Page 5 of Read the Room

She sucked her teeth. “This shit is stupid. You act like you don’t have it or it’ll hurt your pockets to give it to me. What the hell is the point of…”

She caught herself before she said something her ass couldn’t take back.

“What?” I held my hand up and cupped it behind the ear closest to her. “You don’t want to finish what you were about to say, Alexi? What the hell is the point of what?” I stared at her naked ass.

She rolled her eyes. “I just don’t know what the big deal is, Lo’ak. It’s like, lately, you’ve been tighter on the purse straps.” She huffed. “I’m just trying to understand. Are we in trouble financially or something?”

I pulled my head back a little. “We? Who is we? What penny have you put into a bank account around here?”

I had to take a step back. I didn’t like this person that I became when she was around. In the beginning, blowing bags on her was nothing, and it still wasn’t. My issue was her disrespect behind it. She had athe well will never run drymindset.

“Alexi, let me ask you this. If I told you that I ain’t have it and I need you to pay all the bills next month, what’s your move?”

She literally recoiled from my question. “I mean, I don’t know. I probably have enough to pay my car notes.”

“Just your car notes? You have two cars, and I have three. What about the mortgage and all the other bills? There’s insurance, gas, lights, phone, internet, all those streaming services you love, and other shit.”

I wanted to see where her head was at. My house was paid off, and there was only one car with a note, which was the last one purchased. She didn’t need to know that shit, though.

She was completely overwhelmed, and I knew it. “AK, I don’t know. I guess you’ll have to downsize. Shit, you only need one car.”

“Oh, I only need one car, but you need both of yours?” I was wasting my time. “Alexi, you got the money you need to go to Paris. Have fun. I got moves to make to make sure the money keeps flowing.”

I grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator, gave Alexi a kiss on her temple, then left out of the side door that led to the garage. I was mad at her responses, but how could I be mad at something that I created?

“Where’s the most beautiful lady in the world?” I asked when I entered my grandmother’s house. I walked through the foyer to get to the playroom where I knew she would be. “My pretty lady and the babies.”

The kids in the playroom heads turned in the direction of my voice.

“Lo!” They all yelled before running my way.

I squatted down so they could jump on me to knock me over. “Dang! Y’all knocked me over!”

This was an almost everyday thing. My grandmother had an in-home childcare center. She never had more than five kids over one year old and no more than two kids that were under one year old at one time. She’d had a childcare center since I was sixteen. I asked her when I was younger why she never had more children if she loved children so much. All she ever said was that she couldn’t, so I left it there.

“Boy, you’re going to have them all riled up. They’re not going to want to take their naps,” Mama Bee fussed from the rocking chair where she held a baby in her arms.

At fifty-eight years old, my grandmother was stepping on bitches half her age. She stayed out the way, in her own business, and at the bank.

After I got the kids back to their previous activities, I walked over to kiss her cheek. “Hey, Ma. You look beautiful as always.”

Her smile brightened the darkest days. My mother was her twin.

“Hey, baby boy. You doing good? You look good. I see that raggy ass girl hasn’t run your ass into the ground yet.” Her eyes rolled hard.

She couldn’t stand Alexi and made it known. The first time that I brought Alexi here to meet Mama Bee, we were in the middle of dinner, and Alexi was running her mouth about something. Mama Bee just listened to her as she patiently waited for her to finish.

When she finished, my grandmother looked at my girl dead in her face and said, “Baby, I don’t like you and don’t think you’re it for my boy here.”

I was so shocked that I burst into laughter. Like, what the hell were you supposed to do in that kind of situation? Mama Bee taught me to always walk in your truth, so that was her truth. She didn’t like Alexi. For a long time, my girl tried everything to get my grandmother to like her, but it was no use. She bought Mama Bee a gorgeous purse. After she took the purse and told Alexi how much she loved the purse, she proceeded to let her know that she still didn’t like her.

“Man, Ma, why do you have to be like that? You know I’m never gonna let anyone run me into the ground.” I chuckled, sighed, then said, “Ma, I think I need to just let that shit go. I’m not sure what I’m holding onto at this point. The longer I’m with her, the more money she costs me. Just gave her ten thousand a little over a week ago, and today, she asked for twenty-five more.”

Mama Bee’s head snapped in my direction so hard and fast the baby that slept in her arms jumped.

“Boy, I know for damn sure you didn’t give that girl twenty-five thousand dollars. I done told your ass to stop giving that dummy money like that. The least the bitch can do was get a lil piece of a job to make it seem like she was trying to do something. Stupid bitch.”

“Nah, I downgraded her Paris trip and gave her twelve. The only reason I did that was because it will give me nine days to set her up in an apartment and move her shit out of my house. I don’t want to be with her any longer, but I’m not a grimy nigga. I’m gonna put her in one of the units in my apartment building and give her a year to take over rent or move out,” I told her.

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