Page 11 of Ony If It’s You

Chapter Eight

K ehlani

“Si, you know better than to run off like that,” I fussed when I caught up to him.

He had been begging me to get a new video game, so I promised to take him today. In true Messiah fashion, he bragged to his sister who in turn conned me into taking her to the American Girl store as well.

“They only have girl stuff in there,” he whined.

“I don’t care, Messiah.” Gently, I grabbed his forearm and pulled him toward me. “I really shouldn’t let you go in this store.”

“I’m sorry, Mommy,” he pleaded. “I won’t do it again, I promise.”

I raised my hand to stop him. “Save it. I’m going to get it, but you won’t be playing it when we get home.”

“But Mommy?—”

I cut him off. “Didn’t I say save it? Now, let’s go.”

Standing up straight, I extended a hand to each of them.

When they accepted, the three of us began our walk toward the gaming store.

Inside, I saw that there was quite a crowd and frowned.

The plan was to bring them out for a little, go eat, drop them off to their father, and go to work.

I had a new shipment of materials coming in today, so I wanted to get a head start on whipping up some new skincare products.

On top of owning and operating Rejuvenate, I made my own skincare products.

I got into making my own products when I first had the twins because they both had very sensitive skin.

I couldn’t and still can’t use the typical stuff that most children could on them.

Plus, when I started to research the lotions and soaps, I saw all of the chemicals that were in them, so it was an easy decision for me to make my own stuff for them, hence the reason I’d named it JoSi.

It was only right that I named the product line after them when it originated because of my two little people.

The only exception I made was perfumes. I loved a good scent and couldn’t see myself giving it up, so I didn’t. I made most of my products with a scent, but I still couldn’t will myself to walk away from perfume altogether.

“Oh shit, Lani?”

My brows met in the middle of my forehead when I heard my name being called from behind me. We were at one of the cases looking through the glass for the specific game Messiah had asked for.

Spinning on the balls of my feet, I came face to face with none other than Dominique, Javyous’s cousin. What were the odds that I would run into him here. We’d obviously always lived in the same city, yet I’d never run into him before.

“Hey,” I replied dryly.

Dominique was an alright guy; I just wasn’t thrilled with running into him. Especially while I had my kids.

“What’s good, cuz in law.” He had a smug grin on his face. “Who do we have here?”

He knelt down to be level with the twins who rushed to introduce themselves.

“I’m Jocey.” She blushed turning from side to side.

“And I’m Si.” Messiah stepped up front with a scowl on his cute little face as he stood in front of his sister in a protective manner. “Who are you?”

“Relax, little homie.” Dominque tapped Si’s chest lightly with his fist. “I’m practically family, my name’s Dominique.”

“We’ve never met you. How are you family?”

Momentarily he looked up at me before giving his attention back to the kids.

“Yeah, that is wild that we never met, but check this out, we’ll be linking up soon and when we do, me and you can play that game you grabbing.” He pointed to the game that was in Si’s hand. “Matter of fact, let me get that and you take this one.”

When he handed Si the bag, I tried to stop him, but he waved me off.

“Wow, really?” Messiah asked in disbelief. “You’re letting me have this for free?”

“Yeah, that’s what family is for, right?” Dominique grinned as he reached into his pocket pulling a fifty-dollar bill out from it. “And this is for you, princess.”

Jocelyn accepted the bill then tossed her little arms around Dominique’s neck catching the both of us by surprise. Shortly after, he reciprocated the hug then dapped Messiah up before standing to his full length.

“Thank you, Dominique. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Naw, that ain’t shit. Tell your girl to answer that fucking phone. She doesn’t want me to have to find her and a nigga definitely can.”

“I—okay.” I nodded, stammering over my words before grabbing the twins’ hands. “Thank you again.”

I rushed out of the store after that because for some reason I started to feel like if he was here, his cousin wasn’t too far behind. Javyous had pissed me off, so I had no intentions on seeing him until it was time to go to court and get out of this fuck ass marriage.

After we left the mall, the three of us went to get something to eat before I dropped them off with their father. I had been avoiding talking to him since I’d gotten back from Vegas, but I could only do that for so long.

He had been blowing me up all week with calls and text messages, but I was screening them. I didn’t owe his ass an explanation in the first place.

When we pulled into the driveway of his home, the twins took turns kissing my cheek before hopping out and rushing to the door. I wanted to pull away while they were knocking, but I knew I couldn’t. Pharaoh might actually come and try to murder me.

“Ay, wait!” he shouted from the door after letting the kids in. Sighing, I put my car in park as I waited for him to walk over to me. “Fuck is this I’m hearing?”

“How would I know what you’re hearing, Pharaoh?”

“Don’t be fucking smart with me, Kehlani.” His hands landed on the roof of my car as he leaned down to be face to face with me. “You married some random nigga?”

“Do I look like you?” I spat knowing damn well the answer to the question was yes. “Do I look like I make stupid ass, hasty decisions like you?”

“Shit that video suggests that…”

I cut him off. “I don’t give a fuck what that video suggests. Who are you to question me anyways? I’m not your woman, I haven’t been for a very long time.”

“You’re my fucking baby mama though and you’re not about to be having no random ass fucking niggas around my kids or in a house that I’m fucking paying for.”

I scoffed. “There it is. Your ass isn’t worried about the twins, nigga. You’re worried about what I’m doing.”

“Yeah, mothafucka because what you do ultimately affects my kids,” he tried to argue.

“Nigga, why don’t you have that same mindset when it comes to the fucked up shit that you do?”

“Kehlani—”

“Move before I run your stupid ass over,” I threatened through clenched teeth.

Without allowing him time, I put my car in reverse and sped away not caring if I ran over his foot.

Pharaoh was a major part of the reason that I hadn’t really entertained anyone since I’d left his trifling ass.

He would throw tantrums and show out every single time that he thought a nigga got close to me.

It was well past time that I cut that out.

Although I had no plans on entertaining Javyous even a little bit, I had no intentions on being single for the rest of my life.

Pushing all things involving my baby daddy to the back of my mind, I turned the music up and cleared my mind before I made it to my beauty bar.

I didn’t want to take any bad vibes in there because people frequented it to relax and relieve stress.

Pulling into the parking lot, I noticed Jasmine’s, one of my employees, car was already there along with one I didn’t recognize.

She may have had a client come in. I’d shot her a text and asked her to meet me since I had some supplies arriving today.

After killing the engine, I grabbed my purse, dropped my keys and phone inside of it and climbed out, hitting the button on the door handle to lock my doors before heading inside.

“Good afternoon, boss lady,” Jasmine said when I entered.

“Hey girl, thank you for coming. I know I gave you the day off.”

“Oh girl, I wasn’t doing anything but eating junk food and binge-watching trash TV,” she said, waving me off.

“I know, but the day was yours to relax and stuff, even if that involved junk food and trashy TV.”

Jasmine was a very sweet girl that had come to me when I’d first opened this place a year ago begging me for a job. She cried to me about how no one wanted to give her a chance since she was new to it and fresh out of school, but I saw her potential, so I hired her on the spot.

She pointed to the back. “Truck’s here though. And there is someone waiting for you in your office.”

“Who?” I frowned.

“I forgot the name, I’m sorry,” she lied. I could see it all over her face, but I didn’t have time to address it right now.

After shooting her one last look, I walked the short distance to my office where I found Javyous looking at the pictures that hung on my walls.

“Why are you here?” I asked to grab his attention. Closing the door behind me, I walked over to drop my purse on my desk. It was taking everything in me to maintain my attitude due to the intoxicating scent of his cologne. He smelled just as good as he had the night I’d met him. “How are you here?”

“I drove.”

I was quickly learning that I wasn’t the biggest fan of his smart ass mouth.

“Javyous, how do you know where my job is?”

“Social media,” he answered holding up his phone. On the screen was my business’s Instagram page . Knowing the name of my place, getting the address was probably easy.

“What is it?”

“You knew I would come find you, Kehlani.”

“Why?”

“Because…” He paused and sighed dejectedly. “I need you right now.”

“You need the trifling hoe that drops her kids off to her old ass grandma?” I asked, angling my head to the side.

“I didn’t say all that shit,” he argued with a frown on his handsome face.

“In so many words you did.” I shrugged.

“Look, I apologize, aight? I didn’t have to say any of that shit, it just caught me off guard when you said you had kids. They’re cute as hell by the way.” He pointed behind me. “They’re twins?”

“Yes.”