“No worries. I’ll walk you out.”
Ephrem stopped her. “I’m good, Nina.”
She didn’t push any further and decided to just plop down and get back to work. Distractions only worked for so long until the heavy thoughts of her brief conversation with Ephrem circled in her mind. Was she dumping her problems on him a little too much? Did they talk about anything else other than Jio today? Nina honestly couldn’t remember. She was so damn eager to tell him about the cutesy shit he did and how she swore she was over Jio but truthfully, she wasn’t.
When she walked into the living room last night and she was home alone, she assumed that he’d dipped once again withouta proper goodbye. Nina requested for her locks to be changed. Twenty minutes later, she was trying to figure out how she could get all his shit out of her house without any last-minute help. But then she heard the locks turn.
“Damn, maintenance must be twenty-four hours.”She thought.
But no, it was Jio. She knew it because of the cadence of his boots walking down her hallway. Nina memorized his footsteps many moons ago.
She crossed her arms, prepared to give him a real piece of her mind as soon as his big head ass turned the corner, but that’s not what happened at all.
“What’s wrong?” he asked after seeing the look on her face.
Quickly, it went from shit to sugar.
Nina glanced at the bouquet in one hand and takeout in the other.
“You thought I left, didn’t you?”
Nina covered her mouth, too ashamed to nod. He’d disappointed her so much lately; he was the one to blame for her lack of confidence in him and, overall, what they had.
“I ran out of blunts, baby. I went to the store and just decided to grab food and shit. Don’t do me like that,” he sounded defeated. “Like damned if I do, damned if I don’t.” Jio turned around and set everything on the counter.
“I just want the old you back,” she painfully admitted.
Jio wanted the old him back too.
η
Jio sat in his truck for nearly twenty minutes before finally killing the engine.
His mother's house looked exactly the same as it always had. The flowers lining the walkway were blooming. The wind chimes hanging from the porch sang softly in the breeze. He hated this house as a child, and he spent as much time away from this motherfucker as he could. He was shocked that he came here tonight, but she knew how to get him to pull up on her, and that was food. It was the way to most men’s hearts and his mama used it to her advantage. She knew her boys loved her cooking, and if she had to bribe them with a dinner plate, so be it.
The house hadn’t changed at all. Jio was going to ask her if she wanted to paint the shutters or get a new front door. It needed to be spruced up. Hell, if she wanted a new crib, he would do that too. Nothing in his life felt familiar lately, but he wouldn’t complain. He just had to keep going. When he walked in, the scent of garlic and basil tickled his nose. He was high and hungry. His mama was standing in the kitchen rolling ground beef into medium-sized balls.
Eventually, she glanced over her shoulder. “What's wrong with you nigga?”
She’d always talked to him like that, so it wasn’t out of the norm.
Jio sighed. “What makes you think something's wrong?”
“Because you showed up in the middle of the day.”
Fair enough, he thought.
He pulled out a chair and sat down heavily. His mother studied him for a moment before turning the stove down. The concern in her eyes made him look away. Everybody was always looking at him like they could see the weight he was carrying, but what could they do about it? Nothing.
“I talked to Dad.”
Her expression changed.
“That’s nothing new. He alright?” She asked but he knew that she didn’t give a flying fuck. She washed her hands of him a long time ago. It was around the time she got clean for real.
Jio leaned back in the chair. “I don't know.”
“What you mean you don’t know?”
