Page 86 of Rah

“Hello?” Aaliyah’s voice pressed through the speakers in my car.

I laughed. “Don’t answer the phone like that.”

Giggling, she replied, “I mean, youjustleft.”

“I’m just making sure you straight and that you put the alarm on.”

I had convinced Aaliyah to come hide out at my crib. We had been officially living together for a few days now. We had expected it to be a strange transition from going from nothing to living together so soon. But, like the feelings between us, it just flowed naturally, which let me know that she was mine for real. She looked good as hell in my house walking around in those tiny shorts with that big booty eating them, while cooking and cleaning.

Despite all the chaos around us, we had been in a happy bubble since New Year’s Day.

Now that the holiday was over, I had to go back to work, though. I hated to leave my baby in my crib all by herself, and Ihad been hounding her about being safe and watching her back.

“I did,” she pressed. “Why are you so worried? He’s still in the hospital, and he doesn’t even know your exact address, right?”

“Nah, he doesn’t. He never gave a fuck about anybody else to come out and visit. He always hated driving out to the burbs.”

Aaliyah sucked her teeth. “Sounds like Rah.” Then she sighed and there was the same tension in the conversation that always showed up when the subject of Rah came up. “I still can’t believe Solae tried to kill him.”

“Hey, you never know what really happened. I’m taking what my father said with a grain of salt.”

“Have you reached out to the kids?”

“I tried to, but of course Solae’s family don’t want no parts of Rah’s family. And I can’t blame them. Supposedly, Rah called DCFS with a bogus claim against Solae and they had taken the kids the day before Christmas.”

Aaliyah gasped. “What?! Oh my God.” Then she let out a sadistic laugh.

“What?” I inquired.

Still laughing angrily, she explained, “He told me that he went to see his kids on Christmas. So, this further proves that he was with that chick that sent me that picture.” She shuddered in disgust. “I can’t believe I was with a person like that.”

Getting off the expressway, I told her, “Yeah, he put on a good role for you.”

“He sure did. But now that I know the type of person that he really is, I can understand Solae trying to kill him. I can’t believe he killed Carlos. I hate I missed his funeral, but I couldn’t risk being around Rah’s family or friends.”

“You did right.” Then I asked, “So, what are you going to do about the house, since it’s in your name? Rah said he’s going to let it go.”

“Luckily, we were approaching the end of the lease, so the landlord was cool with me ending it early.”

“You’re not going to get your stuff?”

“I took everything of value that I wanted. Anything else is a reminder of Rah that I don’t want or need.”

Just as I was about to tell her when to expect me home, the baby started crying.

“A’ight, let me let you go so you can feed my nephew-son.”

Aaliyah kissed her teeth again, but she couldn’t help but laugh. “Would you stop calling him that?!”

I was cracking up.

“It isn’t funny,” she whined.

“It kinda is. You know it is,” I teased her, still laughing.

“Bye!”

“Love you too,” I taunted her, but I meant that shit.