Page 87 of Ony If It's You
I’d barely had my other foot out of the car and the door closed before she started dragging me toward the front door of the establishment. As soon as we were inside a barrage of people yelled, “Surprise!”
My mouth was on the floor and tears were in my eyes as I scanned the room. My employees, my grandma, my kids, my man, his uncle and cousin, Ms. Phyllis, everybody was standing inside of the building that I had purchased with the money I’d gotten from JV at the beginning of our arrangement.
He made his way over to me with the twins in tow and pulled me into a tight embrace.
I sniffled. “Baby, what is all of this?”
“Your new spot.” He shrugged. “You’ve been working hard as hell at work and home, you deserved some nice shit.”
“But babe,” I whimpered, looking around. “I know this was a lot of money. I could have helped.”
He scoffed. “Fuck out of here. Your nigga got some bread. Even more now that you helped me get all of these endorsements. Hell, this was really the least that I could do.”
Tears were pouring down my face as I looked at all of the decorations, equipment, just the overall set up. Jasmine and Celeste’s names were all over a lot of this because they were the only ones that knew exactly what I wanted in here.
“I picked the colors, Mommy,” Jocey said as she hugged one of my legs.
Smiling, I wiped my tears before lifting her into my arms and kissing her pretty face. It was obvious that she had chosen the color scheme because it matched her bedroom.
“It’s so pretty in here, baby girl, thank you.”
“I helped too, Mommy,” Si added with his little jealous ass. He didn’t like to be left out. Laughing, I lowered Jocey to the floor then pulled my son into a hug.
“Thank you, baby, this means so much to Mommy.”
“Go ahead and look around,” JV suggested.
Nodding, I started to make my way around the building, speaking to and hugging my loved ones along the way. This whole thing had truly made my day. Since I had made the purchase, I had been putting a little money up daily to go toward renovations, but Javyous had outdone himself by doing it for me. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t noticed, but then again I hadn’t been by the building since I’d purchased it. I had been too busy with everything else since then.
“I’m so proud of you, baby,” my grandmother said when I finally made it to her.
“Thank you, Granny.” We were both crying as we hugged.
“I’m so happy for you. You truly deserve all of this.” She held both of my hands as she stared at me with a smile on her face. I could hear in her voice how genuine her words were.
“I know you are, thank you again, Granny. For everything. I don’t know where me and the twins would be without you.”
“Oh, you’d be well off.”
“Boss lady.” Jasmine approached with opened arms. “This shit is fire right? Oh shit, I’m sorry for cursing, Ms. Jean.”
My granny waved her off and left us to talk. I laughed and watched her for a few seconds before turning my attention to Jasmine.
“I know you helped with this, thank you.”
“Girl, it was really all your man. He came to me and asked did I have any insight on what you wanted in here. I gave the little bit that you gave me and boom; we’re here. That man of yours is something else, girl. He really loves you.”
My heart skipped a beat at the thought of Javyous loving me. I loved him for sure although I hadn’t said it to him. That was partially because I was scared that he may not feel the same, but Jasmine said he did. Had he told her that? Before I could ask, Celeste and some of the other girls that worked for me had approached.
“Bitch, we have to celebrate!”
“I have appointments.” I frowned.
I was grateful for the surprise and all, but I had to get back to business. I had been out of work for an entire week, I knew my clients were over me.
“No you don’t,” Jasmine said. “All of your appointments reconvene tomorrow. Ours too.” She smiled. “Your man wanted us all to be able to go out and celebrate.”
I looked his way and grinned. My heart was full just watching him interact with our family and friends. He was trulya godsend. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve him, but I wished I had done it sooner.
