“Amaya, I can’t let you do that,” he said, rubbing his hand over his face.
“Nigga, when have you let me doanything? That’s my baby too, and I’m paying for her to go to camp. We can square up, but you know I’ll whoop yo’ ass!” I teased, giving him a playful nudge. That earned me another small smile, which made me smile.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
“And as far as the restaurant, we can turn this around. Send me your contracts and I’ll look over them to see if we can downsize anything, and I can have Laila come by and get you some buzz on social media.”
“I can’t afford to pay Laila,” he huffed in despair.
“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled. Laila would happily do it for free, but we didn’t do that shit. I would make sure to pay her for her services, even if I had to force her to take it, just like I did earlier with June for helping me with Kadence’s room. “I promise you that we can fix this.”
“Thank you May,” he breathed out. Watching some of the tension physically leave his body damn near made me tear up. I would do anything humanly possible to help the people I loved. What was the point in succeeding at anything if the people around me were suffering? AJ hugged me and walked me to my car before promising to apologize to my niece. One thing I loved about him as a father was that he would never hesitate to apologize to Kadence if he messed up. He really was doing his best with her, and I could only pray that I could be half as good of a parent as he was if I ever got the chance.
CHAPTER 11
THAT BITCH
“For someonewho don’t wanna be my friend, you sure like to pop up on a nigga a lot.” I rolled my eyes as Chase let me in the front door.
“Please go to hell,” I scoffed. “I was doing a little research and I just needed those phone documents from you.” I was lying like hell. I already had access to everything I was asking him for on my computer. Yet, there I stood in that man’s house, once again. Jocelyn was gone as usual, and I was bored as hell. I opted not to say anything to her about Jonathan because it really wasn’t my business. As long as it didn’t affect the case, she was grown and I knew she would tell me whenever she was ready. The case itself was going well. I was pretty sure we had it in the bag since all of Chanel’s character witnesses seemed to have questionable character themselves, and she had yet to provide any real evidence.
“Bet,” he said, giving me a mean side eye. “It might take me a minute to get them out, so make yourself comfortable. There’s some of that fruit tray left in the fridge.”
“Okay,” I chirped as my eyes lit up. I left my shoes by the door and skipped off to his kitchen where I happily popped the top off the platter and stuffed my face with mango slices and grapes. I stopped eating when my phone rang. I had just finished a callwith Oliver on my drive over, so I quickly answered it, thinking maybe he forgot to mention something to me.
“Hello?”
He didn’t answer me, but I could hear him in the background talking.
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to get rid of her, but she’s just too damn good.” I heard Oliver’s voice, clear as day.
“Hello?” I called again, trying to figure out if he was talking to me.
“But the attitude!” I heard a groan and immediately recognized Cowen’s crybaby ass. At that point, I knew this was an accidental call, and I was the topic of conversation. “Must she always be so unbearable? I understand being a hard ass for the job, but she’s just genuinely unlikeable. You can’t seriously be considering her for partner, Oliver?” My frown deepened at the nerve of his facially challenged ass callingmeunlikeable—especially after he tried to offer me some of his funky ass micro penis and got turned down.
“She’llneverbe a partner at my firm. She’s here to meet a quota. I gave her this case so when she loses, it’s all the more reason to snuff her out. I’ve been trying to get rid of her, but the bitch just won’t lose.” I heard the two of them roar with laughter while I tried to let them know that I was on the phone. On any given day, I could go toe to toe with the worst of them but having to sit on the receiving end of such hate, and not being able to defend myself had me in a complete spiral.
“Hello? You know I can hear you, right? Hello?” I yelled as they continued to say the nastiest, most demeaning things about me. I was mad enough to start breaking shit, but I remembered I wasn’t at home, so I clenched my fists to keep my hands off Chase’s bargain glassware.
“Toni? You good?” Chase’s voice over my shoulder scared me so bad that I quickly hung up the phone, dropping it on the counter and standing there stiff as a board.
“H-Huh?”
“Are you okay? You look upset.”
“I—” The tears in my voice stopped me in my tracks and I had to take a moment to center myself. I held my breath, trying to keep them at bay and felt like such a failure when one slipped out. As soon as it fell, he gently brushed it away with the back of his hand.
“What happened?” he asked me seriously, his eyes working as a truth serum and making me open up immediately.
“I was on a phone call with my boss and after we hung up, he accidentally called back with another one of my coworkers on the line… I heard them talking shit about me. I’m normally used to the bullshit, but it was… really disrespectful.” His brow rose in concern and his jaw clenched like he wanted to fight someone. He paused for a moment before looking at me seriously. “I’m sorry… I’m usually not affected by stuff like this, and this is completely unprofessional to be talking to you about. I’m gonna go.” I tried to leave, but he grabbed my arm. His hold was gentle, but more than enough to make me go completely still.
“You believe the bullshit they were saying?” he asked in a calm voice.
“No, but—” he cut me off.
“Nah. If you know the shit ain't true, then let that shit roll off your back. Don’t youeverlet a motherfucker who couldneverbe you, see you, or fuck with you, knock you off your square. You better hold that fuckin’ head up and show them niggas who the fuck you are!” As he spoke, he took his hand and gently pulled my face up. When his hand pulled back, I immediately missed its warmth.
“But they—” he stopped me again.
