“Are you going to be able to hold her like that?”
“I got her, just drive Pia. Just drive.”
With a quick shift of the gear, I started off. Moving slowly at first to find my footing, almost jerking the car forward when Homer gripped the door, looking at me with a panicked expression.
“You said you knew how to drive----!”
“It’s been a while! Give me a second to adjust!”
“Ohh my God,” he huffed, watching me with apprehension as I tried to figure out which direction meant what. Car jerked forward in the middle of the street as Homer grabbed my arm.
“Pia, get up---.”
“I can drive it! Just hold on!” Feeling the car drift backward in reverse before suddenly shoving our bodies forward.
“Pi-Pia?! Get out, just get out---!”
“Hold on! Stop crying for a second, and let me figure it out!
“Figure out how we in the middle of the gah damn---.”
“Just give me a minute to adjust my footing! It’s so many damn pedals!” I snapped, hearing a horn honk behind us as headlights rolled inside the car before passing us on. “I can do this!”
“Gone on, and fuck up my trans----.”
I took off, feeling our bodies jerk back as he held onto Violet with both hands, and let out a scream.
“PIA?! PIAAA!!?”
I moved with ease around a slow car before taking the lane that led straight for the interstate. I knew how to drive it, I just needed a second to adjust to the change is all. I was able to calm down and find my groove, once letting all the windows down as my hair whipped about with my bangs split in the middle against the wind. I sat up straight, scooping my hair back from my face while taking a quick glance at Violet seeing the sweat on her back airing out. Her small hands clung to Homer’s sides with their matching complexion, almost like they blended in where one began, you couldn’t tell where the other ended.
“Is she okay!?” I yelled. Homer looked up at me with a small nod. “Are you okay?!”
“Can you watch the fucking highway?!” He yelled back as I smiled. Licking my lips, I scooped my hair back from my face again and just casually looked out my window. Reliving a memory of my father’s old security guards teaching me how to drive a stick shift. Something I thought would impress my dad until it obviously didn’t when he was fired. Still, the skill never left me, and I was grateful for it.
After coming to a red light on the final stretch of our drive, I took the chance to steal a glance at my daughter, and Homer. Remembering what Nevaeh said about seeing her daughter fall asleep on Junie. I couldn’t have agreed with her even more. Violet would fall asleep with Dre all the time, but this was a different sight that had a different feeling altogether. Homer was asleep with his fingers gently massaging Violet’s little toes and foot on one side. Head would occasionally nod off to the side while Violet had a stick of stretched drool from her puckered lips to his chest, clinging to him like they warmed each other up in the cool air. It was only when I put the car in park and shut it off that he decided to wake up. He sat up with Violet in his arms, and I could see his entire back was damp.
“I got her,” he said in a groggy, sleep-filled voice. “Get her clothes, and my things.”
I did as I was told, deciding not to put up a fight. We were both tired, and Violet was our main concern at this point. Making sure she was okay, but the moment I placed her in her bed, knowing her room, and closed the door, I was faced with Homer sitting on the couch, wiping his face with a yawn. Only to stretch out like he was about to make himself comfortable.
“Um…” Leaning against the wall. “You should probably leave----.”
“Probably right,” he mocked, making his voice high pitched like some girl from the valley before kicking his shoes off right then, and there, and undoing his pants.
“Homer, I’m serious.”
“I’ll be gone by the morning. I need to cool down.”
“Getting naked in my living room with my daughter in the other room is NOT how----.”
“You got some strange nigga who ain’t no kin to her laying up in here for years, and I can’t even---.”
“He was my boyfriend, and he’s been there for me since before she was born,” I declared.
“Where he at now?”
“Giving you space to be the father he already was to her,” I muttered. Homer simply smiled, and laughed with a shake of his head.
“You funny Pia,” getting up. “Where’s yo bathroom?”
“You can use Violet’s----. Homer? This isn’t how----. Homer?!”
I had to follow behind him, trying to break between the space in the small hallway to get to my room before he did until he opened the door, and barged right on in.
“If I was the abusive type, yo ass would have been fucked up by now. The way you talk to me,” he said as my mouth dropped.
“What is that to say to someone?!” I let out, watching him open the door to my bathroom. Eyes everywhere they didn’t need to be. I was thankful I cleaned up while he was here earlier because God knows, I kept a messy bathroom with or without a two-year-old. Clothes, panties, socks, were usually sprawled everywhere with Dre’s things. Instead of fighting him which I was starting to think he liked, I plopped down on the bed, ticked. He stood with the bathroom door open, and in a not so discreet manner, pulled out his...you know what to pee.
“Great,” I muttered, turning away as the sound of him shooting into the water grew louder.
“Does your couch pull out?” He asked, hearing the toilet flush as I got up to clear my bed off.
“It does not. I don’t keep company here often. Everyone I know usually have their own bed they can sleep in. If you’re going to stay here, you’re sleeping on that couch.”
“You see how big I am?” He asked as I looked over at him. Eyes failing me in the worst way possible, went directly to his boxers to see his slong laid to the side of his thigh. My eyes shot up towards him just as my door slowly creaked open. Violet came creeping in at her normal time holding her stuffed animal while rubbing her eyes. Small brown belly poked out with her feet pointed on her toes as she walked.
“Come here coco bean,” I cooed. Not willing to fight or share her affection, I grabbed her before Homer could get the chance and held her close. Smelling him all on her before doing another deep inhale.
“Mmmmm, you smell like chocolate coco bean,” I whispered, taking her hand from her eyes as she laid her head down on me. “And I am hungry for some chocolate…”
“Mommy don’t eat me,” she whined in mid-sleep. Wiggling about in my hold as I moved around the room.
“Should I start with the ears?”
“Noooo,” she cried, covering her ears.
“What about the feet? Those chocolate little toes? Hmmmm, they look so sweet----.”
“Don’t eat meeee!” Collapsing against me, trying to hold on like she didn’t want to let go. “I’m not chalket---.”
“You are, ahhh num num num!” I growled, playfully grabbing at her arm with my mouth as she laughed. “Still hungry for more!”
“Eat Daddy! Eat Daddy!” She demanded, pointing behind me as I turned around seeing Homer was laying comfortably in my bed with one eye open, sheets up to his neck like a fool.
“If you don’t get your a.s.s out of my f.u.c…. freaking bed----.”
“Eat Daddy!”
“Daddy wouldn’t taste good,” I told Violet, making a face like he was disgusting. Homer just laughed before getting up. Coming up behind me as he grabbed Violet who screamed in laughter, and pretended to chow down on her, tickling her to her very core.
“Alright! Alright!” I let out. “Time to go back to sleep. It’s entirely too early for this. Come on. Homer, couch. Now. I’m not playing.”
“You can sleep on the couch for me while I take the bed----.”
“Or you can get out,” I said. “I much rather you leave----.”
“I want to be here when she wakes up---.”
He looked at the bed like he wasn’t used to sleeping on anything as nice as my plush California King, but it didn’t matter. I closed the door and took my shower. Hoping by the time I decided to lay down, he would be either gone or fast asleep. To my shock, he was hanging halfway off the couch, long body struggling to find comfort but he was fast asleep. I cut off all lights, shut down everything, and crawled into bed with my tot tucked behind me. Hair wrapped in a pink silk bonnet, and a long shirt that belonged to Dre covering just enough thigh. The night was still young, and everything was quiet until my bedroom door opened again with Homer’s towering height standing in the doorway.
“I can’t do that couch, Pia,” he whispered.
“Well, you can’t do here!” I hissed, wondering if he was still under the influence of those damn drinks or was I dreaming? I had to be dreaming to see him hovering over the bed before quietly kneeing down on the mattress.
“Homer?! Homer! Are you drunk?!” I whispered, sitting up. “I’m not mov---.”
“The man always sleeps facing the door, move. I’ll be gone before you wake up but I’m not sleeping on no damn couch. Ain’t neva had to do that a day in my life, ain’t starting now. If you can’t handle that, then you sleep on that couch, but I need a good few hours of sleep. Been driving all damn day,” he muttered before intentionally moving me, and my daughter further back on the bed as he sighed in content. “Fucking tired…and it's hot…”
I laid flat on my black, staring at the ceiling. Violet was right up under me on my left, Homer took the right. Sleeping on top of the covers. I started to land a punch on his shoulder just to show him how irritated I was, but a small...very small part of me was responding to the closeness of his body near mine. He suddenly sat up, adjusting the pillow before looking over at me in the dark.
“She’s good?” He whispered. “She still hot?”
“I don’t know,” I muttered like a stone between two pillows. Homer sucked his teeth and leaned over to feel for Violet.
“She’s still burning up, yo window don’t open?” He asked in a low voice, sitting up on his elbows as he reached over again.
“I think you’re doing this on purpose,” I whispered, hands gripping the sheets tight as I closed my eyes. “You’re trying to seduce me---.”
“Pia, ain’t nothing sexual between us, I can promise you that,” he laughed. “Not with a damn kid in the bed.”
I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding and opened my eyes to see Homer looking down at me. Naturally, I arched back with a sigh as he watched the move. Slowly, he reached down, underneath the covers and let his hand travel up the sheets until it landed on my thigh. Feeling the heat radiate against my skin.
“Homer,” I gasped softly.
“You overheating too,” he murmured as his shadow slowly leaned down as my eyes closed, lips drying up at the thought until I felt something heavy smack the side of my nose as I sat up in a loud gasp. Hand wiping my face from the hit before looking around the dark bedroom, and moonlit window. Seeing Violet’s foot was inches away from me, having kicked me in the face on accident. I looked around seeing no Homer Skye, not even a hint that he laid in my bed.
“A dream…” I grumbled. “A damn dream,” flipping the covers back as I sat upright. Staring at my closed bedroom door, I got up to step into the hallway.
“I see you’re overheating too,” I mocked. Cheesiest line, even for a dream but the closer I got to my living room, the louder the snores became as I peeked around the corner seeing Homer was sprawled on the couch in his red boxers. Simple gold chain around his neck, and earrings he never took off, his wide bare chest decorated in small curls of dark hair in the center rose, and fell with each breath. For a second, I tried to imagine a sleeping wolf or coyote laying on its side. Black fur blowing in the nonexistent wind inside, and the low growls that should have freaked me out were nothing but his natural snores.
“Got to be out of my mind,” I said, turning back towards my room to close and lock the door behind me.
Out of my damn mind.
The next morning, I thought I would take my time waking up. A small part of me hoping he would still be there so I could have the joy of kicking him out, but when I walked into the living room, Violet was in her pajamas with a box of cereal in her lap, watching TV. Homer was already gone, but I could tell he got her together in the morning. I could smell the shower he probably took. Violet’s teeth were brushed, face washed, and a clean pair of socks on her feet. When she looked back at me, her morning eyes beamed with excitement. Ready to talk my ears off about whatever was on TV.
“Where is he, Violet?” I asked with a tired yawn, plopping down on the couch. Half expecting him to come out of her room, or barge in from the front door, but I noticed the note on the coffee table with scribbles written on it.
Gone for a morning workout. Left you some breakfast in the microwave.
Maybe we can do dinner, and a movie later on.
-Homer
I looked up from the note and stared at Violet who stared back, waiting for any type of response from me. Surely he wasn’t talking about him, and I, doing a dinner, and movie.
“Movie and dinner with your…daddy? How does that sound?” I asked, still struggling to say the word itself. Violet suddenly stood up with a loud howl and held the box of cereal up above her head before turning it upside down, spilling the colorful pieces all over the floor.
“Violet?!” I let out as she grinned with her mischievous laugh. “It’s not funny little girl.”
Homer Skye
“That nigga a dawg!” Michael yelled out, tossing the basketball towards me with a laugh. “Yall should have seen him last night!”
“I heard,” Jason said, bending over in game mode. “I heard about you dancing with this mysterious woman who turned out to be your baby’s mother.”
“Got to be embarrassing,” Tucker said with a shake of his head as I clapped the ball to my other hand before taking a shot. Flicking my wrist forward in good form just to watch the ball effortlessly slip into the white net. No rim.
We were at an indoor court this time on a Saturday morning at one of Jason’s uppity country clubs he goes to. Glass ceilings just above us showing the bright blue sky, and white clouds while the clean brown bleachers looked freshly painted on both sides. Court was brand new with paint still fresh as our shoes squeaked up, and down the court. Since my cousins were probably still spread out throughout Atlanta laid up with whoever, I took up the offer to play morning basketball with the guys. Two against two. Brothers vs brothers.
“I’m still waiting to hear what happened to you last night. We all went to the strip club afterward, and you just---.”
“I went to go get my daughter, and to stop Pia from getting drug by Caroline,” I said simply, reaching to pull off my shirt as I tossed it aside. Small gold chain around my neck, and thick white sneakers with tall black socks was all the accessories I needed as I hiked my basketball shorts up, ready to ball.
“You slept with her didn’t you?” Jason asked with a laugh as I smiled. “You did! Diega and I have this bet that you will sleep with her, and she thinks---.”
“Why is that a bet?” I laughed with my hands out. “Why can’t two people who don’t like each other like that, get along? I stayed at her house last night but we----.”
“Ahhhh mannn, you didn’t,” Michael groaned.
“What’s the big deal?” I let out. “She stayed in her room, and I stayed on the couch. Nothing happened. Matter of fact, I’ll probably be over there again tonight.”
Jason and Tucker exchanged looks before Tucker snatched the ball, and began to move down the court with me following.
“I’m going to tell you now, find any free time you can to be with her without the kid,” Jason said as I attempted to snatch the ball from Tucker.
“What does that even mean?” I asked.
<
br /> “Date nights,” Tucker added. “You’re going to want to start a date night. Ominaya and I have one even though we don’t have kids yet. We have date nights. Sometimes couples’ game night where the women get together to find a way to torture us men for an evening.”
“Which is crazy when you get married thinking you don’t have to do dates anymore,” Jason said with a laugh. “Free time for you two is important. Don’t ever lose that. Make that a priority----.”
“We’re not even dating---.”
“Never fall for the compliment trap where they’re just looking to start arguing, for no reason! Ominaya asked me if I liked the meal she made, and mind you, with a mouth full of food that she made, I simply said, I’m hungry so it really doesn’t matter, and all hell broke loose in my house.”
“You can’t say you like it because---.”
“They’ll think you’re lying,” Tucker cut in as Jason agreed before looking at me. “You’ll get used to it though---.”
“What does any of this mean? Why y'all telling me this?”
We all watched Michael take a shot with the ball bouncing on the rim before Jason, and I both jumped for it with his lean arm slapping it towards Tucker as we ran down to the other side of the court.
“Does the sex stop when you get married?” Michael asked with a laugh. “Do you still have your balls or are you still good down there?”
“I already told you, I’m afraid to touch my wife,” Jason laughed. “I don’t need three more babies being born at once. Now it's, I don’t like how birth control makes me feel,” he mocked. “And I certainly don’t like condoms. Not on my woman anyway. You have to find time to have sex,” he said looking at me as I threw my hands up again.
“What that got to do with Pia, and I? We already had sex, and this is the end result.”
“Because if you start messing with her again---.”
Hoodwinked Page 24