by Nicole Falls
“We’re at the mall because the baby wants a Cinnabon.”
“Not a cinnamon roll, but a Cinnabon in particular, huh? The baby is big on the brands already?”
“She wants what she wants, what can I say?”
“Lo,” I said, “You’re like twenty minutes pregnant. You don’t know what’s cooking in that oven quite yet.”
“Whatever, it’s a girl. I know it. There hasn’t been a Holliday son in forever.”
“Could be a Mora man in there tho,” I replied, laughing.
“Ugh,” Lolo grunted, “You and your brother-in-law can stop crushing my dreams out here. He swears I’m carrying Frankie Junior.”
Lolo parked the car and we walked into the mall on a side entrance near the airport. She was insistent that we sit in the food court, so she could enjoy her bun fresh since as soon as we were walking up the kid behind the counter was pulling a fresh batch out of the oven. As we sat in the food court, talking and eating I kept feeling like somebody was watching me. I looked around and didn’t notice anyone in particular paying too close attention to me but still couldn’t shake that feeling. After we finished eating our Cinnabons, Lo insisted that we walk around a bit to work off the calories ingested. I suspected, however, she just wanted to do some baby shopping as she immediately nudged me in the direction of the baby store as we left the food court. Before we had taken more than a couple steps, I heard an “excuse me!” from behind us.
I looked back to see a couple of teenaged girls heading in our direction. They were whispering and giggling to one another until they stood right in front of us.
“Your name is Juju, right?” the shorter of the two girls said.
The kid looked familiar for some reason, but I couldn’t place it. She was a cute lil chocolate thing, big expressive eyes and deep-set dimples and gorgeously styled sisterlocks. Her friend was equally adorable, just a little bit taller with sepia colored skin, striking red hair, and piercing green eyes.
“Yep, that’s me.”
“So, I know this is like awkward or whatever because we were supposed to meet all formally, but I just saw you and figured I would just come and introduce myself now. I mean, I don’t need my daddy to speak for me when you’re just right here, you know? I recognized you from the IG post. And I told my cousin Sheena this was you and she said we should just come over and speak. So…hi.”
As soon as she said the word daddy it occurred to me who this was standing in front of me. It was Quincey Junior. And she was right this was awkward. I didn’t know what I should do, so I smiled and held out a hand for a shake. She grabbed my hand, squeezing it pretty firmly while pumping it up and down.
“Hi, it’s nice to meet you, Quincey.”
“Oh, you can call me Junie. That’s what everybody calls me. Is that your sister?” she asked, pointing in Lolo’s direction, “Dag, she’s so pretty too. I told daddy that he needed to slide in your DMs before somebody else came at you because you’re so fine. Like for real. You’re really pretty,” she prattled on, barely taking a moment to breathe.
“I thought y’all were making a run to Auntie Annie’s for frozen lemonade,” a deep voice rumbled.
I looked up to see a man with the same sepia colored skin as Junie’s friend.
“We were Uncle Ant, but then we saw daddy’s girlfriend and I came to introduce myself,” Quincey Junior said.
“Uhhhh,” the man I now knew to be Ant, Quincy’s best friend said, “Junebug, I thought your dad was going to…ahhhh, hey, it’s nice to meet you, officially Juniper. Heard a lot about you.”
“Likewise,” I said, “My…um…my sister and I actually are on a bit of a time crunch, but it was nice meeting you guys. Next time we’ll be able to chat a little longer, yeah? All right y’all have a good day,” I said quickly, grabbing Lolo at the elbow and dragging her toward the baby store that we were originally heading to.
“What in the world just happened there?” Valora asked, amusement tinging her tone.
“I think I just got ambushed,” I groaned.
I’d just finished up an oil change when my phone rang.
“What up, Ant?”
“Bruh, remember when I told you needed to set some boundaries with Junebug?” he said in lieu of a greeting and launched into a story that had me chest getting tight as soon as he finished.
Ah shit, here we go! I thought. Apparently my too nosy for her own good daughter decided that I was taking too long and ran up on Juniper and her sister in the mall. The girls and Ant were in the mall picking up a gift for Nina’s birthday and somehow got separated. All it took was a few minutes and a happy coincidence for the kid to have possibly set some bullshit in motion. I only had about half an hour left before I was supposed to be getting off and going to chill with Juniper, but I went and asked Prent to let me cut out a lil early. He gave me a lil bit of shit before telling me to get my rusty ass on outta his face. I made a quick pit stop home to shower and change my clothes and shot Juniper a text to let her know I’d be over a little earlier than we’d planned. She replied that was cool and she should be back at home by the time I arrived at her place.
Juniper and I wound up pulling up at the same time. I braced myself for…something when I got out of my car to greet her, but she said nothing beyond, “Hey you.” I pulled her in for a hug, pressing a quick kiss to her lips before following her up the pathway and porch into the house.
“You want some wine?” she said, walking toward the kitchen not waiting for an answer.
I trailed behind her, crossing the threshold of the kitchen as she pulled two large glasses and a corkscrew from the minibar cart near the refrigerator. I sat down at the breakfast bar where there was a bottle of wine waiting. Juniper walked back over to where I was sitting, set the glasses down, uncorked the wine and poured herself a glass before walking out of the kitchen and into the den. I grabbed the bottle of wine and my glass, following her. I sat down next to her on the couch and she immediately snuggled into my side, sighing. We sat there for a few moments in silence as she sipped her wine.
“Heard you had an interesting encounter today?” I said, finally breaking the silence.
“Yeah…”
“And how are you feeling about that encounter?”
“It’s fine, Q. I’m not freaking out.”
“I didn’t say you were. I just asked a simple—” Juniper cut me off.
“Yo, chill. I’m good. We’re good. I was a little taken aback because she caught me off guard, but it’s fine, baby. It was gonna happen one of these days, right?”
“Yeah, but on your terms. Not at my child’s refusal to mind her damn business,” I laughed.
“Baby. It’s fine,” Juniper said, leaning up to give me a kiss, “For real, I’m good.”
“All right.”
We sat in silence again. So many questions running through my brain but knowing that if I pressed we’d end up in a not so good place, so I was content to sit here with my girl in my arms, sipping her wine with a smile on her face. Wild how this all played out, how she snuck up on me outta nowhere and now I wasn’t sure how much my life had been missing until she appeared in it. I was fulfilled by my job, had more than two hands full fathering Junie, but Juniper’s presence brought that lil somethin’ somethin’ extra. I chuckled a bit, shaking my head, thinking about how a damn social media app, of all things, brought us together. I imagined our lives together, and one day having to tell our children or grandchildren how we met.
“What’s so funny?” Juniper asked.
“It’s mad corny.”
“You’re mad corny, so what’s up? I wanna laugh.”
“I was just thinking about how we got together.”
“Mmmmhmmm.”
“And what we’d tell our grandkids about how we got together.”
“Grandkids?”
“Mmmmhmm, I said what I said.”
Juniper bit her lip trying to suppress a grin before speaking, “So what’s the corny part?”
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“The first thing that popped into my head to explain how we got together was started from a selfie, now we here.”
“Baby,” Juniper said, her tone quiet, but stern, “You can’t ever say that to anyone else. In life. That’s beyond corny…and I’m not having my life story summed up in a crib of a Drake lyric. A Drake lyric? C’mon Q.”
“Not a fan of the Poutine Prince of Toronto?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Hater.”
“I’ll be that,” Juniper said, lifting her chin to brush her lips against mine.
THE END.
acknowledgements:
nic’s nook aka the best reader’s group in the land: i luh y’all for real.
obi wan penobi: you stay listening to me whine about these fictional folks and never block me. you da bess! thanks seem insufficient. forever indebted.
all of my friends: y’all are everything. i love you.
mama and papa: y’all are more. i love you.
[redacted] family descendants (both sides!): your support as i endeavor to build this new career is astounding. couldn’t have asked to been born into a better clan. i love you all.
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Other Titles By Nicole Falls
Accidentally in Love Series:
Adore You
Smitten
Then Came You
Holliday Sisters Series:
Noelle the First
Brave Hearts
Standalone Titles
Sparks Fly
About the Author
Nicole Falls is a contemporary Black romance writer who firmly believes in the power of Black love stories being told. She’s also a ceramic mug and lapel pin enthusiast who cannot function without her wireless Beats constantly blaring music. When Nicole isn’t writing, she spends her time singing off key to her Tidal and/or Spotify playlists while drinking coffee and/or cocktails! She currently resides in the suburbs of Chicago.