Page 19 of Pulse of True Soulmates

Before I could quip back, a voice from behind me stopped me. When I turned in the direction of the voice, Troy stood. His parents flanked him. “Aeon, you look beautiful tonight.”

Fatima let out a loud ‘ha!’ “This can’t be life. The devil is a fuckin’ liar.”

My eyes roamed over to Deck who wore the most sinister smirk that I’d ever seen. I had a feeling this night would not go like I thought it would.Jesus, be a fence.

A TALK WITH DAD . . .

“Alright,son, so here we are. How many of these conversation with girls’ fathers have you had?” Mr. Blackwell asked me with a raised brow. It was an odd question to me, but a question I would answer, nonetheless.

After dinner, Mr. Blackwell told Aeon to go into the den and relax so that we could have a conversation. My baby looked at me with so much worry. You would have thought her father just told her that he planned to murder me. I wasn’t worried about shit because I was Declan Michael Phillips, Senior’s son. I was confident and resolute in the man that my father raised.

“This is actually the first. During the last semi-serious relationship that I had, the young lady didn’t have a father to have a conversation with. I know this is your second, if I’m not mistaken, so it’s good that this will be both of our last conversations of this kind until me and Aeon have our daughter.” I assumed he would take the lead in this conversation, but I wanted him to know that I would be an active participant rather than a passive one. It was my belief that a lot of people allowed people to assert dominance within conversation by becoming the passive bitch within that interaction. It was often something that was done unintentionally, but it still happened.

Mr. Blackwell looked intently at me for a moment before he chuckled lowly. “I like a confident, straightforward man. That says a lot about how you were raised. Let’s get into it. From early talk, you’ve been in a relationship with my baby girl for some time now. Have you experienced any of her episodes?”

“I have experienced a few as well as a couple of her depressive episodes. I’ve learned how to help her manage them with Midnite’s assistance, ironically. I’ve also taken the time to do research to know common symptoms, and I’ve asked her questions to learn her specific symptoms.” Trust and believe, I was on my woman’s head and would always be. Was it always easy? Fuck no! What it was, was worth it. I loved the fuck out of my girl, POTS and all.

He nodded with a faint smile that I could tell he didn’t want to release. He wanted to keep his hardI’m the ‘big bad wolf’and that was cool. I planned to do the same when it was my turn. He didn’t have to tell me that my response made him feel better about how I loved his daughter. “How did you handle her depressive episodes? She doesn’t have them often, but when she does, it can be intense. I’m aware at this point that she doesn’t tell me about them unless it gets really bad.”

That was true. She didn’t. When the guys and I were doing the research on POTS, it spoke about the emotional and mental toll it could take. Ever since my circle, the women included, had been consistently interacting with Aeon, we’d all taken the time to research and know how to take care of her in an episode. We got together to do the research, and if we had questions, they were fielded through me. This was something that my baby didn’t need to know that we did. It would show itself in how we handled her. That was what family did.

“When she’s in that state, I watch over her but give her the space she needs if asked. As her man, though, I try to mitigate the triggers. Like I noticed she gets overwhelmed when she wants to do her bi-weekly deep cleanse of her house. We discussed it and came to a compromise. She scheduled her deep cleanse for once a month, and I hired a cleaning service to do it. For me, it’s about taking things off her plate. The days that the service is in the house is one of our date days so she can stay out of the house.”

It was about intentions and planning.The seven Ps. Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance.I tried not to overcrowd my baby because I never wanted her to feel as if we treated her like she was disabled.

His smile was now wide. “I like that. Has she told you about her relationship with her ex?”

I rolled my eyes at the mention of his bitch ass. “Yeah, she told me about bitch ass Troy. That was and still is at times a big hurdle in our relationship, but I’m patient with that.”

“Yeah, I didn’t like him the first time that I met him. It was solidified when I met his parents. They had a problem with their son bringing home not just a black girl, but a black girl that was not well to do.” Mr. Blackwell scoffed. “How dare he comes home with this black girl who was, in their eyes, basic. Did she tell you what his parents did for a living?”

Now that was something that she hadn’t told me. “Nah, she didn’t. We’ve basically talked about how he treated her and his cheating on her. Do you think that he was just with her out of spite for his parents?”

“Yeah, I think that was a part of it. His father is a prominent lawyer and now the Republican senator of the state of Virginia. His mother is a trust fund baby. I also felt like she was a notch on his belt or a thing on his bucket list,” he said. That was fucked up if it was true.

This conversation was informative, but there was one simple yet complex question that I had for him. I frankly didn’t give a fuck about what Troy’s parents did for a living. “Mr. Blackwell, what are your expectation when it comes to how I treat your daughter?”

His eyes widened slightly. “That’s a good question. The easiest way I can explain it is love her like I do but from a boyfriend perspective. My baby girl has been through a lot, whether she wants to admit it or not. Her mother, Ariel, decided when Aeon was six that she didn’t want to be a mother anymore, so she came to live with me. That affects her deeply, although she would never say anything.”

“She doesn’t really talk about Ariel much outside of telling me that her mother went in half for Midnite. Outside of that, she really doesn’t talk about her, nor do I bring her up.” I debated whether I wanted to tell him the next part. There was no reason not to. “Also, from the genuine caring nature of my mother, Princetta, she gets a lot of motherly love from her.” Itittered. “Hell, she spends more time with my mother than I do at this point.”

He nodded again. “Son, I don’t get any off-putting vibes from you. That gives me a lot of ease. Her condition can be a lot on most people, including me. I wanted to make sure that you weren’t a bitch like Troy. He hurt the fuck out of my daughter way before she found out that he was cheating.”

Now I smiled. “Well, your vibe is spot on. Mr. Blackwell, I love your daughter, and we haven’t been together for very long. I can pinpoint the exact moment my mind aligned with my heart in that love. At some point soon, I plan to propose. I am not a man that wastes time. I pray that when that time comes, you will give me your blessing.”

His head bucked back a little. “Alright, I hear you. Make sure that when that time comes, you are sure. I rushed into marrying Aeon’s mother because I was convinced that I was in love. I didn’t fully understand who she was as a person. You see how that shit ended. I don’t want that for my daughter.”

“Understood, Mr. Blackwell. I look forward to when that time comes.” For the rest of our conversation, it was about manly shit like sports, drinks, investments, and shit like that.

BACK THE PRESENT . . .

Debonair wasn’t strong enough of a word to describe how on a nigga was right now. Aeon’s father’s birthday party was more like a black-tie gala. She didn’t have to invite me because I invited myself a long time ago. I would have come whether we were in a relationship or not. When she told me the dress code, I asked her why she didn’t call it a gala. She told me thatshe didn’t shift it to a more formal event until after some of the people RSVP’d. Apparently, there were people in the local government arena that contacted her to be invited.

I never realized that her father’s position was a governmental one.You learn something new every day.The guest list included people on the city council as well as state senators, house members, etc. He rubbed elbows with some pretty important people.

My parents were having the time of their lives. My father and Mr. Blackwell gelled well and had planned an outing. My pops needed some damn friends to get his ass up from under my mama. They were mingling and making new connections. My mother had found a group of women that loved to read, from what she told me when I checked on her earlier.

All my circle and now Aeon’s circle was here. They all looked like money. Tiberius brought Georgie along to meet Fatima. She acted like she didn’t want to meet him in past group conversations. That quickly changed when his ass walked in. I found out something about her tonight. Her ass could giggle.

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