Asia playfully rolled her eyes at Khyree before waving him off.
“Seriously though, Asia, I—”
Anika cut Symir off because she knew he was going to try to argue with her all night long about her outfit. “Asia, you look good, girl. You make me really want to drop this load so I can get my body back.” She smiled.
“Thank you, sister,” Asia smiled.
“I’m jealous.” Cookie smiled.
“Don’t be, you look good as fuck, too,” Cole said in her ear, making her blush and giggle.
“Hold up,” Knowledge said as he got up. “You look cute or whatever, but your outfit is missing something,” he said as he reached in his pocket for her necklace that he had been meaning to give back to her.
“My necklace!” Asia gushed as she turned around and picked her hair up so he could put it on for her.
“Wow,” Courtney said.
Everyone in the room looked at her to see what her problem was.
“Is there a problem?” Patience asked with a raised eyebrow.
Even though Asia didn’t too much care for Courtney, there was nothing she could really do about it. Knowledge chose to keep bringing her around, so she had to tolerate her just for that simple fact. She tried to bite her tongue whenever she was around her because she didn’t want to seem as if she was jealous or hating.
Patience, on the other hand, didn’t care. Every time she was around Courtney, she let her know that she didn’t care for her. Hell, Knowledge was her brother, so she didn’t have to be worried about being labeled jealous. Like always, she let it be known that she was team Asia no matter what.
“Nope, I was just admiring her necklace. It’s beautiful,” she said.
“I know. My brother has good taste…” Some of the time at least, she said in her head as she turned her nose up at Courtney.
“Chill out,” Mickey said as he slapped her thigh.
“Anyways, y’all ready to go?” Asia asked.
Since her brother replaced her Maybach with a newer version, Asia decided to bring it out for this occasion since she barely drove it. She let her brother drive it, with Khyree sitting shotgun while she was chilling in the backseat.
Of course, when they pulled up to the club, it was packed. The line was wrapped around the building with people who were trying to get in. Everyone was breaking their necks to see who was driving the fancy cars with the Maybach leading the pack. When everyone got out, there was nothing but envious stares coming from different angles.
“Damn, we look good,” Asia complemented them as they walked to the entrance of the club and were immediately granted access. When they got in, the DJ was playing Nicki Minaj’s rendition of “No Flex Zone.” Being a big Nicki fan, Asia got hyped.
“Running this game for five years. Guess that’s why my feet hurt. Wonder when they bite me. Do these bitch’s teeth hurt?” Asia rapped along.
While everyone else headed for VIP, Asia stayed on the dance floor. Symir rounded up the fellas when they got there and stood looking over the banister watching his sister.
“Keep an eye on her,” Symir said.
Symir didn’t care if he was treating her like a baby. His job was to protect what was his, and that included his sister. This was her first time being in a club and now that she was legal to drink, he didn’t want her getting buck wild with it.
“You already know I’m on it,” Khyree responded.
Asia was on the dance floor having the time of her life when the DJ played a throwback Juvenile song, “Back That Ass Up.” She was doing just that and backing it up when she felt someone come up behind her, turning around to see who it was, she was met with the prettiest green eyes she had ever seen. Light-skinned niggas weren’t really her thing, but this brother put the ‘F’ in fine.
Smiling, she turned back around and proceeded to do just as Juvenile told her to do. Knowledge and Khyree were chilling and standing by the rail, sipping on their drinks as they stared at Asia. Since she was technically single, there was no problem with her dancing with another nigga.
That was, until that nigga didn’t know how to keep his hands to himself. The moment Knowledge saw that nigga grabbed a handful of Asia’s ass, he was hot. Before Khyree could even react, Knowledge was already walking down the stairs. Noticing Khyree waving him over, Symir jumped up to see what was wrong, followed by Cole and Mickey. They stood there and watched the whole scene, making sure shit didn’t get ugly.
“Ight, A. That’s enough. Come chill out for a minute,” Knowledge said as he grabbed her arm.
Knowing that he would have no problem showing his ass, she did as she was told. Feeling her other arm being pulled in the other direction, she turned as Mr. Pretty Eyes was pulling her back in his direction.
“I wasn’t finished with her,” he told Knowledge.
Seeing the vein in Knowledge’s neck make an appearance, she knew she was about to get real.
“Omari,” she said as she put her hands on his chest to back him up before turning back to Pretty Eyes. “Thanks for the dance.”
By now, the other men had made it to the floor. She shook her head as she noticed her brother swaggering through the crowd.
“We got a problem?” Symir asked.
“This nigga don’t know how to keep his hands to himself,” Knowledge was talking to Symir but never took his eyes off of the other man.
“Come on y’all. It ain’t that serious,” Asia pleaded.
“Asia, go sit down,” Symir said.
Rolling her eyes, Asia did as she was told and headed for VIP. Patience was watching everything go down and waited for Asia to get to where she was.
“Can’t even go out and have a good time without them acting a damn fool,” Asia said with an attitude.
“They’re just looking out for you. You know how our brothers can be and Mikey and Cole have their backs, so they’re not going to sit back and watch it go down without joining in on the action.”
Asia sighed. She didn’t know when they were going to stop treating her like a baby but she hoped it would be soon. She loved and appreciated the love, but enough was enough. She was very capable of taking care of herself. I used to be a killer, for Christ’s sake.
For the rest of the night, Asia tried not to let that little fiasco ruin her night. She just sat with the ladies for the rest of the night. She even struck up a conversation with Courtney while Patience, on the other hand, wasn’t having that.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Anika was waiting on the porch as she waited for Jay to arrive. She had finally taken Asia’s advice and was about to have that talk with Symir. Junior must have sensed her nervousness because he started kicking her hard.
“Cut that out,” she said as she tapped where he was kicking her stomach.
When she saw Jay’s car pulling up, she started to have doubts. She didn’t know how Symir was going to take to this situation, seeing how she was basically blindsiding him.
“Hey, Jay.” She smiled nervously as he walked up on the porch.
“What’s up? Happy to hear from you,” he said as he pulled her in for a hug. “You ready for this?” he asked.
“As ready as I’m going to get. There’s no turning back now,” she said as she led him into the house. “Mir!” she yelled.
“Why you yelling?” he asked as he rounded the corner.
When he realized Jay was standing behind her, he gave her funny look that she really couldn’t decipher.
“We need to talk,” she said.
“Go to my office. I’ll be there in a minute,” he said.
Anika nodded her head as she waddled up the stairs to Symir’s office. She and Jay sat in the chairs in front of Symir’s desk as they waited for him to come in. A few minutes later, he entered and sat in his big chair behind his desk.
“So, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Symir asked.
“First, I would like to give a proper introduction,” Anika sighed. “Symir, this is Jaylun, my brothe
r. Jaylun, this is Symir, my fiancé.” It felt like a little weight was lifted off of her shoulders when she said that.
“Brother, huh? I thought the only brother you had was DeMarco?” Symir said.
“Well, Jay lived down in South America with my dad. As you know, I didn’t even know who my dad was, that was until he sent Jay to find me. He tracked down my mom and she sent him my way. We, Jay and I, met up and that’s when I told him about everything that was going on. I was just excited to have a brother to be close to since me and DeMarco aren’t that close due to my addiction. That time you choked me out, I called Jay and that’s how he got me that condo I was living in. Jay says that my dad wants me to come down and see him, but since I’m pregnant, I can’t fly and I didn’t want to just up and leave, taking Sasha with me without talking to you first. That’s why when you were at the condo, Jay kept telling me to tell you.”
Anika took a deep breath as she felt all the weight lifting off her shoulders. She looked up at Symir and he was smirking like he knew something she didn’t.
“What?” she asked.
“I already knew,” he said as if it was nothing.
“Wait, what? How did you know?” she asked, confused.
“I paid Jay a little visit before we made up, and we talked. He said he wanted to talk to me because everything wasn’t what it seemed when I popped up on you,” Symir admitted.
Anika looked from Symir to Jay with a bewildered look on her face. Here she was thinking she was holding a secret from him and he already knew everything.
“Wow, y’all ain’t shit,” she said as she swung and hit Jay in his arm.
“I told you to tell him, Nika, but you don’t listen.” Jay shrugged.
“The part I’m trying to figure out is why you felt like you couldn’t come to me and talk to me. Don’t we talk about everything, Anika?” Symir asked.
“Yea, but…” Anika faded her sentence out as she felt a gush of water come out of her and her eyes traveled to the wet spot that was forming.
“Oh shit!” Jay yelled.
Symir jumped up and ran around to the other side of his desk. He and Anika locked eyes as she nodded her head, confirming what he already knew. His son was about to make his appearance.
Symir drove himself and Anika to the hospital while Jay followed behind him with Sasha. Symir called his mom and sister and informed them that Anika’s water had broken and they were on their way to the hospital.
Two hours later, and there was still no baby. Asia was calling every hour on the hour since she couldn’t come up there because she had Serenity, Wysdom and Symare at her house. Crystal looked up at the door, shocked to see Anjela, Anika’s mother. She hadn’t been around since before Nika got hooked on drugs.
“Anjie,” Crystal greeted her.
“Hi, Crystal. How are you?”
“Mommy?” Anika whined as another contraction hit her.
It had been over a year since the last time she seen or spoken to her mother. She hated how her relationship with her had dwindled due to her turning into an addict, but the fact that she was here now meant a lot to her.
“Thanks for coming,” Symir said.
“Thanks for calling me,” Anjela said as she walked to the bed, grabbing Anika’s hand. “How are you feeling?” she asked her daughter.
“Right about now, I wish I wasn’t feeling anything,” Anika said.
“How far are you dilated?”
“Only four,” Anika sighed.
She was hoping that this wouldn’t be a long labor for her, but it wasn’t looking too good right about now. She thought about getting an epidural, but since he didn’t look like he was coming out anytime soon, it would be defeating the purpose.
~~~~
Around nine o’clock in the morning, Anika woke up feeling pressure like she needed to push. She looked to her left and noticed Symir on the couch curled up.
“Mir,” she said. He didn’t budge, so she called him a little louder. “Symir!”
“Huh?” he said as he jumped up, damn near falling on his face.
“Slow down, baby. Can you go get a nurse and tell her I need to push?” she said.
“I’ll be right back.”
A few minutes later, Symir came running into the room with a nurse and doctor right on her heels. “Okay, Anika. We need you to lay on your back and put your feet up on the bed,” the doctor told her.
Doing as she was told, the doctor checked her pelvis. “She’s fully dilated,” he announced. “Okay, dad, can you hold her right leg while my nurse holds her left one? On the count of three, Anika, I want you to push until I count to ten.”
Taking a deep breath, Anika prepared herself.
“One, two, three.”
“Ahhhhh!” Nika yelled as she pushed with all her might.
Hating to see her in pain, Symir gave her his hand to squeeze while she was pushing.
“It hurts,” Anika whined.
“Okay, take a little breather and we’ll try again,” her doctor told her.
After taking a one minute breather, Anika was ready to push again. She grabbed on to Symir’s hand as she pushed with everything in her. Symir was about to faint from the pain of her squeezing the shit out of his hand. He didn’t even know she had that much strength in her.
“I see the head!” the doctor announced. “Keep pushing, Anika.”
“Ughhhhhhh!” she yelled.
“We have a boy!” she heard the doctor yell before she heard her baby’s cry.
Symir cut the umbilical cord and looked back to smile at Anika when he heard her heart monitor flatline.
“She’s flatlining! I need a crash cart, now!” the doctor yelled.
“Nika!” Symir yelled as a nurse tried to usher him out of the room. “Anika! What’s wrong with her?”
“Sir, we need you to leave the room. Your son needs you,” the nurse pleaded.
Symir walked like a zombie out of the room. He felt as if all the wind had been knocked from his body. This can’t be happening, he thought as he felt like he was about to faint. The doctor walked out a few minutes later as Symir was pacing back and forth. The look on the doctor’s face told him everything he needed to know.
Walking away, not wanting to hear what he had to say, Symir walked to the nursery where they had taken his son. Right now, all he wanted to do was tune out the world and hold his little man in his arms.
~~~~
Knowledge sat in Asia’s driveway as he thought back to the first day he laid eyes on her. As crazy as it may sound, he knew he had to have her. Even with a pregnant fiancé at home, he pursued her. He thought he would be content with just having her in his life until the recent argument he had with Courtney.
“I know I said I was cool with this, whatever we had going on, but I can’t do it anymore,” Courtney ranted as she paced back and forth in his living room.
“Do what, Courtney? Where the hell is all this even coming from?” Knowledge asked as if he was really uninterested in what she had to say.
“I seen the way you looked at her; the way your eyes light up whenever she’s in your presence. Nothing or no one can keep your attention when she’s around. You were ready to act a damn fool in the club over her. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you two were still sleeping with each other,” Courtney sighed.
Knowledge sat there looking at her like she was crazy.
“Courtney, what did I tell you when we were in Fiji? Huh? What did I tell you?” he asked.
“You said you still had some issues with her that you needed to resolve,” she mumbled.
“Okay then!” he yelled. “Why are you standing here acting brand new like I led you on to believe I wanted to be in a relationship with you? I told you what it was from the jump. You said you were cool with that, so why are you tripping now?”
“Because I finally realize that I don’t stand a fighting chance, Knowledge. Even if we did get into something serious, I would always come second to her. You’r
e still in love with her, but you’re in denial about it. I would never be able to compete with someone who has your heart.”
Courtney did have a point. Knowledge was in love with Asia, but he wasn’t in denial about it. He just didn’t know if they would ever be able to be together due to him not being real with her when he first approached her. A few hours ago, Courtney walked out of his house and his life, for good.
“Omari, what are you doing?” Asia asked as she opened her door for him to come in.
“Tell me you love me, Asia,” he said as he stared at her intently.
Asia chuckled. “You came all the way over here for me to—“
“No, Asia. I’m not playing. I need for you to know that I’m tired of playing this game. I’m tired of actin’ like I’m okay with not waking up or falling asleep with you every day and night. I’m tired of you not being able to trust me because I didn’t know how to be real with you. I can admit that I messed up, no, I fucked up big time and I know that.
“I’m asking you here and now to give me a chance to make it up to you. Give me a chance to be the man I should have been from day one. I don’t want to try to be in a relationship with nobody else because you have a piece of me that no woman will probably ever be able to have again, and that’s my heart, Asia. I know our relationship hasn’t been perfect, but I’m fine with that. What I’m not fine with is acting like I’m not in love with you.”
Asia stood there with her mouth literally hanging open. This was the first time she had seen Knowledge so vulnerable. She was so used to him being this hardcore thug that was always ready for whatever. That same hardcore thug was standing in front of her professing his love for her.
“Promise me…promise me you’ll never hurt me again,” she said just above a whisper.
“I promise that I will never hurt you intentionally,” Knowledge promised.
Asia jumped into his arms and kissed him with everything she had in her. Knowledge held her in his arms tightly, never wanting to let her go.
“I love you,” Asia whispered against his lips.
“I love you, too.”
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