A Gangster's Dream 3

by Charmanie Saquea

  “Damn, Dream. The hell you over there feeding my son? His ass is heavy as fuck,” Carmelo said.

  “Your son is just greedy,” Dream said as she put a spoonful of food up to Carmelo’s mouth. “Taste this.”

  Carmelo tasted the food and fell in love all over again. It seemed like forever since the last time he’d had a good home cook meal. Summer did her thing every now and then and Monica tried, but Dream’s food was always on point. Her cooking was right up there with his mama’s.

  “Are you fucking serious right now? So you’re just going to act like you don’t see me standing here?” Monica yelled.

  “If I were you, I would watch your tone and mouth around my son,” Dream advised her.

  “If you don’t like what I say or how I say it, you can leave. I’m pretty sure you’re good at it by now,” Monica spat.

  Dream tried to walk around Carmelo to get to Monica, but he grabbed her by her arm before she could get too far.

  “Sum, come get your brother. Get a bottle and take him back in the living room,” Melo instructed.

  “Nah, Summer. Put his coat and stuff on, we’re about to go before I catch a case. This bitch obviously don’t know me,” Dream said as she snatched away from Carmelo but he snatched her back up.

  “Dream, chill the fuck out, yo!” Carmelo yelled.

  Dream turned to look at him with fire in his eyes. She so badly wanted to slap the shit out of him for saving his bitch but she wasn't that crazy. She was pretty sure he would beat her ass.

  “Tell me I'm not welcomed, Melo,” Dream tested him.

  “What?” He asked confused.

  “Tell me I'm not welcomed in your home anymore and I promise I won't be back. That's obviously what she wants, so do it,” Dream said.

  Dream wasn't bullshitting, either. If Carmelo told her that he didn't want her coming here anymore, she would never come back. Ever. Looking deep into his eyes, she could tell that he didn't want to say it but the fact that he was standing there with a blank expression on his face let her know that he was going to try to appease his bitch.

  She snatched away from Carmelo again but this time he didn't bother trying to stop her. When she reached the living room, she took note of the defeated look on Summer’s face.

  “Sorry, Sum, but like I said, some things will never be the same,” Dream told her solemnly.

  <><><><>

  Dream walked into her house and damn near jumped out of her skin.

  “AHHH!” she screamed, scaring CJ and causing him to cry.

  “Give me my son, dude,” Carmelo said as he took his car seat from her.

  Dream looked around confused, trying to figure out what the hell was going. She couldn’t understand how or why Carmelo was in her house.

  “Uhh, Melo, what are you doing here?”

  “The question is why are you just getting here? You left before me. I should not have beat you home.”

  Dream rolled her eyes as she walked to the kitchen. She didn’t have time for Carmelo and his shenanigans. Once again, he was on that bipolar shit. Last month it was ‘fuck her,’ now he was all in her house like he belonged there.

  “If you must know, I stopped by my mother’s so that she could see her grandson. I mean, that is okay with you, right?”

  Carmelo disregarded her comment and tried to make light of the situation.

  “What you cooking me?” Carmelo asked from behind her.

  “Not shit. That’s what you have a bitch for,” Dream hawked without even bothering to turn around.

  “Yo, watch your mouth in front of my son and lose that attitude. I didn’t come here for that shit,” he told her.

  “You shouldn’t be here in the first place,” she mumbled.

  “What you say?”

  Dream turned around and looked at him. She was trying to figure out how they’d gotten here. She had loved this man with all her heart just a few months ago and now she couldn’t even stand his black ass.

  “What? I bet you can’t stand my black ass, huh?” Carmelo asked, as if he could read her mind.

  Dream laughed, snorting like she always did. That was funny to her. “No, but seriously, Melo, why are you here. “

  “You know, you just make me want to choke the shit out of you sometimes,” he told her.

  “Whatever, tell it to the judge,” she said, taking her son from him. “Can you answer my question now?”

  “I already did. I told you I wanted to see you. I don’t like how that shit went down at my crib.” He shrugged.

  “Well, now you see me, so you can leave now.”

  “Yo, Dream, what the fuck is up with you?’ Carmelo yelled.

  “Stop yelling. You’re scaring my son,” Dream hissed.

  Carmelo took CJ from Dream and placed him in his bouncer while putting a pacifier in his mouth. He grabbed Dream by her arm and dragged her out of the kitchen.

  “Alright, enough of the bullshit, Dream. Tell me what the hell all this is about.”

  “It’s not about anything, Carmelo. I just don’t have time for your bipolar ways. One minute, you’re yelling fuck me then the next minute, you want to be all up in my face. I don’t have time for all that. You just need to go home and be with Monica. CJ is good and you know what to do if you want him. We had that understanding,” she explained.

  “So that’s what this is really about? You’re feeling some type of way that I brought Monica back but yet you been playing around with the nigga from the shop.”

  “Hold up,” Dream said as she threw her hand up. “Dream doesn’t feel any kind of way. I left you, remember? That gave you the green light to do whatever you felt you wanted to do. You obviously chose to go backwards instead of forwards, but who am I to judge? Now that we have that clear, you—”

  Dream didn’t even finish what she was saying before Carmelo grabbed her by the back of her head and assaulted her lips. He used his tongue and parted her lips as he kissed her with everything he had in him. Before Dream knew what was happening, the kiss was over.

  “Just thought I would remind you of what you’re missing out on.” He smirked before walking out of the kitchen.

  “Carmelo,” Dream called after him.

  He stopped in his tracks and slowly turned back around to face her.

  “Why are we doing this?” she asked.

  “We going to do this until you and my son are where ya’ll belong. You wanna play like we not going to be together, then let’s play. But this…” He paused and pointed between them for effect. “It will continue. You are mine, I am yours. I don’t understand what part of that are you not getting.”

  “You tell me that but you’re about to go back home to your place that you share with another woman. How are you barging in my home, making demands, telling me how things will be when she is still in the picture? That’s not fair to me.”

  She was right and Carmelo knew that. Good thing for him he already had it in his mind that Monica had to go.

  “That’s nothing. Monica was filling a void that I been missing since you been gone. When I get back home, I’m giving her her walking papers. We have to work out. It ain’t just bout us anymore. We have CJ and Summer, who loves you as if you pushed her out yourself. We owe it to them to make us work. I’ll give you more space to get your thoughts together. But this break shit is over.”

  Melo had said all he had to say, so he left. Even after he kissed CJ goodbye and left, Dream was still standing in the same spot trying to get herself together. Leave it up to Carmelo Love to fuck some shit up.

  <><><><>

  “Yo, Mo!” Carmelo called out as he walked in the house

  After having the conversation with Dream, Carmelo knew what he had to do. He wanted, no, he needed his family back together. Summer was right, he was using Monica to fill a void that he felt without Dream in his life. He didn’t want to string her along anymore so he was going to send her home, for good this time.

  “What’s wrong?” Monica asked as she walk
ed down the stairs.

  “We need to sit down and have a talk,” he told her.

  Monica followed behind Carmelo to the den where she sat down and waited to hear what he had to say.

  “Look, Mo, you don’t know how much I appreciate you being here for a nigga. When I was on some depressed shit, you were here to snap me out of it. When I was all fucked up over me and Dream breaking up, you flew across the country to be with me. I kind of feel bad about this shit because I know I was just stringing you along. I have mad love for you and that’s to go without saying, but I’m in love with Dream.”

  Monica sat there trying to process everything he was saying to her.

  “So exactly what are you saying to me, Carmelo?” she asked.

  “I’m saying I decided to get my family back. It was mad cool kicking it with you these past couple of months, but I can’t get my wife back by being with you,” Carmelo told her. This wasn’t his thing and he was trying to be as sensitive as he could about the situation but he was always known for being blunt, even when he wasn’t trying to.

  Monica chuckled. “Wife, huh?” she laughed some more.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

  “This whole damn situation is funny to me, Carmelo. Where was your so-called wife when you called me because her ass walked out on you? Where was your so-called wife when I was riding your dick? Please, Carmelo, tell me where was your so-called wife when I was the one cooking, cleaning and slaving over a damn stove for you and your ungrateful ass daughter?” Monica yelled.

  “Look, Monica, I understand that you’re a little upset right now but you better watch what the fuck you say about my daughter or I’m not going to be responsible for what the fuck I do to your ass. Now, I already apologized for stringing you along but what the fuck did you expect? You saw how fucked up I was when Dream was missing, so I’m trying to figure out how the hell you thought we was going to go back to how things used to be back in the day?”

  Carmelo had tried to be nice to her but all that shit flew out the window when she thought it was okay to bring Summer into the equation. If there was anything in this world that he didn’t play about, it was his kids.

  “So I was good enough to suck and fuck you until that bitch decided that she wanted to come home?” Monica spat.

  Carmelo wiped his hands down his face as a method to keep calm and not slap the shit out of her ass. “Aight, Mo. Pack ya shit and raise the fuck up out of here, yo,” he said.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice,” she said as she jumped up. “I’m happy I aborted your fucking baby. I knew you would pull some shit like this,” she mumbled.

  Carmelo stood there stuck. He knew he just had to hear her wrong. There was no way he just heard her say she got an abortion and the baby was his.

  “Yo, fuck you just say?” he yelled as he ran after her.

  Monica turned to him with fire in her eyes. “You heard exactly what the fuck I said. I knew you were going to pull some shit like this and wasn’t planning on leaving that bitch alone for good, so I aborted your fucking baby. I wouldn’t dare want to have your bastard ass chil—”

  That was as far as her rant went before he slapped the shit out of her. Carmelo wasn’t the one to put his hands on a female but he had no problems slapping the shit out of a bitch and that’s exactly what Monica was acting like right now.

  “Fuck them clothes and shit! Fuck outta my house, now!” he barked as he drug her to the door.

  “Let me the fuck go, Carmelo!” Monica screamed. “You hit me, you son of a bitch!”

  Ignoring her yells, Carmelo opened the front door and threw her out before slamming the door in her face and locking it. Monica banged and kicked on the door while cussing him out. When Carmelo reached the stairs, Summer was standing at the top with a pleased look on her face. She ran to his room and went straight for his closet. She snatched Monica’s clothes off the racks and went to the window that looked over the front of the house.

  “Sum, what the hell are you doing?” Carmelo asked as he walked in his room.

  “Spring cleaning,” she said as she threw the clothes out the window.

  Summer stood there and watched as Monica made a fool out of herself in their front yard by cussing and scrambling to pick up her clothes.

  “Change and burn these sheets. Time to bring my mom and brother home,” Summer said over her shoulder.

  Carmelo stood there shaking his head. He knew Summer wasn’t too thrilled about Monica being here and she had let that be known plenty of times. She was right, though. It was time to bring his lady and son home.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Even after finding out that Carmelo had sent Monica on her way, Dream didn’t have plans on giving in to him that easy. She agreed that they could work on rebuilding their relationship but it had to be done from separate houses. She wasn’t just going to dive back in head first. There was a lot she was still dealing with and felt that Carmelo had to grasp and fully understand that before anything else.

  Her agreeing to work things out and she and CJ spending some nights over at the house seemed to pacify both Carmelo and Summer. Summer was ecstatic to see Dream and Melo moving in the right direction and to have them under the same roof, even if it was just for a night or two out the week. It was a step in the right direction. Carmelo didn’t doubt that he and Dream would find themselves back in the space they were in when they first fell in love, which is why he didn’t mind the living arrangements for the time being. In addition to giving Dream her space, them living apart gave him space to continue his hunt for Shaquille. All his attempts were proving to be in vain but he wasn’t going to stop.

  Summer was trying to focus on helping her parents speed along their rebuilding process. She was all for them having space and taking their time, but she wanted them home, together, for good. Besides school and helping Dream with CJ, she spent her time dodging Caiden’s and Alexandria’s calls and texts. She knew that eventually she would have to deal with them but she wasn’t ready. She would talk to them when she wanted to and not a minute before. Carmelo wasn’t forcing her to talk to them, so she wasn’t in a rush. For a few days, Carmelo had been telling Summer that he had a plan that would good Dream home for good. She was patiently waiting to see what his plan entailed. She knew Dream, so Summer warned her dad that he had better pull out the works.

  <><><><>

  Carmelo pulled his car up to his mother’s house to let Summer and CJ out.

  “Not that I have anything against coming to Nana’s house. I'm just wondering why we have to come here,” Summer said.

  “I already told you, Sum. I have something I need to take care of,” Carmelo told her.

  “Okay, but what does that have to do with us coming over here?” Summer asked.

  Carmelo reached over into his glove compartment and grabbed his bag from Tiffany’s, placing it in Summer’s lap. “Now does this answer your question, nosey ass?”

  Summer looked at him suspiciously before looking in the bag. She pulled the ring box out and opened it.

  “Damn! Dang…I mean dang,” she said as she looked at her dad. “So you're telling me that…”

  “Uhn hun,” Carmelo nodded his head.

  “Yes!” she yelled. “Oh my gosh! We have to pick out a dress and the colors, we have to find somebody to do out makeup and—“

  “Yo, Summer, chill,” Carmelo laughed. “Can I ask her first?”

  “I mean, yea, but we still have to figure these things out, dad. Everything has to be perfect. Oh goodness, I need me some bad shoes to go with my dress. Oh, I don't even have a dress yet but we’ll figure all that out eventually,” Summer rambled on.

  “Alright, motor mouth. Can you raise on up out of here so I can ask her or what?”

  “Oh, I'm sorry. Promise me that you'll call me as soon as she says yes and not a second later, dad.”

  “Yea, yea. I hear you, just get out, please,” he asked.

  “Don't be rude, dad, geez. I'm
just excited, okay?” Summer said as she got her brother out of the car.

  Carmelo shook his head as he made sure his kids made it in the house safely. He still had to go home and set things up which is why he was in a rush to get Summer out of the car. Pulling out his phone, he called his Dream.

  “Yes, Mr. Love?” she answered.

  “Yo, Dream, I need you to meet me at my house, like now,” Carmelo told her.

  “Everything okay? Summer and CJ alright?” she asked nervously.

  “I'll explain everything when you get here,” he said before hanging up with a smile in his face.

  This was going to be one of the best moments of his life.

  <><><><>

  Dream threw her car in park and jumped out as fast as she could. Carmelo had called her and told her to get to his house immediately because it was an emergency. The urgency in his voice let her know that she needed to haul ass over there. Thinking something was wrong with CJ, she dropped everything and rushed over to his house. Using her key, she let herself in.

  “Melo!” she called out to him.

  She looked around in the all the rooms downstairs but couldn’t find him. She knew he had to see her pull up on the security cameras. When she reached the stairs, something caught her eye. She slowly got closer and realized it was rose petals. Shaking her head, she followed the trail of roses, which lead to the bedroom they once shared.

  “Melo, what is going on?” she asked.

  He wasn’t in sight but she knew he had to hear her. The roses led to the bed where they were spread out in a heart shape with a Tiffany’s box in the middle of it. Letting curiosity get the best of her, she reached for the box and opened it. Her jaw immediately hit the floor.

  Inside the box was the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. It was a purple princess cut diamond that damn near blinded her. She couldn’t even begin to estimate how many carats it was. She turned around to continue her search for him when she saw something that made her start crying.

  Behind her, on one knee, was none other than Carmelo Love himself.

  “You know this is all new to me, so work with a nigga,” he chuckled nervously.