Page 117 of Save Room for Us

“Yes, please, so I can say what I gotta say.” I took a sip of my soda as I sat at the island with my plate.

“What’s so important?” He sat beside me to begin eating.

“Yo’ baby mama reached out to me,” I said.

“Who?” He frowned.

“How many you got? Lisara yo’ wife, so she don’t count.”

“Fuck she want?”

“Claims she miss me and all this other nonsense.” I shrugged, unable to believe the shit even more every time I said it.

“If she misses you, then why is she just now saying something? She’s been out for years and hasn’t come around. We’ve been living in the same house all this time,” Lisara said, stating exactly my same thoughts.

“That’s exactly what I expressed to her, and she claimed she would have an explanation for me in person.” I scooped out some of the potato. “I don’t know if I even wanna open up that can of worms.”

“You wanna see her? If so, you can. Don’t not do it because of me or ya mama.” My father spoke up.

“I’m fifty-fifty at the moment. I don’t, because I have no need for her at this point, but a part of me wants to find out what her problem is. I can’t recall one good memory I’ve ever had with her, and as far as I knew, she ain’t even like me. I knew that as a damn kid.” I chuckled breathlessly, noticing the uncomfortable ass look on my dad’s face.

“I ain’t know you knew that,” he said, clearing his throat. “I don’t think she ain’t like you, she just?—”

“It’s cool.” I shook my head. “I don’t need nothing sugarcoated for me. It was a stark difference between her and Ma. I know when someone don’t mess with me like that for that reason,” I explained.

“You want me to come? ’Cause if she say anything out of line, I can kick her ass again.” Lisara frowned.

“Nah.” I laughed. “I think I can handle myself against Nori, but I’ll let you know if I need reinforcements.”

“Alright. Well tell me what the hell happened assoonas y’all part ways.” She looked at me until I nodded in agreement.

I finished up my food and kicked the shit over dessert before dipping out. After driving for a little bit, I called Nori, having stored her number in my personal phone in case I planned to use the shit.

“Hello?” she answered, confused, which was expected, since she didn’t have this number, only the bank’s.

“It’s me,” I said.

“Asif? Hi, baby?—”

“Let’s keep it formal, please. I don’t need the nicknames and shit. We never been on that, so let’s not start now.” She didn’t respond, so I said, “Hello?”

“Yeah, sorry. You are just like Chianti.” She tittered a bit, but I could tell it wasn’t a compliment. “All business, even when it’s supposed to be personal.”

“You still wanna meet or nah?”

“I do. I do. Today?”

“Nah. We can meet for lunch or early dinner next week. I’ll text you the details. I just wanted you to have my number for right now.”

“Alright. I can’t wait, ba—Asif. I have missed you so much that I had to Google you. You are so handsome.”

“I’ll holla at you.” I hung up.

All this nice shit was just fake as fuck to me. The Nori I remembered could barely hug or kiss me, so to think after all these years she suddenly wanted to be a mother didn’t make a lick of fucking sense to me. I was a logic type nigga and didn’t too much believe in doing shit off emotion. Shit had to make sense logically to me, and if it didn’t, well, then it was baseless.

Sadly, I wasn’t buying into the Nori had changed bullshit at the moment.

Free parked, and we both hopped out at the same time, him running up onto the curb to catch up with me. He wasted no time taking his shit off his hip, despite it being two in the fucking afternoon.

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