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“I will. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
I ended the call and finished my dinner, my mind going back to my mother. She thrived on attention. It was driving her crazy that she wasn’t getting it. I could be the cutoff queen at times. I hated drama. I just hated that I had to cut my own mother off. She had always been a liar. That was nothing new. Knowing how she was treating my daddy for his final days was the nail in the coffin. He told me everything, and I begged him to live with me. Had he moved in with me, I felt like he would still be alive.
I hated talking about her, because it always put me in a funk. I stood from the table and scratched my food in the trash then went to run my bath water. After coming back to the kitchen to clean my mess and put the leftover food away, I grabbed the bottle of Stella Black from the fridge and made my way to my bedroom. I was done for the night.
CHAPTER3
JAKARI
It had been two days, and I was sure I would have heard from Yendi Odom by now. I supposed I was too forward for her. My gut never usually steered me wrong, and it told me that she liked that aggressive shit. There was no way I was losing touch. I was about to head to the diner for lunch. Philly and I were going to meet with Ali of Watchful Eyes when we left from there. As I grabbed my keys, my phone started ringing.
Hopefully it wasn’t business. Nothing would deter me from my mama’s smothered pork chops. Every Friday, everybody found their way to the diner. I ate there almost every day. It was the same food I grew up on. Mama and Aunt Jen always made sure we ate good growing up. I looked at the caller ID to see it was Nate.
“What’s up, bruh?”
“J! How you been, man?”
“Good. Same ol’, same ol’.”
“I got tickets for you. Box seats. If you got a lady friend, y’all should come out. It’s for the game next month.”
I briefly thought about Yendi, and I didn’t even know why. I slowly shook my head. “A’ight. Sounds like a plan. I can’t wait to hang.”
“Me either. How long has it been? About five months?”
“Something like that. Since Noah’s video shoot.”
“We gotta change that.”
“Absolutely. You know I’m game for whatever you have in mind. Since all of my cousins in our crew are pregnant, Friday nights been filled with me getting high with my uncle or hanging with my younger brothers. They be on some different shit, especially Rylan. He ain’t but twenty-seven. I’m not even trying to be a part of their crew.”
He chuckled. “I got’chu! You already knew this though, so I don’t know why you been suffering in silence.”
I laughed as I got in my ride and headed to the diner. “Shiiiid, I know, nigga.”
“How’s Jess, man?”
“She’s good. She’s about eighteen weeks along.”
“That should have been my baby, but I’m glad that she’s happy.”
“You gon’ have to move on, my nigga.”
“I know. Noah keeps telling me the same thing. He said he’s been there and done that and that shit wasn’t healthy for nobody involved. I’ma get over her. It ain’t even been a year since I met her. Only about six months since we were last together intimately. Give me time.”
“You right. It just seems like longer,” I said as I parked in the lot at the diner. “Let me hit you back though. I just got to the diner for lunch.”
“A’ight, man. No hurry. I can holla at’chu whenever you have time.”
“A’ight, bruh.”
I ended the call and slowly shook my head. That man was so in love with Jessica he couldn’t fucking function. Ever since they met at Nesha’s wedding, he’d been pining after her ass. I got out of my ride and made my way inside, only to see a thickums at the counter, ordering food. I glanced down at her ass then glanced over at my family to see they were looking right at me.
“Hey, baby! You want your usual?” my mama asked.
“Yeah, Ma. Thank you.”
