“I will next time, my baby.”
She rolled her eyes and snatched the bag from my hand with her rude ass. Pulling one of the four tubes out, she held the label to her face. She then repeated the same notion with the other three.
“Tunan. These all say sugar-free. This must’ve been all they had?”
Scratching the back of my neck, I shook my head. “Nah. What you workin’ on, doe?”
She shrugged. “Editing a video. A while back, I did a faceless unboxing but never uploaded it. My viewers like to see me eat so I didn’t think this would be interesting enough for them. But it’s gonna have to do for now.” She sighed.
“Lemme see.” I waited until she turned the computer to face me.
The editing software that she was using had a bunch of dials on the bottom and sides of the screen. She pressed a key, and the video came to life. The video was clear and ASMR coded with her peeling the tape from the packaging. It sounded satisfying as fuck just like the TikToks Tulsaire sent sometimes of barbers doing the same thing. Glow was unboxing a Louis Vuitton bag and had even added a scarf and bag charms to it, looking pretty as fuck. My dick jumped when she did a shimmy while holding the bag.
“Dey gone love dis.”
She kissed her teeth and flipped her computer back around so that it was facing her again. “Tell me anything.”
“Real shit. My sister ’nem stay watchin’ dese kinda videos.”
“See, I watch them, too, but I didn’t know how my audience was going to perceive me. My whole brand is about eating.” She huffed. “My people literally calls themselves the ‘Pretty Eaters.’”
I could see the frustration and emotion building in her eyes. Glow had been doing good since she was released from the hospital. She’d only thrown up once, and Ma Cathy said that could have been because she made pinto beans, and Glow had never liked them. Although she was eating, she still had a lot of work to do to beat the actual condition. I was just happy that her mama was on board and holding her down when I couldn’t be here. Still, she loathed eating, and it was fucked up because not only did she need food to survive, but she had found a way to capitalize on it.
“Dey gonna watch whatever you upload, Glow.”
“But I need them to engage in order for me to keep getting paid.”
“Dey gone engage, comment, subscribe,andclick the link in the bio.”
“See, you playing, and I’m real life about to have a heart attack.”
“My baby…” I lifted her chin, seeing the worry in her tired eyes. “Ya know you can ice dis shit for a while.”
“I have bills, Tunan. I know you’re handling the mortgage, but I still have other expenses. My sister had a baby. I gotta figure out what we going to do about my mama’s house?—“
“I’ll hold ya down until ya ready to get back to it. I’ll hold all y’all down… Where the baby anyway?”
Glow’s eyes rounded as she snatched her phone from the nightstand. “Next door. Shit, I forgot. Let me call Glee.”
I grabbed the phone before she could finish dialing. “I’m sure she’s fine. She got the crew over dere and her best friend. Ya know y’all mama checkin’ in too. Dey good, Glow. Relax.”
She sighed. “You taking care of all this wasn’t a part of the agreement.”
“Fuck dat weak-ass agreement. You ain’t gotta do shit you don’t wanna do. If it ain’t bringin’ you joy, fuck dem eaters. It’s plenty other greedy muthafuckas dey can binge watch.”
“Really?”
“Real shit. I got you. Take dis time to do mob wife shit. Get out, go shopping, go hiking, join a yoga stretch class, travel?—”
“Okay! Hold the fuck up. You feed me, and then you bring sugar-free ice-cream, andnowyou’re telling me I need to exercise.”
I sucked my teeth. “All I’m sayin’ is, you can go do what women your age do. Ain’t dat what dey do? Yoga stretch?”
“Pilates, Tunan.”
“Yeah, dat shit. Go do it if dat’s what you wanna do. You ain’t gotta do dis online shit no mo’ if you ain’t enjoyin’ it.”
Moving the laptop from her lap, I folded it down, hoping I wasn’t fucking shit up. When she didn’t protest, I set it on the nightstand. Kneeling on the side of the bed, I tugged at her sleeve.
