Page 19

“Thank you, though. Real shit, you always come through. I know Neese gon’ be happy.”

Aneesah was having a big 18th birthday celebration and I was going all out for her. She never did too much for her birthday, but she wanted to go big for her 18th year. I had pretty much said yes to everything she asked for. She had a private dinner at Ruth’s Chris, a fancy party bus, and a massive Airbnb near St. Charles. That ran me thousands, but it didn’t stop there because she also needed stuff to wear, she had to get her hair done, and she requested a photographer to document everything. The other day Naz overheard her asking me if I could order her some Rene Caovalli and Louboutin heels. Naz quickly volunteered her boosting services. It was only a few days later and she had what Neese had asked for and more.

“No, thank you for coming through and blessing me,” she gazed down at my crotch that was covered by my brown Palm Angels sweat pants. “I’ve been missing you this week.”

“Yea…I’ve been busy,” I responded. I had finished with the process of hiring qualified management for my barbershops so I could alleviate my workload. I was thinking about opening a second uptown location or a downtown location. I’d been searching high and low for a house because the lease on my apartment was about to be up at the end of November. My one bedroom was perfect for me, but I had a daughter on the way and she deserved to have her own everything wherever I resided. She needed her own bed, her own clothes, and her own room filled with every necessity. I couldn’t get that done in my one bedroom bachelor pad, so I had to make some major moves.

“I know, you have a lot going on right now, so thank you for still making time for me. Your bm popped up on my for you page on IG earlier.”

Before responding, I took several seconds to gauge if she was being serious. I didn’t detect any pettiness in her tone and her facial expression was neutral. I’d seen her talk shit before and she was never coy about it. She’d also kept her word thus far and had been respecting the fact that I had a baby on the way. She had stopped taking jabs at Lourdes and all, so I was hoping that she wasn’t about to start her shit again.

“I’m not tryna be funny,” she rushed to say. I guess my silence was loud. “I just really thought her maternity shoot was pretty. It had bukoo likes and reposts.”

“What?” I snarled.

“I said her maternity shoot was pretty,” she replied while looking at me like I was losing it. “Damn, I can’t give the girl a compliment?”

“I’m tryna see what the hell you talking bout. Ain’t no way she had a maternity shoot and didn’t tell me about it.”

“Why she had to tell you about it? It’s a photoshoot to document her pregnancy.”

“She didn’t get herself pregnant, Naz,” I replied hastily. “This is my first child just like it’s her first child. It’s common sense that I would want to be in a few photos, too.”

“I thought that was usually for people who are together,” she said. “Let me find out that’s what this is about.”

“Man, what are you talking about?”

“You just want it to be known that you’re her baby daddy.”

“I damn sure don’t want it to be a secret. The fuck? I’m not wallowing in my sorrows because I have a baby on the way. So yea, I want it to be known and celebrated. When my daughter grows up she’s going to know that both of her parents wanted her.”

“I didn’t mean it like that and you know it.”

“I don’t know what’s going on in your head, Naz.”

“Well I know what’s going on in yours and clearly you in your feelings over ya’ bm.”

“Yea, I am in my feelings because she purposely left me out of something important and I ain’t gon’ let you or nobody else make me feel like I’m crazy about that.”

“Alright, Ali…I’m not finna go back and forth with you about something that ain’t even my business,” she sighed before sitting on the opposite side of her sofa.

I wanted to ask why the fuck she felt the need to bring it up in the first place, but I was tired of going back and forth with her, too. I went straight for my phone and made my way to Lourdes’ IG through my burner page because her ass still hadn’t unblocked me. If she hadn’t recently made her personal page public then I would’ve been shit out of luck. Push come to shove, I wasn’t above asking Aspen or Aneesah for their log-in information.

“Mannn…it’s no way,” I mumbled to myself as I scrolled through the photos she’d uploaded of her maternity shoot. She was standing in front of a simple white backdrop and she had some type of house wife theme going on. She had big pink rollers in her hair. She wore a long pink see through robe, silk ruffle booty shorts with a matching bra top of type, and she topped it off with pink pumps. She held an iron in her hand and an iron board was next to her draped in teddy bears and baby blankets. There was a clothesline behind her with pink baby clothes hanging from it. Some of the shit I recognized because I bought it.

Multiple things contributed to my anger the more I took everything in. She'd attached a head ass Jhene Aiko song to the post. I had to turn my volume all the way down because I was tired of hearing “Sing to me, sing to me. Mommy sing to me.” She’d collaborated with her business page on the post, so that explained the amount of likes and comments. She made a deliberate decision for this to be her pregnancy announcement and for it to reach as many people as possible. Then her caption made it seem like she’d made my daughter by herself or something. “I’m tickled pink and happy to say my little princess is on the way! January 2026…" Call me crazy, but I felt like she was trying to send a message that I wasn’t in the picture at all. I never met a bitch who wanted to be a single mom so bad.

I opened her comment section and the first thing that popped out at me was all my family in the comments. My sisters, my cousins, and their spouses all expressed their excitement. Even my fake ass mama. Talking ‘bout some “Honey’s baby! I can’t wait to meet her!” Grandmothers like her did the most wanting to be called everything except grandma. She had cleared the air with Lourdes a few days after I told her to and she did it in the form of a text message. Since it took so long I thought she was working up the courage to call her or even invite her somewhere so they could sit down and talk. But nope, she texted Lourdes this long, weak ass paragraph. I saw it with my own eyes because I was at her house when the text came through.

Hey Lourdes, this is Rahesha. Armias told me the news about your pregnancy and I want you to know that y’all have my support 100%. I apologize for all the mean things I’ve said about you online. I saw my baby hurting and it made me sad for him, so I said a bunch of things I shouldn’t have. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I also would like to extend an apology to your mom bc she’s friends with me on Facebook & probably saw some things. At the end of the day, we have a baby on the way and I don’t want any confusion at a time when we should be united.

Surprisingly, Lourdes was satisfied with the way she chose to go about apologizing. Her exact words were “I prefer this text message over her calling me because the conversation probably would’ve gone left.” I sat there looking over her shoulder as she responded and she didn’t cut any corners on being honest.

Thanks for the apology. That was big of you, but it’s going to take me a while to warm up to you if I ever do. I understand emotions were high, but I know for a fact that’s how you really feel about me because you never liked me in the first place. At the bare minimum all I need is respect and we’ll be fine.

I could honestly say that in the past month my mom had been trying. She’d been checking in with Lourdes through text messages, she was buying stuff for the baby, and she offered to help with the baby shower. Lourdes politely turned her help down because she had professionals covering everything down to the food. I personally liked the fact that Rahesha had asked anyway because it showed that she was warming up to being a grandmother. She really had no other choice though. It was either get with the program or get lost. Getting with it was her best bet. She was overdoing it by being all in Lourdes’ comments though. Maybe I would have felt differently if I had been notified of the photoshoot and a part of it, but I wasn’t.

For at least a minute I scrolled through the comments frowning up whenever I saw one of my family members dickriding. That nigga Qaylo had the audacity to comment “Beautiful, sis! I can’t wait to meet Quincy’s new best friend.” It’s like nobody was acknowledging that she was pregnant with my baby. I had to be in the twilight zone or something. When I got the urge to comment a paragraph cursing everybody out, I decided it would be best to just get out of her comments. I scrolled all the way to the top before doing so and noticed she’d pinned two comments that she left herself.