Page 47 of Made to Love Ya

“I’m not putting him on the phone either, Zae. He’ll come around in his own time.”

“You and I both know he’s a stubborn ass. I would be cool with him not speaking with me, but I checked Chè’s phone, and I see that she’s called him several times. He hasn’t answered one of her calls or text messages. That girl is in there hurting, and we both vowed we’d never be cool with anyone putting tears in her eyes. Why the fuck should either of us be the one to do it?”

“She’s crying, Zae?”

“Man, yeah. Nonstop since we left Mama and Daddy’s house.” I exaggerated that shit because I knew how everyone felt about Talia. We all were protective of her, including Dahlia. “Either you put him on the phone, or I’ll be knocking at your door in twenty minutes.”

She sighed and said, “Hold on.” I heard her shuffling around before I heard her say, “Baby.” Then, I couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation until I heard Dahlia raise her voice, which was rare. “Zae?” she stated.

“Yeah?”

“Hold on.”

The next voice I heard was Tahj. “Yo.”

“Aye, nigga. I know you mad at me, but?—”

“I ain’t got shit to say to ya ass.”

“I’on give a fuck. But nigga you ’bout to hear this. If you hang up my phone, I’ma be at ya muthafuckin’ do’ in less than fifteen minutes. You can be in ya chest all you want about me and your sister. But ya ass don’t get to sit back and make her cry. Uphold ya vow, nigga.”

“The fuck is you talking ’bout, yo!” Tahj yelled.

“I’m talking about how you’ve been ignoring her calls and texts, and she’s been crying about that shit ever since. I’m talking about how she cried herself to sleep tonight because one of the people she loves the most in this world won’t speak to her. Make that shit right, nigga.”

“Yeah, whateva.”

“You heard what the fuck I said. I ain’t playing ’bout that one. I’ma be at ya muthafuckin’ do’ tomorrow if she ain’t heard from you by ten in the morning, nigga.”

I ended the call and shook my head. I had no doubt he would make peace with his sister by tomorrow. For her heart’s sake, I prayed that he would.

IZAEL

Sometimes,it seemed like when it rained, it poured. Talia and I had made up, and she told me the day after the cookout fiasco that Tahj called her the next morning. He told her that he loved her, but he didn’t have shit to say to me.

I let her know as long as they were cool, I was cool. I didn’t need his ass to speak to me. I had gone to her parents’ house with her that evening for Sunday dinner and to speak with them about our relationship. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that her mom and dad both supported it. They believed I would never hurt her, and her father reinforced that belief in me during a one-on-one chat after dinner.

But on Tuesday, she was down again because a job she had applied for hadn’t come through. She stated that it was for a cooking magazine, and I encouraged her to try it with another one.

Meanwhile, we had noticed a decrease in our reservations at River & 3rdafter that post that berated the food. That led to more critical reviews from our patrons, where that had not been a problem before. Our marketing team was trying to find new ways to combat the negative publicity and increase reservations once more.

“Shit!” I griped when my laptop froze before it turned black. I checked the power cord, and everything appeared to be working fine. I did a hard reboot and waited several more minutes and nothing.

I had been working for the last half an hour, and just when I received a phone call asking me to sign a major contract, my computer did this shit. I massaged my temples. It was after nine at night, and I had no time to run to the office to get my business laptop.

My business constituent was in California, and he had a few minutes before he had to leave his office to make a flight. With the three-hour time difference, it was six his time. If I didn’t get that contract signed for this new investment, I would miss out on being a partner in a new luxury apartment complex venture. It was a lucrative investment that I couldn’t afford to miss out on.

I rushed from the dining room into Talia’s bedroom. I heard her talking on the phone in the bathroom, and I rapped on the door.

“Hey, bae, I need to use your laptop. Mine went on the fritz, and I need to sign this contract.”

“Okay,” she called through the door and then resumed her conversation.

I could have checked the contract and signed it on my phone, but this contract was too important for me to take it lightly and miss a single detail. Besides, I hated straining my eyes to see the tiny print on my phone if I didn’t have to.

I sat down at her computer and noticed that it was locked. I glanced around until I saw a sticky note. I saw a series of letters and numbers and assumed it was a password.

I tried it, and it unlocked the computer on the first try. Talia already had a webpage opened to a dashboard of some kind. I was about to click out of it until a familiar logo caught my eye. It was a gold letter cursive T with a toque on top of it and a platter with a silver chef’s spoon beside it.

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