Page 30 of Unlucky You

“I won’t. I told you I’ll be busy later.”

“Mmhmm.” She was already sending a text and I shook my head.

I dug into my pancakes, smiling at the way Grand had shot me a murderous glare for stealing his food, then rolled my eyes because once again, he was in my head. This man was a problem I didn’t need but was certainly going to have.

“What’s the job?”

“Huh?”

“You said you’re working tonight?”

Ohhh….

“Nothing interesting. One that Joe hit me up about.” I had discussed Joe a few times with my sister. She was familiar with his publication and hyped each time she saw a tag with my name identifying the images.

“I hope he’s paying good then if it’s bullshit.”

Paid very well.

“You know I don’t play about my time or my money.” My phone vibrated with a text and when I tapped my screen to view it, a smile spread across my face. It was similar to the one from a few weeks ago. Coordinates that would get me to the location of tonight’s fight. When I realized I was smiling, I quickly lifted my eyes and relaxed when I noticed my sister was focused on her phone and not me.

“Since you’re banked up, you can pay for breakfast.”

“Girl…” I narrowed my eyes and Sameena grinned.

“I’m kidding, it’s on me…” She paused. “Unless…”

“No.”

“Fine, I’ll pay.”

We devoured our food while Sameena scrolled through social media, occasionally showing me reels and we talked shit and laughed about them. When we were done, I drove us back to my place, my sister hugged me and promised to check in later, and I was mentally preparing to get some edits done so I could freeup my night because I had a date with danger and was looking forward to it.

NINE

Grand.

When I made it to my mother’s house, I was agitated because a delay on the highway kept me from spending time with Raiden. I couldn’t pick him up from school because I got caught up at DMV renewing my license which took four fucking hours. Everybody in the damn city decided that today was the best time to show up at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Then I had to go downtown to do a mandatory drug test and an anger management course mandated by the city as a condition of my release before meeting with my PO.

To make matters worse, the woman assigned to me mentioned on multiple occasions that she would do a favor for a favor. She propositioned me for dick every damn time I steppedinto her office. Last week it was dick in exchange for a later curfew. Today, it was no more drug testing if I ate her pussy. I declined both. Shit was crazy and I needed to get my fines paid so I could finish my parole and be done with all this.

Another reminder of the bullshit from my past. The night I was arrested, I had weed in my system. I wasn’t an addict. I smoked recreationally, and barely even then. I also didn’t have anger issues. What happened between me and Moses was a reaction to him drugging Aleah. I didn’t go around the city fucking people up with no reason attached.

Regardless of how fucking long my day had been, I made my son a promise that I would see him before he went to bed and I was keeping that promise. As soon as I let myself in, I was greeted by a smile from my mother, even though I could sense she had been worried. I hated that my actions caused her any more stress than already existed. The shit really fucked with me.

I walked in and kissed her cheek. “Hey, Ma. Sorry I’m late. I got stuck in traffic. They had the highway blocked due to an accident.”

“It’s fine. He waited up as long as he could.”

“He’s asleep already?” I asked, considering whether or not I would wake him long enough to make sure he knew I kept my promise.

She shook her head gently, offering a soft smile. “No, he’s awake. I made him take a bath and told him he could watch TV in his room after he said his prayers to keep him busy until you got here. I knew you would be here, even if you were late.”

“Yeah. Been a long day but I wasn’t gonna let him down.”

“I know.” She touched my arm and glanced at the stairs. “Go on up.”

I nodded and left her in the living room, jogging up the stairs. When I reached the end of the hallway, I stopped outside his room when I caught the sound of Raiden’s voice. My heartclenched listening to him talking to Aleah. My mother told me she encouraged him to do so when he was old enough to ask questions about both of us. She placed a picture of the three of us in his room. It was one she took the day after we brought him home.

---