“Are you going to fix it?” Blair questioned.
“You heard her... she’s not my problem to fix.”
“Not even you believe that, Goon.” She called me out on my shit. Despite being heated with her, shewasmy problem to fix.
I had taken a special interest in her long ago, and in a way, felt responsible for her. There had been others before me, and none of them wanted to do the work. They only wanted what she came with, never wanting to do the work to pull the softness out of her.
The softness that I knew she desperately wanted to reveal. There hadn’t been a man she deemed worthy of witnessing it.
“Can’t make someone want better, B. If she don’t see that I want her… and I’m willing to be that man for her, I’m damn sure not about to force her to see the shit.”
Blair or Capri couldn’t argue with what I was saying. I wanted Zoya, and I was serious about that. Loving her had been at the top of my list since she came into my life. Still, I wasn’t about to have her playing games while being disrespectful. She could miss me with all that shit.
“There goes the star of the hour.” Capri announced, smiling like we weren’t just talking about her.
She sat down in the empty stool, purposely ignoring me. “Was crazy to expect you to apologize anyway.”
She swung her ass around so quick she nearly spun off the stool. “And what the fuck am I apologizing for? Me… apologizing to a man is crazy anyway.”
I fixed the strap on her blouse. “That’s your problem now… walking around being loud and wrong… even when you’re outside the courtroom.”
“I’m never wrong… inside or outside the courtroom,” she hollered at my back, because I had turned around and was heading toward our section.
The women requested their own section, even though the shit was right beside ours. Capp, Capone, Capella, and Corleon were chilling in the other section.
Capone was nursing the drink his wife had given him, while Capone was sipping on the overpriced ass cranberry juice that he bought at the store. Capella looked up from his phone and then searched the lounge for his wife.
Aimee was over by the end of the bar in a full conversation with Synthia and Kobe.
“You straight?” Capone questioned.
I plopped down on the couch opposite them. “That fucking woman’s mouth… How fucking hard was it to love Erin?”
Capone looked at me. “Want the truth or the lie?”
“Always the truth.” I sighed, taking the drink from the bottle lady. “This alcohol, mama?”
She blushed. “No, Havoc told us that three people in your party would not be drinking alcohol.”
I nodded and took a sip of the drink. “Shit good… bring me another one.” The drink was sweet, tasting like pears and cranberries mixed together.
“Me too,” Capp called behind her, and she nodded while going to get what we asked for.
“Loving Erin was never the hard part. I remember the day I got on her bus and watched as she effortlessly whipped that busthrough Brooklyn with ease. I could see that she was stubborn and would make it hard to love her. Shit, I think that’s what drew me in. She was a challenge, someone different from the usual. The money, cars, and house didn’t impress her. Despite trying to make herself impossible to love, I saw the fire in her eyes.”
“I see that same shit when I look into Zoya’s eyes.”
“Then you realize that these women aren’t the average. They’re not like these leech ass bitches that just wanna be spoiled by a nigga because he got money. Gorgeous wasn’t made for a soft nigga, or easy love. She been operating in survival mode for so long that it was hard for her. Hard to surrender the load she been carrying and put it in my hands.”
Capp nudged his twin. “She did that shit though and you ain’t let her down.”
Capone smirked. “Never… I made sure everything I promised; I came through on. I asked a lot of her. To trust a man she didn’t know, and to trust him to come through on his word. Zoya is used to being in control, the one who holds all the cards. You need to decide if she’s worth all of that.”
“That disrespectful shit don’t fly with me,” I mumbled, still pissed she told me to shut the fuck up. “Then it was the way she said fuck…. Fucking lip was all sucked in.”
Cappadonna and Capella both started laughing. “Did you shut up?”
“Fuck no.” I said with as much force and then laughed.
