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“I wanted to explore… yeah. That’s why I gave you my number. I wanted to get to know you.”
“Why didn’t you say something then?”
“I didn’t want to put myself out there like that for a nigga that just wanted to fuck. Although you introduced yourself as Joel, you were very much Vegas in Puerto Rico.”
“Naw. The attention I showed this body was all Joel. That’s why I didn’t call. I didn’t think I was ready for no shit like that. I was fresh out the game and trying to decide what to do with my life.”
She went back to the couch and picked up her ice cream. “Let me eat this shit before I have to drink it.”
I sat next to her and just watched her. She wanted to be with me two years ago. I could see why she was hesitant and not fully believing shit I said to her. She’d been wanting to hear from me for two years, and she thought I had forgotten about her. “I didn’t forget you.”
“I gathered that when you called me by name at the daycare.”
“And I was still trying to run. After you showed up at Pilar’s, that was the end of that.”
“How ironic is it that we were so close to each other and didn’t have a clue of who each other was? Our dads were boys.”
“It is ironic. Yonkers didn’t play about his family. He didn’t want y’all involved in that shit, and I admired that about him. So you was gon’ use that nine if I would have sent that address?”
“Yeah. I planned to go to Academy and get bullets.”
“Well, since we’re establishing something, I got’chu. Don’t worry about that nigga. Okay?”
She just stared at me. It was like she was looking through me. “Joel, let’s just chill on that. I don’t want you in trouble because of me. That was over thirty years ago.”
I nodded repeatedly. “Fuck that. Joel has left the building. If you have a problem with that pedophile, then so do I. I live on that side of the law. I’m smooth with that shit. I can’t tell you what my body count is, because I don’t fucking know. Quit worrying about that shit. The only thing you need to be worried about is letting this dick fuck up the way you walk. So finish that ice cream ASAP.”
“You remember when Yonkers and Mo fell out?”
“Yeah. That shit was bad. He was finna send Mo to hell.”
“Why? I don’t remember if I ever even knew what happened between them.”
“Mo was watching Karen.”
“Karen? His wife?”
“Yeah. Sasha and Keondra’s mother. He didn’t have proof if anything more had happened. He caught him scanning her curves though and licking his fucking lips. Had Ice not stepped in, Mo would have been a done deal.”
I sat at Jungle’s bar and slowly shook my head. He was feeding Zamir while Chelsea fed Zuri. My day with Keondra yesterday was one for the fucking books. I disposed of five condoms while I was there. When I left this morning, I was trying to get in her shit again, and she turned me down. She had to get to the studio to record some shit for a hair commercial. Had we gone another round, she said she wouldn’t have gotten out of bed.
“Why you asking about that nigga anyway?”
“I ended up at Keondra’s place yesterday. Farrah been blowing up my shit because I never showed up. I saw Keondra in the grocery store. I could tell she’d been crying. Had a nigga weaker than wet toilet paper.”
Jungle chuckled. “So you followed her home.”
“Well, I made my presence known first. That way she wouldn’t be surprised to see me when she got home. You ever been inside those lofts downtown? That shit nice.”
“Naw, but fuck that. What happened?”
“Her older sister told her that Mo fucked with her when she was a baby.”
He frowned hard like I did when I heard Keondra say it. “Why the fuck would she tell her that?”
“Same thing I asked. She supposedly hadn’t been home in years because she didn’t want to be around the life that took her daddy and traumatized her. Keondra said it feels like she transferred her trauma to her over some shit she didn’t even remember. Now she’s analyzing everything she does, wondering if it’s because of that shit. She said she used to have nightmares that someone was holding their hand over her mouth, but they aren’t as frequent now. She’s had the dream so many times it doesn’t even feel like a nightmare anymore.”
“Damn. So you thought they fell out because of that?”
