Page 11 of The Love Dealer

901-736-0086: You coming to my city? You real brave.

??You talk a lot of shit but you wouldn’t do anything if you saw me anyway.

That Nigga: You know better. That’s why you’ve been hiding.

Well, if you play your cards right, you’ll see me soon.

That Nigga: Count on it. You about to be some trouble.

??Maybe I am trouble, but I’m the best kind.

That Nigga: I remember… and I can’t fucking wait.

six

Zo

Thursday,Sabrina made it back to Memphis. Thursday, I took off from work and let my guys know any HVAC requests would be outsourced to them for the weekend. I had a lot of time to make up for with Bre, and I didn’t plan to waste a minute. Before pulling up on her, I went to see my kids once they were out of school. Since I wasn’t staying at the house anymore, I was having lunch with my youngest daughter, Deja, and seeing Alonso Jr. and Caprice once everyone was home from school. We kept our usual routine of family dinner so they wouldn’t notice the lack of me in the house, but Deja and AJ still wanted to know when I would be coming home.

I was always honest with my kids, so I told them I wouldn’t be and that I was looking for a new home that they could come and stay with me at from time to time. Because their schools were close to the house I planned to let Reka keep it. When I purchased the six-bedroom two-story home, it was with the intention of raising my kids there with my wife until they left for college. Since that didn’t seem like it would be the case, I didn’t know if I wanted to stay there anymore.

I figured I would let them stay with her at least four days out of the week, then keep them on the weekends since I wouldn’t have to work. Never in my life did I want to be a fucking weekend daddy, but until my schedule changed, it would have to do. Plus, I would make sure I had dinner with them nightly, so we all would have to be at peace with that.

As I headed out to my Lexus, Reka followed behind, asking, “Are you going to pay the bills for the rest of the month?”

“I’ll pay the bills this month and next month to give you time to get some money circulating. After that, you’re on your own.”

She scoffed and stood in front of the door to keep me from getting inside. “That’s not enough time.”

“Bullshit. You can get at least three checks by then, not to mention what you’d make if you started doing hair again. LaLa making thousands a day braiding. Your ass just don’t want to work.”

“Well, can you blame me?” she replied softly, running her pointer finger down the center of my chest. “You’ve spoiled me, Zo.”

“And what have I gotten in return?” I pushed her to the side gently so I could open the door. “If you don’t want to work, have that nigga whose face was in your pussy pay the bills.”

She chuckled even though I could tell she didn’t want to by how quickly she stopped.

“So you’re going to let our kids suffer because I fucked someone else?”

“Hell nah. My kids willneversuffer. They can come and stay with me for as long as they need to while you get your shit together. I agreed to letting AJ and Caprice stay with you for the time being, but that changes as soon as I find a new home.”

“Fuck you, Zo,” she grumbled, trying to walk away, but something inside of me caused me to grab her wrist.

“It ain’t ever been about love between us, but I want us to go our separate ways in peace for the sake of our kids.” Her body softened, so I continued. “You might not be AJ and Price’s blood mama, but you mama to them. I will never try to keep them from you, and I expect you to not try to keep Deja from me. We need to talk about rules and boundaries when it comes down to men and women around the kids, but I want us to co-parent with peace and respect, aight? If we can do that, you know I got you, always.”

Her eyes watered, and that was the first time I’d seen that in years. She nodded and gave me a long hug before walking away.

* * *

I used to be self-confident,sassy, and sensible. Fun and free. This weekend is the start of me getting back to her. That was the caption Bre posted, along with a photo of herself standing in front of a large mirror. It was the first body shot she’d posted since she gave birth, and I was proud as hell of her. All this time, she’d been struggling with body issues, and I bet no one knew. Sabrina had absolutely no reason to hide her body. It was beautiful.

True enough, she was slim as hell when we first met, but that was sixteen years ago. If she was still that size today, something wouldn’t have been right. I could understand why she was having such a hard time with her weight, though, because her now was the size of two of her from back in the day. I mean… she had a lot of fucking ass. Like… that shit was poking the fuckout. And her titties were big and perky, too. She had a flat stomach and a small waist. Honestly, her body was perfect to me, and I hated she couldn’t see that.

The picture had four-hundred and twenty-six likes already, and she’d only posted it an hour ago. She also had one hundred and eleven comments. If that didn’t show her she was beautiful just the way she was, I was going to make sure she knew by the time the weekend was over.

I was sitting in her parents’ driveway, but I was too nervous to get out and go to the door. We hadn’t seen each other in years, and I didn’t know how she would react to the surprise of me. All this time we had been avoiding each other to keep from letting our passion get in the way, but that shit was over now. She was single and I was, too. Regardless of what happened come Monday, Sabrina was mine for the weekend.

To get my nerves up, I called her. If her energy sounded off, I would wait until tomorrow since this was her first day back. Her parents already knew I was pulling up on her. When we first met, they felt like I was a bad influence. I didn’t blame them. I treated Bre like a princess when we were together, but they worried about what I did while we were apart. While she excelled in her studies at Christian Brothers, I was getting my associate’s degree from Southwest Community College and working with my grandfather by day at his HVAC company and selling a small amount of drugs by night. I always felt like she was too good for me, but she was so good to me, I couldn’t let her go.

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