Page 68 of Made to Love Ya

I ran my ass out of that building so fast people would have thought I was running a marathon. It didn’t matter that I had on high heels. I didn’t let that slow me down. Instead, I allowed my fury to fuel my pace. I didn’t stop until I was in my car and had peeled out of the parking lot.

IZAEL

“So,what you gonna do with all this space, son?” my pops asked.

My brother, Rashad, Jaylen, and Pops had come over for game night. We were watching the Crawford and Canelo fight tonight that everyone had wanted to happen. We were excited that it was finally going down.

I decided to host a fight night at my house since this would be the first time anyone had come by to see my new crib. I sent a text to Tahj and invited him as well, but he hadn’t replied.

“Live in it. What you mean?” I asked as I leaned back on my couch in the theater room and took a sip of my Macallan.

“Son, you’ve got five bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, office, library, den, family room, a theater room, and a game room,” he explained.

“Not to mention all that outdoor living space his ass got. Nigga, what you need with an Olympic-size pool and an outdoor kitchen?” Rashad asked.

“Listen, I ain’t mad at the big homie. Shiiid. We ’bout to burn on that grill while we ballin’ on that nigga’s regulation-size court out there,” Jaylen chimed in.

“Nigggaa! Y’all asses are extreme. That pool ain’t Olympic size, and that ball court ain’t regulation size,” I remarked.

“Damn near,” Rashad stated.

“It’s sixty by ninety, not ninety-four by fifty,” I replied.

“Either way, why you need all this space, son?” my father repeated.

“For a family. I do plan to have one someday, a growing one at that, and I don’t want to have to move again because we outgrew our home,” I stated.

“The way your ass is going, you ain’t ever getting married,” Rashad remarked and got up to grab another beer from the bar.

“How you figure?”

“Your ass can’t keep a woman. Cee-Cee dropped your ass like a hot potato because you was in love with Chè, and now, she’s dropped your ass because why again?” Rashad asked.

Jaylen shook his head. “He does have a point, nigga.”

“I’ll tell you what you need to do,” Pops stated.

“Pops…”

“What?” he asked when I gave himthe look.

The look was the one where I twisted my lips, angled my head sideways, and gave him a serious side eye.

“You ain’t the one in the position to tell nobody about keeping a woman. Shit, to be honest, that’s the reason I don’t believe in all this relationship happily ever after shit anyway. You couldn’t keep Mama, and I tried, and I lost…twice.” I emphasized my words by holding up two fingers.

“They say the third time’s the charm,” Jaylen asserted in a teasing manner.

“Nigga, fuck you.”

Jaylen chuckled.

“Seriously, son. I’ve got a good woman,” Pops remarked.

“Hada good woman. I still, to this day, don’t know how you and Mama fell apart. Y’all shit was on lock. And if you couldn’t make it work, then who the hell else can? And don’t talk about that little teenager you got in your house that you impregnated either,” I replied snidely.

“Staci is thirty-six.”

“Twenty-five years your junior,” Rashad remarked when he returned and plopped back down on the couch.

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