Page 5 of Ony If It’s You

Chapter Four

K ehlani

Sitting on the toilet with the lid down, I sniffled as I stared at my blank phone screen. Jocey had just called and told me how much she missed me. I wanted so badly to get on the first flight out of here and go home to my babies. I was really that mother that was never away from her kids.

“Lani!” I heard Celeste yelling and her voice was getting closer and closer. Quickly, I wiped down my face with the palm of my hand. I knew if and when she saw me crying, she would…

“Oh, hell no bitch!” she fussed, barging into the bathroom and seeing my red eyes. “What the hell, Kehlani?”

“I know, I’m sorry. This is rough for me,” I whined.

The twins were six and I could count on one hand how many times that I had actually been away from them. The result was the same every time, me locked away somewhere crying.

“Girl, you have got to stop this. They are fine, you are fine.” She crouched in front of me and took both of my hands into hers. “They’re with Ms. Jean, so you know they’re in good hands, plus if they need anything, their trifling ass father is there in the city with them.”

She rolled her eyes when she said the last part in true Celeste fashion.

I laughed and wiped the few tears that escaped while she was talking.

She was right. Jocey and Si were in good hands, so there was nothing for me to worry about.

I just didn’t want them looking for me and I wasn’t there. That was my own personal struggle.

“You’re right.” I sniffled. “I’m sorry.”

“I know I am.” She smirked. “Now come on and let’s touch this makeup up so that we can go meet up with Bridezilla.”

Normally I remained neutral between Celeste and Brooke, but she was right. Brooke had been a total bitch since we’d landed and it wasn’t even her wedding day yet. I could only imagine what we had to look forward to tomorrow.

After getting myself together, I grabbed my clutch and put my phone away before we left the room to meet the rest of the ladies down in the lobby of the hotel.

Brooke’s older sister, cousin, and sister-in-law were the other women that made up her wedding party.

They were all waiting on us when we stepped off of the elevator, Brooke wearing a scowl on her face.

Celeste snickered when she noticed the way she was looking.

“Imagine being fashionably late to my bachelorette party.” She scoffed when we were near.

“Well, it would make sense the ones with the most fashion would be fashionably late, boo,” Celeste taunted.

She and I did dress better than anyone in the group.

My father had left a large amount of money stashed at my grandmother’s that left me in a great place financially as both an adult and a child.

Celeste’s parents were both in real estate, so she was well off.

On the other hand, Brooke’s mother was in the restaurant business working as a cashier at a local burger joint and her father worked for the city as a sanitation specialist.

It wasn’t until Brooke met Lance that she got into a better situation. He was a local dope boy that stayed in trouble, always in and out of jail, but he took care of her and she was happy, so that was all that mattered.

“Anyways,” Brooke spat and rolled her eyes from Celeste to me. “What took so long?”

“Jocey called. I got a little emotional after talking to her, so I had to touch my makeup up,” I said.

We were now all in the back of the pink stretch limo that Brooke had rented for the night.

Her plan was to “Bridal Bar Hop”, whatever that was supposed to mean.

I found it to be a little unnecessary considering that we were staying on the strip where everything was, but it was her wedding, and this was her bachelorette party, so she could do what she wanted.

“Whew, sounds like a lot. Seeing you be a mom makes me glad that I never allowed a man to make me a baby mama.”

“Bitch, please,” Celeste spat before I could say anything. “You can’t say that when you’ve had enough babies vacuumed out of you to fill a boarding house.”

“Be that as it may; I’m not crying about whatever her kids have done,” she replied curtly.

“I wasn’t crying because my kids did anything, I miss them. That’s it.”

“And you’re well within your rights to do so, best friend ,” Celeste added. “That’s what good mamas do.”

“Like I said I didn’t allow a man to trap me for me to know what good mamas do. I took care of that before it even got that far.” Brooke smirked. “I made my man legitimize me before that could even become an option.”

I wasn’t going to entertain the conversation any further, so I changed the subject.

The rest of the ride to the first bar was spent talking about the plans for tomorrow.

Although Brooke was being a bitch to everybody, we still were happy and excited for her.

Well, most of us were, Celeste probably couldn’t care less.

Once we arrived, we were escorted inside the bar to the section that they had reserved for us for the night.

The bar was really nice. Each booth had a couch on both sides of it with two small tables between them.

The setting was dark with only a purple light hanging above each section.

I loved the discretion of it. You couldn’t really tell who was in the other sections.

The dance floor, however, was brightly lit and full of drunk, dancing patrons.

“Hello, ladies.” A waiter approached wearing nothing but some short, tight shorts that resembled spanx.

We all smiled and greeted him.

“Who’s the lucky lady?” he asked.

“That would be me,” Brooke piped up and damn near climbed across the table to grab the man’s awaiting hand.

Celeste and I locked eyes as we looked on. The heffa was about to get married but damn near about to jump on this man in here. I guess she needed to live it to the fullest on her last day as a single woman.

Celeste snickered. “Damn, Ms. Legitimize . You sure are doing a lot to be getting married tomorrow, aren’t you?”

The waiter took our bottle order since that was one of the requirements in order to sit in the section that we were in. We all agreed on Don Julio Anejo with Red Bull and Sprite as chasers.

“Damn Ms. I don’t have a man , you sure are clocking me pretty heavy.” Brooke smirked.

“It’s hard not to when your drool is all over the place with your thirsty ass,” Celeste rebutted.

I held a hand up in front of each of them.

“Okay, we are not doing this with the two of you bitches all night. We’re out of town to celebrate your union, Brooke, so cut all that catty shit out, and Celeste, you cut it out too.

This is her weekend, so she can do what she wants.

If you bitches want to reconvene on biting each other’s heads off, do it when we get back to Crescent Falls. Okay?”

I looked at each of them before they finally mumbled under their breaths.

“How do you deal with this shit every day, Lani?” Dana, Brooke’s sister-in-law, asked me.

“Oh, girl this is nothing compared to how they were when we were in school,” I answered, waving her off.

“Girl, I’ll remember to pray for your mental,” she joked but didn’t know how much I really needed it.

Dealing with the two of them was a task.

I got tired of being in the middle of their little mouth battles.

The funniest thing about it all was that they had never come to blows.

They’d gotten close, but never went all the way there.

That one little pep talk seemed to do it because after that we were all able to get the festivities going.

Brooke really let loose. We took a million shots, danced, did karaoke.

She even ended up on the main bar area on her back allowing random men and women to take body shots off of her.

Seeing that let me know that we were in for a long night.

A few hours later, we were leaving the third bar of the night and headed to our last stop.

It just so happened to be Drai’s, a popular night club in Vegas inside of the hotel we were staying in.

I was surprised that any of us were even able to still stand let alone walk into a club and keep drinking.

I needed it though. It had been so long since I had been able to just get drunk and let loose, so I was really enjoying myself and my time out.

Who is that nigga back there?

Pharaoh was snapping me as usual after investigating my pictures and videos.

Hopefully my new man.

As long as you ready for that nigga to die.

Sucking my teeth, I rolled my eyes and left him on read.

I wasn’t about to entertain his goofy ass.

He could parade around the very city we lived in with a million hoes, but he wanted to press me about what I was doing.

I think the fuck not. Like my best friend had said, he was going to be sick when I popped out with my man.

“Girl, we’re about to head out,” Brooke’s sister said, jarring me from my thoughts of my kids’ father.

“What? Why?’ I asked looking at all of them.

Brooke was a drunk ass mess with her head dangling between her shoulders and her arms tossed around two of the girls’ shoulders. I couldn’t believe she went that hard, but you couldn’t tell her anything. All she kept yelling was that this was her last night single and she wanted to go all in.

“She is done for. We need to sober her up a bit before tomorrow. I know her ass is going to be hungover,” her sister answered and I nodded. I knew that she was going to be sick as hell tomorrow and would likely blame all of us for it.

“Okay, come on.”

We all helped in escorting her out of the club. When we made it to the main lobby area, we stopped and waited for the elevator. When it arrived, they piled on, stopping Celeste and me from entering.

“Y’all go back and have fun, we have her,” they suggested.

Celeste and I looked at each other confused before focusing our attention back on them.

“No,” Celeste said with her foot still in the doorway stopping the elevator from closing.

“Why? We need to come up and help you guys with her,” I argued.

Family or not, I didn’t abandon my friends, especially when they were in the state that Brooke was in.

The cousin spoke up. “Girl, we have her. Y’all are still able to party and shit, and hell, we paid for the section already, so just go back. She’s fine. We promise to keep you updated.”

Hesitantly, I nodded and stepped back. We stood there until the doors closed. Again, Celeste and I shared a look before she shrugged and walked away. Rushing after her, I grabbed her bicep to stop her.

“Wait where are you going? They were acting weird. Why didn’t they want us to come up?”

“Who knows and who cares? Hell, I only gave push back just to say that I did. Let them bitches take care of her." She pointed. “Let’s go to that bar over there.”

Looking over, I saw the bar area and noticed that no one was there except for two guys at the very end of it. Glancing behind me at the elevator one last time, I shook my head and followed my friend over to the bar and climbed onto a barstool. The bartender walked over seconds later.

“What can I get you two beautiful ladies?” he asked.

“Ay, baby,” Celeste called out to the men at the opposite end of the bar. The one with the short locs looked our way and smirked.

“Me?” He palmed his chest.

“Yep, come here.” She beckoned him over using her index finger.

“What are you doing?” I whispered through clenched teeth after grabbing her hand down.

Ignoring me, she faced the good-looking man that had planted himself on the other side of her.

“What are you and your friend drinking?”

He grinned. “Why? You buying us something?”

“Imagine that.” Celeste scoffed. “It’s the exact opposite. You guys are about to buy me and my friend’s drinks.”

“What?” the one planted in his seat still questioned. When I looked his way, I got a good look at his face and noticed that he was JV Goldsmith, the famous boxer from back home. I only knew who he was because Si was a huge fan. What were the odds that he would be here at the same time as us.

With my eyes still trained on him, I reached behind me to tap and grab Celeste until she finally gave me her attention.

“What, bitch?” she hissed, knocking my hand down.

“Look.” I pointed. “That’s JV Goldsmith.”

“Who?” she quizzed, looking around me.

“JV Goldsmith,” I repeated. “The famous boxer from back home.”

“Oh.” She finally realized who we were talking about. “The one who almost killed that man on TV a few months ago.”

She was so loud that I knew everyone in close vicinity heard her ignorant ass.

I was so embarrassed and lowkey scared when he finally looked our way wearing a scowl.

Bending my arm and sending it backward, I elbowed her rude ass.

They stayed trashing his name in the media so I could only imagine how it felt hearing someone say it while he was out.

“Ouch, bitch.” She shoved me a little. “What?”

“That was rude,” I hissed.

“It’s true.” She shrugged and I elbowed her again. “Ouch, fine! Hey, Mr. JV sir, I apologize. I didn’t have to say that.”

“It’s cool,” he mumbled after a few moments of silence. “Nique, I’m up.”

He pulled a few bills from his pocket and tossed them on the bar top before standing. I felt horrible knowing that he was likely leaving because of what my best friend had said to him, so I reached to stop him.

“Hey, wait.” His eyes landed where my hand connected to his arm, then traveled up ’til they locked on mine. I was slightly intimidated, but it was too late for me to back down. “Don’t leave, stay and—uh, s-stay and h-have a drink with me.”

I was a ball of nerves, stumbling over my words as I made the request. Not only was he extremely intimidating, but he was also unexplainably handsome as well. I had seen him a few times on TV, but it truly did him no justice.

“Naw, I need to?—”

“Please.” I pouted for good measure because that always seemed to get my way.

He finally gave in and walked us back over to the bar. “Aight, first round is a double shot though.”

“Double shot it is then,” I agreed, sliding onto the bar stool beside him.

The bartender brought four glasses over and filled them each with a double shot of D’usse. Celeste and I had been on tequila all night but fuck it. Throwing caution to the wind, we grabbed the glasses and tossed the drinks back, kicking off the end to a great night.