by Edwina Fort
I laughed. “She did not say sh*t.”
He looked down at her and frowned… “I can’t remember, did you say sh*t?”
Jessie could not hold on anymore and erupted in laughter… “Noooo!” she screamed before she leaped up and tried to punch his daylights out, but he caught her and started tickling her until she yelled that she had to pee.
I shook my head as I watched them. Jessie was so rough and Hitta was only condoning that behavior.
“Okay, Jess…You got yo’ Tee-Tee giving me the mean eye… Plus, I got to ride.”
She threw her arms around his waist. “Can I go with you?”
Chuckling he headed over to the counter where his thermos was with her still clinging to him.
"Not this time, lil mama." He picked up his thermos. "Is this for me?"
I nodded…wondering what kind of tea Greatie made for him. I also wondered if he will be able to tell the difference between our brews. He probably won’t, only someone that knew tea would be able to. Tea was like wine, either you knew or you didn’t.
He grabbed one of the muffins off the plate and took a huge bite as he headed for the door, but then his steps came to a complete halt as he whipped back around to look at the plate of muffins.
“Damn, shawty…these joints good as hell.” He said as he walked back to the plate. “Did y’all eat already?”
Chuckling both Jessie and me nodded. He took down another plate and put two muffins on it.
“Just in case y’all want one later.”
“How considerate…” I laughed. It was like twenty muffins on the plate and he only left us two.
He shrugged with fake humility… “It ain’t nothing…”
I held my head back and laughed at that as he carried the full plate without covering it or anything out the door.
Note to self: Get the elderberry muffin recipe from Greatie.
For the life me I don’t know how she always knows what to make, when to make, what to sew, what to say…but she does. I had no idea Hitta was getting ready to go into the gym or else, I would have made his tea. But somehow my Greatie did, she was always on time, it’s one of the reasons I loved her so much.
However, the fact that she didn’t let Hitta see her frightens me though.
Did she do that because she didn’t like him?
Greatie was a good judge of character. Did her action mean that Hitta was bad for me?
Jessie exhaled loudly and miserably as she climbed up on the couch and watched his truck drive away… “I wish I could go with him.”
I rubbed her back, poor baby looked as if she’d lost her dog…
Jessie thought Hitta was the best thing since sliced bread. Over the last couple of weeks, she's been going to the gym nearly every day after school. He bought her a little pair of pink boxing gloves and has been teaching her how to box. And believe it or not, she was a natural.
Hitta was so impressed with how well she was learning what he was showing her that he had Wayne start her a YouTube channel called Hitta’s Little Princess… The daggone channel had over ten-thousand subscribers before that first week was out…
Because this was all so very new to me, I didn’t know if he was a bad influence or a good one. All this time, I’ve been trying to teach Jessie how to be more ladylike and here he was teaching her how to throw them thangs…Hitta’s words.
But at the same time, I’ve never seen her happier than when she was with him. And I guess I can admit that I was a little jealous that she didn’t want to hang out with her Tee-Tee anymore. The other night, I was able to leave the shop early because Summer and Kayla, the other young lady I hired, assured me that they could handle the light evening rush and I didn’t need to stay there hovering over them like a mother hen.
Hitta had called me earlier that day and said that he and Jessie were on their way to get some food and were headed to the house. So, I was super excited that they were home already because I wanted to do some curtain shopping and was looking forward to them going with me.
When Lannox dropped me off, I practically ran into the house I was so excited. That was when I discovered Hitta was still letting Jessie play GTO…I walked in on her and Wayne involved in an intense game. Hitta, Carmen, Maddox and two more guys I’d never seen before all sat in the living room eating chicken wings and fries.
I plopped down on the couch next to Hitta and after stealing one of his wings asked him if he wanted to go curtain shopping with me. You would have thought I asked that man to go get his colon checked with the way that he looked at me.
He shook his head… “Sh*t, naw… Yikes!”
“Why not!?”
He chuckled. “Shawty, I’d rather do anything else in the world than that…” He pointed at Wayne… “Ay, Bo…order some curtains, man! You see the lady want some curtains.”
I slapped his arm. “You play too much.”
This caused everybody to laugh at me. That was something else they always did…
Laugh at me…
I think to them I was a bit of a lame. Jessie came over and got a few fries. I stood and took her hand before turning to Hitta with my other hand on my hip.
“Forget you then…Jessie will go with me.”
She made a startled sound in her throat and then just went limp. I turned to look down at her surprised because she’d just fainted.
“Jessie, are you alright?” I asked shaking her hand.
“Can’t go shopping ‘cause I'm dead," she muttered without opening her eyes.
Of course, this caused Hitta to roar with laughter. He laughed harder than I’d ever heard him laugh before. He laughed so hard he damn near choked on a fry…I kid y’all not, Wayne had to pound on his back.
I narrowed my eyes at him as I stood there still holding Jessie’s limp hand while she lay on the floor next to me playing dead.
“Come on, boss lady, I’ll go curtain shopping with you,” Carmen told me, coming to my rescue.
I admitted to her while we shopped that my feelings were hurt that Jessie had abandoned me for Hitta.
“She never wants to spend time with me anymore.”
“Don’t let that get to you. My uncle may be a grouch, but he is really fun. When I was Jessie’s age, he was my favorite person in the world.”
“What about me? I’m fun!” I whined.
She rubbed my back. “Yeah…You are.” I could tell in her voice that she was just telling me that and my eyes must have said as much.
“Well, look at it like this…at least my uncle thinks you’re fun.”
Both of us paused at her words… she cringed. “I didn’t mean in that way.” So yeah…we had a good laugh after that.
Hm?
Oh! Sorry about that…I got a little off topic again. I was telling you guys how I ended up in my most recent predicament.
That Sunday night when it was time to drop off Jessie, my heart was heavy just like it was every time I brought her back home. This was not a safe place for my baby…But because I was just her aunt and neither of her parents saw anything wrong with her environment, I was forced to do this every week.
I told Hitta that he may want to come back and get me because I would probably be a while cleaning up inside.
“Naw…I’ll wait.” He killed the engine and let his seat back pulling his baseball cap down over his closed eyes.
“You sure?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I can catch up on my rest…making you scream all night got me tired.”
My mouth fell open as I prayed Jessie didn’t hear him. “Hitta!”
“Calm down, she ain’t hear me,” he muttered without opening his eyes.
Shaking my head, I headed into the building preparing myself for the task ahead. However, Peaches met us at the door.
"Uh-uh!" she said shaking her head, “You ain’t dropping her off with me. Her mammy ain’t been home since Thursday…I am not finna get stuck with her a**. I’ll have Trina call when she get home.” And then she slammed the
door in our faces.
My stunned gaze went down to Jessie's. With a huge grin on her face, she shrugged.
“I guess I have to go back to yo’ house then.”
“I guess so…” And at my house she’s been ever since…There has been no word from Trina and it’s been two weeks. Hitta says not to worry about it and that Jessie is welcomed to stay here as long as she wants. But the crazy part about it was that Jessie didn’t even ask after her mom. She didn’t ask to call her or anything.
It was me who was calling Peaches from time to time to see if she’d heard from Trina…Well, at least I was. The last few times I called, I got a message saying that the phone had been disconnected. I called a few people who sometimes hung out with Westly to see if they’d heard from him or knew where he was with no luck…
Both of my babies’ parents were M.I.A and I didn’t know what was going on with that. So, yeah… that was one of the problems I’d been dealing with over the past two weeks. Now let me tell you guys about problem number two, Ms. Shantell, Hitta’s ex-girlfriend.
Do y’all remember me telling you guys about the pretty lady who was working at the front desk of the gym that day, the one who I said was perfect for him because she looked like his type?
Well, that’s Shantell…his ex, go figure.
Last Wednesday, Jessie wanted me to meet her at the gym so that I could watch her shoot her YouTube video…Her words.
After the afternoon rush at the Tea Shop, I told Summer I was going to take an hour lunch break and that I will be back before the evening rush. Carmen was working at the gym that day and Kayla was off, so I didn’t want to leave Summer by herself for too long.
Don’t get me wrong, she is a remarkable employee, and I was already thinking about making her front of the house manager. It’s not that she can’t handle being alone, I just didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on her so soon.
Anyway, I got Maddox to run me by the gym and walked into several surprises.
First, I’d thought that Jessie’s little YouTube videos were being filmed on Wayne’s smartphone or something like that….
I was wrong!
There was a full camera crew there. Hitta was in the ring with Jessie holding some kind of pads on his hands and he was calling out punch combinations as she threw them in her little pink boxing gloves.
And…You know, I must say that although I wanted her to be more of a girlie girl like me, I was proud of her; it was clear that she wasn’t and probably never will be.
He’d say something like…Jab, jab, left hook, uppercut, jab, and Jessie would follow through, throwing the proper punches…
My baby was good…I can’t lie.
So, I’m standing there watching them practice when Ms. Thang walks up to me.
“Ummm, can I help you? If you not working out, you need to leave. We don’t allow just anybody in here off the streets!”
I recognized her instantly. At the time I didn’t know that she was Shantell, I just remembered her being angry with me the other day after I’d come in looking for Westly and Hitta shut her down and made her see to what I needed.
So, I smiled, trying to extend an olive branch as I gestured toward the ring.
“I’m Jessie’s aunt…”
She rolled her eyes much like she’d did the other day… “Oh! Okay then, you need to go over there and take a seat like the other guests. We have dangerous equipment in here and don't need you falling trying to sue nobody." As she spoke, she rudely pointed at some chairs that were lined up against the far wall.
“Oookay…” I said as I turned and headed toward the chairs.
Although I didn’t appreciate the way she was speaking to me, I did what she said. Maybe the gym had rules and she was just following the rules.
But as I sat and waited for Jessie and Hitta to finish, I watched Ms. Thang move around the gym like she was the queen. Dressed in black Nike yoga pants that hugged her perfectly shaped hips and a halter top that showed off the fact that she obviously worked out because unlike me, she didn’t have a softly curved stomach with love handles. Her stomach was like a washboard. And she didn’t have big full breasts like mine, she had perfect C cups that were playing peek-a-boo with that halter top in a scandalous way. Every time she held up her arms, I saw a few men visibly hold their breath at the off chance that top will raise just an inch more and they’ll get that nipple shot that’s been teasing them all day.
She joked, flirted with, and teased the guys… who all looked at her with desire in their eyes. She brought Hitta and Jessie a bottle of water and set it on the floor of the ring for when they were done shooting and said something to Wayne, who stood by the producer no doubt telling him how to do his job that caused him to laugh. The whole time, she made me feel like the outsider I was.
I looked down at my baggy jeans with the holes at the knees. I loved these jeans and I’d paired them with my cream cashmere sweater. That morning I thought I looked cute. Ever since Hitta has been in my life, I’ve felt good and had been dressing to reflect how I felt. But now, in the presence of Ms. Baywatch…tall, stacked and tempting, I felt frumpy again.
Carmen came out of a door that was close to where I sat. When she saw me, she frowned, “Why are you all the way over here by yourself?”
I pointed at Ms. Thang… “She told me to sit over here so that I didn’t get hurt on the equipment.”
Carmen put her hand on her hip as her face hardened. “Bullsh*t! Shantell a** just being messy!”
You couldn’t have slapped me and surprised me more in that moment. “Wait! That’s Hitta’s ex?”
With her lips pressed together, she nodded. “Yeah, that’s her trifling a**. Walking around here with that little bitty shirt on and no bra. Who the hell comes to a gym with no bra on? A hooker, that’s who!”
I was floored. So, the woman who had walked around the gym for the last thirty minutes like she was the queen here was Hitta’s ex?!
“I don’t know why he won’t fire her…Come on, you don’t have to sit over here.” Carmen took my hand and pulled me back toward the ring.
Oh, my goodness! My emotions were a mess…For the first time in my life, I was experiencing jealousy.
Why did Hitta have his ex working at his gym? What the heck?
All this time, I’ve been feeling like the outsider because I wasn’t like Hitta and his crew, Shantell was here blending in well with everybody. Not once did I see anybody laugh at her like they laughed at me. She looked like she was a part of the crew…
Standing there I experienced a little bit of trauma and as I do whenever I experience trauma, I scrambled to obtain balance so that I didn’t break.
I reminded myself that Hitta was never mine to begin with. My brother stole money from him. He and I had a six-month agreement. Yeah, I felt hurt because I’d foolishly let my feelings get involved. But it’s okay, I was a virgin and he is very good at making me have amazing orgasms. It’s quite natural for me to confuse that with something else.
But I was alright now. I will not make that mistake again. Two weeks had passed, I had five months and two weeks to go and then we will go our separate ways. Sex is just sex…
Okay, I’m alright…I can do this. This will not break me!
If my mom abandoning me didn’t break me, then neither will this.
If me ending up in the foster home and living with a pervert didn’t break me, then neither would this…
If I was able to put a smile on my face, although I was struggling to start my own business while supporting my brother in rehab and taking care of his daughter and her mom…then I can put a smile on my face right now…
And although it hurt like hell…When Hitta and Jessie finished their session, I smiled as if nothing in the world was wrong. He reached down over the ropes, wrapped one arm around my waist and lifted me all the way up to hug him.
“Hey, baby…I missed you,” he whispered in my ear as he enveloped me in his embrace, causing everything else to
cease to exist at that moment. As my eyes drifted shut, I knew I was doomed because here in his arms is where I felt the safest. Here in his arms is where it felt like I belonged…
Dear God, help me…I was so doomed.
***********
So, okay…that was last week. I’ve been back to the gym a few times and managed to avoid Shantell…Although I wanted to, I didn’t ask Hitta about her or why the hell he had her working at his gym with him.
So that brings us to today.
Believe it or not, the day started off beautiful. Because it was my day off and Jessie would be in school for the first half of it, Hitta and I decided to go downtown for lunch. The news said that we were going to get a break from the winter-like weather on this April day and that it was actually going to be pretty mild, mild meaning sixty degrees. And if you are from Chicago, you know that you take advantage of those days.
So, because I was feeling good, I decided to put on my favorite summer dress that I could get away with by wearing a shawl. I liked this dress because it was the same colors as my Greatie’s skirt. But the thing is I’d had the dress since I was like fifteen. And I’d worn it so many times that one of the spaghetti straps refused to stay up on my shoulder, so I spent the whole time I wore it pulling it back up. But outside of that, it was a beautiful dress, light and breezy and fell on my body in a most flattering way.
Because there could be no bra straps, I wore my blue strapless bra underneath with the matching panties. After doing my hair and putting on my jewelry, I felt sexy. And when I left out the bathroom and Hitta tried to pull me into the bed, I knew I was sexy.
He couldn’t keep his eyes or hands off me and as we walked around downtown, I had to constantly push him away or smack his hands from going where they didn’t belong. My lips were kiss-swollen because he’d pulled me to the side and kissed me so many times it’s a wonder we made it anywhere.
Several times folks stopped us for an autograph or to take a picture with Hitta. He took me to Oprah Winfrey’s favorite restaurant and once again the chef came out to greet us and take our orders personally.