Page 5 of Make Me Remember

We hurried to the car after I locked the door, and when we got inside, I checked to make sure she had on her seat belt then peeled out of the parking lot. I didn’t know why I was in a hurry to get to this nigga since I went out there Wednesday only for him not to be home. Jacob was fine as fuck. However, that was my job, and I couldn’t risk losing it. He was so damn aggressive and said whatever the fuck he wanted to say until I told him I would request another therapist for his ass.

I sat at his house for an entire hour, trying to see if he would come home. I called him only for him not to answer. That shit pissed me all the way off. When I talked to him yesterday, he told me he would be home today and had apologized for not being there Wednesday, saying he would compensate me for my blank trip and my lost time.

He knew I was no-nonsense, so he must’ve had an emergency of sorts. He had a humungous family. Every time I went to his house for his therapy session, there was someone different there. Last week Friday, it was his sister and his mama. I could tell they were extremely protective of him, especially his sister. She reminded me of Keonshay, except she was more aggressive. However, the way she looked out for him was the way Shay looked out for us.

His mother was sweet. She had long beautiful hair that was completely gray. She didn’t have a wrinkle in sight. Had it not been for her gray hair, I would think she was much younger than she was. She had sent me home with so much food. I nearly killed myself trying to eat it all. It was so damn good. I hadn’t had a home-cooked meal in a while, because I just didn’t have time to cook. I loved cooking, but I was always so busy with work. When I got off, I would be drained.

“Mama, you gon’ get a ticket. You driving fast.”

“Hush, girl. It’s your fault we’re late. Jivoni gon’ be wondering where we are.”

No sooner than I had said it, my phone was ringing. I answered through the Bluetooth. “Hello?”

“Hey, Mekayla. Are you working today?”

“Yeah. I’m running a few minutes late. I should be there in five minutes though.”

“Okay… Come on, Gabby. You know better,” she said before ending the call.

“Oh Lord. She gon’ get on my nerves today.”

I frowned as I glanced at LaTee in the rearview mirror. Gabby was Anika’s daughter. Anika was my sister and right under me in age. Her daughter was autistic and could be a handful. She talked back all the time and would have an entire fit when she couldn’t have her way. I noticed she wasn’t like that with me though. She was autistic, but her ass understood what the fuck was going on. She knew I would tear her ass up.

“Tee, don’t say that. You have to be patient with her. She?—”

“I know, I know. I am patient with her. I’m just telling you how I feel.”

“Okay, Miss Grown. I understand. I get it. She’s a lot for Jivoni. She’s too soft with her and allows her to walk all over her.”

Sometimes I forgot just how grown LaTee was. The girl was always around me. I slowly shook my head as I turned in Keonshay’s driveway. My other sister’s husband was arriving to drop off their six-year-old son. Amari had married a truck driver and male ho. The nigga was fine, but he was a dog. He flirted with me all the time, whenever she wasn’t around, and I hated that shit. I wanted to tell Amari, but I knew she would take it the wrong way. She was twenty-eight and as naïve as they came.

“Come on, Tee.”

I got out of the car, and I could see him scanning my curves. Although I had on scrubs, nothing hid my ass. I flipped my hair over my shoulder and opened the door for my daughter to get out. I grabbed her hand and quickly went to the door. It was as if Jivoni was keeping watch at the door for when we would arrive because before we got to it, she opened it.

“Hey, y’all! Go ’head and go, Mekayla. We’ll see you later, boo.”

“Okay.”

I blew her a kiss, and she blew one back. When I turned to go back down the stairs, Mario was coming up with their son. I was gonna walk right by his ass without speaking, but he said, “What’s up, Mekayla?”

“Hey,” I said dismissively, heading to my car with the quickness.

While I could be ratchet as hell sometimes, I was about my business. I hated being late. Slowly shaking my head, I pulled out and practically burned rubber when I pulled off. Checking the time, I saw I had fifteen minutes to get to Jacob Henderson’s house. Fuck! It was normally a twenty-minute drive from Shay’s house. I stepped on the gas and didn’t let up until I was in Nome in Henderson Village, turning onto his driveway.

Even with all my efforts, I was a couple of minutes late. I liked to arrive early so I could set up and at least greet the patient and talk about how they’d been since I last saw them. We’d have to talk while I was working on his knee and ankle. At least I wouldn’t have to stare into his eyes for too long.

I hurriedly grabbed my bag and went to the front door and rang the doorbell. When I heard the locks disengage, I got nervous for some reason. An extremely tall man opened the door with a frown on his face. I swallowed hard. “Hello. I’m Mekayla Chatmon. I’m Jacob’s therapist.”

“You kind of late, huh?”

I frowned and was about to apologize, but this nigga wasn’t my patient. I didn’t have to be nice. “Since Mister Henderson had me drive all the way out here last time without a phone call and only a pitiful apology for me making a blank trip, I would say we’re even.”

He smirked at me like he was testing me or something. He stepped aside and allowed me to enter to see Jacob on the couch with the same smirk on his lips. Jackasses. They were fucking with me, and they were going to engage my hood side... a side of me I tried to keep subdued in my professional space.

I walked over to Jacob with a slight scowl on my face. “Hello, Mister Henderson. How have you been feeling?”

“Miss Chatmon, I told you to call me Jacob.”

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