Page 130 of Tangled Hearts
Now it just sat.
He pressed the button and the engine purred to life. He didn’t know where he was driving until he got there.
The westside of Jade City wasn’t his stomping ground but he was known and respected because his drugs fed the feigns and laced the dope boys pockets.
Getting out the car, he looked both ways down the street. When he walked up to the porch it brought back memories. Hetook Noir to prom, took pictures on that porch after going back and forth with her mama about dating her baby. Nakorea never played about Noir but gave in since she had turned eighteen that winter.
Nakorea’s house hadn’t changed. The curtains were still sheer. The screen door still squeaked and the wind chimes still danced when the breeze blew. He climbed the stairs slowly, hat low, eyes lower from the half blunt he smoked on the way over.
His knuckles rapped against the door twice.
Nakorea pulled the door open. She was still in her bonnet, and her housecoat was tied tight like she’d been waiting on the wrong person. Noir looked just like her mama. “Well damn. Thought you was the mailman.”
He cleared his throat. “Nah. I, uh… brought something.”
She stared. “For who?”
“Noir.”
“She ain’t here. But you knew that just like you know she doesn’t want it.” Her hands rested on her hips.
His thumb rubbed against the key in his palm. “I know. I just… feel like I owe her this.”
Nakorea stepped out onto the porch and looked past him toward the car parked at the curb. “That’s for her?”
He bobbed his head.
“You still tryna love her through your guilt, huh?”
He gritted his teeth. “I still love her. Ain’t nothing changed.”
Nakorea folded her arms and tilted her head. “You broke her. You know that?”
“I didn’t try to. That was never my intention.”
“But you did. Intent doesn’t clean up a mess.”
He looked down at his shoes. “I ain’t even touch Chanta after me and Noir got serious. That whole situation was dead. She just… showed up one night. Caught me at a weak-ass moment. I ain’t think. I ain’t protect the person I was supposed to.”
Nakorea pursed her lips. “And then had a baby. That’s what you left out.”
Christian blinked, a nervous chuckle came out. “I ain’t even know she was pregnant ‘til months later.”
“She did. Bet she did it on purpose too… but I’m a woman first so that was on you, Christian.”
“She won,” he muttered, eyes watering. “She took everything.”
Nakorea softened just enough to look human again. “She ain’t take nothin’ you didn’t hand over. You gave her the match. She just struck it.”
Christian looked up. “You talk to her?”
“Of course, boy. That’s my baby always. She ain’t here though. Said she’d be getting her own place soon.”
“She alright?”
Nakorea nodded. “Better than she was.”
He nodded too, “you think… she still love me?”
