this time.

This woman was a beast with this shit. It had definitely gotten even better over the years.

It was good when I tasted it five years ago, and now it was amazing.

Bringing my thoughts back to Milana, I could only hope that I wasn’t about to get myself into some shit that would be hard to get out of. She was so beautiful though. I had to at least try.

When I got to my parents’ house, I huffed.

I knew I was about to hear my mama’s mouth.

I hadn’t talked to her in a few days. I was trying to get some work done so I would have the weekend off.

It would be a three-day weekend for me. I needed that shit too.

Although it seemed playing a game couldn’t be tiring, that assumption would definitely make an ass out of you.

I literally played for hours a day. I loved video games, but some days, I wished I had a regular job.

Being that I was sitting for hours at a time, analyzing and paying extremely close attention to details, it made it that much more taxing.

I had to be sure to make it to the gym and to eat healthy most days.

If I didn’t, I would be inviting shit to my body that would take extreme effort to get rid of.

I would rather engage in preventative maintenance than to be dealing with the effects of high blood pressure and/or diabetes.

It didn’t help that those things ran in our family.

My mama had high blood pressure. But hell, dealing with my daddy over the years, I could see why.

That nigga was something else sometimes.

It was like he expected my mama to do everything.

She had to work, cook at least two meals a day, take care of the dog that he bought and wanted, and clean the house.

That nigga did nothing, other than cut grass.

He had to be told to take the trash out. It was like he was a fucking kid.

Seeing her so worn some days was why I usually made sure to talk to her at least every other day.

My brother was closer to my dad, and I noticed he somewhat treated his wife the same way.

The only difference was he was still working.

My dad had retired from the State of Texas a couple of years ago, and he seemed to be even lazier now.

My mama still worked sometimes just to give herself time away from the house.

She signed up with a home health agency part-time.

Still, she’d cook breakfast before she left in the morning and would be home by two or three to cook dinner.

I didn’t know how she did it. However, she seemed to be able to tolerate him better by having that four- to five-hour break from him.

I honestly didn’t expect them to make it much longer that way.

She said that she had to tell that nigga he wasn’t on vacation, and she wasn’t fucking room service.

I could only shake my head. She tried to talk to me about sex, but I had to draw the damn line at that.

We were close, but the last thing I wanted to hear about was their sex life. She could talk to my sister about that.

When I walked inside, Dad was on the couch watching TV. That was where he was most days, unless he was outside cutting grass. “What’s up, old man?”

He smiled and stretched out his hand. I shook it as he said, “Same ol’, same ol’. How was your day? You know yo’ mama gon’ beat yo’ ass, right?”

I chuckled. “My day was cool. Where is she?”

“Lucky for you, I’m in the kitchen cooking!” she yelled.

I gave my dad a one-sided smile and made my way to the kitchen. When I walked in, she was at the stove, stirring something. I approached her from behind and began massaging her shoulders. “Hey, Mama.”

“Don’t be tryna butter me up, Ferris. Move a little to the right.”

I chuckled, but I knew she needed this. Mother’s Day was coming up, so I knew I would have to do something really special for her this year.

She deserved the world, and unfortunately, my dad only thought about the things he wanted that would most likely require work from her.

It was truly pathetic how it had gotten to this.

He was the one who taught me how to treat a woman, but it seemed over the past few years, he’d forgotten his own lessons.

“Okay. Thank you, baby. Where you been? Why haven’t I heard from you?”

I kissed her cheek then went to the table. “I’ve been working hard so I could have a three-day weekend. I’m exhausted now, so I’ll probably sleep the whole weekend away.”

She chuckled. As I thought about things, I figured I could take her out tomorrow or Saturday for dinner.

My plan was to chill with Asad at the rodeo.

I didn’t tell Ashanni, but I was supposed to be going to Birmingham too.

I wasn’t necessarily going for Milana. Red Squared and Carter Legend were competing.

Finding out she was going only made the trip that much sweeter.

I really wanted to see her in her element, but I was so damn tired now I didn’t know how I would function.

Maybe the food I ate earlier played a part in that.

“Why did you need a three-day weekend? You had plans?”

“I was supposed to be going to Birmingham with Asad to watch Red Squared and Carter Legend do their thang. Now I don’t know if I wanna take the trip. That’s over eight hours.”

“Yeah, it’s a long drive. When were y’all planning to leave?”

“Tomorrow morning and come back Sunday.”

“You should go and enjoy yourself. Is Asad driving?”

“Yes, but we were going to take turns driving. He was going to take the first leg.”

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go.

I needed to know what he and Ashanni talked about.

He wouldn’t tell me at the diner. He didn’t want anyone to overhear our conversation.

Knowing Milana had my number was a plus as well.

Asad had said that they all usually kicked it together after the rodeo, because Mrs. Tiffany was close to Mr. Red, Mr. Legend, and Mrs. Shana.

“Okay. If I go, you have to promise me to take time to yourself Saturday and go get your nails and feet done.”

I took out my wallet and pulled out three one-hundred-dollar bills and extended them to her. Her eyebrows lifted, and she looked like she wanted to cry. “Ferris, that’s a lot of money. I can’t take that.”

“Yes, you can. You deserve this and more. Go get your nails and feet done. Please?”

She let her spoon go and came to me as I stood from my seat. She hugged me tightly and took the money. “Thank you, baby.”

“If I find out you did anything else with this money that wasn’t specifically for you, I’m gon’ be on you when I get back. Don’t even tell him you got this money. You hear me, woman?”

She chuckled and went back to her pot. “I hear you, Ferris. I’m gonna go to Tic Tac and get my nails done. I may even take myself to lunch at TRUST Downtown Bistro. I’ve been seeing their ads on Facebook, and that food looks delicious.”

“What do they serve?”

“Seems like a lot of stuff. The ad I saw was seafood, but I also saw boudin balls, greens, mac and cheese, red beans, and fried chicken. So they probably sell a lil bit of everything.”

“Oh, okay. I’ma have to check them out when I don’t feel like driving to Nome. Jen and Chrissy’s Diner be jumping from ten to two.”

“They still going, huh?”

“Yes, and the food has gotten even better.”

“I’ll have to make a trip out there one day.”

She made it seem like Nome was hours away.

It was only twenty minutes from my house and probably thirty minutes from theirs.

I supposed I’d gotten used to driving it over the years.

Just that fast, my mind went back to Milana.

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I sent Asad a text. I’m gonna go. I’ll meet you in Nome.

He was going to be following behind Mr. Red. It would make sense to leave my vehicle out there in case he wanted to hang around Nome when we got back. Before I could slide my phone back in my pocket, it chimed. I figured it was him texting back, but it was a number not saved in my phone.

Hey, Ferris. It’s Milana. I just wanted to let you know Ashanni gave me your number. I won’t have time to talk until Sunday evening because I’m going to a rodeo this weekend. I hope you’re cool with that. Talk to you soon.

She included a smiley face emoji. I was shocked to hear from her.

As Ashanni had warned, I wasn’t expecting to hear from her until Sunday or Monday.

Well, now that I was going to the rodeo, I would definitely do whatever I had to do to be with her Saturday night.

Wherever she was going afterward would be where I was going.

“Mama?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“I’m interested in someone.”

She dropped her spoon and turned to me with her eyebrows lifted. “You just full of surprises, huh?”

I chuckled. “Her name is Milana Semien. She’s related to Legend Semien, and Tiffany Henderson is her mother.”

I knew my mama was familiar with them, simply from Asad and me talking about them to her. “Oh, okay! Do you have a picture of her? I’m pretty sure she’s tall though.”

“I don’t have a picture. Yeah, she’s probably six feet.”

“You and those tall women. Does she rodeo?”

“She does. She barrel races.”

“She’s going to be there this weekend, isn’t she? That was why it wasn’t hard to convince your ass to go.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, she is. She just texted me. She doesn’t know I’m gonna be there though.”

I brought my attention back to my phone. Hey, Milana. I’m glad you reached out. I thought this would never happen. LOL. I look forward to getting to know you, beautiful. Good luck at the rodeo.

I hit send and stared at my phone to see if she would respond. After a few seconds, a message came through.

LOL! Thanks.

She was remembering what she’d said to me at that rodeo last weekend. I would like to think her reconciliation with her mother made her have a more positive outlook about her future. I just hoped that future included me.