Page 15

Adonis

I didn't feel right after visiting Lima and returning to Georgia.

That's probably why I didn't fight to stay with Nyoka.

I had been missing Ohio for a while, so it feels good to be back in familiar territory.

The only upside I would have had to staying in Georgia would have been a future with Ny, but that was done.

Since moving back to Lima, I started my landscaping business out here and got a crib.

I had left the old business in Georgia to Dom.

We were some legit niggas now.

Lee was released from prison right before I got my business up and running, so I immediately gave him a job.

I knew what it was like to come home and struggle for a bit, and if I could help it, I would prevent that for anyone in my close circle.

It was just an added bonus that he was good as shit with a yard.

No racist shit, I think it was the Mexican in his blood that made him cut a yard so precisely and at a speed that left my customers satisfied.

Once Dom let me know that Nyoka had moved out of the house, I had left the crib to him too.

It took me about a month to get my own spot here in Lima, and once I did, I sent for my clothes.

I didn't want the furniture in that bitch because everything would remind me of Nyoka.

When I came back and put the down payment on my house, just like I knew he would, Javier had moved in with me.

I think the adjustment to Joy having her long-lost husband around was too much for him.

It was a lot for me, too, but I didn't dwell on what I couldn't understand.

They had their special bond, and honestly, it was nice to see Joy happy romantically.

I walked up the yard slowly from the mailbox.

I flipped through the mail, handing Javier whatever belonged to him.

A light pink envelope caught my attention.

It was from Dom and Talia, which caused me to rip it open quickly.

It was a baby shower invitation.

"I knew they asses was gonna have a baby…"

Dom and Talia couldn't keep their damn hands off of each other.

I was actually surprised that they hadn't gotten pregnant sooner.

It was news to me because Dom never uttered a word of it every time we spoke.

When I thought of it, he had been hinting at me being his child's godfather if he ever had one.

"Huh?" Javier asked as he started to open up his mail.

"Dom is having a baby with his girl."

"The same girl that's your ex's cousin?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yep."

"Oh, you should go. You may bump into ya girl. Try to get her back, bro."

"Nah, I'm good," I quickly declined.

I would be a liar if I said that Nyoka hadn't crossed my mind since I had moved back.

As soon as my feet touched Lima soil, I tried to double back with Lola, but, as expected, that didn't work.

We had grown too much from one another.

I wasn't the same person I was when I left a year ago, nor was she.

Still, we had an unbreakable bond.

She just wasn't my person.

Joy tried talking some sense into me when she saw me backtracking in Lola's direction, but I wasn't trying to hear anything.

She was trying to be the voice of reason for Nyoka, and I listened, but I was closed off to hearing any of that bullshit.

To me, Ny had ample time to come clean about her being an assassin, especially after Joy and my mother had come clean.

I couldn't bring myself to forgive my mother.

Anybody trying to get me to do that shit would be beating a dead horse.

Joy raised me, so I was willing to sweep her lies and betrayal under the rug.

I didn't have it in me to do the same for a stranger.

I loved the fuck out of Nyoka.

I had broken down all the barriers of having trust issues to love her, and in the end, I was backdoored.

"I think it's fire that ya old lady is an assassin. That's heat brother."

I chuckled a bit because I weirdly agreed with Javier. The shit was sexy, but it was the principal of it all. The hiding shit was strange as fuck.

"It is heat. I just can't take that lying shit."

"Well, technically, she never lied because you ain't flat out ask her if she had ever killed someone, and let's not forget that she and her cousin never found out about y'all robbing them."

Javier did have a point, but I didn't give a fuck.

"Are you my brother or hers?"

Javier raised both his hands in defense and then laughed.

I looked down at the baby shower invitation again and then saw that they were having it at my old house.

I had thought about leaving the house to Nyoka, but the anger in me then didn't feel that she deserved shit.

With Joy clearing her name, I'm sure she would return to her old ways.

I ripped the invitation up and then tossed it in the garbage. I decided I would just send a gift. Well, send a shitload of gifts, especially since I figured I would be asked to be the godfather.

"OH SHIT!"

I looked in Javier's direction.

"What, bruh?" I asked.

"Man, call Joy right muthafucking now. I got accepted into Ohio State on a full ride!"

I pulled my phone out fast as hell, gave Joy a call, and then handed him the phone. He had given her the news all in one breath. I could hear her screaming her head off in his ear.

"I'm proud of you, bro. You did that shit," I congratulated him.

"Nah, we did that. You were the first person to put a basketball in my hand."

I just smiled because I never thought about it like that.

This was the kind of news that I would have rushed to share with Nyoka.

I missed her.

I missed her badly, but I was trying to stand on business.

When I left Georgia, she had reached out for the first two weeks, all attempts I blocked.

Eventually, I stopped hearing from her.

Everything that Joy and Javier were saying was playing in my head.

Even Adira chimed in on how I was wrong to forgive Joy and not her.

Everybody's advice was loud as fuck in my head.

I was just going to sit on my thoughts.

I had two months until the baby shower to make a decision on whether I wanted to go or not.

The thought of possibly seeing Nyoka gave me a crazy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I quickly shook it off when I realized I didn't know where she currently was in the world.

I didn't even know if she would show up for the baby shower. Considering how we ended with the possibility of me going, she probably wouldn't.

"Joy, why can't I drink? This is a celebration." Javier's voice pulled me from my thoughts.

"Man, I'm drinking," I watched him say into the phone.

Without saying a word, I opened the bottle of Espolòn on the kitchen counter, grabbed a glass from the dish rack, and poured a bit into it before sliding it his way. I placed one finger on my lips, and he just smiled at me.

"And Adonis better not give you shit!" I heard Joy yell loud and clear just as Javier took the shot.

We both fell into laughter at her fussing. My business was good, which meant that so was money, and my family was straight. The only thing that was missing was that one person at my side.

Nyoka

Two Months Later

I pressed the button on the remote in my hand and watched as the curtains slowly opened.

Something about the view of the Manhattan Bridge and East River got to me every time.

I had blown a bag on the luxuries that I had because I fucking deserved it.

As a little girl, I always dreamed of living in a penthouse.

Besides my current residence, the closest I had come to a condo of this caliber was when I was fulfilling contracts for the wealthy.

With me being second in command of The Heart Mirage, I could have relocated anywhere in the world, but after having my heart broken, home is where I needed it to heal.

At the beginning of my healing stage, some days were worse than others, but in the end, I realized that Adonis had stopped treating me like God had handed me to him personally.

It was obvious I was brought into his life to show him genuine love, and he was brought into mine to show me to put myself first.

I loved him but for a while, I was ignoring and recoloring the red flags that I was presented with.

Healing became easier when I came to the realization that the entire relationship wasn't shit but some dope ass memories with a muthafucka that could go straight to hell.

Talia wanted me to stay in Georgia to help her with her pregnancy and then the baby, but we both knew that I wasn't cut out for that shit.

Her crossing my mind pushed me to peel myself away from my Egyptian cotton sheets.

I had a flight to catch and didn't want to be late.

I had to at least show my face at her baby shower.

The following Monday, I had to be at the boarding house because a new class of assassins needed to be taught.

On my way out the door, I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

When I closed it back, I straightened out the baby shower invitation I had placed under a magnet and rushed out of the door.

**

The two-and-a-half-hour flight was quick, but waiting for a damn rental wasn't.

When I had reached my destination, I stepped out of the all-black Durango that I had rented and placed my Timberland boot onto the concrete.

I loved fall in Georgia because it was never too hot or too cold.

Pink and gold balloons filled the driveway.

Many memories came back to me once I pushed the front door open.

I walked throughout the house, following the bass of the music.

The backyard was the perfect place for an event. When I used to live here, I had pre-planned barbecues and game nights.

"God mommy in the houseeee!" Talia screeched as soon as I stepped out the door and into the backyard.

I had to push my hair out of my face because of the wind. I had paid for one of the top hairstylists in Atlanta to come to me to install a middle part bust down.

Moving back home was one of the best things that I had done because it taught me that the soft girl era that I was expecting a nigga to provide, I could give to myself.

"God mommy is in the houseeee!" Talia said again once I was closer to her.

She was dressed in a soft pink and gold long-sleeved gown. I smiled brightly because the round belly in front of her was poking, and the weight looked good on her. Dom looked over the shoulder of the man he was talking to.

"See, bae, I told you she would come."

When I got within arm's reach, I touched her stomach.

I stopped rubbing the round basketball when the breeze blew, and I smelled him.

That damn Baccarat Rouge had that certain scent on his skin. I looked to the right of me, and we locked eyes.

"Hey, pretty lady."

Adonis

Nyoka looked up at me. There was this awkward silence between the four of us: me, her, Talia, and Dom.

"Hey," she greeted in a short tone.

"Alright, y'all, it's time for some more games," the host of the shower said over the mic.

That last game of tasting that baby food literally put an unpleasant taste in my mouth, so I was going to pass on the diaper-changing game.

Every once in a while, I glanced over at Nyoka.

She was bent over changing the shit out of a diaper on a baby doll.

The necklace on her neck dangled right in front of her breasts.

That sun and crescent moon had the sun bouncing off of it.

This girl really be killing people? I thought to myself as I eyed her sexy ass.

Don't get me wrong.

Nyoka was always a pretty girl, but the post-break-up glow was hitting differently.

That alone made me want to double back. It was the amount of sex appeal she now possessed, and she didn't even have that banging ass body exposed.

She wore a pair of tan Timberland boots.

That shit was so New York, and the way she paired it with a pair of dark distressed jeans, a plain white shirt, and a blue plaid jacket was sick.

I tapped the black Timberland boots on my feet together as I watched her hold the doll up by the arm.

"I'm done!" she yelled loud as fuck.

"Okay, we have a winner!" the host yelled into the mic.

She was a fucking winner, for sure.

When she turned her head to the side, I noticed that she now had a tattoo on the right side of her neck of butterflies and flowers that looked like it went to her shoulder.

I knew of every piece of art that covered that frame, so to see the new tattoo had me in my feels.

Only I knew under that work was a small, red, dainty tattoo of the word Love written in Japanese.

Nyoka had gotten it only because I had got an Anime tattoo.

That was probably one of my last pure memories of our relationship.

That was two days before we had broken up.

Seeing how she had covered it up made me hesitant about wanting to speak with her. If anything, I wanted to apologize for my reaction to everything.

The host handed Nyoka a bag, and she dug into it and pulled her gift for winning the game out so that everyone else could see.

It was a mini speaker.

She smiled hard as hell like it was a million dollars or some shit.

She looked so fucking happy.

This must have been the phase that Joy had told me about.

She had given me a pep talk before I even took this trip.

She explained it comes in stages when women are healing.

She told me that if Nyoka could be in close quarters with me without showing malice, she would be moved on from me and that I should leave her be.

She bopped her body from side to side as she sang.

"Saying I won't fuck with you no more I probably still will…"

Ny looked in my direction when she finished singing.

Is that a sign for me? I wondered as I bopped my head to Rylo.

Talia had walked over to her, and the two were doing a little two-step as they sang the song to one another.

She's so fucking pretty, I thought as she smiled brightly.

"You got the best brain, I hope you never look for advice

You find your way home, a million times you told me goodbye…"

I laughed to myself because the nigga was harmonizing like a muthafucka on that part.

When the DJ started mixing in another song, I saw Nyoka walk over to the makeshift bar.

I stood quickly and then crossed the backyard to make my play.

She threw back two shots of Hennessy effortlessly.

"Let me get a shot of Espolòn," she requested from the bartender.

He poured it and then handed it her way.

"You mixing now?" I asked.

"Nope." She slid it my way. "Take a shot," she urged.

I didn't even realize that Ny had noticed me walk over. I tossed the shot back, and when I placed the glass on the table, she was staring at me.

"What's up?"

I couldn't read her.

"How have you been?" I asked because I couldn't find anything else to fucking say.

"I've been well. You?"

"I'm doing okay."

I didn't know which direction to take the conversation.

"That's good."

She grabbed her phone off the bar top and started to walk away.

"Ny, I miss you."

Fuck it, I was going there.

I heard and understood what Joy meant when she spoke of this kind of healing, but I wasn't the I-wanna-see-you-happy-even-if-it's-not-with-me ass nigga.

I mean, I was, but not with a woman like her.

I had seen this meme before that said that women feel the aftermath as soon as it happens and that it takes men longer.

Nyoka was glowing like a muthafucker in front of me, and I was slick salty because I was feeling all of that breakup pain right here in this moment.

She turned around and stared at me for a moment. Her cold glare softened, which made me smile because maybe I was one step closer to getting my bitch back.

"Take care of yourself, Adonis," she said before walking over to Talia, kissing her on the cheek, and then exiting.

Both Talia and Dom had looked at me with pity, and honestly, I felt sad for my fucking self.

I had fucked up and allowed one of the coldest females I had come across to get away.

I felt myself getting choked up in the middle of the damn event, but I wasn't going to go out bad like that.

"Let me get another shot," I said to the bartender.

I threw the clear liquid back and then shook that shit off. I wish I never gave that girl my heart…

THE END