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“I know, I know.” He gave me a dismissive wave of his hand. “Your mother wants to be sure you don’t end up like me.”
There was a time when I would say there was nothing wrong with turning out like him, but that wasn’t the case anymore. Clapping kept me from replying immediately. I looked toward the stage where the jazz band was playing. Gracy’s Lounge was, for lack of better terminology, an upscale lounge for professional hood niggas. Whether they were still in the streets or retired, this is where they came to enjoy a nice, safe evening among their own kind. If Sakura recognized anyone in this room, that would give her an idea of Tim’s true source of income.
The black and gold décor, brown tables, and brown marble flooring gave the opulent vibe Gracy was going for. His bottle girls and bartenders were covered but beautiful in different colored silk gowns. All spirits were top shelf, and the bar bites were immaculate. It was my favorite place to come and unwind after a long day at work and the only place that would keep me in a good enough mood despite how this conversation played out with Pops.
“Why did you become a father?” I asked, surprising us both based on the way his head tilted as he ran his tongue over his cheek. “You didn’t really devote yourself to being present for Milli, and our relationship is surface level. We’ve never had a close bond. All we talk about is shit you’d talk to your friends about, but we’ve never had that father-son, loving relationship. Did you not want kids?”
Pops finished the rest of his drink and sat back in his seat. “I wanted a lineage, but no, I didn’t want kids. I wanted someone to pass my name on to, someone to keep the Phoenix bloodline going.” Scratching behind his ear, he clutched his empty glass. “I don’t know how to give you the kind of relationship you’re asking for. I didn’t have that with my father. I didn’t see that in my family. He worked and provided and asked us questions to keep us on track with life and school, but we didn’t bond. We didn’t hang out. His relationship with his father didn’t even have that. Men in our family were only concerned with being providers, and I’ve done that.”
That was the most used excuse for not being present, being ignorant. But just like he learned law and sports and whatever else he wanted to know, he could have learned how to be a present father too.
“Was Mama aware of that before she gave you me?”
“She was aware of the relationship I had with my father. I think, like a lot of women, she thought things would be different.” He released a short chuckle. “She swears work is the reason we had issues, but it wasn’t. We had nothing in common. There was no excitement. No reason for me to come home. I thought giving her kids would make her content, and after you were born, that worked for a while. But eventually, she started asking me for more than I had to give. Eventually, I got tired of that and we separated, and that’s when I started seeing other women.”
“She says you cheated.”
His laugh was louder this time. “Mina calls it cheating because she didn’t want me with anyone else, but we were separated, and she knew what was going on. She also had my permission to see other men, but she didn’t. Sounds crazy, but it took about ten years of marriage before I learned to love her. Now that I have, I’m not letting her leave… whether I’ve had affairs while we were separated or not.”
“Regardless of how you package it, you being with other women while you were married to her, whether you were separated or not, traumatized her. I don’t know why she stayed, but she’s been using that against you ever since, and I’m not sure why you let her.”
He shrugged. “I feel like I owe her. I hurt her. I gave another woman the daughter your mother wanted.”
“Yeah, but to what end? Milli is here now. Are you going to let her hold that over your head for the rest of your life? Now I’m not going to place the blame on Ma when it comes down to you not being more in Milli’s life because you could have done more regardless of how she felt, but damn. If you put forth a third of the effort into being a father that you put into making her happy, we’d all be all right.”
Standing, I pulled my wallet out and placed three hundred-dollar bills on the table. I hated that I allowed my feelings to frustrate me.
“She’s going to ask me about your relationship.”
“At this point, Pops, I don’t carewhatyou tell her. You’ll think of something.”
I walked away, being sure to give Sakura a head nod on my way out. She grinned at me a little harder than usual, and I figured it was because her sister told her about what happened earlier.
The thought of Maritza’s lips made me smile.
Four
Maritza
The Following Monday
“So, what’s your game plan?” I asked Sakura as she pulled our sandwiches out of the Subway bag. Two of her clients had been indicted this morning on several counts of wire fraud and money laundering. Allegedly, the married pair were responsible for starting and running a pyramid scheme that earned them twenty-five million dollars in profit over the last five years.
One thing was for sure, the FBI took years to build their case, and they didn’t make an arrest until they were confident they’d get a conviction. She’d have to be as good as John Gotti’s lawyers were to get them off.
Sakura sighed as she sat in one of the chairs across from me. Since we’d come to HGP2, we tried to have lunch together daily to talk and brainstorm, but with our caseloads getting bigger, that was harder to do.
“I don’t know, sis. They are guilty. They are willing to do whatever they have to do to avoid jail time, but I don’t think that’s possible. I believe I can get their sentences reduced if they can come up with as much of the money as possible to give back to the victims.”
“Well, do what you believe you can win. If that’s a reduced sentence and paying back the money, do that. They might not want jail time, but they know they stole those people’s money.”
Sakura and I have always been honest and upfront with our clients. We never gave them false hope and we didn’t take cases to trial that we weren’t confident we would win. That’s why we had the success records that we did. A light tap on my office door gained my attention. I looked up, and at the sight of Jeremy through the glass door, I unintentionally smiled.
“Ooh, your boyfriend is here.”
My eyes rolled as I motioned Jeremy in with my hand. “Lord, you make me hate I even told you that.”
Sakura cackled, causing Jeremy to smile as he looked from me to her. “Sorry to interrupt.”
