Page 14 of Free to Love You
She glanced at her homegirls who looked at her with pity. They all had a friendship that consisted of competition, jealousy, and mimosas. They had the weirdest friendship, but hey that was on them. I glared at Hope for a second before I turned to leave. I felt Beyon on my heels.
“Well, I don’t want Ayriss around that girl. If that girl is around you, then Ayriss can’t be around you.” The venom in Hope’s voice was strong.
I spun around. “Bitch, you got me fuck up if you think I ga let you keep my chap away from me. You know I ain’t ’bout to play dem games witchu.”
Beyon blocked me with his hands on my chest. When I stepped forward, he pushed me back. “Not like dis, dog. You got too much to lose ova a bitch like dis.”
He was right. The woman I was cool as fuck with and never had any issues with had shown her true self after all these years. If I was on her side of the fence, she was cool. Hope stood there like she’d just played her trump card or something.
My grimace was hard. Yeah, I had something for her ass. I pointed at her. “I got something for your ass. Remember, you pulled this trigger, not me.”
Her expression switched from boss bitch to a fucked bitch. She knew how I came about my baby. “Wait, Erygon! Sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just mad. I just don’t get it. Why her?”
“It’s not for you to get. Like I just said, you pulled the trigger.” I about-faced and headed to the door. I turned back to her. “Call me when you get this door fixed. I don’t want my baby in an unsecured house, so I’ll keep her until then.”
Yeah, Hope was officially against me, which was fucked up if you considered our baby girl. She knew that Lovina was meek and naive about a lot of things out here in these streets. She used that to her advantage to be on some fuck shit. I couldn’t respect that. If I couldn’t respect that, then I couldn’t respect her.
A Short Time Later . . .
“Man, I’m excited that you agreed to join the team here. I think this will be a better fit for you and your family. No more crazy ass hours and better pay,” Croy said after he walked around his desk.
Today was our meeting to thoroughly discuss the opportunity that he mentioned to me a short time ago. It took us some time to get together with my schedule. “Man, I’m happy to be a part of the team. I know I’ll learn a lot from you and your team as well. I’ve never been so ready to give a two-week notice.”
We both chuckled. I planned to give them my notice and take my last two weeks off since I had vacation time. They would be mad, and I wouldn’t give a fuck. Taking the time off would give me more time to spend with my baby girl.I can spend more time with Love too.
Since I paid Hope a little visit at her house, she had been overly accommodating and nice. She pretty much knew my work schedule in case anything happened with Ayriss. One day I got called to the nurses’ station and there she was with our daughter talking about Ayriss missed me. In the five years that my daughter had been on this Earth, Hope never brought her to my job because she missed me.
I’d taken a break to spend time with my baby who missed me so much according to her mother. Ten minutes into our visit, that little girl was asleep and Hope was in my ear with apologies, questions, and audacity. After four visits of that nature, I was convinced she gave my baby melatonin or some shit to get her to go to sleep so she could talk to me. Every time she was disappointed. When my baby fell asleep, I passed her off to Hope and went on my way. When I said that I had nothing to say to her, I meant it.
Croy’s laughter pulled me out of my thoughts. “I can understand that. Man, I’ve watched you over the years from your residency to now and I’m proud of you. You’ve put in the work. You deserve this position of lead anesthesiologist here atO’Brian Surgical Center.”We dapped each other. “Oh, make sure you keep an eye out for your invitation to me and my wife’s vowel renewal.”
I chuckled. “My dude, isn’t this your second renewal? I thought y’all did one some years back or something. I remember hearing about it from Dr. Pinkney.”
“Hell, I asked the same thing when Fiona put a save the date on our fridge. My daughter got married and now she’s in a wedding mood. I think she just wants a reason to see our grandbaby Gracie walk down an aisle in a pretty dress,” he said with a chuckle.
That pulled a hearty laugh out of me. He looked aggie as hell. “I guess it’s what the wife wants, the wife gets.”
“When you meet that one, you’ll understand. Trust me. The shit they want will get on your nerves, but that smile is worth it.” This man loved the hell out of his wife.
I loved when I saw them together at conferences and fundraising galas. They were like black, medical, married couple goals. “I hear you, man. I hope I can find that kind of happy soon.”
That was something that I did want to find. I concluded that if I wanted it that I would have to truly pursue it. Lovina would be the first woman that I pursued, so this would be interesting.
"Tell me you got em!” My mama stopped talking to the woman that was at a table in her bakery to ask me when I walked in. From how the woman looked at my mama, she didn’t care for the interruption in the conversation.
I walked to her, hugged her, then kissed her cheek. “Excuse me, ma’am. Can I borrow my mama for a minute?”
She gave me a half smile then permission as if I really needed it. I simply tried to be courteous because I knew my mother wouldn’t. We walked over to the counter. “Now, Mama, you know that I got the position.”
She jumped up and down. “Yes, I knew my boy would get it. Dis gonna be such a blessing fa you, Ayriss, and Lovina. I know you talkin’ ’bout wantin’ to spend more time wit’ my grandbaby and dis will give you time to really get ta know Lovina.”
I wasn’t about to say anything to her about the Love reference because at the end of the day she was right. I wanted to get to know her more because I wanted her to eventually be mine. We talked about the massive increase in my salary. I thought at the most he would offer me $120,000 more than my current salary. When he offered me $180,000 more, I had to keep my composure. That was big for me and my financial standing.
When I was in the streets, I made a lot of money. My uncle was a big part of helping me clean that money throughinvestments and businesses. My financial advisor was an associate at Washington-Smith Brokerage Firm. I had absolutely no worries. The goal was to establish generational wealth for my baby girl and any other children that I had with Love.Yep, straight like that.
“Is Love here?” I asked my mother.
Her top lip scrunched before it turned up. “I know you smell them cinnamon rolls. You know ain’t nobody else bakin’ dem but her.”
