Page 6 of Pulse of True Soulmates

Erin’s double back to Jordan triggered a domino effect. All of a sudden, Troy was so apologetic and wanted to try again. He claimed to have made a mistake that was due to him being overwhelmed. He came up with some bullshit about him taking the time to really understand my disorder and how to better take care of me. I promptly told him to be overwhelmed with a dick in his ass. Yes, I had an insecurity that I may never find a man that would want to deal with my condition, but I’d ratherbe alone with Totino’s Pizza Rolls in my bed than be with a man that cheated and didn’t respect me.

When I heard my front door open, I picked up a coffee mug from my coffee bar and poured a fresh cup. Fatima cut the corner into the kitchen where I stood. “See, that’s why you’re my best friend. You anticipate my needs.”

“Good morning, best friend,” I said after I leaned against the counter to watch her jazz up her coffee at my bar. “What do you have on your agenda for today?”

She didn’t respond until she finished flavoring her coffee and took her first sip. Fatima didn’t function well before coffee. I had an addiction of sorts to coffee just like my best friend. Last year for my thirtieth birthday, my mother, Ariel, gave me gift cards to buy the things that I needed to make a coffee bar after she called my father to ask him what I liked.

Ariel only gave me birthday gifts every five years, special accomplishments, and Christmas. It’d been like that since I was six when she sent me to live with my father after they divorced when I was four years old. My mother was twenty when she and my father got married. Three years later, she realized that married life was not for her, then two years after that, she realized neither was motherhood. She called my father and told him to come and get me, and he did. After their divorce, my father moved from Aiken, Georgia, where they lived, to Charlotte, North Carolina.

When I was younger, my feelings were hurt by her decision, but as I got older, I realized that it was a blessing in disguise. In hindsight, I appreciated that she was honest about her feelings toward motherhood instead of becoming resentful and mistreating me. Ariel was always available. If I needed something, she would come through for me. She just never initiated contact with me except on those birthdays and Christmases when she purchased me something. My fatherloved me enough for my mother and him. My father was the best man that I knew.

I had great female figures in my life, including Fatima. She was a year younger than me, but her life experience had given her wisdom beyond her years. “Girl, I have meetings most of the day, but since I’m not facilitating any of them, I’ll probably be half listening.”

My best friend was an extremely successful pharmaceutical representative. She landed the job before we graduated since it was where she did her internship for her bachelor’s degree in biology. The company then turned around and paid for her master’s degree in public health. My girl came into the company and lit it on fire. Now she was the top earning rep in the company.

“You better listen to those people in those meetings. You might miss something you need,” I reprimanded with a giggle. She was so nonchalant at times.

She waved me off. “Girl, please. I record the meetings. I’ll listen to it at some point.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Now, what’s on your agenda today?”

“I have one meeting today, go check on my daddy, then some running around to do for my daddy’s birthday.” My daddy was turning fifty-four soon. His assistant and I planned a surprise birthday party for him. I couldn’t wait for it. My father was the fire chief of Mecklenburg County. I was so proud of him when he was promoted. He worked so hard to get to where he was.

Fatima’s brows met in the middle. She set her mug down on the bar and leaned on the counter next to it.Here we go.“Aeon, I’m not about to play with you. It’s hot as hell outside, and your ass is just getting over fucking COVID. You better send what you need done to Susan and let her get it done.”

Oh my God!Everyone acted like I was incapacitated. I’d been over COVID for almost two and a half weeks. “Fatima, I’m going to be fine. You know Midnite will be with me.”

She leaned off the counter, then walked toward my couch in the living room. Midnite relaxed on the couch with his favorite cartoon on. When I was twenty-four, my POTS seemed to worsen to the point that my doctor told me that I was unable to drive any longer. I had a few accidents because I passed out. In my mind, that shouldn’t have been the call because my condition wasn’t the reason for my passing out; my low iron was. Her damn response to that was that anemia was a symptom of my condition. I cried for days because it made me feel dependent on others around me.

“Midnite,” Fatima called out to my baby. Once he paid attention to Fatima, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Look, you know your mama does too much. Make sure you watch out for her silly ass. You know if anything happens to my best friend, I’m going to cuss your black ass out.”

Every time she talked to my baby, I couldn’t do anything but laugh. She talked to him like he was really a human. It took Midnite a minute before he climbed from the couch to go to his communication buttons. He walked through them to find the ones that he wanted.“Fatima, shut up.”

Midnite looked at her with a side eye, climbed back on the couch, then lay back down like he was never bothered. I bent over with laughter. An offset of my condition intensifying was that I was approved for a service dog. When I got quotes from organizations on how much it cost to train them properly, I said absolutely not. The programs that would train and give them to individuals were need based. I didn’t qualify because of my income. As a data analyst for Meta, I made well over one hundred thousand dollars a year.

This was one of those situations where if you called Ariel, she would come through. My father called her and told her how much it cost. She agreed to pay half of the twenty-thousand-dollar fee. I cried when she and my father told me that they paid for the training. Ariel even came here to Charlotte to present it with my father. That meant more than she would ever know.

When I got Midnite, he was two months old. It took about eight months to train him on the basics like socialization, obedience, potty training, teaching him to stay relaxed and calm in different environments, and things like that. During that training, the bond between Midnite and I was built. I took the initiative to teach him the communication buttons. After his initial training on the basics, it took another almost two years to train him on task specific things associated with my POTS symptoms. I love my baby.

“See, people don’t believe me when I tell them that your dog is rude as fuck. A nigga! That damn dog is a nigga in a labrador retriever’s body. He lets that black coat get to his head.” Fatima rolled her eyes before she walked back over to drink her coffee. After she took a sip, her expression turned serious. “Aeon, I’m serious. I told you if you wait until tomorrow, I can take you.”

That was it right there. I hated that. I wanted to be able to move around without having to depend on people. It was bad enough that I had to depend on rideshares if I wanted to go somewhere if my father or Fatima weren’t available. “Fatima, thank you, but I work a full day tomorrow. Today is the best time to do it since I’ll be done with work by like ten.”

Her face screwed up. “So, what you’re telling me is that you’re about to go out in the peak of the day when it’s the hottest instead of either waiting until the sun falls when it’s cooler or tomorrow evening? How does that make sense, Aeon?”

“I want to get it out of the way, Fatima.” She got on my nerves sometimes with her overbearing nature. I loved her forwanting to make sure I was healthy and safe, but sometimes, it was just too much. “I promise, I’m going to bring my water, fan, and make sure I sit down when I get overwhelmed.”

She stared at me for a moment before she put her empty coffee mug in the dishwasher. Her hands went into her pockets as she walked in my direction. “Alright. If you think Daddy Vernon is going to go apeshit if he gets a medical emergency call about you, I’m gonna be a gorilla to his chimpanzee.” She kissed my cheek. “I’ll call you later to check on you. Bye, Midnite, nigga.”

I giggled as she sashayed out of my house. Fatima was nothing to play with, and I loved it. Her half step was better than some bitches’ overstep. I glanced at the clock on the side table. I had twenty minutes to get my life together and jump on this meeting. It was a blessing that I worked from home. “Midnite, today is going to be a day. Are you ready?”

Midnite climbed from the couch to go to his button. I smiled when he stood over the button he intended to press. He looked over his shoulder at me then pressed the button.“I stay ready.”Yes, he did.

“I’m cooking tonight, baby girl,” my father told me. He knew that would make me excited. My father cooked his ass off.

I wiggled in my seat that was in front of his desk. After my meeting, Midnite and I caught a rideshare to my father’s office. I saw him at least three days a week. He came to my house, or I went to his office or house. “What are you cooking? Please say seafood lasagna.”

“Well, what do you know. I’m cooking seafood lasagna. Make sure you tell greedy ass Fatima.” He laughed at his own words. My father treated Fatima like she was his daughter as well.

Her father was in prison serving a sixty-year sentence for murder, and her mother was serving twenty for being an accomplice to murder. When she was twelve, her mother told her father that some dude raped her. Her mother then set the man up, and Fatima’s father killed him. When they were caught, it came out that the man did not rape her. She was mad at the man because they were fucking around, and he told her that he didn’t want to mess with her anymore. Initially, she had a second-degree murder charge, but she took a deal and flipped on Fatima’s father. Fatima’s paternal auntie took her in and raised her.

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