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“The one with the cute gap in his front teeth?”
At that, Nala nodded as she handed her phone my way and responded, “Our daughter has the same damn one.”
Once I saw the baby beauty on the screen posing with her hands on her hips and her little gap on full display, I couldn’t help but squeal, “Oh my God, Nala. She’s gorgeous!”
“Ain’t she though? Thank God she only got Freddie’s teeth.”
The longer I looked at the picture, the more I couldonlysee Freddie in the little girl’s facial features, making it impossible for me to agree when I responded, “Ehh… I don’t know if that’s all she got from her father.”
“Okay, but we don’t have to talk about it though,” Nala whined as she snatched the phone back, the both of us laughing as she went to her messages and discovered another one from her daughter. “Now she’s claiming she doesn’t feel good.”
With a sip that finished off my drink, I insisted, “If you have to go, I totally understand.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, it’s fine.Really. Go handle your business. We’ll get up another time.”
“You promise?” Nala asked, sticking her pinky out for me to link mine with. And I did exactly that,proudly, making her smile as she pulled me into a tight hug and sighed, “Damn, I missed you, Bri Bri.”
“I missed you too, Nala,” I responded, hugging her just as tightly as I teased, “Now go take care of Freddie’s twin.”
“Girl!” she cackled, smacking me against the arm before she slipped into the crowd to head towards the exit. And with her departure came homeboy’s return, the three glasses he’d somehow managed to balance in his hands making me grin as I watched him set them each down on the table before offering one to me.
“You’re too kind, but I can’t drink that,” I told him, the confused look he responded with prompting me to explain, “Wasn’t there when it was made, and a lot could’ve happened to it since then.”
Thankfully, he understood where I was coming from without making the whole thing weird, giving a bit of a shrug as he said, “More for me then.” Then he amusedly sipped from two of the glasses like he was trying to make a point that he hadn’t, in fact, drugged them, leaving the third untouched as he looked around and asked, “What happened to your friend?”
“She had to go pick up her kid from her mother’s.”
“And where are your kids at tonight?”
His question made my face scrunch as I confusedly replied, “In…my… ovaries?”
Chuckling, I was glad he knew to respond, “My bad. I guess I could’ve framed that a little better.”
After giving a nod to agree, I teasingly asked, “So… are your kids still in your balls, or are they out in the world somewhere?”
With a smirk, the man whose name I still didn’t know answered, “One is out. The rest are still warming up.”
“And the mother?”
“No longer involved, but we still get along,” he responded, taking a casual sip of his drink while I sat there lowkey feeling jealous of his child since I was sure my parents would never get along again. But instead of allowing my mind to go down that sad ass road, I tried my best to stay focused on his specific situation when I replied, “I guess that’s a good thing. I mean like, for the kid. They need to see that.”
Like I’d done earlier, he gave a nod to agree before finally introducing himself. “I’m Darnell, by the way.”
“Bri.”
“You from around here, Bri?”
“Born and raised,” I told him with a proud grin. “I’ve been away for some years though. Just moved back last week.”
That fact seemed to pique his interest, his left eyebrow raising when he asked, “Oh yeah? What brought you back to the city?”
A variety of answers came to mind. But there was one word in particular that covered it all in a way that I wouldn’t need to explain.
“Life.”
With his head cocking just slightly, he followed up, “Is that the truth, or the“I don’t know you, nigga”answer?”
