Hearing her voice made me groan again. I started to descend the stairs just as she’d opened the door.
“Tell the kids to c’mon,” I said over my shoulder, without even looking back at her.
“Wait, Dame,” I heard her say softly.
Shit.
Reluctantly, I turned around. Maya was standing on the porch, holding the screen door open. She was barefoot in a pair of boy shorts and a sports bra. She looked good. I had always thought she did. Her thick thighs fell from the bottom of the boy shorts like an opened can of biscuits. Her skin was the same color as those biscuits. Even after three kids, her stomach and waist were exceptionally smaller than her hips, giving her an exaggerated Coke bottle shape. I had always loved her short pixie cut. It gave full attention to her slanted, light brown eyes and full, pink lips.
She was beautiful, especially in her natural, morning glow. That hadn’t changed. Not even after fifteen years of waking up to her.
However, it was obvious that something had changed in her eyes for me to make her turn her back on me so coldly.
“I need to talk to you.”
I leaned against the banister, opting to stay on the stairs. “About what?”
“I need some money.”
“I talked to the kids last night. They said they don’t need anything.”
She sulked. “It's for me.”
“Your mother left you some money, I thought.”
“I used it all moving in here.”
My head tilted. My eyes squinted in disbelief that she was going on with this lie for this long. I knew that our relationship hadn’t been your typical storybook romance, but, gawd damn, I didn’t deserve for her to turn so deceptive, especially without warning.
“Dame, please?” she begged.
I noticed how genuine she now was. The cold woman who had suddenly taken my family away from me was gone. She was now humbler than she had been in years.
I chuckled. “Hell nah. You got all you were going to get out of me.”
Her eyes lowered with desperation. “I really need it. I got bills to pay.”
“You knew that when you rented this motherfucker,” I spat.
She winced, in disbelief that I was actually telling her no. I had never told her no. I may not have been the most passionate or romantic man. I may have given more attention to the streets than her, but I never told her no.
“Are you serious, Dame?”
“So, you spent your mother’s money that fast?” I pressed sarcastically.
“I, um…”
“I, um,” I mocked her, taunting her. “Yea, yo’ lying ass. You stole from me, Maya. You didn’t think I would notice?”
Her eyes slightly bucked, and she recoiled with embarrassment.
Shaking my head, I turned my back on her. “Tell my kids I’m waiting in the car.”
“Dame!” I heard her footsteps descending the stairs as the sound of the screen door slamming shut accompanied them. “I was wrong for stealing from you. I’m sorry. But I needed to get away—”
I shrugged, without turning to face her. “And now you’re away.”
“You know I haven’t worked. You wouldn’t have given it to me. How else was I supposed to get out on my own?”
I laughed as I walked towards my car. “Now you’re out on your own. Good luck.”
“Dame!”
As I rounded the car towards the driver’s side, I saw her standing on the porch, an expression of disbelief blanketing it, which was fair, since her current actions had had me shook and confused for the past two weeks.
Once in the car, I pulled out my phone. Out of my peripheral, I saw Maya moping into the house. I started to scroll my Facebook page just to see what was going on in the hood and with my people.
I checked my notifications first. I had a message from a woman I didn’t know, so I went straight to my inbox to check it out. My last attempt at getting some pussy had failed. I had gotten lucky, but not in the right way. I had come up on a ghetto blessing, but not any pussy.
I wanted nothing more than to stick my hard dick far up in Tempest, though. The night of the dinner, I knew that I had taken her breath away with how I had transformed into my role of being her fiancé so easily. Yet, it was only so effortless because I had been drawn to her since the moment she put her ass on me while slow dancing to Silk. She was a gorgeous woman with a great body, so of course, I was attracted to her. But shorty was obviously overly distant with me. Even though we were playing this role for the money, she was making it obvious that that was all she was interested in. Before and after dinner, she was distant, and her conversations were short, if it wasn’t pertaining to the arrangement we’d made. She was clearly focused on getting a bag.
It was also evident that she was much more than just a piece of ass. A woman like her wanted to be dated, pursued, and wifed. After my relationship of fifteen years just ended, I wasn’t particularly in the position to do that. I also needed to be focused on the bag so that I could secure my children’s future and never ever be in the position again that a woman was leaving me because I couldn’t provide her with the life she wanted.
Therefore, I forced myself not to think about Tempest and focused on my inbox that hopefully had some hoes in it. I opened the first message, hoping it was some pussy from the hood who had heard that I was now single.
But instead, it read: Hi, Future Brother-In-Law! Looking forward to the wedding. So nice of you to love Tempest despite her condition. You’re a good man. Welcome to the family.
“Her condition?” I said to myself.
I assumed that the message was from Tempest’s evil stepsister, Nneka. Tempest had pre-warned me that Nneka could be a bitch, but that girl’s attitude was indescribable. She did not hide her disdain for Tempest, not even in front of company. But I wasn’t scared of her bougie ass. All she needed was for Tempest to drag that ass for some act right to get in her.
I clicked on the profile of the sender to confirm, and I was right; it was Nneka. I saw that there was a pending friend request from her and ignored it. I ignored her message as well, choosing not to pry about this “condition” she claimed Tempest had. I was sure she was just being a hater.
“I’m riding in the front!” Suddenly, I heard my kids arguing and them stomping hurriedly down the porch steps.
“No, I called front already! Stop playin’, Brea!” Joziah fussed as he ran towards my car.
“I’m the oldest!” Brea reminded him, like she always did, as she ran past him.
They both met at the same time at the front passenger door. Brea pushed Joziah out of the way, and he came back with the same energy. So, they started a shoving match, all while my sweet Faye just stood there, waiting for somebody to let her in.
“Aye!” I barked. “Stop arguing. Brea, you rode in the front last night. Get your butt in the back and c’mon.”
Brea smacked her lips, but she obeyed. Joziah climbed into the front, while Brea helped Faye get in the back.
I smiled as I looked through the rearview mirror at Brea’s angry pout. Even though she was in rare teenager form, I had been missing her snarky attitude around my house.
“Y’all got your seatbelts on?” I asked as I pulled off.
“Yes,” they all said in unison.
“Daddy, I wanna live back in your house,” Joziah told me.
Brea set aside her beef with Joziah and agreed with him. “Me too.”
“What’s wrong with your new house?” My antennas went up. I was waiting for them to tell me some bullshit that would cause me to make a U-turn and beat Maya’s ass. I had never put my hands on her, but if she had taken my kids out of my house just to end up putting them in some fucked-up situation, that day would be the first day I did, and the last because I would kill her.
“I have to share a room with Faye,” Brea said as if it were the worst thing on earth.
“And ain’t no space in my room for my basketball rim.”
“That’s why y’all
complaining? That’s why you wanna live with me? Not because you miss me?” I teased them.
“I miss you, daddy!” Faye exclaimed happily.
I blushed. “I miss you, too, baby.”
“I mean, I miss you too. I don’t understand why we can’t live with you, though.” Brea was a smart ass thirteen. I shook my head, realizing that I wasn’t prepared for a female teenager and their smart mind. “Mama said y’all broke up, but she should let us decide where we wanna live.”
I sighed. “Look, y’all. I know you’re used to living with me. I know this is new for y’all. It's new for me too. I want you to be in my house, but your mother needed this.”
I looked at Joziah and then through the rearview mirror at Brea and Faye. The looks on all three of their faces broke my heart. They were as hurt and confused as I was about this sudden change in our family dynamic.
“Daddy will always be there for y’all. Always. I promise that, no matter what, I will always be there for you. And you can come to Daddy’s house whenever you want to. Your rooms are still there. That ain’t never changing.”
Joziah looked at me and smiled. “Can I come tonight?” he asked with hope.
I nodded. “Hell yea.”
“Me too,” Brea added.
“Me too,” Faye chimed in.
“I got y’all. I always will.”
“Okay, daddy,” Joziah mumbled.
“We know,” Brea assured me.
Their emotions were pulling at my heartstrings, so I sat up and turned the radio on and up to put my mind on Jeezy, instead of my problems.
I had so much going on, but still, Tempest was in the back of my mind. I wanted to know how her weekend had been, what her morning was like, did she need anything. My attraction to her was beyond physical; was now mental. She was in my head, in my thoughts.
Chapter 8
Tempest Murphy
When my desk phone rang, and I saw that it was Erica, I was more than happy for the distraction. The workday had been hectic. The company was interviewing new employees for a new high-rise condominium downtown that we were now managing. I needed to interview and hire doormen, security, valet, and handymen. It had been a constant revolving door of individuals who knew damn well they weren’t qualified for the positions they had applied for. There had only been about three good applicants out of the ten who had interviewed that day thus far.
That day was one of the many I wanted desperately to do what I loved. I had gone about life the way society told me I should because I wanted to be as perfect as possible. I had gone to the HBCU. I had joined the prestigious sorority. I had gotten my master’s degree. I still felt so unfulfilled, though. Sitting behind a desk wasn’t my passion. My skincare line was.
“Hey, girl,” I answered with a sigh as I sat back in my desk chair and kicked off my pumps.
“What’s up? You busy?”
“Not at the moment. Just finished an interview. Don’t have another one for an hour. You must be on lunch,” I realized as I looked at the clock.
“Yep. I’m in my car, hiding from those bad-ass kids. What’s the tea?”
I smiled to myself, thinking of the dinner me and Dame had had with my family a few days prior. In particular, I was smiling at the memory of how he handled Nneka and Amaechi like a boss… And that kiss. His lips were so soft. It had been three days since the dinner, but I could swear I still felt his soft, thick lips on top of mine.
“Soooo… remember when you stood me up at Bar 77?”
“Yea, yea, yea,” she groaned. “I’m sorry about that. You know I can’t resist Kenny’s big di—”
“Okay, okay, okay!” I snapped with a laugh. “This isn’t about your kat getting slayed by Kenny. Listen… So, remember the guy I told you about that I met that night, he took me to VIP, and we hung out all night because he wanted to make his ex jealous?”
“Yea, the B.O.N that you should have let slay that pussy that night.”
“B.O.N?” I inquired, ignorantly.
“Big Ol’ Nigga.”
I started cracking up.
Erica joined in my laughter, saying, “One of the kids taught me that.”
I shook my head, still laughing. I considered myself a refined hood chick. I would never let the southside leave me, despite having left for college and not returning until after I was twenty-six. But Erica was a suburban girl. We had met in college, but we clicked because she was one of the few people I had met on campus who was from Chicago. But I soon found out that she was actually from Naperville. She had been born and raised there. She was the textbook definition of a suburbanite. The only hood terms she knew were what the students in her science class taught her at Provost Academy. The school was in the city, on the south side, but it was one of few that was a private high school that focused on college preparation.
“Anyway, yea, him, Dame. Well, I failed to mention that I kinda…” I cringed in shame. Then I just spit it out quickly, “…hired him to be my fiancé.”
“What?!” Erica spat.
My face fell into my hands. “I know,” I whined.
“Are you for real?”
“Yes. I want my money, and I’m sick of Nneka and Amaechi looking at me like a fucking science project.”
“Well… I feel you, shit.”
I sighed with relief, smiling because my bestie didn’t think I was as silly and crazy as I’d felt doing this.
“But what do you mean you hired him? You’re paying him?”
“Yea. I figured that’s the only way I could convince someone to do all of this without flaking on me.”
“True.”
I started running my toes over the carpet. That always relaxed me. “We went to dinner with my family Friday night.”
“Oh, God,” Erica groaned, only because she knew how stressful being around Amaechi and Nneka was for me.
“I know, but Dame handled them like a fucking pro.” I smiled at the recollection.
“That's because he’s a gawd damn gangsta.”
I giggled. “Right. My mama was so happy, too happy almost. I have never seen her smile so much.”
“Awww, that was so sweet. Was Nneka being messy?”
My eyes rolled to the ceiling. “Hell yea. You know she was. The bitch had the nerve to look him up on Facebook right there at the table.”
Erica sucked her teeth. “Oh my God! She is such a fucking brat.”
“I swear. Hating-ass bitch. Tried to put him on blast for having three kids.”
“Oooo, I know Amaechi was judgiiiing.”
“Of course, he was, but Dame checked his ass. Amaechi asked him about his kids, implying that he had three baby mamas and was a part-time daddy, and Dame told his ass that his kids were the best thing in his life, besides me, that he would never explain to anybody.”
“Oooo, I know Amaechi was tight.”
“Looked like he was sucking a fucking egg,” I said, cracking up. “My mama loves Dame, though. She would not stop taking pictures.”
“Let me see the pictures,” Erica urged eagerly.
I reached for my phone on my desk, swiped through the apps to my photo gallery, and sent her the pictures that my mother had shared with me from the night. As we waited for them to arrive in Erica’s text inbox, I told her about the rest of the dinner. It had gone pretty well after Dame put Amaechi in his place. I guessed Amaechi saw that Dame was not to be fucked with, so he’d returned his chest to its rightful position and acted right for the rest of the meal.
“This is him?!” Erica suddenly exclaimed.
I smiled, knowing that Erica had to be drooling at the pictures because I did every time I looked at them. “Yaaaas,” I crooned.
“Daaaamn, he is fine!” she exclaimed.
“Isn’t he?” I gushed.
“Shit!” she salivated.
My grin was so wide and cheesy, as if Dame was really my man.
“So, when is the wedding going to be?”
“We’re going to rush it, so
I won’t take up so much of Dame’s life. So, we’re planning a Winter Ball Wedding.”
“Oh, gosh,” Erica groaned. I knew she had done that because she knew I had picked that time of year so I could have a reason to wear a long-sleeved dress.
“That’s going to be so dope, though.” Then she laughed. “I think it's hilarious that you’re getting Amaechi for his coin.”
“I love it, and my mother is paying for the wedding.”
“With Amaechi’s money.”
“Right!” I cackled.
Erica’s laughter then turned into a groan. “Urgh. My lunch is over. I gotta go back in here with these kids.”
I giggled. “Okay, girl.”
“Bye,” she replied reluctantly.
I was still all smiles as I hung up. Thinking of Dame had me giddy. Even though that dinner was a façade, it was one of the best dates I had been on in a long time. The fake date I’d had with him at the club the week before had been the other.
Dame was a walking wet dream in that suit. I had to remind myself for the days following the dinner that the man in the suit was pure fiction, that that kiss was an act. But it wouldn’t leave my mind. Even as I sat in my office, I had to squeeze my legs together to keep the thought of him dominantly standing in my living room in that suit from making my clitoris quiver.
“Fuck it,” I moaned as I stood up. I shuffled towards the door in my bare feet. I then shut and locked it.
I had been fighting lust since I’d met Dame. Once Dame and I had gotten back to my place after dinner, I literally had to force myself not to invite him up. I had kept our goodbye short and sweet. I thanked him for accompanying me and hurried into my building, feeling the goosebumps on the back of my neck that he had been putting there all night.
I couldn’t think of Dame in that way. It was a lost cause. We were in two different worlds and were headed in two different directions. Even though he was trying to retire, I couldn’t bring a dope boy home to my mother. My father had been a hustler, but it was the very struggle that his hustle had put us in that had caused so many stressful moments in my mother’s life. Memories of the lights being cut off or having to piece together meals plagued her. She had never wanted to blame my father for the fire. She loved him too much to ever do that. However, she did blame herself for not choosing a more responsible man to be with who would have ensured that the gas had been on that night so that there would have never been a need for the space heaters that had caused the deadly inferno.
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