Page 33 of Down With the King of the South 4

“This is beautiful. How did the two of you meet?” I questioned.

The men were under the gazebo, which wasn’t that far from where we were sitting. They were in a heated card game that none of us ladies wanted any parts of. They were smoking, drinking, cursing, and all of that. Winter’s twin boys were in their rooms sleeping, Maya was in her room sleeping with Taniya, and Ocean’s son was laid down as well. This was adult time right now, and we were free of all children. Of course, Jamaria’s little butt was in the mix, but she was asleep; had been for like the past twenty minutes. Mahogany just didn’t want to lay her down yet because she knew that her little butt would wake up once she realized that no one was holding her.

“Whew, girl, long story. I don’t even know where the hell to start. Ummm, I got a call one night from my fiancé at the time’s cousin, telling me that my fiancé had died in a car accident. In that same story, she was telling me not to come to the hospital and everything like that. This is my fiancé we’re talking about, the father of my kids. So, I grab my kids, and we go down there, only to find out that this man had a whole fuckin’ wife that I didn’t know about, other kids, and family that I didn’t even know he had because he told me that he and his family didn’t get along.

“Fast forward, this man didn’t have my name on anything, so when he died, or in his case, faked his death, the kids and I were pretty much left with nothing. The money that I did have in my savings had been swiped, and when I tried to get it back, I couldn’t because he was the authorized user on the account. The relationship that I had with my mother was toxic as hell, but she was the only resort that I had. I ended up staying with her for a couple of weeks, but one night, things got out of control when she started disrespecting my kids, so I left.

“I ended up sleeping in the break room at Walmart, which was my job at the time, with my kids. The next day, I was able to check myself and the kids into a women’s shelter. Cortez’s mom owned the company. I met Cortez there. He came there one night and interviewed me. Hired me right on the spot to work for him, and the rest is pretty much history. I met Cortez when I was at my lowest, and he still saw something in me. I can’t even put into words how much I love that man,” Winter said.

The whole time she spoke, it’s like I was just clinging to her every word. Her story was so beautiful.

“Bitch, we know! All you do is talk about my damn brother,” Ocean said, making us all laugh, including Winter.

“What do you mean when you say your ex-fiancé faked his death? He didn’t die in that car accident for real?” I questioned, and she shook her head no.

“Girl, no. That man was living a triple life. One with me and my children, one with his wife and their children, and the other one with his real lover, who might I add, was a man. He did all of that just because he was too much of a coward to come out and admit that he was gay.

“Granted, I would have been mad when I found out about that, but damn, I wouldn’t have been as mad as I was when I found out that all of this was just a fuckin’ role that he had to play to live in his truth. He made himself look like an ass in the end because he’s in prison right now, and when he gets out, I wish like hell he would ask me to see his kids. Hell no, not after the way he left us high and dry,” Winter spoke, and I nodded my head in understanding.

Her story was like something that you would read in a damn book. Faking deaths, a man living three lives, damn.

Everyone went around the circle, and we all shared something. Of course, I talked about getting pregnant with Vonte at thirteen, and I even talked about the way that I lost him. Mahogany shared what she was dealing with now in terms of our father and not knowing if she wanted to rekindle the relationship with him. Ocean went last, and basically, she shared about having to accept the baby that her husband pretty much had on her while the two of them were taking a break.

I loved us women coming together, sharing our problems, and not being judged or looked at with the side-eye. I was a very closed in person, sometimes barely liking to express my problems with my family because I was often afraid of judgment, but you didn’t see any of that here.

“Mahogany, I’m about to go up in the room. Come with me. I don’t trust that waiting to exhale bullshit that y’all women be on. Y’all fuck around and get into some deep ass conversation, forcing my lady to relive some shit from our past, and I don’t get no pussy tonight. Hell no, shorty, let’s go,” Jabari called out as he walked over to where we were.

He was holding stacks of money in his hands and forcing it into his pockets. I didn’t even want to know how much money they were over there playing for. Everybody over here knew that Jabari was an asshole, including his wife, so there was nothing to do but laugh at him and his statement.

“Jabari, please! Nobody is over here talking about you. Watch your damn mouth before you do talk yourself out of some pussy!” she said, standing up and handing him a sleeping Jamaria.

“That applies to you too, shorty. Let’s go, Shae,” Miami called as he made his way over.

Following him was Neo, who was Ocean’s husband, and Boss.

“How much money did you lose over there? Jabari just stuffed all that money in his damn pocket,” I said to Miami.

“Yeah, but look what I just stuffed in mine,” Miami said, going in his pocket and pulling out almost double what I saw Jabari with.

“Your nigga be cheating. I swear I’m not playing no more fuckin’ games with your ass. We bound to throw hands in this bitch,” Jabari said, sounding like a sore loser.

“Nigga, shut the fuck up and take that L. How the fuck you going to agree to play for ten bands but get mad when you lose it? I won that game fair and square, nigga,” Miami said.

Miami better not ever in his life talk shit to me for buying expensive make-up, expensive shoes, nothing, while they were over there betting ten thousand dollars on a card game. If we let them, Miami and Jabari would stand out there all night, arguing about that damn money and possibly end up fighting for real. So, to defuse the situation, Mahogany left with Jabari, and I pulled Miami with me. Soon, we were back in our room and closing the door behind us.

“Here, put this in your purse. Go shopping with it in the morning,” Miami said and handed me all the money that he’s won.

With a smile on my face, I took it from him and stuffed it in my purse. While I did that, Miami went to run the bathwater for us. I loved the smell of this house. It had that new house smell; like you could just tell that this was a brand-new home that never had anyone living in it before.

Our bedroom back in Miami was huge, but this room was almost double the size. There was a section in the room, that was like another room in

itself, which consisted of living room furniture, a computer desk with a Mac desktop and chair, along with a huge TV that was mounted on the wall.

There were two steps in the room that led to the real bedroom, which was a huge California King sized bed and another TV which rose from the floor at the push of a button. I loved everything about the royal blue and gold color scheme. The crazy thing is, this room did no justice compared to Winter and Boss’ room. Their room alone was this room times two, and that was just in space. I had no idea how the hell Winter would even want to leave her and go back home because I know that I wouldn’t.

Jamaica was beautiful. This home that we were staying in was literally right on the water. All we had to do was go outside in the backyard, open the gate, and we were on the beach. After I showered, I couldn’t wait to go out on the balcony of our room and just enjoy the view.

“This shit is so fuckin’ nice. I told Boss to let me buy it off him, and I was serious as a motha fucka too. I was down there trying to throw numbers at him, but he was going on and about how Winter would kill his ass because she loves this house,” Miami said.

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