Chapter 6
Maasai McCarter
“Y’all niggas look good.” I nodded in approval as Aw’sum, AJ, and Cruz stood in front of the three-way mirrors in their suits. I’d already gotten mine tailored to perfection, but it had taken forever to pin all these niggas down at one time to get them taken care of. Aw’sum was already fidgeting and mugging the tailor as the man took his final measurements, and I bit back a laugh. That nigga still didn’t like people touching him like that, and I was surprised he’d even let Cruz rope him into going to the strip club. I was even more surprised that he hadn’t pulled his gun out or made a bitch run off crying the whole night.
“Of course, I look good, nigga. Everything looks good on me, even this leprechaun ass suit,” Cruz’s conceited ass boasted, adjusting his bowtie. He’d been making little jokes here and there about the forest-green suits they had to wear since they were in the wedding, but I let him make it because he was still going to wear that shit.
“Not too much on my sister’s wedding colors. She hear you say that slick shit she probably gone bust a blood vessel.” AJ rolled his shoulders back but kept his hands tucked over his manhood as his tailor measured his inseam.
“Yeah, I don’t want no smoke with Avery’s ass. She was bouta pull out the strap on me the other night just because I was taking this nigga to the bar.”
“Right, and your lying ass was sneaking him in the strip club,” Aw’sum finally spoke, giving him a side eye.
“Technically, you was with the shits too, so don’t be judging me, muthafucka. If she find out, you going down too,” Cruz threatened, sounding like he was really afraid of what Avery might do to his ass.
“Y’all niggas ain’t gone just keep talkin’ ’bout my wife. She ain’t even that bad.”
Three sets of eyes glared at me through the mirror, and I mugged them niggas right back. “She ain’t that bad? Didn’t I just say she hemmed me up in y’all foyer? Treated me like a straight-up bitch, and you too nigga, ’cause you went in there sucking toes so you could leave!” Cruz huffed.
“Man, ain’t nobody tryna hear that shit!” AJ’s nose turned up.
“Shiiiit, I ain’t wanna hear it either! He’s the one got in the car bragging and shit!”
I shrugged, not caring what he thought about that shit. I prided myself on keeping my wife satisfied, and she did the same. “Happy wife, happy life, nigga. AJ, your freshly married ass needs to be taking notes. And Cruz, you shouldn’t even be saying shit after letting a muthafucka rape you in the club.” He’d told me all about what had gone down in Raya’s office, and I told him that shit was fucked up. Dex wasn’t an immediate associate of ours, but we knew of that nigga, and Cruz fucking his wife could cause all types of problems he didn’t want.
“Yeah, well, I’m already regretting that shit. That bitch crazy as hell! She been blowing my phone up since that night. I had to ask her ass, like damn, shorty, ain’t your nigga in the hospital? Fuck is you on my line for? I really need to be more selectiveabout who I stick dick too ’cause she on some obsessed shit, for real. Look, she texting me now!” He held his phone up so I could see their text thread and the three bubbles letting us know she was in the middle of writing something.
“That’s what your thotty ass get!” Aw’sum grumbled, and Cruz’s head jerked back.
“I’m gone forget that as a grown ass man, you called methotty, but this shit ain’t my fault! That bitch was crazy before she got ahold of me!”
My phone vibrated, and I glanced at it to see if it was my baby finally hitting me back, but it was only Maagic. “That’s why you need to stop just fucking randoms and settle your wild ass down,” I told Cruz, making him groan, as I set my phone back on the couch next to me.
“Here the fuck you go! You sound just like my damn pops. It’s too much pussy out here for me to be tying myself down to one.” He shuddered like just saying that shit gave him the creeps.
“Ayite, so you not bringing anybody to the wedding?” We all looked to see what he was going to say, and his frown deepened as he met each of our gazes.
“Heeeell naw! I already got one crazy ass bitch on my line! I take a hoe out the country to awedding, she gone think we a couple.” His ass looked truly disgusted, and I just shook my head.
“Yeah, that’s probably best too. You don’t want him and some random treating your wedding like an episode ofLove & Hip-Hop,” Aw’sum grumbled, but we all heard him loud and clear.
“Aye man, fuck you!”
“He do got a point though,” AJ pointed out, knowing damn well it was only going to piss Cruz off more that he was agreeing with Aw’sum. The truth was, they were both right, and since Cruz was my best man, I damn sure didn’t want him causing a scene at my wedding. I’d kill his ass myself!
“Man, fuck all y’all niggas!” Cruz shrugged off the tailor, who was surprisingly unfazed by them going back and forth. He must have been used to shit like this because he barely batted an eye despite how aggressive they sounded.
“Aww, stop being a punk!”
“Cry baby ass nigga!” we called to his back as he stormed out the show room to go change his clothes, no doubt.
Everybody got back to what they were doing, and I checked my phone again, this time growing concerned that my baby hadn’t called me back yet. At first, I was thinking it was because she was at the bridal shop and couldn’t answer, but now I was sure something was wrong. I’d let her talk me out of using her detail every day, so I didn’t even have the reassurance that she was safe. Jaw clenched, I called her phone again with the same results. The call went straight to voicemail. I left her a message and tried not to sound like I was thinking the worst, but I still checked her location when I hung up. It showed that it was still dead, but seeing that her last known location was Rush Hospital had me on my feet. I ignored Aw’sum and AJ calling behind me as I left the main room and headed for the exit, only for my phone to ring when I hit the sidewalk. I damn near dropped my phone trying to swipe accept so fast when Keyani’s contact popped up.
“Hello! He---Keyani! Have you talked to Avery?” I probably sounded crazy as hell answering the phone like that, but other than me, Keyani was the only person who would’ve known why my wife was at the hospital.
“Baby, it’s me. My phone died but?—”
“Are you okay? Why the fuck it said you were in the hospital?” It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders just being able to hear her voice, but now I was trying to figure out if I needed to fuck somebody up.
