Page 33 of Give Me All Of You

One thing about Rueben Malone was he may wear a suit and tie and had a professional job, but my daddy was from the Eastside of The Heights, and he never hesitated to show you, especially when it came to me, my mother and now Infiniti.

“Daddy, I don’t need you getting in any trouble behind Keith. He already threatened the daycare provider because she wouldn’t release Infiniti to him.”

“Well, you’re staying here tonight,” my mother insisted.

“No, I can’t do that. I’m not scared of Keith and he’s not about to come around. He knows I have a boyfriend now, and that’s why he’s doing this.”

“Boyfriend?” my parents said at the same time.

Shit.

“Ugh…I…uhm. I have this guy that I’ve been seeing for a little over a month,” I revealed.

“When were you going to tell us?” my mother asked.

“When we made things official. That literally happened today.”

I looked between my mother and father, waiting for them to scold me.

“Is he older than you?” my father asked.

“Yes, but only by a few years. He’s still in his twenties,” I revealed.

“He works?” my mother asked next.

“Yes. His family owns the freight yards.”

“Ashby?” my father said.

I gave him a look, wondering how he knew that.

“Yes. You know of them?”

“I do, and Jay, she’s in good hands. Both of those boys are good young men,” my father said, shocking the shit out of me.

“I want to have y’all over for dinner soon so I can meet him,” my mother voiced.

I nodded.

Even though I was supposed to cook tonight, I stayed and ate with my parents. By the time I got back home, I washed Infiniti and laid her down. Once I did that and showered myself, I called Journei and grabbed a bottle of wine and vented to my best friend. I might be taking her up on her offer to beat his ass sooner than later.

Chapter Fourteen

Hassan

When I left JaRue’s job earlier, Knasim and I went to the freight yard so that he could look over the arsenal that they had just gotten in. While he had his workers load up their truck, he followed me inside of my office. Once we were inside, I poured us both a drink and sat down.

“So, have you thought about what I said?” he asked.

Taking a sip from my glass, I sat it down on my desk before I answered his question.

“Not really. I don’t even know where to start with the shit. I had a chick I was dealing with before Rue, and she was definitely out of the question. I’m feeling Rue, but I don’t want to seem like some weird or desperate nigga by asking her to marry me and we’ve only been dating a month.” I took the rest of my drink down without even blinking. This shit was stressful as hell and I’m already a little over thirty days in.

“Look, I get it.” He sat his drink down. “My pops pushed that shit on me, too. I was hell bent against it, but I’d kill any nigga over my wife. That includes the nigga whose nut helped create her. I’m not trying to get too deep in your shit, but Rue is a good girl. I don’t know too much about her baby daddy, but I’m pretty sure you’re better than that nigga.” From what he was saying, he didn’t know too much about who JaRue’s baby daddy was and that wasn’t my place to fill him in. “Plus, sheworks for us, sometimes after hours, so she knows all about this lifestyle. She even knows how me and my wife came together. I say present the idea to her and if she doesn’t bite right away, I’ll prolong your shit. Take that shit as a onetime courtesy because you won’t get it again, and not with another bitch. I’m doing this shit because Rue is like family.” He looked me square in the eyes and spoke and I respected it, but I was going to let him know that he still didn’t run shit.

“Yeah, I’ll see what’s up with her.”

“Haze! Why haven’t you been returning my calls?” Kari barged into my office, barking like she ran some shit.

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