“I want to hear all about it. It’s the point of tonight. I need you to tell me about you, Iskyiah. Let me learn you again.” Moolah didn’t even seem to be bothered that she couldn’t promise him not to run. Instead of harping on that, he grabbed a bottle of wine, opened it, and poured them each a glass. “I’m listening.”
So, she told him. Talking to Moolah had always been easy. She caught him up on the mundane things like her rebellious phase after he left, college, and becoming a flight attendant. She danced around the heavier topics, but Moolah wasn’t going for that.
“Tell me about Brooke. What’s baby girl like?”
Iskyiah’s face lit up when she thought about Brooke. She’d spoken to her daughter briefly earlier to let her know her trip was extended. Brooke didn’t care one bit, because at that point, she was getting spoiled by Sophie.
“A mini-me. She’s a girly girl and sassy. I know my grandma is looking down and getting a good kick out of how I’m getting paid back for all the hell I gave her. Brooke is special, though. I never knew I could love someone so much.” That was a lie. She loved Moolah a whole damn lot, just in a completely different way. She eyed him and cleared her throat before she continued. “She loves to shop and get her nails done, and she’s a creative little thing. Always drawing or doing some kind of arts and crafts.”
Moolah seemed to take in everything she said. “She look like you?”
Iskyiah grinned. “A mini-me in personality, but she looks just like Charles, unfortunately.”
Moolah frowned deeply and grunted. “Was you wit’ that nigga when he died?”
Iskyiah looked away from him as she responded. She didn’t care if he called himself scolding her about it either. She needed not to look at him if she was going to be honest.
“We were, but I wanted to get away. For a long time, at that point, I wanted to get away.”
Iskyiah could practicallyfeelhis sour face expression, since she still wasn’t looking at him.
“Why didn’t you? You was always free to leave that bum nigga. I always told you that.”
She shook her head. “After high school, it wasn’t that easy. He . . . he got abusive.”
“Look at me, Iskyiah.” She knew he was serious because of the use of her full name, so she chanced a glance up at him. The anger she saw lacing his features made her cringe. “That nigga was putting his hands on you?” She nodded slowly. A tear trickled down her cheek. She didn’t even care about the memories that flashed through her mind of Charles hitting her. What she cared about was disappointing Moolah. “Where’s he buried?”
“What?” That was the last thing she thought he would ask. Moolah didn’t repeat himself. He simply stared at her. She could tell he barely contained his anger, and that scared her. She wasn’t afraid of him. She was afraid for him. An angry teenaged Moolah was terrifying for many reasons. An angry grown ass Moolah was surely deadly. She briefly wondered if he had, in fact, ever killed anyone. “I’m not telling you.”
She’d made up her mind about that as soon as the question slipped past his lips. Charles was already dead, and good riddance to him, so it wasn’t like Moolah could harm the man. But destruction of a grave was a prison sentence. She had no idea what Moolah thought he was about to do, but she wasn’t about to help him.
Moolah snorted. “Don’t matter. I’ll find out. Come here.”
Iskyiah didn’t even want to know what he had planned for Charles’s grave. She pushed those horrific thoughts to the back of her mind and carefully crawled over to him. Once she settled in front of him, he helped her sink into his body, securely wrapping his arms around her.
“You ain’t ever gonna go through no shit like that again. You hear me?”
“Trust me, I know. I haven’t dated since Charles died, and I don’t plan to?—”
“You dating me.”
Iskyiah stifled a giggle because this man was truly bizarre. “You can’t just insist that we go together, Moolah. You have to ask me. You haven’t ever asked a woman to be your girl?”
She twisted in his embrace so she could look up at him. His face frowned up even more as he looked down at her.
“Why the hell would I do that?”
Her eyes bucked. “Seriously, Lah? You’ve never been in a relationship before?”
“What the fuck for? None of those birds was gonna be my wife. Let me ask you somethin’. You think I couldn’t have gotten some pussy before you?”
Her eyes almost fell out of her head by this point because of how wide they were. Moolah was always so blunt. She had to get used to that again.
“You one thousand percent could have.”
He kissed the top of her head, as if to tell her she had gotten the answer right. “But I waited for you. Same thing with asking another bitch to be my girl. What for when that place was always reserved for you? You gon’ be my wife, Sky. I ain’t need to waste my time pretendin’ wit’ nobody else.”
Iskyiah gazed at him thoughtfully. In a way, she had done the same thing for him. Outside of Charles, she hadn’t given any other man a chance, because deep down she knew she yearned foroneman.Thisman.
