by Sephiri J
“I’m not leavin’ my mom,” Rigs stated, “but I need time.”
“Why?”
He sighed. “I need time so I can tell her about us.”
“Huh?” I asked and cocked my head to the side.
“I need to ease her into the fact that I’m dating a nigga. She don’t know I’m gay, man. She don’t know about you. I can’t just throw this shit on her. Tellin’ her she gotta leave everyone she knows and move across the country is one thing, but adding on the fact that I’m moving her with my boyfriend is a whole other thing. I need time to explain what’s going on to her.”
“She don’t know about me?” I yelled.
I knew Rigs hadn’t come out to his friends and the people around him because he said it would affect his image in the industry, but his mother was different. I knew how close they were. He talked about her all the time to me. I knew he would do anything for that woman. He was damn near a mama’s boy. So, the fact that we’d been fucking around for all this time, and he hadn’t even mentioned me to her was stinging like a motherfucker.
“Quit yelling at me, nigga,” Rigs snapped. “Nah, I ain’t tell her. Sorry, but this shit is different, man. So, give me some time to get it out the right way.”
“I’ll give you an extra day, Rigs. Friday. But that’s it. We gotta make moves,” I angrily said.
I’d concocted this whole plan to save this man and his mama’s ass. Shit that could get me killed if anyone found out exactly what I did, but he was dragging his feet because he didn’t want to tell his mama about me. I was pissed.
“I’m sorry, Lucas. Listen, just try to understand, okay?” he said as he walked up and reached out to touch my face.
“Nah, baby, fuck that,” I said and roughly brushed his hand off me. “Tell your mother about me. This is fucked up. We gotta go, and I’m not tryin’ to sit here like a sitting duck for Guwop to come after me. Tell your mother about me, or I swear I will.”
A look came over Rigs’ face, and he stepped back from me. “Don’t you ever threaten me about what I should and shouldn’t tell my people. I told you I would tell her when I felt like the time was right.”
His tone made me shut up for a minute. His eyes were dark, and I could tell he was mad at me for threatening him, but that didn’t negate the fact that I was dead ass serious.
“I heard you. And that’s why I’m pushing this off. But, I’m serious, Rigs, don’t make me have to revisit this. She needs to fucking know.”
“I gotta go,” Rigs said and brushed past me then walked out the door.
I watched him leave, and a sour taste was left in my mouth. I hated the fact that I might have to follow through on this threat, but enough was enough. He had to be real about our relationship and stop hiding it from the world, especially the person closest to him. I wasn’t going to stay his secret forever. Not after everything I had just sacrificed and did for him. His mother was going to know by the end of the week, even if I had to tell her myself.
6
Bo
I prayed that the cops who showed up at the house had snatched Greg’s ass up and threw him under the jail. I didn’t care for what at this point. Disorderly conduct, assault, being a dumb ass nigga, whatever. He needed to go. I was driving back up to my parents’ house now after dropping Sade off at my house. She seemed fine, but I could tell she was still upset. I didn’t blame her, but she already knew she could stay with me for as long as she needed to. There wasn’t a question about that.
I hadn’t even mentioned any of the shit I’d been going through to her because she already had a lot on her plate. I’d turned my phone off because City had been blowing me up since I left the house, and I didn’t even want to see his name pop up on my screen. Just the thought of him was making me fight back tears, but I forced myself to think about something else. Right now, what I needed was to see my father and get some answers. On top of that, I was broke, broke. I was trying to let things stretch but I couldn’t. Now that Sade was with me, the two of us would hopefully be able to figure something out, but I needed a loan from my father. No matter how much I hated asking for help, I knew I didn’t have a choice at this point.
I was steeling myself for the conversation that I knew I was about to have with him, but when I pulled up to the house, my stomach dropped to my feet. There were two sheriff cars in the driveway, and my father was talking to them outside while my mother looked hysterical standing on the steps. I pulled up, parked behind the squad car, and jumped out.
When I rushed over to my father and the cop, I heard the police officer say, “Sir, there’s nothing I can do. The order has been signed, and the house belongs to the bank. You have twenty-four hours.”
I looked at my father and back to the cop. “Dad, what’s going on?” I asked.
“This is ridiculous!” I heard my mother scream, and I glanced over at her. She looked a mess. I’d never seen her like this before. She had bags under her eyes, and her hair was snatched back in a ponytail. I’d never seen her hair in a ponytail. I didn’t even think she had makeup on. “We pay our bills. Why don’t you go catch the real criminals?”
“Ma’am, I’m just doing my job,” the cop said and walked past my father.
I watched him as he posted a bright orange paper on the door with big letters that read EVICTION NOTICE.
“What’s going on?” I asked my father again as the cops got into their cars to drive off.
He exhaled slowly and started to rub his temples.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” he asked me instead.
“My phone is off. Are you going to tell me what this is?”
“Do you know how embarrassing this is?! I thought you said you had this under control!” my mother screamed, coming up to my father. She pointed her finger in his face. “Fix this! You said you were going to fix this. Do you know how bad this looks?” She glanced around the huge front yard, which was ridiculous because the neighbors were too far away to really see much of anything.
“Larise, just go inside,” my father snapped, and my mother stepped back in shock.
I looked at him in surprise too because usually he didn’t stand up for himself when it came to her. She turned and glared at me then huffed, and in a flurry, she went inside the house.
My father turned back to me, but his eyes were closed as he massaged his temples. I looked at him with my heart in my throat. Something was really wrong. His skin looked gray, and when he finally opened his eyes and looked at me, he looked exhausted.
“Come sit with me,” he said and walked over to the steps of the house.
I walked behind him in silence, and we sat on the steps together.
He sighed and then turned to look at me.
“I’m broke, Bo,” he said.
My eyes opened wide when he said that. I could not be hearing things right. My parents couldn’t be broke. My father had a thriving business, and my mother’s family had left her a lot of money.
“The family is broke. It’s been a long time coming, and we were trying to stay above water, but in the last few weeks, things just came crashing down, and…” He stopped and shrugged.
“What… what happened? I don’t get it,” I said.
“My business hasn’t been doing as well as it used to for the last few years. We started breaking even about five years ago, and then the last three years we were in the red. I didn’t say anything to you or your sister, but your mother knew. But you know how she is, she doesn’t want people to think certain things about her. So, we went on with life like everything was fine. But last year we took a big hit. I got behind on the mortgage about six months ago and never recovered. Thankfully, the cars are all paid for, but things have been real bad for a long time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before? And if things were so bad with you all, why did you spend so much money on this wedding that never even happened? That was $100,000 right there that you could have used to save the house!”
“Bo, there’s so much you don’t know, baby girl,” my father said, shaking his head.
“Well, tell me! I’m a grown woman. Tell me and stop pretending.”
“Dontrell’s father and I were going to partner up in a new venture. We started talking about it about a year ago, right before things got really bad with my business. When things got bad, I didn’t mention how bad they were because I didn’t want him to start questioning my business skills. Their family has a lot of connections and a lot of money, so I needed this deal to go through. I knew that with Mr. Carter as a business partner, we would have a lot more opportunity and resources at our fingertips. But he didn’t want to finalize the deal until after the wedding. So, I went with that, and we acted like everything was fine, even though it wasn’t. We barely had the money to pay for half the wedding. Most of it was a loan I took out that I hoped I’d be able to pay back when the business started making money again.”
I listened to my father in shock. I would never have guessed any of this was going on this whole time.
“But what about Mom’s money? Her family left her a lot of money, I thought.”
“That’s been gone. You know how your mother is. It was like the broker we got, the more she shopped, the more she wanted to travel, the more she wanted to put on for the whole world. Even when I told her we needed to watch what we were spending, she didn’t listen. She used the last of the money she had to finish paying what my loan wouldn’t cover on the wedding. We thought it wouldn’t be a problem because after the wedding, we would get started on the business, and in a few months, we would be on the up again. But since the wedding didn’t happen, Mr Carter was very upset and embarrassed, so he didn’t want to go through with the deal.”
“Oh my God,” I said and buried my head in my hands. I understood everything now. This was horrible.
“I’m sorry, Bo. I don’t want you to think this is your fault. I should have been smarter and dealt with the money that I had instead of what I thought I would have. Dontrell treated you horribly, and I don’t want you to think you should have gone on with the wedding anyway. You deserve more than that. You might be a grown lady right now, but you will always be my little girl, and I want you to be happy.”
I burst into tears when he said that because my heart ached for what he was going through.
“But what are you going to do, Daddy?” I cried. “Where are you going to live? You have twenty-four hours to get out.”
“I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about us.”
“I’m not worried about them, I’m worried about you. She disowned me and pretends like her life is great when she’s struggling like everyone else. I’m not worried about her. But you, Daddy, I don’t need you homeless.”
He chuckled. “I won’t be homeless, Bo. I’ll figure something out.”
“Daddy, if you need somewhere to stay, come stay with me. Okay? Sade is there too, but she can sleep in my bed with me. That’s my sister. You can have my guest room.”
“I know you don’t like your mother or sister right now, Bo, but she’s still my wife. I can’t leave her. I have to take care of her and provide for her because I’m a man at the end of the day. I would expect that if you were in this situation, the man that you were with wouldn’t leave you to fend for yourself.”
I nodded slowly because he was right. Even though my mother didn’t deserve to be treated the way my father was treating her, I understood why he was loyal to her. That was his wife, and he was doing the right thing. Even though I hated that I had to worry about their future.
“So, you know the whole truth about what’s been going on,” he said and gave me a weak smile.
“I met up with Dontrell today. He wanted to apologize, so I gave him that chance. He told me about your failing business, but I thought he was lying. How do they know about your business if you didn’t tell anyone?”
“Word travels.” He shrugged. “I didn’t tell anyone, but if you work for me, it’s painfully obvious that something isn’t right. I had to do layoffs a while back, so someone might have told someone who told someone. You know the Carters know damn near everyone in Miami. I knew they would find out eventually. I just didn’t want them to know how bad it really was.”
I nodded.
“So, you had lunch with him?”
“No, just met him for coffee. He apologized, but I didn’t feel anything. He hurt me real bad when he cheated, and I just can’t see myself ever getting past that and this baby he’s supposed to be having. He said he didn’t even know if the baby is his. I don’t want to get caught up in that mess. It’s too much.”
“I don’t blame you, baby girl. I couldn’t let you sell your pride and take less than you deserve from a man who would treat you that way. That’s unacceptable to me, no matter what your mother says,” he said.
“No matter what I say about what?” I heard my mother say behind me, and I turned to see her standing in the doorway.
I rolled my eyes and turned back around to look in front of me.
“It doesn’t matter now, Larise,” my father said.
“Have you spoken to Dontrell yet, Bo?” she asked, ignoring my father and walking down the steps to stand in front of me.
I ignored her and looked out past her.
“Hello!” she said, grabbing my face and forcing me to look at her.
“Stop!” I yelled, pulling back from her and hitting her hand.
“Did you speak to Dontrell yet? Bo, this is all your fault. If you had just done what you were supposed to do, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now. Dontrell loves you, and we would all be financially secure for the rest of our lives if you would just take that man back and get married! We could have the papers signed at the courthouse first thing Monday,” she said, leaning down to look into my face.
I looked at her, and it was like the person I was looking at was someone I’d never seen before. She had this desperate look in her eyes. The pretentiousness that I was used to seeing, the condescension and arrogance were all gone. All I saw was an angry desperation.
“I can’t help you. I refuse to be with a man who doesn’t love me the way I need to be loved just because you need his family to give you money. You’re going to have to figure it out some other way. Just like I’ve been doing,” I said and stood up.
I turned to my father, who was looking up at me with a small smile on his mouth.
“I love you. I’ll talk to you later,” I said to him, and he nodded.
“Love you too, Bo.”
I didn’t address my mother as I walked away. I was still broke and didn’t know what I was going to do tomorrow, but I wasn’t about to ask my father for anything now that I knew the real story. All I wanted to do was go home and figure out my next move. I started missing City even more in that moment. I wished he hadn’t turned out to be just another dumb nigga, but I couldn’t control anyone’s actions but my own.
7
City
Guwop had called and asked me to come to his shop to talk about something important, but I needed to find Giselle first. She had a lot of explaining to do because I knew her dumb ass wasn’t in my house when I was there. I had no idea how she even knew where I lived or how she got into my house.
After Bo left, and I snapped out of the initial shock I’d been feeling, shit started racing through my head. Other than my mother, the only other person who knew where I lived was my cleaning lady. And she got in because I left a spare key in the front. I’d gone to check, and the key was still there, but Giselle was on some sneaky shit, so she probably figured out I had a spare key somehow. I don’t know how, but she was a crazy bitch, so I wasn’t putting anything past her.
I’d checked Giselle’s Snap, and she was still at that hotel at the video shoot. I didn’t give a fuck; I was rolling up through that spot to get in her face.
Twenty minutes later, I jumped out my car and walked over to the group of people that I saw shooting by the pool. As I got closer, I saw G
iselle’s ass sitting in the background with a couple other broads while some rapper who I’d never seen before spit some lyrics. His bars were weak as fuck, and I kissed my teeth as I walked over to the set.
“Hey, you can’t go over there,” some white dude said as I walked past him.
“Aye, Giselle!” I yelled, ignoring him as I walked up to the set.
Her eyes got big as she saw me approach. The nigga who was rapping stopped and watched me as I ran up on Giselle. She stood up as I came up to her.
“City! Hey, babe, what are you doing here?” she asked.
“Don’t fuckin’ play with me,” I said and grabbed the strap of her bikini and pulled her toward me.
“City, stop!” she yelled.
“Woah, bruh, can we help you?” the rapper asked and took a step toward us.
I turned and mugged him. He stopped walking.
“Bring your ass on,” I said, turning back to Giselle.
I grabbed her and walked with her past everyone who was looking at us like they didn’t know what to do. As long as nobody said shit to me, I was good.
“City, I know you’re angry,” she said.
I stopped walking and pulled her to my face.
“Bitch, you ain’t seen angry yet. How the fuck you get in my house?” I asked.
“Please, just calm down, City,” she said, holding up her hand and trying to get me to let go of her.
“Nah, bitch, speak that shit. How the fuck you get in my house?” I yelled at her.
“I saw the house cleaner take the key from the front paver,” she said in a tiny ass voice.
It took everything in me not to smack her in the face, but my mama raised me right, so I knew never to put my hands on a woman. It was taking everything in me not to, though.
“How you know where I stay?” I barked at her.
We had gotten to my car now, so I pressed her back against my car. To anyone looking, it would seem like I was about to whisper some sweet shit in her ear. But she could see the fire in my eyes, and I was holding on to her arm with a vise grip.