Page 19 of ‘Til I Say When

I sat on the edge of Wonder’s bed, rolling a blunt. My ass was already faded, but I was about to smoke one last blunt and straight murder her pussy. She sat Indian style at the head of the bed watching me.

“You never told me why you don’t have kids,” I licked the cigar paper to seal it.

“I didn’t tell you it wasn’t any of your business?” she asked in a fake preppy tone.

I recalled that she did get kind of snappy about it, so I was about to leave it alone when she replied.

“I was pregnant by Drew three times. I had three miscarriages. End of story.”

I could tell it bothered her, so I made a mental note not to bring it up again. I pulled a lighter from my pocket while staring at her. “You didn’t want to have that funny looking nigga’s kids anyway. Ugly, lying bastard,” I frowned, and she shook her head.

“So, I should be glad I lost three babies because you don’t like Drew and think he looks funny? Got it.”

I kissed my teeth because she was dramatic as hell. “If that’s what you took it to mean, I won’t try to correct your mouthy ass.”

“Mouthy?” she poked a finger in her chest. “Me? Mouthy? Sir, and what the hell are you?”

“Honest.”

“Okay, whatever. And since you’re asking about kids, why you out here making babies that you don’t plan to take care of?”

Just thinking about Misha irritated me, and I took a long, deep pull from the blunt. “I don’t want kids, and that hoe knows that. She’s having the baby to be spiteful. On some real shit, even though I don’t want kids, I’d never do my own child dirty. I’m not telling her dumb ass that, though.”

“You don’t know how babies are made? You have hella condoms in your bathroom, so I know you protect yourself sometimes. Just not all the time, huh?”

Blowing weed smoke out of my nose, I stared at her, and she smirked.

“Damn right, I protect myself most of the time. What happened with Misha was some threesome shit. When I had sex with her and Lonna, I had to be drunk as hell or off a Perc because two hoes sucking on your dick and doing freaky shit to you will have you nutting too quick. So, being dumb drunk and high, on occasion, I slipped up and made a dumb ass move.” I shook my head at my damn self for being so stupid and careless.

Wonder had a look of disgust on her face, but I didn’t expect anything less. I passed the blunt to her, and she took it hesitantly. “I don’t even know if I want to smoke behind you.”

“Fuck outta here,” I drew back. “I’m clean. After the second time, I went and got checked. And I don’t put my mouth on hoes.”

“You mean as far as eating pussy? ‘Cus you kiss me.”

“You a hoe?”

Wonder stuck her tongue out at me, and I chuckled.

I went from blackmailing her to sitting in her bedroom smoking weed and having a conversation with her.

I knew more about Wonder than I did about Lonna and Misha combined.

Sometimes, they would ride with me to make money and spend hours in my presence, and we never talked about anything of substance.

Nothing at all. I couldn’t even tell you when their birthdays were, if they had jobs, where they worked, or what went on in their previous relationships.

I didn’t give a damn. Wonder passed the blunt back to me.

“I keep forgetting you not no smoker for real.”

“I’m definitely not,” she coughed.

We sat in silence for a bit before she spoke again.

“Pierre and Nina supposedly aren’t together, but they do the back-and-forth thing a lot. Does he cheat when they’re together? I don’t like the fact that my friend is dealing with him, but I can’t tell her what to do. Something is telling me she’s going to end up in over her head.”

I sucked smoke into my lungs and shook my head simultaneously. “I don’t speak on that man’s business, and I don’t be in his business. All I know is Nina gon’ be around until she don’t want to be around no more. Anything else, I have no clue.”

I could feel Wonder staring at me. That was all I was willing to give. I looked over at her. “Your people grown, right?”

“Nah, she’s seventeen,” Wonder spat sarcastically while crossing her arms over her chest.

“Females just need to start believing what niggas show them and not what they tell them. A lot of things would be avoided that way.”

“Orrrrrrrr,” she drawled. “They could just stop saying things they don’t mean just to get some pussy.”

“I don’t know anything about that, either,” I asserted. “One thing I don’t do is lie to get pussy.”

We fell back into a comfortable silence until I was done smoking, and I reached over and gripped her thigh.

I liked being in Wonder’s presence. I damn sure wasn’t trying to be in a relationship, and I had never been in love and wasn’t trying to be in love.

But for the moment, I rocked with her. I wasn’t sure how long it would last, but it didn’t even really matter.

It would be good until it wasn’t. I never tripped when situations with females ended.

I’d been called everything from heartless to an asshole, but I was just me.

I’d never force myself to feel something I didn’t feel, and I wasn’t interested in knowing why no woman had ever been able to get me to that point.

Seeing the things my homies went through, I was grateful for it.

Thirty years old and had never been in love.

Most thought that was odd. I thought the shit was a blessing.

Wonder stared at me until I jerked my head, signaling her to come over.

She crawled over to where I was and straddled me.

Burying my face in her cleavage, I gripped her ass like two basketballs and placed kisses from her breasts to her neck.

I then pecked her lips before taking her bottom lip and sucking on it.

That led to a nasty tongue kiss that had me harder than steel.

Just the way I preferred to be in Wonder’s presence.

My aunt was in the hospital for almost two weeks before she was released.

Two days after she came home, there was a cookout at my grandmother’s house.

My Uncle Tony was on the grill, and me and Pierre bought all the food.

There were about fifteen family members present, and we bought hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, and shrimp.

There was also corn on the cob, pasta salad, deviled eggs, potato salad, baked macaroni and cheese, and baked beans that were prepared by my mom and grandmother.

My cousin, Shay, brought strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, brownies, and red velvet cake.

Me, Pierre, and a few of our cousins were sitting on the porch drinking and talking when Nina pulled up.

She had already told my grandmother that her kids would be with her mother, but my grandmother begged her to stop by and bring her infamous banana pudding.

My grandmother could cook her ass off, but she loved Nina’s banana pudding.

She said she’d never tasted anybody else’s that was better than Nina’s.

Nina sauntered up the sidewalk, carrying a large aluminum pan that was covered with a plastic lid.

“Hey, Wilde, Rock, Dre, Mike.” She spoke as she walked up the steps, and she spoke to everyone except Pierre.

“Childish,” he mumbled as Mike opened the door for her.

“She hates yo’ black ass,” I laughed.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“How did she find out about shorty?” I inquired.

“Man,” Pierre shook his head. “I gotta stop running the streets so hard then smoking and drinking. I be sleeping so damn hard the devil himself couldn’t wake my ass up.

She be loving that shit ‘cus she be going through my phone. KoKo had sent me a bunch of pics, and shorty went ham. I woke up to her beating me with a shoe.”

“Hell nah,” I laughed. “Y’all can have those problems. Ain’t no way in hell.”

“Yeah okay, fake ass Denzel Washington, with yo’ acting ass. You sure you and Wonder are just about getting up under Drew’s skin?” he gave me a knowing look.

“Hell yeah, it was. I won’t front like shorty isn’t cool. Shit, it’s like any other female.”

“Nah, I think you like her for real, G. You be having stars in your eyes when shorty comes around.”

“A lie don’t care who tell it,” I shook my head.

“You can’t see it, but I do. And I think you like her.”

“Good thing you don’t get paid for thinking.”

Pierre’s ass spoke her up because Wonder called me, which was something that she never did. I remembered that I had left my watch at her house. I hadn’t called her and told her to look for it, but I was sure that was why she was reaching out to me.

“Yo.”

“Hey. You left your watch the other day. I remembered to grab it this morning when I was leaving out. I just got off work. I can meet you somewhere.” I wasn’t pressed about the watch I left at her crib.

I had two more and the one I left at her crib was purchased with a fraudulent credit card.

I liked the $45,000 watch, but it didn’t really mean shit to me because I didn’t buy it with my own money.

Still, I was glad she was honest because anyone else would have kept it and sworn that I didn’t leave it there.

“I’m at my people’s house at a cookout. You can bring it by here.”

“Okay, text me the address.”

“That damn sure isn’t Lonna or Misha if you’re telling them to pull up here.”

I frowned. “You too deep off in my business, G. I don’t like that shit. But aye,” I lowered my tone. “You need to make sure you tell Nina that Wonder didn’t have anything to do with that KoKo shit.”

Pierre twisted his lips. “But you don’t like her. Yeah okay. Since when have you ever cared about how a female felt?”

“You want me to be like your loved out ass so bad, and it’s not happening.”