The Wrong Side Of Love 2: A Hood Love Story

by Charmanie Saquea

  When he was heading back to see what Sophia wanted to speak with him about, Zeek stopped by the TV room and peeked in on the kids to see what they were doing. They were in their own little world watching a movie in peace. He shook his head at how much their oldest son was a spitting image of Chico. He just hoped that he didn’t follow in his footsteps.

  When Zeek got to the kitchen where Sophia was finishing the last of the food, his stomach growled as he inhaled the food that was smelling oh so good.

  “What’s up, Mami?” Zeek asked.

  Sophia took the dishrag she was using to wash the counter off and hit Zeek with it with force.

  “Ouch! The hell!” he yelled.

  “Really, Ezekiel; the connect’s daughter? Why do you always do stupid shit to get yourself in trouble?” Sophia fussed quietly.

  “Hey, she came on to me. I didn’t come on to her and I know I’m not supposed to mix business with pleasure but it’s not like I’m doing business with her. I don’t see the big deal.” Zeek shrugged.

  “That’s the problem, you never do.” Sophia shook her head.

  “Alright, Mamita, what’s wrong? You have never spoken on who I’ve dealt with, ever. So something has to be wrong?” Zeek said seriously.

  “No me fío esa familia,” Sophia told him. (I don’t trust that family)

  Zeek didn’t say anything because it seemed as if since her husband was killed, Sophia didn’t trust anybody, which was very understandable. Hell, he himself used to be the exact same way for the longest. The first person he trusted since Chico’s death was Coco and he obviously didn’t trust her that much if he flipped on her the moment shit got rough.

  Noticing Zeek didn’t respond, Sophia just sighed and shook her head. “Just promise me you’ll watch your back and be safe around them, please?” she asked.

  “That goes without saying. You know me,” Zeek said.

  “Yea right, you wouldn’t be here if that was the case,” Sophia reminded him.

  “Touché,” Zeek laughed.

  “Exactly, now go tell everyone it’s time to eat. It’s my husband’s forty-first birthday today.” Sophia smiled with a hint of sadness in her eyes.

  “I got you, Mamita,” Zeek said as he pulled her to him and kissed her head.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Coco and Jayliah walked out of the airport and were immediately hit with a heat wave. Coco knew that she was overdue for a vacation and there was no doubt that her sister needed to get as far away from Detroit as possible for a while so she brought her along for the ride.

  “Coco!”

  Coco looked in the direction she heard her name being called and there was Megan, Zeek’s older sister. Megan rushed to meet them halfway as she grabbed Coco tightly in a hug.

  “I’m happy you called, I was starting to think we were never going to see you again,” Megan said honestly.

  “Why did you say that?” Coco laughed.

  “Trust me, sweetie, I know how my little brother can be. Whether you believe it or not, mama didn’t raise him to be an asshole, that’s a quality he picked up later in life,” Megan told her. “Anyways, hey, Jay, how are you? I’m happy you decided to come.”

  “I appreciate you extending the invite. Lord knows I needed a getaway and some fun in the sun is just what the doctor ordered,” Jayliah smiled.

  “Okay now, don’t get down here trying to get into some trouble. I don’t want my cousin flying out here kicking my door in with his goons,” Megan half-joked.

  “Who?” Jayliah asked, feigning dumb.

  “Oh no, sweetheart, this is a conversation we need to have over drinks. First, let’s drop these bags off and pick up Payton because she’ll just kill me if I don’t,” Megan said as they headed for the car.

  As they were driving, Coco looked out at the California scenery taking it all in. It was definitely a breath of fresh air to be in a different city and out of Detroit. As of late, she had been thinking about moving out of Detroit for good to get away from Elias and all of Zeek’s bullshit but when she thought about it on the other hand, she knew she couldn’t leave her sister at a time like this, especially when she was so vulnerable.

  “Megan, when was the last time you talked to your brother?” Coco asked out of nowhere.

  “Honestly, Coco, I haven’t spoken to Zeek in almost three months. Neither has Payton and that’s crazy because that’s her heart right there. Those two never go a day without talking to each other. He calls Mama every once in a blue moon to let her know that he’s still breathing; other than that, no one really hears from him over this way.”

  Coco just nodded her head. At least she knew she wasn’t the only one being neglected by Zeek. In her eyes, he was a real asshole for treating the people who really cared about him like that, especially the woman who gave birth to him. Coco knew it had to be hard on Ms. Joyce to know that her son was basically a fugitive but couldn’t talk to him or hear from him but every once in a while.

  “What about you?” Megan asked.

  “Oh, he doesn’t call me at all. He calls Tariq, though. He’ll break his damn neck to call and update him on any and everything,” Coco scoffed.

  “That figures but I’m not surprised, though. Those two have always been thick as thieves. You would have thought they were brothers instead of Riq and Marco. Poor Marc was always getting left behind until he was basically grown.”

  “They still leave him behind. They make Marco do all the dirty work but he doesn’t complain,” Jayliah said from the backseat.

  “He never did.” Megan shook her head. “I should call him down here to stay for a while, I know he needs a vacation too and I know for a fact that Tariq is driving his ass crazy. Plus, I miss my handsome ass cousin.”

  “Let me call my best friend. I swear I haven’t spoken to him in months,” Coco said as she pulled her phone out.

  The phone rang a few times before Marco answered.

  “Who died?” he asked.

  “What are you talking about?” Coco asked, confused.

  “Shit, the only time Jacole Tate ever calls me is when somebody dies or is about to. So again, who died?” Marco asked again.

  “Boy, stop playing with me,” Coco laughed. “We both be slipping on our best friend duties because I don’t be seeing your name pop up on my caller ID either and I’m the one who be dealing with a load of bullshit. Anyways, I was calling to see if you wanted to get away for a little, that is, if your brother will let you.”

  “Let me? Girl, I’m grown as hell. Don’t nobody let Marco do shit. A getaway sounds dope, where we going and when we leaving?” Marco questioned.

  “Well, Jay and I are already in Cali so you’re a little behind schedule. Just don’t tell your brother where she is because she doesn’t want him to know,” Coco said as she bit her lip.

  Marco sighed. “I should’ve known there would be a catch to it. Y’all always wanna put me in the middle of some shit. If it’s not you and Zeek, it’s her and Riq.”

  “But we love you though, Marc,”

  “Yea, I bet. Find me a flight that leaves out today. I’m packing now,” he told her.

  “I got you,” Coco said happily. “He wants to fly out today,” she told the girls after she hung up.

  “Cool,” Megan said.

  ___

  “Oh my gosh, Jay. You really shot her?” Payton asked in shock.

  Everyone was gathered at the condo Jayliah and Coco would be staying at for the duration of their stay in Cali. Jayliah had just finished telling Megan and Payton all about the drama she and Tariq had been going through since the last time they were in Detroit and they couldn’t believe it. They had to give it to Jayliah, she was a strong woman to go through everything she had gone through and still have her sanity and be able to smile.

  “Yes, it’s like I meant to but I didn’t mean to. I swear I was having an out of body experience,” Jayliah explained.

  “I told your crazy ass about carrying that damn gun on you,” Marco
said as he walked in the room behind Megan.

  “Marco!” everyone yelled excitedly.

  He had just gotten to the house and everyone was happy to see him as he hugged everyone.

  “Y’all act like Obama just walked in or something,” Megan joked.

  “Don’t be salty, all the flavors in the world and you choose to be salty,” Marco smiled.

  “Anyways, Marco, I had my gun because Riq didn’t explain to me where the hell we were going at eleven o’clock at night. I thought we was about to ride on some niggas so I had to be prepared. Besides, that bitch shouldn’t have been talking out the side of her mouth.” Jayliah rolled her eyes.

  “Riq got a half a mil bounty on your head for shooting his baby mama. I should cash in on it,” Marco joked.

  “I wish he would,” Jayliah said.

  “He better not,” Megan said like she was ready to do something.

  “Calm down, I was just playing. And what you getting hyped for, Megan? You ain’t a hood chick no more, you’re a suburban chick now. You ain’t on shit,” Marco told her.

  “Boy, please, do not let this lifestyle fool you. You can take the girl out of the hood but you most certainly can’t take the hood out of the girl. My Birkin bag will turn into a Colt 45 if it has to,” Megan said with the flip of her hair.

  “Okay?” Jayliah said as she gave her a high-five.

  “Y’all are too much,” Coco laughed.

  “Fuck all that,” Marco waved them off. “I know y’all didn’t bring me all the way out here to California just to be on some Waiting To Exhale shit, sitting around venting and shit. I could have stayed in Michigan for that shit.”

  “Ew, rude,” Payton said as she threw a pillow at him.

  “I’m serious, though. We all the way out here in Cali and y’all wanna sit in the house talking about some Detroit shit.”

  “Well excuse us, Marco. What do you suggest that we do?” Megan asked.

  “What else besides go out and get fucked up? Enjoy the Cali night life, of course,” he said.

  “Umm, I think I’ll pass on that one,” Jayliah said.

  She hadn’t been out to a club or really been out period since Zeek’s birthday party and that was the night Quadir took Quaid. She vowed that she wouldn’t ever go out again after that incident and she meant that. That left her scarred for life. No matter how many times everyone tried to tell her that it wasn’t her fault, she still believed that if she had never gone out that night, Quaid would still be with her.

  “Oh no, Jayliah; don’t be like that. You didn’t come all the way out here just to sit in the house, did you?” Payton asked innocently.

  Payton was had just turned twenty-one so she was just now legal to do anything she considered fun. She was always trying to get her sister to go to the club with her and with Coco and Jayliah as well as Marco being in town, she was banking on having a good time.

  “Don’t worry, she’s going,” Coco said, speaking for Jayliah.

  “Come again?” Jayliah said as she snapped her head in her sister’s direction.

  “What did I tell you, Jay? It’s time for you to start living for you again. Everything is going to work out so please stop letting fear and anger hold you back. We’re not about to have another sentimental moment up in here, so let’s get up so we can get ready,” Coco told her.

  Jayliah just sighed because she knew her little sister was right. She had the private investigator doing his thing and seeing if he could track Quadir down so that was off her hands for the time being. Now all she could do was put everything else in God’s hands and let him work. Coco was right, she had to live for her.

  “Okay, let’s go,” Jayliah said.

  “Yes!” Payton and Coco yelled.

  Everyone scattered in different directions so they could get ready to have the night on the town and Megan and Payton could show them how they do it in California.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Zeek paced back and forth trying to process the information José had just given him. Even though he was making is seem like it wasn’t, it was sounding more like an ultimatum. Zeek wasn’t with that selling his soul shit, even if it was for his own freedom.

  “It might actually work, Zeek,” Nina said, giving her two cents.

  “Nah, I don’t see how this shit is going to benefit me in the long run because if that was the case, I never should have came down here,” Zeek said.

  What José was telling Zeek to do, he just wasn’t with it. He was basically telling Zeek to go back to Michigan, get locked up, let them take the shit to trial but it would be thrown out for lack of evidence. Something about this was sounding shaky to Zeek and something was telling him not to do it.

  “You just have to trust mi papi, Zeek. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.”

  Zeek cut his eyes at her. “And this is coming from the same girl who won’t even talk to her dad because he cut her off. Yea, alright.”

  “Exactly, at least I know that if he says he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it. He’s a man of his word. What is that saying you guys use? His word is bond?” Nina said.

  Zeek shook his head. He was going to have to seriously sit and think on this one. This wasn’t something that he could just jump and move to immediately, his freedom was on the line here. Even though he had never done anything to José for him not to come through, you couldn’t be too trusting with people. Besides, he knew José felt a way about him having shooters with him the last time he went to his house so he probably wasn’t over that. Plus, he was still fucking his daughter.

  On the other hand, why, out of all the ways he could think of to have this case handled, did he think of him actually getting locked up. He thought the point was for him to avoid that all together. Why not just have his connections get rid of the shit before he could even touch back down in Michigan? That would make his life so much better. It was shit like that that made him skeptical about trusting this shit to be thrown out in court.

  Zeek had questions that he needed answers to before he could make a decision. He needed to know exactly how the evidence was going to be thrown out, how long he was going to have to be locked up, how long he had to think on a decision, things of that nature.

  “So what are you going to do?” Nina asked.

  “Nothing for right now,” Zeek said. “I have some thinking I need to do and some people I need to talk to. This ain’t no decision that’s going to be made over night.” He told her.

  “Okay, so what about me?” Nina asked.

  “What about you?” he retorted.

  “Come on now, Zeek. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about,” Nina told him.

  Zeek knew exactly what she was talking about and he wasn’t with that shit either. Nina thought when he went home to Detroit, she was going with him and that was where she was wrong. He had just gotten rid of one of his females that was causing problems, he didn’t need another.

  When he got back home, his plan was to focus on his and Coco’s relationship and making things with her official. He was leaving this little fling he had with Nina here in Cuba, right along with her ass.

  “Not right now, Nina. Now is not the time for that shit. I got other things I need to be worried about than your ass and this bullshit you’re trying to bring my way, so save that shit because I really don’t want to hear it,” Zeek told her before leaving the room.

  Nina just sat there with her arms folded. Zeek had another thing coming if he thought he was going to be going back to the States without her. The way that she saw things, he was her man now, she had invested too much time in him for things to be otherwise. She was going to get, have and keep her man by any means necessary. She had a little trick up her sleeve for Ezekiel Clay.

  ___

  It was day four of Coco and Jayliah’s vacation in Cali and Coco wasn’t feeling too well. She wasn’t sure if it was something she ate or what but she was nauseous and throwing up all over the place. She was feeling
so sick that she couldn’t even get out of the bed. The rest of the girls and Marco wanted to go shopping but didn’t want to leave her there by herself so she basically had to threaten them for them to leave the house.

  “Here, baby, drink this. It might help settle your stomach,” Ms. Joyce said as she came in the room with a glass of ginger ale.

  Just to be on the safe side, Megan called her mom and let her know that Coco was at the house by herself sick. As soon as Joyce heard that, she rushed over there to take care of her. She’d liked Coco from the moment her son had introduced them to each other and even if she and Zeek didn’t work out, she wanted Coco to stay around.

  “Thank you, Ms. Joyce. I really appreciate this. You really didn’t have to come all the way over here, though. I could have managed until Jay got back,” Coco told her.

  “Don’t be foolish, girl. I wasn’t doing anything at home anyways, so I don’t mind,” Ms. Joyce waved her off. “How long have you been feeling sick?”

  “It just crept up on me yesterday morning, I thought I was feeling a little better but I guess not.”

  “Don’t you worry about it. I’m making some of my famous homemade chicken noodle soup. Hopefully you will be able to keep this down, I don’t want you spending your vacation on your sick bed. What fun is that?”

  “You’re ri—”

  Coco couldn’t even finish what she was saying before she was jumping out the bed and running to the bathroom. Joyce just shook her head wishing there was something else she could do to help Coco as she grabbed a clean washcloth and ran it under some water so she could wash her mouth off.

  “Now child, I know this is none of my business but when was the last time you’ve had a period?” she asked as she handed the rag to Coco.

  Coco stopped wiping her mouth and slowly looked up at Ms. Joyce with shock evident in her eyes. Being pregnant was the last as well as the furthest thing from her mind. True enough, when Zeek went missing she had stopped taking her birth control pills because she didn’t see a reason in taking them anymore. He wasn’t around and she wasn’t sleeping with anyone. Then it hit Coco about when Zeek unexpectedly popped up in her hotel room that one morning.