“What?” I questioned, admiring her pretty ass glowing face.
“Are you okay?” she questioned, reading me.
Pausing, my gaze drifted off, and I ran my hand down my face stressfully.
“Nothing I want to talk about right now, baby.” I let her know as the door swung open, and in walked a nurse.
She brought her eyes up from her paperwork and halted in the doorway. Her eyes shifted from Harbor to me and back again.
“Harbor Lawson,” she said her name, but it wasn’t like it was a question.
Instead, she said it like it was a revelation. I started looking the cock-eyed bitch up and down suspiciously as she stopped atthe foot of the bed. She was built like a fucking tooth, wide and funny looking.
“I have your discharge papers,” the nurse disclosed.
“Don’t I know you?” Harbor asked, looking her up and down.
“Um… maybe. I went to school with your sister, Harmonie,” the nurse declared.
“Right.” Harbor bobbed her head.
Ol’ girl shot a glance toward me before turning back to my woman.
“All of your after-care instructions are here. Take your prenatal vitamins regularly, eat healthy, sleep. No stress, no heavy lifting. Drink fluids. Water, tea, eliminate coffee if you can. If you develop any other symptoms, call your doctor or just come right to the ER,” she instructed. “Do you have any questions?”
“No, thank you. Does this mean that I can go?” Harbor was eager as fuck as she eaed forward to sit up.
Ivy emerged from the bathroom with all of her things in a bag, and Harbor clasped her hands together anxiously in her lap.
“Yes. Your doctor has signed off on everything as well as the attending on duty. You are free to go.”
“Thanks.” Harbor nodded, and the nurse set her paperwork on the bed.
“Congratulations on your baby. Take care of yourself.” The nurse turned to go, but Harbor never took her eyes off the door.
“You a’ight?” I reached for her hand.
“Yeah, it’s just… Harmonie’s friends are all pretty much like her. My sister is a gossip. Major.”
“How about you get dressed, and I’ll go get the car? Ivy, just stay here and help her.” I brought myself to my feet.
“Okay, got it,” Ivy agreed proudly.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to go about what came next. Things were getting messy as fuck. I didn’t want to hurt Harbor.She was in a vulnerable state, but I had to deal with Ivana. There was plenty unsettled, and now I had to figure out a way to explain this to not only Harbor but Ivy. That part worried me. My daughter acted hard, but she was very soft and sensitive. This wasn’t the kind of conversation I thought I would ever have with her, and I knew it was going to take all the strength I had to get through it.
“Some of us may do the winnin’, but we all do the losing…”
Knowledge
Chevy rode shotgunas I zipped my whip through the heavy city traffic. Kitana called, giving us a drop location. Lucky for me, I was the kind of nigga to keep cash around, in large amounts too, unlike Free. He was always talking about putting the shit in the bank and interest, and blah, blah, blah. Sometimes I just needed access to a certain amount right then and there. After grabbing the cash at the stash spot, I took the drive to the location she sent me via text. Chevy was nervous, grasping her hands together and anxiously watching everything out the window. There wasn’tshit I could say to her. This was my fault. I could feel her energy; she was disconnected.
“Chev—”
“That was a good thing you did for Harbor tonight.” She didn’t turn to me. “Unexpected, and not at all like you.”
“I just did what I had to do in the situation,” I said, shrugging. “And I’m going to do what I have to do in this one too. You know that, right?”
Gradually, her neck craned, and she faced me. I’d never seen that emptiness in her eyes before. They were still red rimmed and swollen from all the crying she had been doing.
