Ma laughed my ass out. “Girl, let that nigga do what he need to do before you judge too much. Is he acting different?”
“Yes,” I responded fast.
Ma sighed. “Like I said, give him some time. Even though y’all should have taken those steps, you know nigga’s minds slow.”
I sucked my teeth and laughed. She wasn’t wrong.
“But for real, that man loves you, and it’s been years. I don’t see him fumbling now.”
“I know he does…I just want it to be shown the right way.”
“As a backup plan, set a date for yourself. If one thing is not at least started, then you need to leave, baby. The last thing I want is for my daughter to be stuck,” she continued.
I agreed. “I’ma do that, and if I end up old and alone, that’s on you.”
“Girl, never, if Gio don’t do right, it is a million niggas in this world who will.”
Ma opened her mouth to say something else, when my daddy walked in looking tired as hell from work. I walked over to him and gave him a big hug as he looked at me crazily.
“Damn, Karen, I almost forgot we had a daughter. She don’t come around no more.”
“Damn! Y’all can get off my neck, I’m here now.”
Both stared at me.
“And I could be dead,” my daddy said.
I rolled my eyes. “Y’all niggas extra. Come on, I’ma take y’all out to eat.”
My dad went off to the shower, and while he did that, I helped my mom pick out an outfit and did her hair and makeup.
Ma stared at me through the mirror as I styled her hair.
“To be honest with you…” she said, then paused.
I looked up for a second, not sure what she was about to say, and she let out a deep breath before she continued.
“I kind of feel like he might have held you back a lil’ bit. You had so many dreams and goals before you met him. You have a whole nursing license that you keep up to date but don’t use.”
I nodded. Honestly, she was right.
“I just never wanted my daughter to lose herself in a man,” she continued.
I finished Ma’s hair and turned her chair around to do her makeup.
“I didn’t lose myself to him; my goals changed. I went from wanting to be in the nursing field to wanting to be a wife and have a family?—”
“But you could have both,” Ma added, cutting me off.
“I know I can. Don’t worry, Mommy, your daughter got some eggs in her basket,” I said with a wink.
I finished her face, and we walked out to Daddy, smoking with an attitude on his face.
“I guess y’all had to make the clothes and the makeup, huh?”
Me and Ma looked at each other and laughed.
“Nigga, we are about to be waiting on you to get your old ass off that sofa, now come on!” Ma said to Daddy as she walked to the door.
