“Because, Travis will want to hang around us, and we won’t be able to really do our thing. He’s clingy as hell, and it’s driving me nuts!”
“But you’re gonna marry him? How are you gonna handle his clinginess for the rest of your life?”
“OMG, you gotta be so negative? I’ll help him change or whatever.”
“Nicky, do you even love this man?”
“Hell, no! I ain’t got time for that mess!”
I shook my head. “You know what? Zo is having a book release party in a couple of weeks. It’s an all-white thing. How about you just come to that, and we’ll skip girls’ night this month?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, Angie and Ryan will be there. Bring Travis if you want.”
“Okay—wait, so Angie already knew about this? Were you going to invite me?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m inviting you now. Hey, I gotta go. Talk to you later.”
“All right. Text me the details for the party when you get a chance.”
“Will do.”
I ended the call and pushed out a frustrated breath as Rell pulled to a stop in Lorenzo’s mom’s driveway.
Lorenzo reached for my hand and chuckled. “Your sister is really a trip, isn’t she?”
“Trip isn’t the word. Insane, loony, crazy as hell? Those would fit.”
“But you love her.”
“Yeah, I do. I’ll just really, really be glad when she grows the hell up.”
Lorenzo leaned in and kissed my cheek. “I hear you. You ready?”
“Yeah. I’m actually looking forward to this dinner with your mom. Can’t wait to see what she has to reveal tonight.”
He groaned as he climbed out of the backseat of the Maybach and reached for my hand. Stepping out onto the cobblestone driveway, I tried to kiss him but he stopped me.
“You get no affection from me since you already have plans of laughing at my ass tonight.”
“I won’t be laughing at you, baby. I’ll be laughing with you.”
“You know the hell I don’t be laughing.”
“Aww, baby.” I looped my arm with his and leaned into him as we ascended the front steps to his mother’s home with Rell right behind us.
*****
“…and this is Zo in kindergarten. See how chubby he was? But he was always tall,” Mama Higgs, as she insisted I call her, gushed.
“Oh, Zo! You were adorable in your little Big Bird overalls!” I squealed.
I was sitting on the couch in the living room next to his mom, who was thumbing through old photo albums, proudly showing me pictures of Lorenzo. He was sitting across from us in an easy chair, his hand covering his face.
“I’m a thug. I ain’t never been adorable in my whole life,” he groaned.
His mother shot him a look. “I thought you were through thugging.”
“I don’t do nothing but be up in the house writing and stuff. Dang!”
“Mm-hmm,” his mother said with a smirk.
“When is Mel gonna be back? I can’t believe you let her take the baby with her to that dude’s house,” Lorenzo muttered.
“That dude is Loren’s father, and don’t be mad because they got back together after you chased him away before Loren was born. That’s a nice young man.”
“A nice young man who got your daughter pregnant.”
“Zo, that boy is a year younger than Melyssa. You really need to quit, and I know you’re just trying to distract me from showing Renee these pictures. You ain’t slick.”
He stood from his seat. “I’ma go see what Rell is doing.”
“He’s outside sitting in that car, running your battery down listening to the radio like he always does, and you know it. He ran up out of here as soon as we finished eating.”
Lorenzo basically didn’t acknowledge what she said by saying, “I’ll be back.”
“He’s such a big baby,” she said, shaking her head. “Will go to pouting in a second.”
I laughed. “I noticed.”
She flipped the page in the photo album. “Oh, here he is in fifth grade.”
I smiled at the class picture with Lorenzo standing in the back, towering over the other students. “He was so tall! But he looks the same.”
She nodded. “Mm-hmm. So much like his father…” She wore a faint smile as she fingered the edge of the photo album page.
“Do you have a picture of him? You know Lorenzo doesn’t have any pictures around his house.”
“Hmm, that boy. I bet if you gave him a picture of you, he’d hang it up.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Why do you say that?”
“Because he loves you. I have a feeling he’d love to be able to look at your face all the time, even when you’re not there.”
“He loves you and Melyssa, too.”
“True, but that’s different. Never seen him like he is with you. Now, let me get that picture.” She stood and walked over to a bookshelf in the gorgeously-decorated living room. Where Lorenzo’s home was huge and oversized in every way, his mother’s home was much smaller and cozy with mismatched, but expensive, furniture covered in yellow and light green fabrics. I had noticed the bookcase but had not paid attention to the framed photo she removed and brought back to the sofa with her.
“Here’s my Clarence.”
I took the photo from her and stared at it for a moment. He was smiling, standing in front of a car. He was big and tall just like Lorenzo, and the resemblance was almost frightening. “He was handsome. Wow.”
She nodded. “And I was as crazy about that man as you are about my Zo.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “It’s that obvious, huh?”
“Mm-hmm, it’s written all over you, and I’m glad about it. He needs to be in love and be loved. He’s a good man, just took him a while to get there, but one thing I know: he takes care of those he loves. He doesn’t need a driver, but he loves Tyrell like a brother, so he gave him a job. He loves me, so he’s taken care of me ever since he was a boy running the streets. When Mel’s father thought he was gonna put his hands on me? Honey, Zo took care of him real good. Scared Loren’s daddy so bad after he found out she was pregnant, he stopped calling Mel for months.”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I know he’s definitely protective, maybe overprotective. Rell’s been driving me to work because of it.”
She chuckled. “I’m not surprised. Better he be overprotective than indifferent.”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s true.”
We were both quiet for a moment until she said, “Renee, will you do me a favor?”
With a slightly furrowed brow, I replied, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Stick with him. He loves you. You love him, and he never really got over losing his father. And Lord, he lost so many friends when he was running the streets. He has a big fear of losing the people he cares about. Things might get rocky, because he’s not perfect, but I can promise you he won’t do anything to hurt you. He needs you, and I believe you need him, so please stick with him.”
I reached over and rested my hand on hers. “I will. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without him.”
29
“…and I want popcorn,” Renee said, as we headed inside the movie theater.
I squeezed her hand. “Anything else, your highness?”
She shot me a grin. “Yeah, you could at least pretend to be happy about us going to the movies.”
I sighed. “I just don’t see the point. Anything they’re showing here, I can get on bootleg and we can watch at home in our theater. I could’ve had Rell’s ass go get us some damn popcorn and Twizzlers.”
“Rell is off tonight.”
“Yeah, because you said so.”
“Zo, you were skirting close to slave labor with him. Don’t you think the man deserves off days?”
“Doc, he doesn’t even work a full eight hours a day. He drives when we need him to, washes the cars once a week, and works the gate controls when needed, and we barely ever have company.”
“But he basically has to be ready to drive or answer the gate at all times, and let’s not mention how he has to be ready to go on any errand you think up at any time of the day or night.”
I shook my head. “You’re too soft-hearted, but that’s probably why you’re with my ass, so I won’t complain about it.”
We got our tickets to the latest Kevin Hart buddy cop comedy and moved to the back of one of the concession lines.
“Damn,” I mumbled, “look at all these people in here. We could’ve stayed at home and watched this same movie, naked, with my hand between your legs.”
“But the popcorn. You can’t beat movie theater popcorn,” she said, with a serious look on her face.”
I leaned in and kissed her, murmured, “Shit, Doc, I could pop some microwave popcorn and line it up on my pussy and eat for days.”
She smiled, and softly said, “You are so nasty.”
“You like it.”
“Yeah, but not enough to leave. Your antisocial ass is going to this movie.”
I groaned.
We had finally made it to the front of the line when I saw him—short, ugly as hell, standing there with some unfortunate woman. I stared him down, hoping he’d notice me. When Robert Mattison finally looked in my direction, I slowly smiled at him and then made a little lunging move in his direction. This fool actually jumped and yelled, “Ah!!!” Then he took off running, leaving his date behind. He ran into a whole family that had just entered the lobby, knocked down what looked to be the father.
All the commotion made Renee turn around, and say, “What in the world?”
I shrugged, my eyes on her ex, who’d fallen to the floor with the man he knocked down and was now scrambling to his feet. “I don’t know. Something going on by the doors.”
Popcorn in hand, she stared at the scene. “That looks like…never mind. You ready?”
I nodded as I leaned in to kiss her. “Yeah, baby. I’m actually looking forward to seeing this movie now.”
*****
“Hurry, Zo! You dragging up these stairs knowing I got to pee! I should’ve just went downstairs.”
“Damn, I’m moving as fast as I can. Shit, I’m older and bigger than you, and you just expect my ass to hop up these stairs?”
I could hear her let out a loud sigh from behind me, and I smiled, stopped at the top of the stairs, and looked back at her.
“Zo, move your old ass out the way!”
I shook my head. “Not unless you kiss me first.”
“Ugh! Fine!” She let my lips almost touch hers and then slipped past me.
“Hey!” I called after her. “That’s messed up, Doc!”
“Whatever!” she yelled, as she trotted down the hall to our bedroom.
I wasn’t far behind her, yelling, “Why don’t you just take those panties all the way off and bend over the counter for me?”
Through the closed bathroom door, she said, “What if I’m doing number two?”
“Aw, hell. Are you? You gone be in there for hours.”
“Shut up! And no, I’m not, but what if I was? You’d still want me to bend over the counter?”
“Hell, no! I ain’t coming in there letting that scent knock me out.”
“My shit don’t stank, Zo.”
“Hell if it doesn’t.”
I walked over to the window in our room and peered outside, letting my eyes settle on Rell’s apartment above the garage. I saw him open his door, stick his head out, and look around before closing the door again.
“The hell is he doing?” I muttered.
A minute or so later, the door opened again, and Rell walked out, followed by— “Hey, Doc! You done in there?”
“Yeah, I’m done! I’m in here bent over this counter like you asked!”
“For real?!”
“For real! You need to come on and get this pussy!”
Shit! “Uh…can you come here a second, baby?”
A second or two later, she emerged from the bathroom, naked from the waist down, and I had to grab my dick to keep it from jumping out of my pants. “Damn…”
She gave me a smirk. “What is it?”
“Huh?”
“You asked me to come out here for something.”
“Oh, yeah. Is that the chick from Genesis outside with Rell?”
She joined me at the window. Rell and the lady were locked in a kiss at that moment, and when they parted, he took her hand and led her down the steps, put her in my Escalade, and drove off. “I’ll be damned, that is her, isn’t it?”
Renee covered her mouth with her hand and nodded, then said a muffled, “I can’t believe it. Janine and Rell? Wow! Like, how do they communicate?”
“I don’t know, but it looked to me like they were communicating just fine.”
“Wow…just, wow!”
“Yeah.” I shifted my attention to her big-old naked ass. “So, uh…you wanna go back in the bathroom and bend over the counter for me again so I can get that pussy?”
“Nope. You missed your chance.”
“Come on, baby. I’m over here all hard and stuff.”
“I don’t care. You should’ve come in the bathroom instead of being nosy.”
“Like you ain’t nosy.”
“I might be nosy, but I’m not the one with the hard penis. I’m going to bed.”
She actually walked off, too. Climbed in the bed and closed her eyes. She yelped in surprise when I climbed on top of her, and said, “You need to stop playing and give me some.”
She giggled. “I love you. You know that?”
As I settled in between her open legs, I said, “I love you, too, Doc.”
30
Lorenzo’s book release party was held in the ballroom at the Sable Inn. The space was decorated in black from the table cloths to the chair covers to the plates on the tables. The centerpieces even consisted of black roses in black vases. A huge replica of the cover of Bulletproof 3: Origins—a young black male toddler in a t-shirt, jeans, and Timberlands holding a toy gun, with a tilted crown on his head and a pool of blood surrounding his feet—covered a portion of the wall near the room’s entrance, serving as a backdrop for pictures to be taken. A red carpet stretched all the way from the hotel’s front entrance to the ballroom.
Bulletproof 3 was the story of Cali, the villain in book one. In it, readers learn about his life, tragic upbringing, and how he came to be the ruthless drug lord Monty despised. I’d read it and was floored by how good it was despite the fact that I already knew Lorenzo had skills. I was so proud of him, not only for the phenomenal job he did writing the book, but also because this was the first book he released through his own company, Zo Publications (Stylized with a line through the Z in Zo). In attendance were two other authors he’d signed in recent months—Lady Kane and Greg Tremble. I’d read their submissions and truly believed Zo Publications was about to totally change the fiction game.
About thirty lucky readers were invited, and from the way the space was filling up, it looked like they were all there, with a few bringing dates. Also in attendance were more than a few book bloggers, about a dozen book industry movers and shakers—including Lorenzo’s now former agent—a couple of local reporters, Lorenzo’s mother and sister, my sisters and their men, and me. I had invited my mother, but she had other plans, as seemed to always be the case with her recently.
The dress code was all white everything, Lorenzo wore a white tuxedo. I wore a white body-con dress with a plunging v-neckline and off-the-shoulder ruffle frill detail that stopped just above my knees. I looked hot. I mean, I looked scorching hot. I knew I looked hot even before Lorenzo told me. This was something I never would’ve worn before being with him. He just made me feel so damn sexy and comfortable in my skin. Hence, I decided to pair the dress with white, lace-up corset heels.
My ensemble made me look so good, I almost turned myself on.
Instead of my usual ponytail, my bone straight hair was parted in the middle and fel
l to my shoulders. The only jewelry I wore was a pair of diamond stud earrings Lorenzo had given me as a gift a few weeks into our relationship before I made it plain to him that expensive jewelry wasn’t really my thing. My love language was quality time, not gift giving. And Lorenzo? His, of course, was physical touch.
“Shit, Doc. I don’t know how much longer I’ma be able to let you keep that dress on. You look so good I can’t think straight,” Lorenzo whispered in my ear, as we stood near the entrance greeting guests.
“Really? Do I look that good?”
“You literally look good enough to eat, over and over and over—”
“Hey, daddy! Long time no seeee!”
I frowned at the loud voice coming from…somewhere. I didn’t have to wonder about the source of the outburst long, though, because Sofia Vergara quickly stepped from behind Lorenzo and into view.
I looked at Lorenzo and lifted an eyebrow.
With a frown on his face, he said, “Veda? How the hell you get in here?”
“With this,” she said, holding up an invitation. “I’ve always been a fan, remember, papi? That’s how we met, at one of your book signings. I was one of your randomly selected guests for tonight.”
“Ain’t that a bitch?” he mumbled.
She pursed her lips. “I’m not here to cause no trouble, Zo. I just wanted to congratulate you, even though you’ve been ignoring me.” She shifted her eyes to me. “You could’ve told me you moved on. I mean, all we were doing was fucking, right? It’s not like you cared about me or anything, right?! Right?! RIGHT?! ¡Te odio, idiota! Motherfuckerrrrrrr!”
My eyes widened as her voice grew louder and louder and she became more and more unhinged by the second, eyes bugged, arms flailing as she made these wild gestures with her hands, neck rolling, hair swinging from side to side.
Lorenzo looked like he either wanted to run away or disappear. “Veda, don’t do this shit right now. I don’t wanna have to call the cops on you to get you out of here. You’ve got kids.”
“I know I have kids, you fucker! I also have a heart and a soul, unlike you! You just threw me away for-for her?! I gave you allll this pussy repeatedly, repetidamente, and you gonna do me like this?! ¿De verdad?! You sonuvvabitch!”
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