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“I’m not, woman. Just follow me,” I said with a smile on my face.
She smiled back, and then the three of us walked to the cars. I didn’t pull out until both of them were inside Naomi’s car, and then I slowly backed out of the parking spot. The church was about ten minutes from the law firm, in a really good area. My husband was actually the one to show me this property online since he spent a lot of his time looking at homes that were in foreclosure. This church had closed down a couple of years ago, and it was just standing there. No one was putting it to use.
Because my husband did this for a living, it was nothing for him to talk to the right people, and we went the next day to see the church in person. As old as it was, as much work as it needed, it just felt right. It felt like the church my mom would talk about that she attended back when she was a little girl. I eventually pulled my car into the parking lot and saw that the carpenters were still inside working. That wasn’t a shock because Billionaire told me that most days, they wouldn’t leave until a little bit after nine at night.
I stepped out of the car, and so did my mom and my sister.
“Whose church is this, Normani?” my sister asked.
I smiled but ignored her question because I didn’t want to ruin it and tell everything right away. I walked over, grabbed my mom’s hand in mine, and kissed her cheek. We walked to th
e front of the church then stood out there, admiring it.
“This is beautiful. It looks like a castle,” my mother said in awe as she stared at the building.
She said the same thing that I said when I saw it for the first time. I kept telling my husband that it looked like a castle. My mother stood out there, admiring it for a few moments more, and then we walked inside. Mind you, the church was super old on the inside, but with each room that my mom walked in into, she kept saying how beautiful it was.
My favorite part about the church was the sanctuary. It was hugggeee, and there was no doubt in my mind that my mother could fill this entire place with members and her beautiful voice. I took her around the entire church, showed her where her office would be, where bible study classes would be conducted. I showed her the fellowship hall, the cafeteria, everything. Everything would be ready to go in a few months, and I couldn’t wait for Sunday morning when I could sit on one of these pews and get a good lesson.
“This is for you, Ma. I knew I wanted to do this for you months ago when you shared with me why you stopped preaching. You let him quiet you down for months. It’s your time. The people want to hear you, Ma. Your kids want to hear you. Look around this sanctuary, mama. This is yours,” I told her, so happy that I was crying.
My mom and Naomi were crying too. She pulled me into her arms, thanking me repeatedly for what I had done for her.
“Out of all the fun things that we could have done tonight, you taking a bitch to a pole dancing work out class? Girl, I should have known that you were on some bullshit when you told me to put on workout clothes,” I said to Mia, as I sat in the passenger seat, and she drove her black Range Rover through the Miami streets.
We were in Miami because my husband was playing there in a couple of days. So many people were in town because this was expected to be one of the biggest games of the season. I landed yesterday morning and spent my entire day with Dream. As soon as I landed, I took the drive to see Loyal because yesterday was her birthday. It went without saying that I needed to visit my sister and bring her daughter too. I had to look my sister in her eyes and tell her about her bitch ass baby daddy, Chance, and how that nigga had two sons, one of which was the same damn age as Dream.
The crazy thing is, when I gave the news to my sister, she described the bitch that I saw Chance with that night at the beach to a T. She knew about the woman because, just like me and a lot of other women, my sister knew about the other woman. However, men had a way of making a woman feel so stupid and making it seem like the other woman didn’t mean a damn thing to him. What my sister didn’t know was that Chance had other kids. I could tell she wanted to break down, but she didn’t want to do it at the table in front of her daughter.
Although I could tell that the news hurt my sister, I expected her to lash out, but she didn’t. She told me about the bible study classes she was attending at the prison and how she was learning to work on her temper and things like that. My sister was even going to college, and she would graduate within a couple of years. I couldn’t stress enough how badly I wished the circumstances were different. I would give any amount of money to have my sister home with me, but I couldn’t. When she came home, though, I promised I would have her a beautiful ass house to raise her daughter in, plus a couple of exotic cars that I knew she would love.
After visiting Loyal yesterday, I took Dream shopping to get more clothes for summer camp. I even bought her a jersey to wear Saturday night at my fiancé’s game. The cat was pretty much out of the bag now that I was pregnant because I had a little baby bump, which I could no longer hide. I would see Normani tomorrow afternoon since Billion was doing a little BBQ at his house. I hated that I couldn’t come to town and spend time with both Normani and Mia. God, I wish it could be the three of us having girl time. I knew that it would never happen, though.
“You’ll like it. This is a pole dancing class for pregnant bitches like yourself. You all are allowed to bring one guest, and I’m your guest for the night. My homegirl did the class a couple weeks ago, and she told me how much she enjoyed it. I thought about you, so I signed us up for it. I know that Truth is hanging with his homeboys tonight, so I just wanted to get your ass out the house. You think you supposed to be laid up, fuckin’ and suckin’ that man every day of the week. Give your jaws a break for the night,” Mia said, talking shit and trying to be funny.
I laughed at her dumb ass, although I didn’t want to.
“Truth be like, ‘bae, yo’ pussy don’t hurt?’ Mia, I love that fine ass nigga.” I groaned and threw my head into the headrest as I thought about my man.
“When a nigga says something like that, then there’s absolutely toooo much fuckin’ going on,” Mia joked.
We talked shit the entire time we rode to the stripping class that her ass was dragging me to. We eventually pulled up, and a good number of cars were in the parking lot. This gold and white building easily stood out from any other building because of the nice, bright colors. This was nice on the outside, so I could only imagine what it looked like on the inside. Other women were walking inside. Pregnant women, with bellies much bigger than mine. Here I was, thinking I shouldn’t be pregnant and doing this when there were women there who were bigger than me.
I got out with Mia and grabbed my big water bottle and face towel, just in case I started sweating. We could hear the music blasting from inside, and it was making me excited. I couldn’t wait to start shaking my ass. We walked in, and there were about fifteen stripper poles around the room. Some women were stretching, some were just hanging around talking, while others were dancing.
The class wasn’t expected to start for another five minutes or so. I looked around at the pictures hanging on the wall, and I had to do a double-take. I knew this wasn’t Trinity’s shit. I didn’t even have a second longer to think about it because Trinity came out from the back, and I couldn’t even front, the bitch looked bomb! I mean, there was literally no way in hell her ass just had a baby a few months ago.
She and I were literally wearing the same workout piece that I’d ordered from Fashion Nova a couple of weeks ago. It was a neon pink and green sports bra with the matching high waisted tights. Out of all the women in the room that her eyes could have landed on, they landed on mine. I saw the look of sympathy in her eyes when she saw me.
Sucking my teeth, I walked out of the building, not about to stay for this shit.
“What? What happened, Twinkle?” Mia asked.
No, I wasn’t mad at Mia because she didn’t know. I don’t even say Trinity’s name to her. I told her about Monterius’ baby, of course, but it wasn’t like Mia knew who Trinity was.
“That’s her! Monterius’ baby mama,” I told her. I saw the look in her eyes and knew she immediately felt bad.
“Oh, my God. Girl, I’m sorry. Twinkle, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I swear on my kids I didn’t even know. You know I don’t even rock like that—”
