Page 5 of Pulse of True Soulmates

“Mama, why you ask me that?” I wasn’t sure why she thought Iesha was pregnant. My mama was nosy as hell too.

She slowly turned her head and put her tight eyes on me. “The only time that girl asks me for a black forest cake is when her ass is pregnant. This is the third black forest cake that she’s asked me for this month.”

My brows knitted together, and my head tilted. Now she had me thinking. “I don’t know. I’m gonna ask her tomorrow. Both of them are coming to the shop to get tatted.”

“I need to come in there and get me a tat,” she mumbled.There she goes with the bullshit.She’d been screaming for a few years that she wanted a tattoo.

Footsteps were heard behind me. “Cetta, don’t make me get in your ass now. I already told you that you’re not getting a tattoo, woman.” My mama fussed back with my pops as he smacked her on the ass. “I got something I can?—”

“Whoa, we’re not doing that today! What’s up, Pops? Mama, you ready?”

My parents acted like horny ass teenagers with their old asses. It only took one time to see their bare asses for me to never show up unannounced. They were affectionate regardless of where they were. As much as it got on my nerves, I wanted that with the woman who would be my forever.

After a few more kisses, my mother told me that she was ready. My pops came over and cupped the back of my neck. “You good, boy?” After I told him that I was good, he removed his hand then started toward the living room. “Alright now. Don’t let nobody fuck with you. I’ll kill behind mine.”

“So will I, Pops.” My pops had been saying that since I was a little boy. When I was a little boy, if you told me that my pops wasn’t a superhero, I would literally fight you. If you told me that now, I still would probably fight you.

My father was a retired air traffic controller, and my mother was a retired city court clerk. Both of my parents lived very comfortably off their pensions and savings. I paid off their house a few years ago as a gift when I made a nice chunk of change from a trade I did with one of my stocks.

It didn’t take long to get to the big box store from my parents’ home. My mother had a whole list, but we were in an aisle that had nothing on her damn list. My mother’s list was just a suggestion for the most part. When her ass put something in the cart that wasn’t on her list, all she would do was add it. We’d get to the register, she’d pull out her list, then have the audacity to sayI got everything!

“Mama, there is nothing on this aisle that is on your list. Why are we on an aisle with towels and bathroom stuff?” The only things that were on this list were items for her store. Candy bars and towels were not on the same aisle.

My mother did her famous slow turn to face me. She’d been doing that creepy serial killer turn since I was a kid too. It used to terrify me then. Not so much now, but when she did it, I knew she was about to curse me out. “Boy, since when have you been in charge on how I spend my damn money?” She snatched her list from my hand, took a pen out of her purse, wrote something on the list, then handed it back to me. “See, towels on the list. Now leave me the hell alone.”I guess we’re shopping for towels now.

For the next twenty minutes, we walked around the warehouse to put things that were already on the list and some that were added into the shopping cart. We finally got to the aisle with the drinks. My mother’s and my feet stopped in their place. “What the fuck is she doing?”

A woman was lying on the floor with a dog on her chest. I grabbed my arm after my mother hit it with the back of her hand.Her heavy ass hand.“She must have seizures orsomething. That dog has one of those service vests on. Son, go over there and make sure she’s alright.”

I stared at my mother for a beat before I slowly approached the girl. From what I could see of her, she was a smaller framed girl. Her eyes were closed when I stepped closer. I didn’t want to step too close because I wasn’t sure how her dog was trained. Her dog noticed me and shifted his body. “Ma’am, are you alright? Do you need me to call emergency services?”

Without opening her eyes, she responded, “No, I’ll be fine.” She rubbed the back of her service dog. “Midnite’s got me.” That was the perfect name for the dog that looked like a black labrador retriever.

Her skin was the perfect shade of milk chocolate.Damn, she’s beautiful.“Ok, I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” After she thanked me, I walked back over to my mother. “She said she’s fine.”

I was ready to carry on with our shopping, but when Princetta was not satisfied, nothing would move until she was. She shook her head vigorously. “Nope. I’m not leaving that baby on the floor like that.” When I reiterated that the woman said she was fine with her service dog, Midnite, my mama told me to shut the hell up.

My mama’s five feet, four inches short ass loved to bully people. That Napoleon complex was a real thing. Here I was, six feet, three inches tall, but when she told me to shut up, I did. I called behind her as she marched toward the girl and her dog. With a sigh, I followed my mother back to where the woman lay on the floor. “Hey, baby. I know you told my son that you were alright, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving you here by yourself. Did you have a seizure?”

The woman finally opened her eyes. Her head turned to the side to give us her attention. Her brown eyes were beautiful. A small smile surfaced on her beautiful face. “No, ma’am. I’m nothaving a seizure. I have a condition called POTS. Sometimes I get overworked, and my heart rate goes up too much, so I have to sit or lay down.”

She glanced down at her dog, then rubbed his head with a bigger smile. “My baby here is trained to warn me so I can sit or lay down so I don’t hurt myself. Thank you for asking.”

What the fuck is POTS?My mother’s beautiful cheeks rose, but the concern that still sat in her eyes told me that my mother wasn’t satisfied with her answer. “Ok, well, I still don’t want to leave you here by yourself. My son is going to stay with you until you feel well enough to get up.” She turned on her heel. “Declan, stay here and help her when she’s ready to get up. Give me the cart, and I’ll go get the stuff I need. I’ll be back.”

My mother pushed me to the side, stepped behind the shopping cart, and was on her way. The woman’s saucer eyes made their way to me.Well, this is awkward.

EARLIER THE SAME DAY . . .

Life had been lifingas of late, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Having a life to life was good enough for me. A lot had changed in the past year. Some of it good, some of it bad. After the debacle that was my relationship with Troy, it took me some time to get over it. Part of the reason was because the drama didn’t immediately stop after that day.

Troy and Erin were fans of amateur porn that starred them. Most of the videos were on Erin’s phone. Somehow, Jordan accessed the videos in her cloud. He didn’t blast her on social media or anything like that, but he did send the videos to his,her, and Troy’s parents. Troy’s, Scott’s, and Jordan’s parents were extremely close; therefore, it affected their relationship.

Jordan beat Troy up badly to the point that he had to stay in the hospital for a few days. I thought Troy would press charges on him, but he didn’t. Jordan’s parents paid for the hospital bills, which I thought was crazy. Erin, on the other hand, did press charges on Fatima. I didn’t think Erin pressed them because she got beat up, but more so because her surgically enhanced nose was broken. I was so upset and worried about the charges. Fatima’s reaction and only comment about the charges was ‘Erin is about to find out that street niggas do street things.’

I knew nothing nice would come of that. A little over a month later, Fatima’s cousins made a special trip to Charlotte and jumped the damn girl. Erin assumed that the attack was connected to Fatima. Instead of doing the cops thing again, she dropped the charges tomove on with her life.

Just when I thought it was over and done with, Erin backtracked to go back to Jordan. That shit was crazy to me. What was crazier was that he actually took her back. You couldn’t tell me that the boy wasn’t stupid, but I should have known that something bigger was in play. That man cheated back hard. Let’s just say, Erin’s sister and her had something in common. They both were whores.

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