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“Mannn, Rahesha I know you lying,” Armias glared directly at the bags. That made me take a closer look and I finally noticed what was so familiar about them. That “Nazaria Stylez” logo was big and bold. Neither one of us reached for the bags.

“What?” She had the nerve to act clueless.

“Girl, we don’t want that shit,” I snapped. Thankfully she was standing right in front of us and music was still spinning. But the tables that were at the front to our right and left were probably getting a show.

“Excuse me?” She scoffed.

I looked directly at Armias. “Get your stupid ass mama.”

“Get his what?!”

“Mama, it’s time for you to leave.”

“What?!”

“Leave. Take that stolen shit with you, but don’t take my siblings.”

“You really gon’ do me like this Armias?!”

My mom stepped right on in. “We not finna cause a scene. Go ahead and respect their wishes. Cause it’s obvious you showed up today to cause trouble based on what you decided to wear.”

“Baby, I’m grown and I wear what I want at all times. I don’t need you to tell me shit. You Lourdes’ mammy, not mine,” she hissed.

“But I bet I’ll whoop your ass like I was your maw, bitch. I really don’t want to go there in front of all these people and I’m sure your son will never forgive you.”

“I definitely won’t and you don’t want to be on my shit list, mama. I keep warning you…but you not hearing me.”

She matched his glare for a few seconds before storming off with her gifts in tow. She marched straight to her table, grabbed her jacket, and exited stage left. Her kids didn’t even attempt to check on her or follow her out. They were at the front table to our right so they probably saw and heard a lot. Drama with Rahesha wasn’t on my bingo card for the day. I thought she knew how to act in front of mixed company. Technically, she didn’t act out but she came with her best foolishness. We let the dress code shit slide but she must have been on a mission to test our boundaries. She’d fucked around and found out today.

Chapter 15

Armias

“I thought we wasn’t leaving here until about 4:30 or 5?” I asked while helping Lourdes into her car. We’d been at Lourdes’ grandma's house since 1 pm and we were leaving earlier than expected after only three hours. Like me, Lourdes had a lot of cousins and I’d been kicking it with her male cousins. I’d stepped outside to smoke with them and then we watched football while going in on the feast Granny and Ms. Lucia had cooked. I’d gotten extremely comfortable with Lourdes’ family over the past few months and it was good to know that my daughter had good people on both sides.

“Yea, that was the plan,” she folded her arms while pouting. I laughed because she could barely cross her arms over her big belly. Alouri took it easy on her the first half of her pregnancy, but my baby girl had taken over and wanted her presence to be known. It seemed like Lo’s belly got bigger everyday and her nose along with her lips had swollen, but all the changes suited her face really well. She still looked like a pretty baby doll and she always took pride in her appearance. Today was no exception. She did her own hair the night before in a style she called a half up, half down. The big, curly hair went all the way down her back and it really suited her round face. She spent an hour on her makeup that morning and it looked like someone painted her in the best way possible. She ditched her signature color because Amil had set a dress code for Thanksgiving, which was browns and nudes. She wore a long sleeved nude mini dress with flat over the knee brown fur boots and a small Gucci crossbody bag. We complimented each other well with me sporting a brown and nude Gucci polo, Amiri jeans, brown Gucci sneakers, and we rocked silver and gold his and her Gucci watches. Proud wasn’t a strong enough word to describe how happy I was that she was by my side and carrying my baby. Having a family of my own on the holidays was a different experience and I couldn’t wait for my daughter to be in the mix with us.

“So what changed, Lo?”

“Auntie Luna stopped by to get plates for her and her daughter. I didn’t feel like playing fake, so that’s why I texted you that I was ready to go.”

“Why would you have had to play fake? Auntie Luna's daughter wasn’t there.” I’d overheard one of their cousins mention that Nalyssa had her son yesterday and that she was still in the hospital.

“Because Auntie Luna came in there showing off pictures of the baby and my mama fake ass was talking bout going up there to visit. Then when I was looking at pictures of the baby Auntie Luna gon’ tell me that Lyss really wants to talk about mending our relationship. I don’t know why these people think I’m playing about not fucking with that bitch no more. ”

“Shit, she probably thought she had a clear opening because you wanted to see pictures of the baby.”

“I was just being nosey.”

“Well?” I grinned. “Is he funny looking like his maw?”

She gasped. “You shouldn’t even play like that when our daughter hasn’t been born. God will humble us real quick…and Lyss is not funny looking.”

“She has been for the past few months. I don’t remember what she looks like when she’s not pregnant. And most babies come out funny looking, so I ain’t gon’ trip if my daughter is a part of the majority. Shit, I’ma love her regardless and we’ll dress her cute. She’ll grow into her looks.”

“Aht-aht,” she laughed. “Nigga, don’t put that in the air with my daughter. If it was a boy I wouldn’t care. And I’m not a hater, so I can honestly say that Lyss made a beautiful baby boy. He looks like her…the regular version of her. Not the pregnant version.”

“So when we going up to the hospital to visit our cousin?”