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“She’s having a girls night with her friends,” Aneesah said.

“Oh okay, I was thinking Ali uninvited her from all family functions or something.”

“The only place she’s uninvited from indefinitely is my house.”

“Dang,” Peaches chortled. “She can’t even stop by for Christmas tomorrow?”

“I’m sure he’s going to go by her house to see his siblings and give them gifts, so she’ll be okay,” Versace said.

“Nahhh, I’ma be at home enjoying a home cooked meal made by my mother in law and my siblings are going to come over to open their gifts. I don’t know what Rahesha gon’ be doing, but that don’t got nothing to do with me.”

Everybody laughed at Armias’ comment except me, Shakie, and Aspen. Armias was over his mom altogether and he was justified in feeling that way. But it was the holidays and I felt like it was cruel to not include her at all. No matter how I felt about her or how she felt about me, she deserved to be with her kids on Christmas.

“Don’t do that to your mama, Ali,” Shakie said sympathetically. “It’s Christmas and y’all should all be together. Life is too short.”

“Yea, and I don’t like that we have to split Christmas up,” Aspen spoke up. “We’ve always done Christmas together as a family. But now we have to start Christmas off at home with mama and then we have to come to you. It’s like our family is falling apart or something.”

I instantly felt at fault although I didn’t think Aspen was trying to put the blame on me for how things were changing within their family dynamic. I hope she wasn’t.

“Well baby, those traditions were bound to change, regardless. One day you’ll be married with kids of your own and you’re going to want to do Christmas at home with them. Armias is really just kicking off the inevitable,” Peaches said. “Your family isn’t falling apart. Your brother just has his own family to consider now.”

“Well I don’t mind if Rahesha comes over tomorrow,” I said. “I know how to ignore her, so she won’t bother me.”

“Bubby has been dealing with her his whole life, so he knows how she is and he knows how to ignore her, too. I don’t know why it has to be such a big deal now,” Aspen said.

Armias laughed dryly. “I’m not about to get into why Rahesha is on her last leg with me, but everybody has their breaking point. You’ll get there one day, Aspen, and when you do I will advise you to choose your peace over anybody who’s disrupting it. Including your own mama. But since it means so much to you and Lourdes doesn’t mind, we can all do Christmas together at our house tomorrow as a family. If your mama disrespects me in any way then don’t expect me to ignore her.”

“You better the fuck not ignore nobody talking crazy to you in your own house,” Peaches scoffed.

“Peaches, stop all that carrying on,” Shakie scolded.

“Oh don’t act all uppity Shakie cause you used to cut up if somebody looked at you wrong!”

“This ain’t about who I used to be. You hyping that boy up to have combative energy with his mama and that ain’t right.”

“Shakie, Rahesha don’t even like you, so I don’t know why you going to bat for her right now.”

“Say what?”

“Yea,” Aneesah giggled. “She said you used to mess with our dad first.”

“Now why would you repeat that, Neese?” Aspen laughed.

“Chileee,” Shakie tittered. “I had a feeling she never cared for me because she’s close friends with Quincy’s ex, Velvet. That would be a valid reason for her not to like me because I did step on Velvet’s toes by getting with her man. But shit, I used to mess with a lot of niggas. I just ended up getting pregnant by Quincy. And I dealt with Big Armias before he got with y’alls mama. So if she’s stuck on that old stuff then that’s a personal problem.”

Chapter 18

Lourdes

“Not gonna yieee, my Christmas is lit so far!” Aspen bragged while recording the gifts she’d just unwrapped. Our Christmas morning had started late at 12 pm, but everybody was well rested and fully energized to open gifts. All the kids went crazy unwrapping gifts all at once, while Armias aka Santa stood over them smiling like a proud Papa. Him and I had opened gifts from each other last night because we wanted an intimate Christmas moment. We got each other so many gifts and I really appreciated how he wrapped mine in pink Christmas paper. It matched the pink Christmas decorations I put up in his…I mean our house. I thought he’d be against the girly Christmas decorations but he was all for it. He claimed it was the energy we needed in the house to get ready for Alouri next month. Anyways, I loved everything he got me and I could tell he felt the same way about all my gifts to him. But my absolute favorite gifts from him were three pairs of platform Versace heels. They were from the Spring Summer 2010 collection and they reminded me of all my favorite “it girls” at the time. They had a resurgence recently and they’d been worn by celebrities like Latto, Jayda Cheaves, and Skai Jackson. Every time I saw any variation of those heels on IG I’d repost them to my story. How Armias found them and managed to get three pairs from the collection was beyond me, but he’d done it. The orange and pink python boots were my ultimate dream shoe from the moment I saw Nicki Minaj wearing them on 106 & Park in 2010, so to finally own them didn’t feel real. I also had the black platforms with the multicolor heels and another pair of python boots in black and white.

“Son in law you know how to do Christmas right! Thanks for my purses!” My mom gave him a half hug because she was holding onto her two Louis Vuitton tote bags.

“No problem, Mama,” he kissed the top of her head. “Somebody told me you needed a new everyday bag for work.”

“And that somebody was right!” She winked at me.

“You gon’ see Granny today?” He asked my mom.