Page 55 of Wasn't Supposed To Be Yours
“Here Dionne. It’s Tank,” I reached down with the phone in my hand. The hand that she wasn’t lying on, she picked it up, and pushed it out of the way, all the while crying, and telling me that she didn’t want to talk on the phone. It’s been a full twenty- four hours that she had been crying, so this girl didn’t have a voice. You could hardly recognize her voice as she spoke to me.
“She not taking the phone. Just talk to her when you get here,” I let him know.
“Put me on speaker,” he said, and I did just that, lowering the phone, so that Dionne would be able to hear him.
“Bae, I’m on my way back over there. I hope you not mad at me for leaving. I had to do some shit at the store, and it went over,” Tank’s deep voice was soft, as he talked to my sister.You could just hear her continuing in her cries. She wasn’t responding to anything that he was saying.
“We going to find whoever that nigga was on that video, and whatever you tell me you want me to do to him, Ima do it. I know how much Bagel meant to you, bae. Every time that you talked about him to me, you were always smiling. It’s fucked up that they did that shit, and I’m so sorry that you gotta deal with this kind of pain. I can’t bring him back, but it gotta be some other shit that you’ll allow me to do to fix it. You want another puppy? I’ll go get you one,” my heart melted listening to Tank talk to my sister.
I could hear a man that really didn’t know what to do, but he was trying to find a way. His words sounded sincere. I glanced over at Blake, and she had that same smile on her face as I did, as she witnessed what Tank was saying to my sister.
“I… I don’t want… a new dog. I want… the one I had,” Dionne responded back to him through her cries.
“Okay, but bae, that ain’t realistic right now. Maybe, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry for even making that an option. I can’t get you a new dog right now because you’re still freshly mourning the loss of Bagel. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes, okay?” he asked her, and of course she didn’t respond. I took the phone off speaker, and I placed it back to my ear.
“I had to mute the phone nigga and turn the volume down on your ass. Soft ass, hoe ass nigga,” June talked shit to Tank, and it took everything in me to keep my laugh to myself because I didn’t want Dionne to think that I was on the phone laughing at her. Now, I gotta get cursed out in the same manner that she’d done Tommie.
Tank laughed though, and I’m sure he was getting ready to say something ignorant right back to my husband.
“Fuck you! That’s my baby. I know you ain’t talking. I’ve seen you with Free in action. You tender like a motha fucka,” Tank called him out, and that’s when I laughed because it was true.
“Tender like some fuckin steak, you hear me! That’s some real shit though, Tank. I’m older now, and much wiser, so to me, the way that a nigga shows up for his girl and extends his hand to make sure that she is okay, is the kind of behavior that I respect. Ya’ll shit fresh, but you all in, ten toes, and I respect that. I know how Dionne was about that dog, man. She came to the crib one time with Bagel, and I told her to take his ass out back because I didn’t want him to piss on the carpet, and man, she cursed me the fuck out. Told me how she had Bagel trained, and I didn’t have to worry about him pissing on my raggedy ass carpet. I say all that to say that you going to have to handle that shit. Don’t let a nigga kill your girl dog, and you don’t stand in the paint over it. Fuck a nigga day up about that shit that he did to her puppy because when it’s my turn, and my wife even shed a tear, I be ready to kill anyone, or anything,” June told him, and as if they could see me, I nodded my head, knowing that it was true.
My husband didn’t play about me. June lost all common sense when it came to me, and I loved that kind of protection for me.
“You already know that I’m on it,” Tank said to June, and I believed him.
From there, Tank let me know that he would be here soon, and then he hung up. Now, it was just me, and June on the phone.
“When you coming home? I miss you,” his words made me smile.
“When ma finish cooking, I’m going to eat, and then I’ll leave. Did you eat already?” I wanted to know.
“Yeah, but I’m not turning down whatever your mama cooked, so pack me a plate to go,” he said, and I laughed.
“Okay. What is Liberty doing?” I inquired.
“Right here, playing with her toys. Ima get her ready for bed soon,” that made me happy because I wouldn’t have to do it when I got home.
“Okay. I’ll text you when I’m on the way. I love you,” I cooed.
“I love you more,” and just like that, I hung the phone back up and sat it down on the arm of the chair.
Blake picked Dionne’s feet up from her lap, and she stood up, telling me that she was going to go to the back to use the bathroom. When she left out, Tommie came back in the living room, and she had her phone in her hands.
“What’s going on with Tru?” I asked.
“Girl, them customers that she be having gets on my fuckin nerves. I guess she did somebody hair, and the girl told Tru that she had to get her wallet out the car when it was time to pay. Tru went outside with the girl, and the bitch started going off on Tru, telling her how she didn’t have to follow her outside, and a bunch of other stupid shit. They started arguing, and the girl told Tru that she wasn’t going to pay her, which was her intentions from jump. They fought, and Tru, being my child, beat the girl ass, and opened her car door, and girl, there wasn’t a wallet in sight. She was never going to pay Tru. I like that my child has her own hustle, but them hoes be trying her, and I hate that,” Tommie vented to me, and during the story, my mama was coming from the kitchen, ready to go off because she didn’t play that shit when it came to her grandkids.
“So, did she get her money?” our mama wanted to know, asking the million-dollar question.
“Tru said that she told that girl that she couldn’t leave until she had somebody send her the money. She called somebody, and they sent the money over to Tru,” Tommie stated, and that was all I needed to know.
Being in any industry, where you had to service people, you were going to have people that would try you. When I first started doing tattoos, I had a few people try to run off on a bill, but just like my niece did, I would throw hands in a second when it came to my money.
Tommie took a seat in the living room, and Blake came back in as well. It wasn’t long before there was a knock at the door, and my mom was the one to go, and answer it. I was curious to see how this introduction was going to go down between Tank, and my mom. This would be her first time meeting him. My mom was in the Bahamas, and she’d just gotten back this afternoon. The moment she landed, she went to her house to drop her bags off, and she headed straight over here, but by the time she got here, Tank was already gone.
She opened the door for him, and I looked back, finding him standing behind the door, and he was holding onto the most beautiful orange and white roses that I’ve ever seen before in my life. It was the 150 count roses, that were over $500. A bear was in his hands, and because I just loved love the way that I did, I found myself smiling, seeing that gesture.
