Ryder took his leash and held it like Zoya showed her. “Careful, and don’t bring him near all those people,” she directed Ryder.
“Okay, Zoy.” She smiled, as she held him.
Bando was well trained because he could have dragged Ryder down the block, but he walked beside her, stopping to look up at her to see his next command.
“Let me go ahead and change her diaper before my dad comes to pick her up. Ya’ll need to also decide what we getting into tonight too.” She looked behind at us, as she carried a sleeping Cherry toward the barbershop.
“I’m trying to get into you, Sug,” Meer muttered while following behind his wife. “Peach, be careful with Cujo.”
“Meer?” Baby called.
“Hmm?” He turned around.
“Fuck ya.” Zoya held up her middle finger, and Meer laughed, while jogging to catch up with his wife.
Blair and Quasim were leaned against his bike, while Navy looked at her phone. “Let me call Don.”
She went to call Don while my baby stood there. “Where’s my hug, Ms. Lawyer?”
Zoya laughed. “Oh, I’m Ms. Lawyer now?”
I watched as she came over with her arms extended, and wrapped her arms around my neck, as I held her in my arms, kissing her neck. “You Boobie for real.”
“Baby Cakes, Boobie, I cannot keep up with you, Gerald.”
“It’s Boobie.”
She giggled and stepped back. “Until it becomes something else.”
“What’s good with you, baby? You taking care of yourself?” I pulled her back, giving her another hug, squeezing her.
She would never admit it, but I could feel her melting in my arms as I continued to hold her. “Same thing. Work, work, and some more work.”
“Not listening and taking any time for yourself, eh? What I tell you about that?”
She fixed her hat that had gotten messed up while we were hugging. “Trying, G.”
“What can I do to make sure you’re nottryingand actuallydoing?”
Zoya had this cute, innocent smile that she did. I learned that when she was nervous, or feeling something, she messed with her nails. Taking her pointer finger and rubbing it against the back of her thumb. I watched her powder pink nails pick with the skin on her thumb as she tried to respond to my question.
“A massage under the Burj Khalifa, but we all can’t have what we want, right?” she snickered, as Capri called her over toward the barbershop.
I pulled her back quickly. “You can get whatever you want with me, Zoya… you know that, right?” I searched her eyes, andeven though her mouth wouldn’t allow her to say it, her eyes told me that she knew it.
“Later, G.”
I watched as she walked away and heard snickering behind me. “I remember when you had me gone like that, my love.” Quasim said.
Blair kissed his lips, and removed herself from his grip, because Capri was calling her too. “No, I remember you running from me and giving me mixed signals.”
He tried to grab her, and she quickly backed up. “Damn, it’s like that?”
“You know it’s the truth, but I’m a girl that knew what you needed before you knew it… I applied the pressure.”
“And I didn’t apply nothing?”
She blew him a kiss. “You always apply pressure, my love.”
