Page 36 of Ony If It’s You

Chapter Twenty-Two

K ehlani

“Girl hell no, he’s already down my back about everything and I’m only five minutes pregnant.”

I rolled my eyes at how annoying JV had been in only a few days. He’d basically forced me to cancel all of my appointments and take the rest of the week off to get better. That was a bunch of bullshit though because he had been all over me regardless of me being sick.

We were able to sit down and have the conversation about Kecia.

He gave me the rundown of the night at the club and promised that I wasn’t going to have to deal with them again.

Dealing with them wasn’t my issue, my issue was them constantly coming around my man even after him letting them down easy.

I could tell by the way he talked about Kecia that she thought she was hardbody, but she hadn’t met me yet.

I was only issuing her one warning just like I had done her little sister wife.

“It’s funny because I can see him being on your back about everything.” Celeste laughed.

“It’s horrible, friend,” I groaned.

I couldn’t even look the wrong way without him jumping up to my aid.

“He’s just a protector by nature, I mean the man is a boxer.”

“Don’t remind me,” I replied with a roll of the eyes as I unlocked the door to my building.

When I stepped inside, I saw that it was damn bare. My knees weakened at the sight. There was nothing left in there really. Who the hell would rob my beauty bar and why? What the hell?

“Lani!” Celeste shouted.

“Oh my God,” I cried. “Celeste my place is empty.”

“Empty? What do you mean empty?”

“I mean empty, like nothing is here!” My chest felt like it was about to explode. I had put so much work into my business and now everything was gone. “Oh my fucking God, I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

I stumbled to a nearby wall and started to take deep breaths so I could calm myself down. I was extremely upset, but I had to remember that I was pregnant and how critical my first trimester was.

“Friend, okay, just relax,” Celeste suggested.

“Okay, okay,” I said barely above a whisper. “I-I need to call Ja-Javyous.”

“Friend, calm down. Here, I’m sending you my location. Are you okay to drive?”

Sucking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes and slowly released it before standing up straight. I took a few more deep breaths before nodding like she could see me.

“Okay, yes, I’m okay. I can drive.”

“Good, I sent you the location.”

Looking around one final time, I wiped the few tears that had escaped and made my exit. When I was back inside of my car, I went to me and Celeste’s messages and clicked the location that was about fifteen minutes away, started my car, and pulled away.

“I need to call Javyous, friend.”

“No, stay on the phone with me until you make it here. I want to make sure you’re good. You can call him when you make it to me.”

“Okay,” I whimpered.

I was doing my best to hold it together on the outside, but on the inside I was falling apart. I’d worked so hard on building my business up and now I would have to start over.

What if it was my baby daddy?

Suddenly I felt enraged thinking that this had his name all over it. He had been so spiteful and vindictive lately. Any way that he thought he could hurt me or inconvenience me, he did it. It was giving bitter baby daddy real bad.

I frowned pulling into the parking lot of the location that Celeste had sent me. I hadn’t even noticed or realized where I was going until I actually pulled up. She was standing out front when I pulled in, so she hung up the phone and rushed to my car when I parked.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, still confused when I got out of the car.

“I was doing something, come on.”

I’d barely had my other foot out of the car and the door closed before she started dragging me toward the front door of the establishment. As soon as we were inside a barrage of people yelled, “Surprise!”

My mouth was on the floor and tears were in my eyes as I scanned the room. My employees, my grandma, my kids, my man, his uncle and cousin, Ms. Phyllis, everybody was standing inside of the building that I had purchased with the money I’d gotten from JV at the beginning of our arrangement.

He made his way over to me with the twins in tow and pulled me into a tight embrace.

I sniffled. “Baby, what is all of this?”

“Your new spot.” He shrugged. “You’ve been working hard as hell at work and home, you deserved some nice shit.”

“But babe,” I whimpered, looking around. “I know this was a lot of money. I could have helped.”

He scoffed. “Fuck out of here. Your nigga got some bread. Even more now that you helped me get all of these endorsements. Hell, this was really the least that I could do.”

Tears were pouring down my face as I looked at all of the decorations, equipment, just the overall set up. Jasmine and Celeste’s names were all over a lot of this because they were the only ones that knew exactly what I wanted in here.

“I picked the colors, Mommy,” Jocey said as she hugged one of my legs.

Smiling, I wiped my tears before lifting her into my arms and kissing her pretty face. It was obvious that she had chosen the color scheme because it matched her bedroom.

“It’s so pretty in here, baby girl, thank you.”

“I helped too, Mommy,” Si added with his little jealous ass. He didn’t like to be left out. Laughing, I lowered Jocey to the floor then pulled my son into a hug.

“Thank you, baby, this means so much to Mommy.”

“Go ahead and look around,” JV suggested.

Nodding, I started to make my way around the building, speaking to and hugging my loved ones along the way.

This whole thing had truly made my day. Since I had made the purchase, I had been putting a little money up daily to go toward renovations, but Javyous had outdone himself by doing it for me.

I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t noticed, but then again I hadn’t been by the building since I’d purchased it.

I had been too busy with everything else since then.

“I’m so proud of you, baby,” my grandmother said when I finally made it to her.

“Thank you, Granny.” We were both crying as we hugged.

“I’m so happy for you. You truly deserve all of this.” She held both of my hands as she stared at me with a smile on her face. I could hear in her voice how genuine her words were.

“I know you are, thank you again, Granny. For everything. I don’t know where me and the twins would be without you.”

“Oh, you’d be well off.”

“Boss lady.” Jasmine approached with opened arms. “This shit is fire right? Oh shit, I’m sorry for cursing, Ms. Jean.”

My granny waved her off and left us to talk. I laughed and watched her for a few seconds before turning my attention to Jasmine.

“I know you helped with this, thank you.”

“Girl, it was really all your man. He came to me and asked did I have any insight on what you wanted in here. I gave the little bit that you gave me and boom; we’re here. That man of yours is something else, girl. He really loves you.”

My heart skipped a beat at the thought of Javyous loving me.

I loved him for sure although I hadn’t said it to him.

That was partially because I was scared that he may not feel the same, but Jasmine said he did.

Had he told her that? Before I could ask, Celeste and some of the other girls that worked for me had approached.

“Bitch, we have to celebrate!”

“I have appointments.” I frowned.

I was grateful for the surprise and all, but I had to get back to business. I had been out of work for an entire week, I knew my clients were over me.

“No you don’t,” Jasmine said. “All of your appointments reconvene tomorrow. Ours too.” She smiled. “Your man wanted us all to be able to go out and celebrate.”

I looked his way and grinned. My heart was full just watching him interact with our family and friends. He was truly a godsend. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve him, but I wished I had done it sooner.

When he noticed me looking his way, he smiled and made his way over to me. I thought that he would stop right there, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me to a back room that had my name on the door. After closing and locking it, he looked my way with a mischievous grin on his face.

“What are you doing?” I asked, taking a step backward with each one he took forward.

“Why you running from me?”

“Move, Javyous!” I squealed and laughed when he caught up to me and pulled me into him. “There are hella people here.”

“So.” He started to trail kisses down my neck before gently sucking. My juices had started flowing as soon as he locked the door because I knew exactly what he wanted to do.

“Baby,” I moaned, barely trying to stop him. “We can’t.”

“We can,” he insisted, sucking harder, making it harder to resist, but I had to. My grandmother, kids, and Ms. Phyllis were here. Using all of my strength, I pushed him off.

“Not right now, babe.”

“Lani,” he groaned. “You feel this?”

When he thrusted forward, I could feel how hard his dick was.

“Yes, I do, but we can’t right now. People are waiting for me.”

With his handsome face frowned up, he pushed out a breath in frustration before giving me his eyes again.

“Fine, but no excuses or talking tonight.”

“Deal.” I smiled against his lips before kissing him and slipping out of my office, leaving him there to get himself together.

Once I rejoined everyone else, we talked and agreed to go eat and celebrate at Taste Of Italy. We only settled on going there because my granny and Ms. Phyllis would be joining us. Afterward, we planned to go to DayLux.

After kissing my husband and kids goodbye, we all piled into our rides and headed to the restaurant. It was a little ways out considering that it was closer to the mountains, but I had my mouth fixed for alfredo, so the drive was going to be worth it.

The restaurant wasn’t too packed when we arrived so we were seated quickly and placed our orders. I never missed a chance to eat here when I was close, so I knew what I wanted to eat.