Page 57 of Saint Baptiste 2

“I guarantee you’ll find a way to fall in love with one of them bitches too,” Emu interrupted. “The only nigga I know that fuck with several ho’s and love all of ‘em.”

We laughed and before I could say anything, Blaise opened his mouth.

“You talkin’ to this nigga bout ho’s?” He asked with raised brows. “This nigga the wrong nigga to be talkin to bout ho’s, cuz. I promise you.”

“Shut the fuck up, bitch,” I said with a laugh before turning to walk over to the wet bar to pour up another glass of Hennessey Paradise. I was off the cognac tonight. Tequila hadn’t been good to me lately. Tequila made me think too much. Tonight, I just wanted to relax and take the edge off.

“Say it ain’t so,” Simon said with a laugh. “My nigga stayed with bitches. Don’t tell me my boy fell off.”

“Oh yeah, he definitely fell, cuzzo,” Blaise laughed. “In love.”

“Love!” He yelled with raised brows. “Yeah, niggas might as well gon and get right with God. This bitch coming to an end.”

We laughed and I waved them off. “Help him out fré,” I said with a smirk, challenging Blaise. “I’m sure you got at least one you can spare nigga.”

Blaise had jokes but he had a cult of bitches and didn’t want to come up off one of them. Not even for the sake of keeping shit copacetic with his baby momma.

He smirked, tilted that bottle up to his mouth and drank from it. Didn’t say shit else. Proved me right. Silly ass nigga.

Jahad pushed up from the couch and joined me over at the bar. He gripped the neck of the bottle and poured himself a glass too. Hit me with a side eye I decided to ignore but he wouldn’t let up on me.

“Patience, fré,” he stated before recorking the bottle.

I cleared my throat and leaned against the grunge textured matte black wall behind me and tossed my head back against it. “I’ve been patient.”

“Some things require more patience, than others, baby bro,” Jahad pointed out. “We learned patience early, didn’t we?”

With my eyes locked on the massive painting on the wall in front of me, I nodded, marveling over the black and white graffiti—a trueL. Johnsonclassic. Created specifically for me, about ten years ago. Back then she went byL. Baptiste. She ‘painted’ outside of the lines with that one. It was a true statement piece.

Taking a deep breath, I took another drink. “How many lessons were we given before we got it right, fré?”

Samuel was a man of tests. Most of them were manipulation tactics. Some, not.

“Five for me. Ten for you,” Jahad stated with a smirk before nodding toward B. “Ay! B! How many lessons were you given in patience, bro?” he yelled.

Blaise pushed away from the chest he was leaning against with a grin. “Fuck you.”

“How many, nigga?” I asked before tossing my arm over Jah’s shoulder. “I know you remember. You might suck at patience but numbers? Numbers you’re good?—”

“Twenty-seven, bitch,” he said with a laugh.

“And how many did you pass?” Jahad asked, feigning ignorance.

Again, Blaise smirked. Out of the three of us, he had never been good at patience. “Zero. Samuel left that lesson up to God.”

Again, the room erupted in laughter. Tonight was a good ass night.

Hours later, I was where I’d wanted to be all night. In bed, hands cupped behind my head, eyes to the ceiling on my way to my favorite place to be. That illusion. My house was quiet and empty. The family left around twelve. Simon wanted to hit Vault. I wanted to stay here. Would rather do this than to do that. Vault was work for me anyway. I could enjoy myself there, but not for real. Not as much as I would enjoy myself in this illusion.

I kept this part of my day private.

Not because I was ashamed but because much like the way I felt about her, niggas wouldn’t understand. They’d look at me, laid out, thinking about the woman I lost, and think I was sad. I wasn’t. I was grateful and comfortable. Comfortable because as bad as I wanted something more, this illusion hadn’t been tainted. Not even the few times she rejected me had ruined this. Had she accepted me, too early, it would have been. Had we stepped back into that shit, without addressing the problems, and carried on as if nothing happened, I would have ruined it.

I was grateful for the rejection. As fucking crazy as that might’ve sounded, I was. I could come here whenever I wanted. Didn’t have to live with the regret of ruining this.

Right before I could settle in... before I could get to the moment she opened up for me and let me stay, the notification for my security system went off, alerting me of activity at the gate. I ignored it. The only thing it ever was at this hour, unannounced, was a deer or some wild shit like that. However, the buzzer was pressed, forcing me to shift my eyes over to my phone. I grabbed it from the nightstand and hit the notification. Thought I was losing my shit for real when I noticed her, leaning out of the window to hit it for a second time.

I instantly sat up, and hit the unlock button, letting her through.

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