Page 2 of Don Caselli

Kora was more receptive to me coming to sit in her space, but after a while, she started asking questions that told you she was ready for you to leave. Zoya and I were close, but she was more like Menace than she wanted to admit. They both liked to be alone and never had a problem with the shit. They valued their privacy and alone time, so I couldn’t fault them on that.

As I leaned against the counter, the track changed to Wale reciting a poem about an ambitious girl. The kind of woman I wanted in my life.

Fuck that.

Needed.

As much as I could take care of any woman who came into my life, I craved a woman with ambition. She didn’t want to be with me because of the money in the bank or the name.Her concern was more on chasing her own dreams, building a life that would perfectly align with mine. I wanted to spoil her because that wasn’t something she was looking for.

The kind of woman you could see the hustle coming out her pores because she wanted to win in life that bad. It was never about the kind of man she decided to be with; he was the bonus. I dated all kind of women throughout college and the shit got boring.

Everybody was following this aesthetic of what they thought niggas with money wanted. When I thought about who I saw myself being with, it was Kennedy.

Kennedy followed the same lame ass aesthetic; she was more than that, though. I never understood why she followed her friends when she was different.

I checked my text messages and saw she finally replied.

Ken: Thanks, Don. I really appreciate the jewelry.

Since I was seeing her in a few, I ignored her text and went to get dressed before I heard Beans blowing my phone up about being late. His ass was thirsty to get around Greene’s ass since we spent Thanksgiving on the yacht together.

Kennedy and Greene came with us to party on shore, and something between them happened. I mean, shit, something transpired between me and Kennedy, too. She woke up the next morning tripping because we slept in the same hotel suite.

Meanwhile, the night before, she was pulling me to my room. It was always so fucking hot and cold with her, and I never knew where I stood. One minute we were on the same wavelength, then the next second, she was second guessing shit and telling me we shouldn’t have feelings for one another.

While she worried about Menace, I never gave a fuck.

Who the fuck died and made him in charge of who I wanted to be with? Menace kidnapped his fucking wife and fell in love with her. The nigga wasn’t qualified to set any rules on who could and couldn’t be together.

That was the only reason Beans hadn’t really stepped to Greene the way he wanted to. Greene was Menace’s second assistant. Even with her working with Stevie, she was still heavily involved in his day-to-day life with Jeffie.

Beans was one of his top generals, someone he trusted, and that list was already short. The nigga would cut himself off if he thought the wrong thoughts. Beans was invited to his home, vacations, and to be around our family. That wasn’t extended to everybody, so he was careful not to fuck that up.

The view of the park followed me into my bedroom as I went into my closet to decide on what to wear. I wasn’t in the mood to get dressed up. Shit, it wasn’t my birthday, and Ken already was acting funny.

I wanted to take her out for her birthday and had sent her a text last night asking before I wished her a happy birthday. She had me out here bad with the way she picked and chose to respond to me.

Snatching a pair of freshly ironed Essentials sweat shorts, and a Jill Sanders t-shirt, I went over to my shoe closet, that was in the next area. When I moved in, I had the wall to the bedroom beside the master knocked out to expand this closet.

Menace taught me a lot of shit, mostly how not to be a fucking nut, but one of the main things the man was strict on was having a good pair of shoes and tailored suits. Funny, because his ass hated anything that wasn’t a pair of sweatpants. Anytime he popped out in a suit, you would spend the whole night trying to find a flaw, and you never would find one.

I settled on a pair of Travis Scott low top one’s and then tossed my clothes on the bed before going to shower and spendthe rest of the night out. Me and Beans may start at Tiny’s, but we always ended up somewhere else.

Being the youngest, I was always underestimated. My siblings were all big presences. I often found myself lost in the shuffle. Added with the fact that I couldn’t remember my parents, I couldn’t even count on that.

I could never decide if I was like my dad.

Nah.

Maybe I was more like my mother.

While my older siblings could rely on that, I was left putting the pieces together with old pictures and not too many trips down memory lane. Menace never spoke about them, and Kora mentioned small things, but nothing to where I could paint the picture of who they were.

Hell, I just discovered Stevie and Menace got married on my mom’s birthday. Zoya pretended like everything was fine when I knew she hated not having a mother. She hated that all her friends had moms they could lean on, and we had Menace.

We used to have Angelica, but she ended up leaving and we were never told the reason. I knew the bullshit excuse Menace gave wasn’t the truth. Shit was perfect and then the next thing I knew, she was packing up her bedroom and telling me that we were old enough now.

Me and Zoya still needed her, and I worried about how Menace was going to do all that she did. Who was going to hug me when I failed a test and tell me I was still smart? Menace would rather pull his toe nails off before he hugged anybody. Who was going to help with homework? Whenever Menace did make dinner, he made the same shit every night and then told us we could eat grass for being ungrateful.

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