He rolled his eyes. “That’s why she left. She knew your aggressive ass wasn’t gon’ leave her alone. Well, hopefully she reaches out soon.”
“Yeah. I been texting Maj every day asking if she’s heard from her. She hasn’t heard from her either. I was lowkey mad at her. I don’t give a fuck about this watch. She left on my birthday, man. I was supposed to spend the whole day with her, Saturday. Shegon’ send me a fucking watch when I would much rather have her.”
He squeezed my shoulder as Uncle Corey told everyone bye. He was about to head back to Beaumont. Uncle Shawn and Aunt Sonya were going to head out in the morning. After I shook his hand, Uncle Shawn sat next to me.
“So, Eldridge Owens is full of shit. He ain’t got no help. If anything, he may try to catch you slipping. You know I can clear all that shit up though, right? All you gotta do is say the word.”
My dad side-eyed Uncle Shawn. “Man, you need to get outta that street shit.”
“I don’t live there. I just visit from time to time.” He turned his attention to me and lifted his eyebrows. “Well?”
“I’ll let you know after I talk to my mama to see what she got up her sleeve.”
He nodded, then drank from the water bottle in his hand. I took my phone from my pocket and texted Arlie.Damn. I can’t believe you can just ignore me like this. This is all the way fucked up. Man, call me.
After I hit send, I texted Kimaji.Hey. Still nothing?
Still nothing, bro. I’m gonna text JR to see if he can ask Noah.
I didn’t respond to her. I put my phone on the table and slid my hand down my face. I could ask Aunt Sonya to text him, but I didn’t want my family involved in my personal business with Arlie. It was bad enough my cousins were calling me a sucka and a simp. I felt like one. After being around this woman for a little over a week consistently, and three weeks total, I was fucking begging her to talk to me.
If she didn’t respond to the flower delivery and my card, I was gonna fly my ass to Baltimore and cuss her the fuck out.
“So, we can report him for stalking and harassment. Technically, it’s your word against his. You can file a restraining order. Although he threatened you, we don’t have evidence of it . . . unless K has a Ring Doorbell Camera. If she does, it recorded everything. I’ll call her in a little bit. If she does, we can do more. If she doesn’t, all we can do is file a report and restraining order.”
“She has one. I saw it the first time I went there. So if we get the footage, you can use our conversation to press charges on him, right?”
“Yes. Plus, I believe K has a restraining order on him as well. If anything, he was in violation of that. He was so abusive to her. I just hope she’s okay mentally.”
“I need to call her. Arlie just have my mental going through it. I ain’t been thinking about shit but her. If we don’t make up by this weekend, I’m going to work Monday to give myself something to do to take my mind off of things.”
We’d eaten dinner, and I was in my office with my mama. Dad, Uncle Shawn, and Aunt Sonya were in the front room talking to Kyla, Nick, Cooper, and Tristan. Tristan was Uncle Shawn and Aunt Sonya’s son together. He lived here in Houston and was freelancing as a photographer and artist, just like Uncle Shawn.
Instead of leaving this morning, they stayed later since Kyla was off work today. Her ass was hardly ever off work. She had her own private practice now, but it seemed she was always at the hospital on the weekends. She was an OB/Gyn, so I supposedshe always had a patient that needed her. They would be leaving in an hour or so.
When we heard loud laughter, my mama said, “I guess we should go and enjoy them for their last hour in town. Umm . . . I know what and how Arlie is doing. Do you want to know?”
“I’d rather know from her.”
“I know.”
“You can tell me.”
“When I talked to Noah earlier, he said she’s been working extremely hard on her album. She’s recorded four songs already. He just has to put finishing touches on them. Noah said they would talk to her in the morning, because they could tell she’s upset about something. The only time she really comes alive is when she’s in the studio. Other than that, she’s been extremely quiet.”
I slowly shook my head. “She’s putting us both through unnecessary bullshit. All she had to do was talk to me.”
When my phone chimed, I checked it to see a text from Maj. There was a link there with wide-eyed emojis. I frowned slightly then clicked on the link. The headline read,From Prostitute to Rapper . . .
My eyebrows hiked off my damn face. Prostitute?Ain’t no fucking way.I couldn’t believe what I was reading. There was an entire article from an anonymous source about Arlie’s former life. “Eldridge fucking Owens.”
“What?” my mama asked with a frown.
I handed my phone to her, and her eyebrows lifted like mine had done. “What the fuck? You think this is real?”
“I don’t know. Either it is and that’s why she’s running, or he’s doing what he can to attack her because of me. If this was simply about her, he would’ve done it a long time ago. Why now?”
She kept reading, and said, “They’re saying she did her last trick two years ago. That was after her first album came out. This muthafucka will stop at nothing. If it’s true, it ain’t shit I can do about it either.”
