Page 109 of Love me Like XO

I laughed. “Won’t worry about it. You look beautiful, ho.”

Within seconds we were all walking out on the patio, where the view of the full ass backyard was evident. When I went in it wasn’t this many people, but now this shit was huge. I knew letting my grandmother invite family was crazy. Em was about to curse my ass out.

EMPRESS

The fact that my, well Zero’s back yard was filled with all these people had my ass irritated, but I put up a good front. I smiled and did all that cute shit to keep my baby daddy from my skull. He told me to play nice, and that’s exactly what I was doing. Even when my funky feet as auntie and her side of the family approached me, I kept it cute. It was hard, but I did what he asked. Now I was able to sit in this hammock that Ree had set up for me. It was beautiful, built to hold my pregnant ass.

“You look beautiful, baby girl,” my mother’s voice made me look up from the belly.

“Thank you, I feel like a powder blue balloon.”

“Well you look like you probably swallowed one. Nevertheless you look stunning, and your sister pulled this all together regardless of what hell you probably gave her.”

I cackled. “I did give her hell.”

My mom joined in on the laughter. “You know with everything you’ve been through and all you’ve accomplished, you are perfect. I don’t say this enough, but I couldn’t be prouder of the woman you’ve grown into. I’m happy for you, and so ready meet my peanuts.”

I giggled. “Me too.”

“Have you and Zero thought about names, or are we waiting until they’re born?”

“We’ve talked about it, but never settled on a name.” I giggled just before I felt a little bit of pain in my stomach.

My mother must’ve seen the expression on my face, because immediately she was asking me what was wrong.

When I told her nothing and assured her I was fine I could tell she didn’t believe me. she was right, but I wouldn’t tell her that. The pain wasn’t that bad if anything it was bearable.

“Empress, you will tell me now if you fe?—”

“I’m fine, ma. One of them probably just kicked. Hell at this many weeks everything hurts.”

She gave me a once over, before skeptically nodding her head. She still didn’t believe me, but she left it alone. We chilled for a while before she was whisked away by my grandmother, and Irish took her place. Well Irish and Rev, but Rev like always worked the room. Irish sat with me for a while before he excused himself to hit the blunt. That was exactly what he said to me too, and of course I nodded missing the days that I hit said blunt.

I was in awe of how beautiful this turned out, and eternally grateful for everything my sister had done. She had did her shit, and if I may say so myself this was another one of her hidden talents.

“ Never thought I’d see the day you slowed down. Hell, I never thought I’d see the moment that you gave me a grandchild.” Of course my father snuck-up on me. He wouldn’t be him if he didn’t.

“Life is strange, isn’t it old man.”

“Works out that way. How you feeling over here?”

I sighed. “There are no words to accurately describe this shit.”

He chuckled. “It’ll be over soon.”

“Not soon enough.” I shook my head, before my eyes landed on my handsome baby father walking in my direction.

Of course my sister had an itinerary set up for this, so seconds after Zero approached she was behind him talking about it’s time to get the show on the road. I didn’t know what she meant until she pointed in the direction of the table that was overflowing with gifts.

“And what am I supp?—”

“Open ‘em,” Zero spoke, before he kissed the side of my face. He already knew what I was about to ask.

“I guess that explains why there is a set of royal chairs over there huh?”

My sister nodded. “We can head over there now.”

I did my best to plaster a smile on my face to hide how uncomfortable my body was. I had pain radiating from my southern region that didn’t seem to get intense until I stood up. That’s also when I felt like I peed on myself, and I gripped Zero’s hand with everything in me.

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