Laine
Some months later…
“Now this is a good breakfast sandwich,” my grandmother nodded as she chewed. She was out here in Los Angeles visiting, so you know Mischief was excited about it. They were like a couple or something. I chuckled at my thoughts.
“I told you Corner Bakery has the best food,” I smiled.
“And you were right. So tell me, where is Shai?”
“He’s in the studio right now, but you will see him tomorrow morning. I’m sure you’ll be asleep by the time he comes home.”
“Is that gonna be his routine once the baby gets here? It’ll be here in what, three more months?”
“Yes. And no, we’ve already talked about that. Some nights he will be late and others he won’t. But he’s trying to put in a lot of work right now so that he won’t have to play catch up or anything later.”
“And what about this Jude guy? Did you find a new manager? I knew you were looking for one.”
“Yeah, I did, actually. It’s a woman and she’s great. Her name is Mara Henson, and she has so many connections. She also knows a lot about Jude too, not very fond of him.”
“I bet she isn’t. Has she booked you anything while pregnant, or you’re waiting until after delivery to work?”
“No, she got me this pregnancy shoot for this maternity line, which is great because I didn’t even think about that. I just knew I was only gonna be able to do face stuff, if that. But before I started showing she got me a shoot with Avon magazine, which gave me a lot of exposure. Both of our emails have been blowing up even more.”
“Nice sweetie, really nice. So now can you tell me what the child is? You said I had to wait until I came out here. Well I’m here now and I’d like to know.”
“Okay,” I smiled. “It’s a little girl. Shai is going crazy thinking he’s gonna have to shoot every boy that looks her way.”
“Aww, he wouldn’t do that. He’s the sweetest little thing; so easy going and well mannered.”
“Ma, did you not forget that he punched your son? Had him sleep outside the door?”
“No, I didn’t forget, but he only did that because he felt like your uncle would harm you for some reason or another.”
“Ma, you know he—”
“Laine, I don’t want to—”
“Well I don’t care what you don’t wanna talk about, Ma. You know that since he moved in with us, he’d been trying to do things with me. I don’t even feel safe with him living with you.”
“Oh, I will be fine.” She dropped her fork gently and then looked at me. “I’m sorry, baby. Coming from what your mother and her boyfriend put you through, I should have done better with listening to you and trying to protect you.”
“No, you did, Ma. You got me away from my mother and that situation. I understand you wanted to have a place to stay for your son, but I just want you to accept the fact that he did try me, and on multiple occasions.”
“Just try you, right?”
“Yes, just try, he didn’t succeed.”
“Oh, thank the Lord.” She exhaled heavily and then rubbed the back of my hand. “I love you so much, you know that, and I would never want anything bad to happen to you.”
“I know, Ma. I love you too. I can’t wait until my little princess gets to see what a great grandma I have.” I shifted. I was in pain these days, and my doctor said it was because my daughter was getting bigger and moving shit around inside my body. I even cried last night from the pain. And the paparazzi snapping pictures of me everywhere I went seemed to only intensify my aches for some reason. They weren’t this bad until Mischief and I took a picture for Instagram of him kissing my belly. So now it was like I was number one on the paparazzi radar, when before I was like number eight.
My grandma smiled and got up a little to lean over and kiss my cheek. We embraced for a moment, and after I kissed her back, she returned to her seat. Once we finished eating, I took her shopping at the mall, and then we checked out a movie at the ArcLight Theatre since it was just down the street. By that time we were both beat, so we headed back to Mischief’s and my home.
Our house was beautiful, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. We got two extra bedrooms because we planned to stay in this house for a while, and we knew we’d be having babies. I loved it because it was in a nice neighborhood like I wanted, and only twenty minutes away from Compton like Mischief wanted. You could take the thug out the hood, but you couldn’t take the hood out of the thug.
As soon as I got my grandmother settled in the bedroom she was sleeping in, I went to have a bath, brushed my teeth, and then knocked out.
***
A little after 3am…
“Hey,” someone whispered as they shook me. I opened my eyes to see Mischief flashing his beautiful smile as he stared down at me in the dark bedroom. He was a little tipsy obviously, but he smelled so good as usual.
“Shai, it’s late.”
“So. Look what I got you, baby.” He pulled a bouquet of roses from behind his back, and then sat down on the bed, pulling the covers off of me.
“Roses? Thank you, baby,” I chuckled, taking them. “Where did you find these so late?”
“Don’t worry about it.” He removed his hoodie and his shoes, and then groaned from being exhausted. “I got this too.” He removed a box from his pocket, and flipped open the top to reveal a diamond ring that damn near lit up the whole dark bedroom. He had to have spent about four or five life savings on this.
“For what?” I asked, voice slightly trembling.
“Because I love you a whole fucking lot, Laine, and I want you to be my wife. That shit sounds crazy coming from my fucking mouth, but it’s true. So please… marry me.”
I was crying already, so he laughed as he took my hand to put the ring on. He then lifted my head to kiss my lips, which were already wet, and then bent down to kiss my belly.
Standing up, he stepped out of his clothes until he was naked, and then helped me out of mine. Climbing onto the bed, he got in between my legs, and slowly entered me, prompting me to gasp as we kissed.
“You mean everything to me, Laine,” he whispered against my lips before slipping his tongue into my mouth.
Those words continued to circle my mind as he moved in and out of me, stroking me with precision and perfection like always. He was thick and long below the waist, feeding my every physical desire when he was inside of me.
I couldn’t believe I had tamed this beast… but he was my beast and I loved him more than anything…
Chapter Eleven: Mischief
Daddy’s baby…
I stood there recording with my camera, as Laine screamed and cried with the nurse holding her hand. I hated to see her in so much agony, but I was anxious for my daughter to be here. The thought of eliminating half the population of muthafuckas that would be eyeing her when she got older, was a plus, too.
My throat jumped as I saw my daughter’s head start to come through. It was one of the worst things a nigga had ever witnessed, and I was hoping Laine’s pussy would snap back and soon. How in the hell was I supposed to slide up in that and feel walls?
After my baby girl’s head came through and they suctioned some shit from her face, I saw her shoulders, and then the rest of her body just seemed to slide out. Some other shit was coming too, but I was about to throw up… or faint… one of them, so I quit my recording and moved off to the side. Fuck that shit.
“Wanna cut?” the doctor grinned at me.
“Yeah… yeah, hell yeah,” I replied, not wanting to let on that I was two seconds from vomiting all over this bitch.
I clipped the umbilical cord, as my daughter hollered and cried, covered in all kinds of nasty shit. I watched them take her to Laine, and after a few moments, they started to wipe her down with a warm towel, thank God. Laine rested against the pillow with her eyes closed, and her wavy dark hair appeared to be wet. The other nurse continued to clean Laine up, as I moved closer and leaned down to kiss
her lips.
“I’ve never seen you look so sexy.” I smiled, rubbing her hair back as she giggled, looking down at the baby as the nurse put a cap on her head. They then put her in a warm blanket, and allowed us both to just look at her.
“Shut up. I saw you over there, looking like you were gonna drop to the floor at any minute. I was the one going through it,” Laine replied as the nurse chuckled.
“I know, I got it all on camera. But aye, don’t be telling people that I was looking like I couldn’t take this shit. You tell them I was a G with it.”
“Right.”
My daughter didn’t really look like anything or anybody, but she was cute as hell and appeared to be pretty fat.
Laine saw me looking, and asked, “You ready to hold her?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, as Laine and the nurse laughed.
“Don’t be nervous, daddy. Have a seat.” The nurse pulled a chair up. “And what is her name?” she quizzed as Laine handed our baby over to me gently.
“Lanai Cappella Benjamin,” Laine replied, smiling over at her.
Her first name was obviously a mixture of ours, and her middle was a musical term for a song without accompaniment; a cappella. I wanted her to have something with music in her name, and I wasn’t taking no for answer. Laine knew that shit too.
“What a beautiful name.” The nurse smiled as she scribbled that shit big as hell across the white board in blue marker, while Laine spelled it out for her.
I rose to my feet and handed Lanai back to Laine because I felt like I was gonna break her. She was small and chubby, but fragile as fuck and I didn’t want to do shit to fuck her up. I had no experience with babies at fucking at all, so I damn sure wasn’t about to mess my own up.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Laine inquired, kissing Lanai’s small cheek as she slept.
“Beautiful? I mean, I guess. She don’t really have any facial features. She’s cute though, because of them cheeks.”
“Shai!” Laine exclaimed, chuckling along with the two other nurses in the room.
“She will start to gain more facial features very soon,” the nurse told me, and I just nodded my head.
I was a father… and to a damn girl… how fucking brazy was that shit?
***
A couple months later…
I was on pins and needles, checking my baby girl every day to see who and what she looked like. Turns out she looked like the perfect combination of Laine and I. Who knew our features would mix so fucking well? You better say you did because I knew that shit already too, and my daughter was the prettiest thing since her mama.
As of right now, I was supposed to be at the studio, but Lanai woke up and I wanted to give Laine some time to herself to get dressed and shit for the day. So here I was, in the living room, watching TV and helping my daughter to a bottle. Me. Wild. She just stared up at me as she drank that milk like it was a nice bottle of Hennessy.
“Aye, you know you make this shit look good, right?” I said to her. “It’s really not though, trust me. Wait until you taste pork chops and mashed potatoes. And I been meaning to talk to you about hogging ya mama’s titties. Them were mine first and then you come—”
“Shai, what are you saying to her?” Laine grinned, tying her hair up as she came into the living room, with tights on and a top with no straps. She was just as fine as the day I met her, but even sexier now that she gave me my baby. I loved that she was five feet seven, because them long, sexy ass legs were a muthafucking turn on. “Come here, chubbs.” She took Lanai, and I just watched them for a little bit, before leaning over to kiss her and then Laine.
“You know you can’t date until you’re sixty-five and a half, right Nai?” I kissed my daughter’s cheek again as Laine chuckled.
“I have to try on dresses next week and do the cake tasting, Shai, so I hope you’re available for the latter.”
“On that note, I have to go.” I stood up, cheesing when she glared up at me while adjusting Lanai in her arms.
“I’m serious.”
“I know, I know.” I bent down to kiss her full soft lips gently, while groping her sexy thigh in my hand. We’d just started back fucking a week and a half ago, and I felt like a teenaged boy who’d just discovered pussy. That was the longest I’d been without it since before I lost my virginity; it was terrible as hell. “I will be there to taste them weak ass cakes,” I spoke lowly against her lips before we kissed again.
“I love you, Shai.”
“I love you too. And be ready for tonight when I need to take out some frustration.”
I grabbed my hoodie, slipped it on, and then left out the door.
Damn, a brazy nigga from West Side Bompton, Balifornia, was about to be a full on family man. I kind of liked that shit though… but only with Laine. No fucking body else. Hell nah.
Epilogue
LAINE BENJAMIN
Two years later…
Tonight we were down in Hollywood because the Hunnit Boyz were having an album release party. All of the Benjamin boys, and Ishmael, had come so far from the guys Cassie and I met inside of the studio on Hawthorne Boulevard.
Kordell and Chaz’s last two albums were multiplatinum, and it seemed like everything Mischief touched turned to gold. As for Ishmael, he was able to manage another artists, doubling his income. A lot of people knew him, and that said more than a little bit. The only time you knew of a manager was when they were doing the damn thing for whomever they were managing.
Speaking of managers, I was still working with Mara Henson and she was just wonderful. I loved seeing other women work and get their money, especially in a male dominated industry. Mara didn’t play and she was about her coins before anything else, which I admired. It seemed like I got way more work having her as my manager versus Jude, but that’s not to say that Jude didn’t have me booked solid on a lot of occasions. I would just say that Mara was more frequent with the higher paying ones.
If you’re wondering about Jude, The Models were no longer after he mistook a detective for some white-collar businessman with big money. He had one of the girls go to service him, and they arrested her and Jude, then did this big investigation. Someone had tipped off the police. When I heard that, I was so happy that I’d gotten out of that shit, and so had Cassie and eventually Kady. As for Rita, she was still a part of it when shit hit the fan, but she didn’t get caught in the crossfire. And she was still Cardio’s right hand, even though he was now just basically some underground rapper since him fucking over Mischief basically ruined his career. He was a dumb ass for that one. It was kind of sad actually.
“I love this one, baby!” Cassie beamed, swaying in her tight red dress as Kordell hugged her body from behind.
They had a son who they named Kordell Jr., and then Kordell adopted Melody after they ran off and got hitched in Las Vegas. Thankfully, they told us all so we could come. It was last minute but romantic.
I was so happy for Cassie. She was extremely different from the scared girl from Memphis that I met a while back, and I loved the transformation.
Miles got out of jail a year ago, but didn’t tell anyone. He went back to Tennessee, and that was all she wrote. We only knew he was out of jail because of Johnathan, and he didn’t know until a year after either. Cassie didn’t mind Miles running off one bit. Nothing was here for him in California anyway. Oh and his friend Ned? His ass was in jail now, for the same shit Miles went in for; evidence tampering. Lawyers were the real snakes of the world.
Cassie had gotten a new manager too, but a little bit before me, thanks to Kordell. It was a guy, a gay one, because that was the only way Kordell would allow her to work with a man again. Anyway, his name was Ashley, yes Ashley, and he was hilarious but a hard worker. He had Cassie doing a lot, and I was thankful that she’d found someone as good as Mara. In fact, Ashley was so good, that he too was managing Kady now, who reaped the same benefits as Cassie.
“These are good, really good.” Erynne bit into a cupcake.
Erynne was doing really great for herself. Her own salon would be opening within the next month, and she had a few celebrity clients on her roster. It amazed me how far she’d come, because I remember the days where she used to do hair out of her apartment.
She’d finally allowed Chaz to get her pregnant, but it was only after he married her. Between you and me, I knew she was pregnant before the wedding took place about six months ago, but she swears she wasn’t. I guess she didn’t think I could count. Anyway, Chaz was elated that he was gonna be a father and it made me feel for him since Jade had aborted theirs.
As for Jade, her little three-way romance was still going strong I hear, and her daughter, Jayde, was the cutest thing, looking just like her. She’d gotten remarried, but to the guy in the relationship, Hudson, who was becoming a pretty well-known comedian.
I wasn’t sure what pipe Adrian had been smoking on, but it must have been strong because she was dumber than dumb for the way she allowed and still allows Jade to walk all over her. Adrian would forever be Jade’s little side thing when she wanted to be herself. But I don’t really care so…
“Where is Shai?” I looked around for my husband, yes husband. Can you believe that? Crazy ass nigga that used to beat up everybody and swear he didn’t want a girlfriend? Yeah, he was my husband and baby father now, and a great one at that. He was still crazy as hell though.
“He’s coming up now,” Ishmael responded, arm draped around Kady’s waist.
I couldn’t believe they’d ended up together, but it was working and honestly, I’d rather her be with anybody other than Nuzi. At least Ishmael was fine, had money, treated her well, and wasn’t hiding her like skinny ass Nuzi. And Kady wasn’t some hoe trying to fuck on his family like Sammi.
Sammi’s ass hadn’t made a peep since Kady popped up on her, and that was two years ago. That was best for her anyway because she had a horrible reputation within this family, and it was time to let that dream go; especially the one that included my man.
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