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Right now, his present focus was on purging himself of his pain in preparation for a peaceful future, but as the beauty passed him and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up… Elite vowed to pursue her if he ever saw her again.
twelve
Denali
“I don’t knowwhy you’re over there pouting. You knew my niece and nephew would leave us as soon as they saw that pool.”
Denali’s pout turned into a smile. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, her sister was right. Yashika had joined Denali and her kids for their spring break vacation to Myrtle Beach. The Airbnb they rented had a pool in the backyard, and Amir and Kinsley hadn’t stopped swimming laps yet. Denali had planned for them to go to the boardwalk, but since they seemed to be content in the pool, she wasn’t pressing it. At least at the rental, they were able to enjoy themselves fully and drink and eat as much as they wanted.
“Well, yes, but I thought they would at least get excited about the boardwalk. All their country asses want to do is jump in the pool all damn day.”
Yashika laughed as she cut the music they were listening to up on her phone.
“Girl, enjoy this break while you can. When they do get bored with the pool, they are going to run us crazy in the streets.”
Sighing, Denali scooted down more in her lounge chair. Adjusting her shades, she agreed. “You’re right. Let me enjoy this brief moment of adult time.”
“Speaking of which…”
Denali playfully rolled her eyes and took a sip of her canned margarita. “Aw hell.”
Yashika chuckled. “You ain’t let me even get it out yet!”
“Because I know you’re about to be on some bullshit!”
Yashika huffed and lowered her straw hat further down her head. The sisters looked just alike. Same cinnamon brown skin, round nose, and pouty full lips. They acted a lot alike too. The biggest difference was Yashika was a bit more spoiled and carefree as the youngest of the two.
“I just want to know what’s up with you and Blaze. He paid for and was supposed to be on this trip with you, right?”
Denali’s exhale was hard as she looked at her children. Kinsley was floating around in a donut while Amir was flapping around with his water toys on the shallow end of the pool.
“On the bright side, I feel freer than I have in a while. Like I told him, I didn’t like who I was becoming with him. I felt like I had three kids instead of two because I was yelling at him so much. He always had excuses to justify the choices he was making. I just didn’t want to deal with them anymore.”
“That’s understandable. Just because y’all have two beautiful children together, that doesn’t mean you have to put up with his bullshit in a relationship.”
“Yeah,” Denali mumbled, staring at the white polish on her toes. “I keep telling myself ending things romantically was for the best, but we were together for so long… Plus, I think about Mama and Daddy and how bad I felt when they separated. I don’t want that for Kinzy and Amir.”
“Has he gotten his own place yet?”
“Yeah, which honestly pisses me off and lets me know I made the right choice. He hasn’t paid any bills with me, but he had more than enough money saved to go out and get him a cute little rental property closer to their school. He’s paid for his furniture and everything already.” Denali scoffed and shook her head as she crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her neck. “I’ve struggled trying to survive off commissions while his ass has been stacking his money and spending it on whatever he and the kids wanted. And don’t get me wrong, there was never a time they asked for something and he didn’t get it, but damn. I just felt like I was left out of the equation. Like I was taking care of him so he could take care of them. That didn’t seem fair to me.”
“You’re not wrong, sis. I think you were right to call things off with him. If he wasn’t helping with the bills and was just choosing to watch you struggle, he didn’t deserve to be there.”
Denali nodded. “I wish he would have stayed and helped me.” She smiled as her eyes watered. “Ugh, I didn’t want to do this while we were gone.”
“Do what?” Yashika asked, sitting up and turning on her side to face Denali. “What’s wrong?”
“Harmony cut my hours at the boutique. It’s bad enough that she cut the hourly rate in half and shifted to commission based, now my commissions aren’t rolling in as consistently as they used to. So I’m going to start tutoring and babysitting for one of my old teacher’s daughters. It’s not really babysitting because her daughters are seventeen and fourteen, but Cassie doesn’t want to go into detail about why she needs help. She was my favorite teacher in high school, and I used to babysit for her when her oldest daughter was a baby, so I already have a bond with them. I just feel like, even though I fixed one problem in my life, I’m on the cusp of another one.”
“Have you talked to Blaze about this? Maybe if he knew you were struggling financially, he would help out more. Hell, you were making so much money off your commissions when he first got out that he probably felt like he’d be wasting his money helping you when you were bringing in more than him. You know these niggas think of every excuse they can to hold on to that bread when they aren’t making a lot of it.”
Denali chuckled. “No, I haven’t told him. If I learned anything dealing with Blaze, it was to not depend on a man. Before he got locked up, he took care of everything. All my wants and needs. When he left, I didn’t have a dime to my name. Then I had to sell the house for his bail money, only for him to go right back to prison three months later. Me and my kids were homeless, sis. I had them in a car and a hotel for months before I was able to get two checks and move into our home. I’mnevergoing through that again, and I’m not asking his ass for shit.”
“You got too much damn pride. Ain’t no way in hell I would be working two jobs and not getting some money off my baby daddy if I had one. Put his ass on child support if you don’t want to ask him for it directly.”
“That’ll just start another issue between us. With him having his own place, that’s going to help me out a lot. He can have the kids more, and they will have everything they need at his place and mine. I’ll be able to work at the boutique and tutor to stack my money to make sure they have an amazing summer. That’s all I care about right now.”
“Just promise me that you will take care of yourself and not overdo it.”
