Page 18

A Very Little Time Later…

“You really think that bitch would go out like that, though?” I asked Sully with a sideways glance. “Man, she knows her ass won’t make it to her next birthday if she goes that route.”

We were in the office of my apartment building. I had to come over to sign a couple of eviction notices. Sully had suggested I move Reya and Lucas to a different house since Alexi knew that she was there. That shit caught me off guard.

“Yeah, man. You know like I know that your ex-bitch is petty as fuck. Now, she’s heartbroken or whatever she claims to be.

You know that shit is true about hell having no fury, nigga.

” He took a pull on his blunt. “Look, all I’m saying is that the goal is to keep Reya and our lil man Lucas safe.

Don’t be blindsided by a bitch that you think you mean more to than you do. ”

I heard and understood what he said. I hated to admit that he was right. You couldn’t trust a cheating, selfish ho. I wiped my hand down my face.

“Shit, I know, man. I hate to move them again. Jedi really likes his room, the backyard, and shit. Reya loves cooking in my kitchen.”

“Aw hell. You like her!” Sully blurted.

He took his phone out and tapped the screen. Shortly after, the phone rang throughout the office. He didn’t give the person a chance to say shit when they answered the phone.

“Babe, you owe me my stack. I told you he liked her ass.”

“Man! I thought it would take longer. I thought he’d be still on his women hater’s club shit because of Alexi,” Simone said. “Did they fuck yet , though?”

These fuckas were really on the line about my business.

Sully looked at me for a beat. He shook his head.

“Nah. I don’t think they fucked yet.”

“Okay, good. Then I only owe you one stack,” Simone said before she blew out air.

She acted like more than one stack was a lot of money for either of them. These fuckas got on my nerves.

“Alright, babe. I love you,” Sully said with a soft tone. They spoke for a second about dinner and their son before they disconnected the line.

“Y’all really had a damn bet on me?” They were doing a lot with this shit. “That’s what y’all doing?”

Sully smoked his blunt silently without breaking his eye contact with me. After he had enough, he put it out.

“Tell me you don’t like Reya. Nah, you don’t even have to tell me because I know you.

If you didn’t like her, you would have never taken her to your house.

You for damn sure would have never outfitted your house for her and her son.

You watch movies and eat dinner like a lil family.

” He giggled like a lil bitch. “The shit is cute. Oh, now you’re paying for her to go back to school. ”

He held his finger up when I started to say something.

“Nope. Don’t even say Mama Bee wanted her to go back to school. You know just like I do that if Mama Bee wanted that, she could have paid for that shit out of her account. There’s more than enough.”

I couldn’t say shit because he was right. Ma mentioned Reya wanting to go back to school once. After she said it, it stayed at the forefront of my mind. Did I like her, though?

“I mean, Reya’s a beautiful, smart, cool ass girl. She’s a bomb ass mother and a go getter. That shit is sexy. I’ll admit that there’s sexual tension between us. I want her to make the first official move, though.”

Tsireya was timid as fuck. She was the type of female that you couldn’t sexually overwhelm in the beginning. You had to let her make the first move, but after that, it was open season.

“Once she makes that move, I’m going to make her mine. Straight like that.”

“Well, there ain’t nothing wrong with that. It’s about time you found a female worth a damn. I told you Alexi wasn’t it for you.” He gave me a knowing look.

Sometimes, I could be hardheaded as fuck, and my choice to deal with Alexi was one of those situations. None of my people really vibed with her. At the time, I had the mindset that she was for me, so fuck what everyone else thought. That proved to not be the wisest mindset.

With a huff, I told Sully that I would move Reya to another house that was more in the country of Davidson.

It was a manufactured home that sat on four acres of land that Geo purchased for me.

He instilled in me that I should always look to acquire land.

That was something that God wasn’t making anymore of.

It was Mama Bee’s idea to put a manufactured home on the land, and I was happy that I did.

People slept on those with the mindset that they were trailers.

The home had an open concept, with a huge kitchen, mudroom, laundry area, three bathrooms, and four bedrooms. I rarely went out there, but I had services to ensure the house was cleaned and the landscaping was maintained.

I got on my phone and reached out to the same designer that decorated Jedi’s room as well as the playground company.

This house didn’t have a pool, but it had a very nice backyard set up and a deck that I had built onto the back of the house.

I finished up the evictions for the property manager, checked on one of my elderly residents, then made my way back to the house.

I needed to find Jeremy sooner than later.

A part of me was in a lackadaisical mood about finding him because it gave me a reason to keep Reya and Jedi with me.

That wasn’t good, because the longer he was breathing, they would be in some kind of danger.

“Lo! You home!” Jedi ran to me as soon as I came around the corner into the living room.

“Come watch Lilo with me. Mama makin’ sandwich for us.” He looked around me into the kitchen where his mama was at the counter making sandwiches. “Mama, make Lo sandwich too.”

When I tapped him with a raised brow then told him to read the room, he paused for a moment. He thought about it for a second, then said, “Oh, Mama, please.”

Reya’s beautiful cheeks rose. “Yes, baby, I can. Lo, is there a specific kind of sandwich that you want or just make what I’m making for us?”

“Jedi, go sit down, I’m coming. Let me talk to your mama,” I told him. I waited until he settled into his seat before I went into the kitchen to stand next to her.

“Damn, that looks good. Make me the same thing.”

She smiled. “Will do. How was your day?”

“My day was cool.” I sighed before I continued. “I have some not so good news.” The worry in her eyes bothered the fuck out of me. “I need to move us to another house. I don’t feel comfortable with Alexi knowing you’re here. I can’t trust her actions right now, so I think it’s best that we move.”

She wore a blank expression. “Oh, okay. Is the house around here, or is it in Charlotte?”

When I told her that it was still in Davidson, her expression became cheery.

“That’s good. I really like it around here. I like the calm of it.”

“Well, if you like this calm, and we’re in a subdivision, then you’ll really like where we’re going,” I told her. “We can leave the day after tomorrow, cool?”

She nodded. “That’s cool. Can I ask a question, though?” She gave me a devious smile after I told her that she could. “Where we’re going, do you have a man cave like you do here? I thought I would get a chance to audition for you.”

Oh, shit!

“Um, yeah. I do. You’ll get that chance.” I took a chance and smacked her on the ass before I told her that I was going to take Jedi to the bathroom so we could wash our hands to eat.

The universe must have heard Sully and my conversation earlier about her making the first move. I was ready to tear her ass up. Another thing that Geo taught me as a young nigga was how to interact with the woman in your life or the one you wanted to be in your life.

Geo was married, but his wife died of cancer two years before he did.

Geo was this ruthless ass man in the streets who held no punches with anyone.

I’d seen this man take a machete to a man to decapitate him.

The same night, I saw him go home and become this soft man for his wife.

It was nothing to come to his house and see his wife asleep on him.

When she died, that was the first time that I ever saw him cry.

He was a completely different man after his peace died.

I wanted that peace for myself, and after witnessing how Geo treated his wife, it taught me how to read the room and treat mine.

I wanted that initially with Alexi. It was very early on that I realized she didn’t deserve all of that.

I never mistreated her, but I remained guarded on a lot of things about me.

Every birthday and on Christmas, she would purchase something for herself that was intended for me like a pair of expensive shoes that she could wear while I fucked her. Shit was crazy.

I didn’t want that peace with Alexi because it was clear that she couldn’t or wouldn’t give it to me. I believed that Reya was the person that could and would. What was more important was that I felt that she wanted to give it to me. Only time would tell if it came to fruition.

After I washed my hands and made sure that Jedi did the same, I got on my phone to call a moving company. I needed them to move my mobile mini house in the backyard to the new house. Damn right, I had a man cave there. At least, I would by the time we got there.

Who would have known that Reya would like the new house more than my other house. She loved that it was down a dirt road with no neighbors on a plot of land. Jedi didn’t give a damn either way since he still had his room and playground. I didn’t give a damn because I had my man cave.

We’d been here a little over a week, and tonight, I planned to take Reya out.

Simone suggested that we all go out to celebrate Reya’s enrollment into school.

She decided to take a full load of sixteen hours.

She impressed me when she told me that she would attend Johnson and Wales online degree program.