“Auntie, his name is Tahari.”
Tori waved her hand like that detail didn’t matter in the slightest.
“Yeah, yeah. That’s what I said.”
I couldn’t help the small smile that pulled at my lips, even as I tried to keep some level of control over the conversation. Tori stepped closer to the bed then, her tone shifting just enough to let some sincerity slip through the jokes.
“Listen,” she said while looking at Maliah a little more seriously now. “You are a pretty, smart girl. Don’t let nobody have you in here looking like this for too long.”
Maliah looked up at Tori. I could read the emotion still over her, but she was listening. She was taking heed. We were the women in her life who could navigate her through situations just like this very one. This is what we were here for.
“And if… what’s his name? Tinker Bell, can’t see that,” Tori added with a shrug, “then fuck him.”
“Tori,” I warned lightly, though there wasn’t much bite behind it.
Maliah let out another laugh, this one a little more real, a little less weighed down. I could tell that it came deep by the way she threw her hand over her stomach when she let it out. And just like that, the atmosphere felt a little easier. The situation wasn’t fixed. And my daughter wasn’t healed, but at least her aunt was able to get a genuine laugh out of her.
Chapter 16
MJ
Iwas lying in my bed tossing my basketball in the air and then catching it. I could hear the music loud as hell floating through the house. I couldn’t stand Heather Headley. When I was a young boy, my mother used to always play “In My Mind” by her. Back then, the song was annoying as hell. She would run it on repeat, and I never understood why. To me, the track sounded like a whole bunch of crying. As I got older, I realized that the song was truly about a woman thinking a man is still hers, but he isn’t anymore. She had to be bat shit crazy. It took me to grow up to see that maybe, just maybe, my mother played that song on repeat because she could relate to the lyrics.
I sucked my teeth and then rolled over on my side when it sounded like it had gotten louder. It was obvious that Maliah was going through something. Suddenly, I thought about the nigga that Pops allowed to come over. Herlittle boyfriend.It bothered me that I didn’t know much about him. I didn’t even know that once upon a time he attended our school. I had to do some digging on his ass for sure. I grabbed my phone to check the time. I had to get ready in a bit to go and play ball with some of my boys. I had four missed calls from Justine. With me being due to leave for college in a few months, I was trying my hardestto create distance between her and me. I swiped away the notifications and then went straight to the text message thread with my dad. I didn’t even realize that he had texted me, and it was early as hell when he did.
When you get up, meet me at the shop.
He sent his location, and I saw that this was one of his auto shops that was in the industrial area of Little Haiti. Basketball with my boys was going to have to wait. Pops needed me for something, and that was more important. Finally, the music in the house turned down as I started gathering my clothes. I walked into my en-suite bathroom and started to get myself together for the day.
I pulled over the gravel and then parked right next to my father’s car. He was riding around simple today in his smoke-gray Durango. I swear that was his favorite car. There were cops parked outside the shop, and that made me jog inside.
“Pops? What happened?” I asked once I saw him.
Cops were everywhere, dusting shit and taking pictures.
“The shop was robbed last night.”
He said calmly as he stood beside me with his hands in his pockets.
“Robbed!”
I damn near yelled. I seemed to be more on edge than he was. Pops nodded at one of the officers when he looked in our direction.
“Fellas. I will be in the back office if I am needed for more questions. This is my son,” he introduced me to the group of men working eagerly around us.
Pops grabbed me by the arm and then pulled me into his office before closing the door.
“What is going on?” I asked as soon as the door was closed.
“This is the second one.”
He walked over to the wall in his office that held pictures of us. He fixed a slanted frame before turning back to face me.
“The first one was about last week. The shop on 25thgot hit.”
“Who the fuck robs a damn auto shop? What, they needed rims or something?”
In the privacy of just Pops and me, he let me curse as much as I wanted to. He only wanted me to watch my mouth around the girls.
