I knew she was right, but damn, a nap sounded so good right now. I looked back at the bed longingly. “I don’t know . . .”
“Aht! We ain’t convince you to go there to sleep the week away, even though you could use some damn rest. Donzell’s bum ass has been leeching off you so much you had no choice but to work around the clock.” Sloan swung her long braids over her shoulder as she peered into her phone with her slanted eyes.
What she said was true, but I knew better than to engage in this conversation. If I did, it would be a minimum of an hour-long bashing session on Donzell, which I didn’t mind, but Sloanesometimes forgot that I was grieving too. Not necessarily the relationship. I had mentally and emotionally checked out from that a long time ago, but I grieved the time lost. I grieved the fairy-tale love I desperately wanted but slowly realized over time I would never get. Bashing Donzell was only a constant reminder of my miserable love life.
“Okay, you’re right. I’m about to wash my ass and put my bikini on and then go to the beach. Why the hell not?”
“That’s my girl.” Sloan stuck her tongue out as she smiled, and I giggled. Her ass was always high energy, but she was also my biggest hype woman.
“I’ll check in with you later,” I said, ready to end the call and hop in the shower before I gave in to the bed and slept the rest of the day away.
“You better. Love your life,” Sloane sang.
“Love yours too.” I ended the call, and with a sigh, I tossed my phone on the bed before I got up and walked toward the bathroom. I knew I needed to dig a positive attitude out of my ass so I could start this vacation off right, and that was exactly what I intended to do.
chapter 2
KAREEM
“Remind me why the fuck I’m here?” I grumbled into the phone as I moved through the villa this fuck-ass resort set me up with.
If I wasn’t so irritated right now, I would be more willing to admit that this setup was something straight out of paradise. I high-key should have just booked one of these private villas in the first place instead of thinking the presidential suite was the best option they had to offer. That was a load of shit, because their presidential suite had issues out the ass. No AC when this tropical heat threatened to give someone a damn heat stroke was insane. My attitude was bad on a good day. All I knew was people needed to steer the fuck clear of me.
“Because you need to relax, Kareem. You’re too uptight,” my mom, Gloria, said in her soft tone that always relaxed me.
“And fuckin’mean.” My dad grumbled his words. The nigga sounded just like me, so he was one to talk.
I snorted before I put them on speaker phone and laid my cell on the bed so I could move around the villa freely.
“I’m mean because I’m assertive?” I asked as I pulled some swim trunks out of my suitcase along with a white muscle shirt.
“Yes,” my father said in a flat tone.
“No,” my mama said before she sucked her teeth. “Idris, cut it out. My baby is not mean.”
“Bullshit. He’s a damn bully,” Pops said.
I chuckled. Asking them about being mean was a sure way to get them bickering and off my back. Worked every time. My older sister was the princess of the family and spoiled rotten, but I was my mama’s baby. Gloria Spivy would defend me until the last breath left her body. My pops enjoyed giving me tough love. I didn’t mind either of their parenting styles because their love was always apparent, but I could admit that sometimes I used their disconnect in that certain area to my advantage.
While I changed into my swim gear, I allowed them to go at it, but I finally cut them short. “As invigorating as this conversation has been, I have to go.”
“Now wait a minute. What are you about to do? You better not waste your last couple of days there moping around,” my mother scolded.
“I won’t, Mama. I’m about to go for a swim.”
It was my father’s turn to snort, apparently. “Boy, you don’t swim.”
I looked down at my blue and black swim trunks with a frown. “Damn, Pops, I know that. Shit. I can’t enjoy the shit this resort has to offer? Ain’t that why you sent me here?”
“Yes,” Mama replied.
“Hell nah. You think I want to get a call that you done drowned in the ocean or the deep end of the pool?” Pops joked.
And then they were back to bickering. I swore these two loved each other more than life itself, but nobody would know it because they went at it like this all the damn time.
“Aight, I’m about to go. I’ll check in wit’ y’all later. Love y’all.”
“Love you too,” Mama sang before she went right back into arguing with Pops.
