Page 27 of Read the Room

“Man! I thought it would take longer. I thought he’d be still on his women hater’s club shit because of Alexi,”Simone said.“Did they fuck yet,though?”

These fuckas were really on the line about my business.

Sully looked at me for a beat. He shook his head.

“Nah. I don’t think they fucked yet.”

“Okay, good. Then I only owe you one stack,” Simone said before she blew out air.

She acted like more than one stack was a lot of money for either of them. These fuckas got on my nerves.

“Alright, babe. I love you,”Sully said with a soft tone. They spoke for a second about dinner and their son before they disconnected the line.

“Y’all really had a damn bet on me?” They were doing a lot with this shit. “That’s what y’all doing?”

Sully smoked his blunt silently without breaking his eye contact with me. After he had enough, he put it out.

“Tell me you don’t like Reya. Nah, you don’t even have to tell me because I know you. If you didn’t like her, you wouldhave never taken her to your house. You for damn sure would have never outfitted your house for her and her son. You watch movies and eat dinner like a lil family.” He giggled like a lil bitch. “The shit is cute. Oh, now you’re paying for her to go back to school.”

He held his finger up when I started to say something.

“Nope. Don’t even say Mama Bee wanted her to go back to school. You know just like I do that if Mama Bee wanted that, she could have paid for that shit out of her account. There’s more than enough.”

I couldn’t say shit because he was right. Ma mentioned Reya wanting to go back to school once. After she said it, it stayed at the forefront of my mind. Did I like her, though?

“I mean, Reya’s a beautiful, smart, cool ass girl. She’s a bomb ass mother and a go getter. That shit is sexy. I’ll admit that there’s sexual tension between us. I want her to make the first official move, though.”

Tsireya was timid as fuck. She was the type of female that you couldn’t sexually overwhelm in the beginning. You had to let her make the first move, but after that, it was open season.

“Once she makes that move, I’m going to make her mine. Straight like that.”

“Well, there ain’t nothing wrong with that. It’s about time you found a female worth a damn. I told you Alexi wasn’t it for you.” He gave me a knowing look.

Sometimes, I could be hardheaded as fuck, and my choice to deal with Alexi was one of those situations. None of my people really vibed with her. At the time, I had the mindset that she was for me, so fuck what everyone else thought. That proved to not be the wisest mindset.

With a huff, I told Sully that I would move Reya to another house that was more in the country of Davidson. It was a manufactured home that sat on four acres of land that Geopurchased for me. He instilled in me that I should always look to acquire land. That was something that God wasn’t making anymore of. It was Mama Bee’s idea to put a manufactured home on the land, and I was happy that I did. People slept on those with the mindset that they were trailers.

The home had an open concept, with a huge kitchen, mudroom, laundry area, three bathrooms, and four bedrooms. I rarely went out there, but I had services to ensure the house was cleaned and the landscaping was maintained. I got on my phone and reached out to the same designer that decorated Jedi’s room as well as the playground company. This house didn’t have a pool, but it had a very nice backyard set up and a deck that I had built onto the back of the house.

I finished up the evictions for the property manager, checked on one of my elderly residents, then made my way back to the house.I needed to find Jeremy sooner than later.A part of me was in a lackadaisical mood about finding him because it gave me a reason to keep Reya and Jedi with me. That wasn’t good, because the longer he was breathing, they would be in some kind of danger.

“Lo! You home!” Jedi ran to me as soon as I came around the corner into the living room.

“Come watchLilowith me. Mama makin’ sandwich for us.” He looked around me into the kitchen where his mama was at the counter making sandwiches. “Mama, make Lo sandwich too.”

When I tapped him with a raised brow then told him to read the room, he paused for a moment. He thought about it for a second, then said, “Oh, Mama, please.”

Reya’s beautiful cheeks rose. “Yes, baby, I can. Lo, is there a specific kind of sandwich that you want or just make what I’m making for us?”

“Jedi, go sit down, I’m coming. Let me talk to your mama,” I told him. I waited until he settled into his seat before I went into the kitchen to stand next to her.

“Damn, that looks good. Make me the same thing.”

She smiled. “Will do. How was your day?”

“My day was cool.” I sighed before I continued. “I have some not so good news.” The worry in her eyes bothered the fuck out of me. “I need to move us to another house. I don’t feel comfortable with Alexi knowing you’re here. I can’t trust her actions right now, so I think it’s best that we move.”

She wore a blank expression. “Oh, okay. Is the house around here, or is it in Charlotte?”

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