Page 29 of Giving Him Something He Can Feel

I glanced at the park making sure to lay eyes on my child before I looked around hoping she thought I hung up because I wasn’t speaking. This was that bullshit that made me send her phone calls to voicemail.

“Do you hear me, Vee?”

Of course I rolled my eyes. “How much?”

“A little over seven hundred, they put all those late fees and stu?—”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, I know it’s a lot, but as soon as I get it I’ll pay it back to you. I just need to get myself together.” That fast she’d forgotten that she said the money was for the damn light bill.

“So, the money is for you to get yourself together?” My eyes followed Adorie around the park up.

“Well half of it is. I jus?—”

“I don’t have it.”

She sucked her teeth again. “I know you do. I said I’d pay you back.” At this point she was frustrated, I could hear it through the phone.

“And how do you know that?”

“Becaus—look I wouldn’t even be calling you if I didn’t really need it. You only get one mama, Virtue. Can you help yours out?” And there she was with the manipulative shit.

“And there you go. Goodbye Eva.” I hung up before she could get another word in. The one thing I didn’t have was time for was bullshit…her bullshit.

Right when I was about to drop my phone in my purse I had yet another incoming call. Good I looked at the caller ID because I was about to ignore her ass. She wouldn’t getme on the line twice.

Seeing that it was Aylo requesting to FaceTime I answered. He and I had been talking back and forth since our breakfast date a few weeks ago. He was cool, funny and didn’t seem so hard up for pussy. Maybe because he had a lot of it around him on a silver platter. He owned a strip club, not to mention his phone rang our entire meal. Of course he wasn’t disrespectful enough to answer it, but yeah. I knew he had bitches, shit all of these niggas did. Who was I to think or believe any different? He wasn’t screwing me, so he was messing with somebody, right?

“Hey,” I answered, looking at him briefly then back up at Adorie now on the monkey bars.

“Yeen hit me up last night when you got in.”

“My bad. I was exhausted, hell barely standing. After I picked baby girl up, I got in and passed out.” I shook my head thinking about how badly my inventory beat me last night.

He nodded. “I figured. Let a nigga know next time though. Send a bird call or somethin’.”

Laughter escaped my lips while I watched Adorie walk toward me. “I got you.”

“Good. You finna let me take you out this weekend or I gotta show up at yo’ joint and order err’thing on the menu then force you to come eat it with me.”

“Honestly both of those sound like a win for me, but what did you have in mind?”

“Saturday around seven. A movie and dinner. You said you like simple shit, right?” There he was being persistent like he said he’d be.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Then cool. I gotta take care of something right quick, so I’ll hit you back in a few.”

I nodded just as my baby approached. He hung up seconds later.

“Mama, I hungry.” She was scratching the top of her head looking just like Fari with the expression she gave me. Somehow my baby was my brother and my father’s twin. She didn’t lookshit like her own father, and I was glad for that.

“I know.” I gave her a knowing smile before standing to my feet. As if on cue my phone rang once again in my hand when I was about to toss it in my purse. This time I had received a text message and it was from Trek. The only nigga at this moment that I allowed to touch me, but I told myself I couldn’t expect anything extra. Sex and a little bit of conversation was cool with me especially because he was the type to go missing for days. Maybe not missing, but he’d go about his business for days and pop back up like he never left. At first I felt slighted, but I got over it. Shit I had to, because it was just sex…great sex.

On the walk home I decided to check my messages to see what see what Cartrek was talking about. He has to be the most guarded nigga I knew. When he was at my house he was just there. He wasn’t big on talking himself, but he’d listen to me giving minimal responses. He had this way of just being present when he was around. I tried not to read too much into that, so I entertained Aylo. Since that first day he had popped up at my house at least four other times, having dinner with Adorie and I then spending the night. Of course he made sure to be gone when I woke up but messaged me telling me he’d get up with me a little later. He never did.

Cartrek:I’m on my way over. I got us somethin’ to eat.

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