Page 40 of Ony If It's You
“That’s good, baby. Try not to let your father get to you this go ’round. You know how he can be.”
“Yeah, how were they last night?” I pointed to the twins who were both engrossed in their iPads on the couch beside me.
“Perfect. They really are the sweetest, most well-mannered kids.” She beamed.
Si and Jocey were straight. They were some really good ass kids. Kehlani made me eat my words from the day that I’d met her because she was a bomb ass mother.
“Yeah, they cool,” I agreed just as someone knocked at the door.
Standing, I padded to the door and pulled it open, finding the li’l robot shit that was delivering our food. When it opened, I took the food out and closed the door.
“Thank God, I’m starving!” Jocey said dramatically as she climbed from the couch and joined me in the kitchen. Si was right behind her.
I got the both of them settled at the table before fishing some plates and silverware from the cabinets and drawers. I didn’t really like to eat off of shit out of hotels and shit like that, but at the moment we didn’t have a choice, so I went over to the sink to wash the shit before preparing their food.
“You’re pretty good at this,” Ms. Phyllis said.
“What?” I looked her way briefly.
“Parenting, it looks like you’re a natural at it.” She smiled.
“Naw, I just got to feed the li’l homies.”
“Mmm.”
That was all she said before disappearing into the room that they’d all slept in, probably to check in with my pops. Ms. Phyllis was a dope ass woman. She was really caring and attentive, everything that a nigga like my pops didn’t deserve, yet she wouldn’t leave. I’d asked her several times, even offered to put her up somewhere, but she declined, telling me I wouldn’t understand. I knew it was more than what she let on, but if she didn’t want to tell me, then there was nothing that I could do about it.
“Why didn’t you guys wake me?” I heard Kehlani ask from behind me.
When I turned to face her, she was wearing one of my t-shirts, her hair was pulled to the top of her head, and her face was fresh. Literally the most beautiful that I had ever seen her.
“Good morning, Mommy!” the twins sang.
“Good morning, my babies.” She landed on a kiss each of their heads after the greeting and tossed a wink my way. I had to turn away quickly because this wasn’t the time for my body to be reacting.
“We had it. We did hygiene together and all, right twins?”
“Yep, and we got to pick out all the food too, Mommy,” Jocey added.
“We got your favorites too.” Si pointed to the plate that held the French toast.
Their mother beamed. “You sure did, thank you. Are you eating with us?”
I pointed to the counter. “Protein shake. I can’t eat heavy like that while I’m fighting. Sit and eat with them though, I need to check in with my uncle and Zach.”
She nodded and took a seat at the table just as Ms. Phyllis walked out of the room to join them at the table. When I was inside my room, I closed the door and grabbed my phone from the charger on the nightstand.
I noticed all of the missed calls from Zoey and sighed. She hadn’t stopped since I’d ended shit last week. A nigga felt a little bad, but not that much because I was transparent as hell. I hadn’t given them an inkling of an idea that we were going to be on no exclusive shit. As a matter of fact, it had always been the opposite. I scrolled to Kecia’s number and dialed her.
“What?” she barked as soon as the call connected.
“Lose the fucking attitude, bro.”
“Why are you calling me, JV? I thought you were done.”
I shrugged like she could see me. “I am. I was just trying to check on Zoey. She been blowing my shit up.”
“First of all, I’m not her damn keeper. I dropped her off at her house when we left yours and I haven’t heard from her since. Secondly, how did you think she would be acting? She’s been super attached to you since the beginning and you dropped her for a bitch that you don’t even know.”
