“Who?” I asked.
“Brama… Shio baby mama...”
Bella snickered. “That is not that lady's name.”
“Irrelevant. That’s what it needs to be. Don’t mean she don’t look good. Solana knows I’m team her.”
“I hope this ain’t no proposal ’cause I’m objecting!” Bella crossed her arms.
My cousin was in a dress and heels and had diamonds on her neck and wrist like she was a mob wife. Whatever the fuck Essex was paying her, he was doing it well.
“Why everybody thinks this is a proposal? Damn, I can’t do nothing nice for the fam?”
The girls eyed me uncomfortably, and my smile fell. I rubbed my hand down my face.
“Bellz… Y’all told Solana I was proposin’ to Bahati?”
Bella’s eyes danced around before they landed on me, and her face answered my question before she responded. “Whatttt? We needed somebody to talk shit to, and Solana is our best Mexican biatch. She wanted to know why we were gettin’ fancy.”
Suddenly, my heart was pounding in my chest. I hadn’t stopped thinking about Solana since I left her bed last night. I wanted to slip back in with her this morning, but with the way she was wincing, I wouldn’t dare. I meant it when I told her I loved her. The fucking thought of her made my heart race. I loved the hell out of Solana, but I knew love wasn’t enough. What we shared was earth-shattering, truly soul-quaking, but the fact remains that she was an addict, and she might’ve been right about my addiction, yet the fact remained that she was addicted to drugs. I was not. Now, the thought of her thinking Iwould bring Shya to her so I could dip off and propose to Bahati had me ready to break out in hives.
“Just think… You had a team to get all of us to dress up really nicely, and you rented out a restaurant. Then, when Solana told us you had plans with Bahati, we put two and two together.” Bella smacked her lips and rolled her eyes. “Were we wrong?”
“Very.” I began to back out of the room. “The appetizers will be out shortly.”
“Favorite, cousin?” Bella sounded like she wanted to cry when I was the one ready to run up out of here and get my ass to Jisei’s townhouse.
“Wassup, Bella?” I knew I wasn’t her favorite, Metavello was, but I wasn’t going to call her out on it because she was trying to lessen her mistake.
“Can we please have at least one round of Lemon Drops? None of us drove.” Bella placed her hands in a prayer position.
“Bye, Bella.”
Closing the door shut, I made my way into the other room, where everyone should’ve been. The men hadn’t made their way back into the room yet, but I could see them in the distance, sipping from glasses as they chatted in the open space of the restaurant. I guess the beauty of renting an entire dining establishment was that we had it all to ourselves. This was actually our only option since Don was always trying to talk business. To him, business was dashing insults and talking shit, but nonetheless, business was always done. My mama and aunties had taken a booth in the back and were clinking their glasses together, which I didn’t understand because there was more than enough room for them in our room. I shrugged, knowing they always found themselves a separate space at events, and it was fine with me as long as they were enjoying themselves.
Opening the door, all of the wives had frowns on their faces as Bahati ran her mouth a mile a minute. She wasn't reading the room because they all looked like they wanted to knock her the fuck out.
Listening to the words spewing from her mouth, I didn’t think—I just reacted.
“Ahhh!” she screamed.
Glass shattered, chairs moved, and a very scared Bahati found herself at my mercy as my hands wrapped around her neck as she dangled in the air. Her eyes were bulging as she clawed at my arm, but I didn’t give a fuck. I kept squeezing, the look in her eyes all too familiar.
“Repeat what you said!”
“I-I… I-I.”
“Shio! I don’t think she can repeat it with her airways restricted.”
My head snapped at Dasani as she and all of the other women had gotten up from the table and backed away toward the far wall.
“Oh, I heard her. I heard her loud and fuckin’ clear.”
Bahati was struggling to breathe, minutes away from either passing out or passing away. This was déjà vu, but this time, her ass was dying.
“You said, she was all like,Shio, I promise you, that is not mine. I have no more left. You have to believe me.Ain’t that what the fuck she said?” I turned my head to the women as I felt Bahati become weaker on the table.
“She said that, but you’re about to k…k…kill her.” Discover hiccupped, near tears.
