Page 6 of Welcome to the Table

My lining and mohawk were perfect. My barber had come to the penthouse the night before to freshen me up.

I sat on the bed, watching Klarity get dressed so we could go.

I really didn’t want to take her. Shit could go left at any minute, but I had upped security for this event, and they would be camouflaged within the crowd, but I still only trusted myself when it came to my safety.

Same as my brother; I was his protection.

I watched as she stroked the brush with that shit on it across her face. She grabbed her red lipstick and glided it across her lips. The shit did enhance her already beautiful features, but she didn’t need it. She wasn’t even dressed yet.

“Umm, can you hurry yo’ ass up? I want to be home before the sun goes down,” I told her.

“Or, we could just stay in the city at the penthouse after your parents' meeting,” she suggested, but I wasn’t trying to do that. I knew the maids had cleaned it spotless because they knew how I liked my shit, but still, I didn’t want to take Klarity there.

“Maybe.”

I ran my hand through my curly hair as I looked at her. I usually had my hair braided, but I decided to let my shit run wild. She stood from her vanity as I reflected on the day I asked her to move in with me.

Klarity was always different. Went to school, stayed to herself, and didn’t have any friends but me.

She’d told me everything about herself since we were little.

My mother thought it was strange because, outside of my brother, I didn’t talk to anyone.

Klarity was my person. Best friends. No secrets.

We did everything together, but when we graduated from high school, she left and went to Spelman, and I stayed in the city and went to Loyola University.

She graduated with a master’s in pharmacy, and I was a business major.

Good with numbers. Could count and rearrange money in my sleep. Melph praised me for that.

Fast-forward five years. I ran into her when I took a trip to Atlanta with Hellcat to collect money from some nigga who was playing with the family’s money.

Nigga’s time was up, and it was time to pay up.

That nigga always sent us to do his dirty work while he sat on his fucking throne and gave out orders. I envied and admired him for that.

Hellcat encouraged me to go out since it was our last night in the A.

I didn’t do clubs, but we ended up at The Compound.

The vibe was nice, and that nigga had already booked us a section because he knew I didn’t do people.

We were escorted to our section by bottle girls.

They were sexy as fuck, too. Thick in all the right places because I loved my women with meat falling off the fucking bone.

Petite women complained too much about the size of my dick.

We took our seats, and Hellcat lit the first blunt and ordered us two bottles of Hennessy Paradis Rare Cognac.

It was smooth as ice but crept up fast. That’s the type of shit I liked.

After my third drink, I went to use the restroom.

I walked through the crowd and was almost to the hallway when I stopped in my tracks.

I felt someone watching me, but it wasn’t in a dangerous way.

My heart started to beat rapidly as my eyes scanned the crowd, trying to meet the eyes of the stranger.

Hands clammy, sweat misted my brow. This shit wasn’t me.

I felt nervous. The soft song of Anthony Hamilton crooned in the background.

“It’s simple, I love it

Having you near me, having you near

Our conversations, outrageous

You smile, and I smile, then I say

Oh, this is getting personal, personal, personal

Let's stay for a while and play

Girl, let’s make this a moment.”

She had to be somewhere in the vicinity. I only heard that song when she was near, but I hadn’t seen her in years. It was the song that we danced to at our senior prom. The song that we agreed would always bring us back together. We pinky swore on that shit and stuck to it.

I forgot I had to piss as I looked around.

I caught her dark hazel eyes and couldn’t fucking believe it.

In a sea of people, I noticed her body. I stood there staring at her, staring back at me, and I gave a one-sided smile that I was sure she couldn’t see because of the dimly lit club.

I was stuck. It seemed like time stood still.

I couldn’t even hear the fucking music anymore.

Everyone around us disappeared, and all I saw was her. My heart ached for her.

When we separated, I went through withdrawal from not having her near me, but I eventually got over it once Melph told me I would be the underboss of the family. That kept me busy, but I still longed for her touch, scent, and vibe.

She floated toward me, and I stood there stunned. When she finally was in my personal space, I felt like I could breathe again. She leaned in with her hands on my biceps. Her head was to my ear.

“I have been looking for you. Where have you been?” Her breath on my ear made my dick hard. Her scent was a mixture of Chanel Mademoiselle and vanilla. I’ll never forget that scent.

I fell back and chuckled. “Nah, all you had to do was come back to the city. I never left.”

Her head went down. I lifted her chin with my finger.

She looked at me again, and the sadness in her eyes told a story.

Without another word, I grabbed her hand and dragged her to the bathroom with me.

I didn’t give a fuck if they were labeled, but I needed to know what the fuck that look was about, and she was going to tell me.

After pissing, I walked out of the stall and washed my hands. Klarity was leaning on the counter with her head down.

“Chin up and talk to me. What the fuck is going on?” I stood between her legs with her ass on the counter. My hands palmed her ass cheeks as she looked into my face. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes, and I wiped them before they could run. That pissed me off.

“I can’t, Calliope. They will kill me.”

My face turned to stone. What the fuck was she even talking about?

“The fuck you talking about? Who is going to kill you?”

“Melph.”

When she said his name, my blood instantly boiled. I stepped away from her with my brows crinkled.

“What the fuck does my father have to do with any of this?” I had to ask.

“Before we graduated, your father went to my mother and told her to send me to another state because I made you weak. Athena doesn’t know anything about this.

Of course, my mother listened for the right amount of money, and he offered to pay for any school I wanted to go to, as long as it wasn’t in Louisiana.

He didn’t want us together,” she said through tears.

My body filled with rage. My fist became one with the mirror as it shattered.

With blood on my hands, I grabbed Klarity and pulled her out of the bathroom.

We briskly walked back to my section. Hellcat was dancing with a bottle in his hand and a blunt in his mouth.

He turned and saw me standing there, instantly knowing who Klarity was.

“Nah, nigga, I know that ain’t Klarity black ass.” He laughed, put his shit down, and went over to hug her.

She hesitantly hugged him back.

“You are coming with me, and don’t say shit or take shit. Wherever you are staying, leave that shit there. We are starting over, together.” I gave her a look, and she knew I meant what the fuck I said.

“Hold on, nigga. Is she married? Kids? Husband? You just saw her again after how many years? Fuck no, she is staying her ass right where you found her.” Hellcat was drunk, but I would explain everything once he sobered up a little.

“Nigga, I gotta tell you some shit, but this ain’t the time or the place. She is coming with us.”

For the first time, he didn’t go back and forth with me. He grabbed his bottle and blunt, and we left the club and went straight to the jet.

“Calliope, hello, where did you go just now?”

I snapped out of the past and looked up at Klarity.

Melph didn’t know Klarity was with me because he almost never came to my house, and when he did, there were no signs of her. I knew this meeting would be a shit show.

I stared at her. She was fucking beautiful.

She had on a red spaghetti-strapped dress with the same Swarovski crystals on the left side of the dress.

She had on her red bottoms with her Guerrilla vest that stopped mid-back.

Her hair was pulled to the left side with red stones on the right.

Her face with the lipstick made me think of them wrapped around my dick, but later for that.

We had shit to do, and we were already behind.

I adjusted my dick and stood to my feet. She turned to walk ahead of me as my hand went to the small of her back, and we were out the door. All was forgotten. We walked to my garage, and I looked at all the cars that I had accumulated over the years.

“Which toy are you bringing out today?” she asked, smiling.

My eyes looked over each car from my Range Rover to my old school shit.

I already knew which car I was going to choose, so I grabbed her hand and took her to my favorite car.

It was a gift that I’d gotten myself but hadn’t had a chance to ride.

I knew Hellcat would bring his out because that nigga was a stunna.

We stood in front of my red and chrome 2025 Polaris Slingshot.

“We are taking this today. Some fly shit,” I said, and walked her to the passenger side.

I opened the door for her to sit and went to the other side to get in. We pulled off and headed back to the city to meet up with the crew. I knew shit would get ugly; I just hoped I was making the right decision.

“Okay, Daddy, you are showing out today, huh?”

We took the dirt road to the highway. My hand was on her thigh while the other gripped the stirring wheel.

I gave her a brief smile as we rode through the city to the second line.

I had a feeling in my gut that shit was about to shake, but I brushed it off because it had been a while since I’d stepped out, and I hoped like hell I didn’t regret it.

Melph and Hellcat knew I didn’t go out unless I had to.

Crowded places, unless I had to. I didn’t even want to be part of the family business, but I was forced into this shit.

I half expected Athena to have my back, but she didn’t.

She agreed with everything Melph said and expected of me, but I wasn’t that nigga.

I wanted to put my degrees to use and live a regular fucking life, but that’s not what my father wanted.

He wanted me to be a part of something that I hadn’t planned on, so I just went along with the shit.

If I told Athena what the fuck he made me do when I was sixteen, she would be on his ass.

Athena didn’t play about her kids, and Melph knew that.

“What’s on your mind, bae?” Klarity snapped me out of my thoughts. Her hand rubbed the base of my curly hair. I had that good shit.

I glanced at her, giving a half smile. I had been fucking with Klarity for a minute, but it was something about her that I couldn’t trust. I didn’t have any proof that she was on some foul shit, so I didn’t speak on it. My eyes gravitated back to the road, and I answered her.

“Nothing. Just thinking about some shit.”

I left it at that, and she removed her hand from my head.

I watched her from my peripheral as she folded her arms and pouted like a brat.

Any other day, I would have catered to that shit, but I couldn’t today because my mind was focused on this meeting that I was having with my father.

I continued driving, tuning her ass out because I didn’t have time for her bratty ass attitude.