Page 51 of Welcome to the Table
“Well, I suggest you get your affairs in order. You know just as well as I do that I always get what I want, and I want you,” she said. “Now, since you got my shirt in your hands, put it on me.” She raised her arms in the air like a child and laughed.
I tucked my top lip in, showing my diamond grill. She shook her head, giving me a serious look.
“Why now? Why bring me back to New Orleans after all these years? I know about someone in the family being a snake, but wouldn’t I be safer in New York?” she asked, like she pulled it out of the sky.
“You need to be where all of us can touch you. We don’t have anything solid right now. With Melph gone, everybody needs to be in close proximity,” I told her.
I would never lie to her if she asked me anything. They had kept her in the dark too long already.
“And you showing out today. Got the grills on and shit. Yeah, you want me to slice a bitch’s throat. You keep forgetting that I am my brother’s keeper,” she told me.
I really laughed because I had forgotten that was her secret weapon as well. She stepped closer with her breasts pressed against me, so I could put on her shirt. She was doing that shit on purpose,
“You gotta back up so I can put this half ass shirt on you,” I told her, and she backed up.
I eased the shirt over her head, touching her silky skin all the way down. Her shit was so soft, and I bet it tasted even better. I kept my comments to myself because I knew she would say some slick shit, and we both would be in trouble. I turned to look at the closed door.
“You ain’t gotta be scared to touch me. They know better than to barge into my room without knocking first. I don’t give a fuck who in here with me,” she said.
I kept quiet. I knew my potnah, and he didn’t give a fuck either. Once she put her arms through, I pulled the shirt down, and it stopped just above her belly button. I knew Hellcat would send her straight to hell for that.
“Hellcat gon’ fuck you up for this shit you got on,” I told her.
She went back to her vanity and started to put her lip gloss on.
“And that’s where you step in and handle it.” She didn’t bat a lash as she looked at me through the mirror.
I shook my head at her. I knew this mall trip was gon’ be a bunch of mayhem and bullshit. I walked over to the side of her bed and grabbed her shoes. She turned around, and I kneeled before her. I slid each foot into her Gucci slippers.
“And you say you not fucking with me? Boy, please. You on that with me.” She blushed as I put her other slipper on.
“I’ll always be a gentleman, sweetie. This ain’t shit,” I told her, and her smile went upside down.
“You do this for every bitch you fucking?”
I heard the attitude in her voice. I wanted to play with her, but I realized we had already spent too much time in her room alone.
“I ain’t fucking nobody, but if I was, it wouldn’t be your business anyway,” I told her, pissing her off even more.
She pulled her hair to one side and stood over me. “Yeah, you might wanna get yo’ bitches in order and let them know that whatever they had, the shit is over because I’m home now. I have no problem slicing a bitch’s neck or dropping bodies. I’m here now,” she said with confidence.
I held my laugh in because I knew she had to be kidding.
“Where the fuck is this conversation coming from? You ain’t never fuck with me like that, so I suggest you stop that shit. I am fucking bitches, but I ain’t fucking you, so you ain’t got shit to worry about.” I stood to my feet
“Don’t fucking play with me, Hollygrove. The monster in me is asleep, not fucking dead,” she said, and I was confused.
Jaci and I had never held a conversation like this. Fuck, we never even talked like this. I didn’t know what fucking courage she had to even come at me like that. Shit was diabolical. Jaci was always quiet and to herself. She got older and bolder, but she could play that game by herself because I wasn’t fucking with it. I remember her as a little girl, trying to run with the big boys and crying because she couldn’t. I didn’t know what the fuck New York had turned her ass into. She was soft spoken and followed every rule put in place by the family, so what the fuck changed is beyond me.
“Where the fuck is all of this coming from? Since when did you get this aggressiveness about you and this so-called crush on me all these years?” I asked as she grabbed her purse and phone.
“You gotta be listening slow. I told you that I’d had this crush on you since middle school, but I knew you would break me. I didn’t want New York niggas, so I saved myself for you. That’s a chance I’m willing to take with Hellcat because I know what my heart feels. It’s time to live for me and not my fucking family. I am part of the organization, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have feelings. They can’t pick and choose who and when I fuck. Melph gone, and fuck Hellcat. Calliope don’t really care unless my safety is in jeopardy. I know you can keep me safe.” She said her speech and sighed like she had been waiting years to say the shit.
I felt her, but I wasn’t ready to address it.
“Why me, and why now?”
I thought about all the shit that was about to pop off once we made this fucking deal with the Point Dawgs that was set up for tomorrow. This was not the right time to declare how she felt about me and fuck my head up even more. I needed a level head to enter this shit, and she was trying to be a distraction. I felt her touch my arm, and I tried to move it, but she gripped it.
