Page 16 of Back in Blood

Sintonio clumsily scrambled to his feet. “Oh, you fucking somebody else all ready?” he spat through blood tinged lips.

I walked closer to him and damn near growled. “Nah, bitch. You killed my daughter.”

Sintonio’s eyes grew so big, I was surprised that they didn’t pop out of his head. He tripped over his own feet getting away from me. “I paid your tab. I think you should go.”

The fact that Lisa appeared more worried about me than the man she’d been engaged to said a lot. I didn’t have an issue paying my own tab, but I knew the fight that had taken place was going to be the talk of social media for days to come. The video might even make it into the hands of law enforcement, but I really didn’t care. I wasn’t going back inside of the bar, however. Continuing to ignore all of the eyes on me, I walked to my car and left.

CHAPTER 10

LISA

Both my handswere gripping the hot mug of coffee that sat before me on the kitchen table. I stared down at the creamy light brown beverage that had been lightened to perfection using my favorite creamer. Just as I took a sip, my mother entered the kitchen dressed in a cute lavender dress. She was retired but between being the secretary of the church she belonged to, being a part of a book club, and her love of decorating, she managed to stay pretty busy.

“Good morning, baby. Have you eaten? You want me to whip something up?”

A sad smile graced my face. My mother wasn’t just doting on me because I lost my child. That was just her nature. Acts of service was her love language. “I ate some fruit. I’ll be fine until lunch. I’ve been wanting soup and salad from Panera Bread.”

“You excited about going back to work next week?” she asked while pouring a cup of coffee.

With a passive shrug, I lifted the mug and took another sip of my coffee. “I wouldn’t say excited. Just ready to get back into the swing of things.”

“Well, don’t feel like you have to rush to move out. Your father and I love having you here, and you can stay as long as you want.”

With a chuckle, I shook my head. “I think you might just be trying to be nice. I heard with my own ears how you and daddy were ready for Malik to move out two days after he came back.”

My mother kissed her teeth and waved my comment off. “That’s because Malik acts like he doesn’t have home training sometimes. Running in and out, partying until three and four in the morning two to three days a week, then sleeping half the day away. Yes, we were ready for him to go,” she replied with a frown. “But you’re no trouble at all.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”

I loved my parents dearly, but after a month of living with them, I was ready to get my own place. It was nothing personal against them at all. I left home at the age of eighteen, and I hadn’t lived at home since. I was used to having my own space, but since I emptied my savings on a wedding that didn’t happen, I would need to stay with them for a few months and stack my money, so that I could comfortably afford to move out. Money wasn’t a problem because my job always had overtime available, and I made damn good money. For the past few months, I’d been laying around sulking, eating junk food, and binge watching just about every show on Netflix and Hulu that interested me. It wouldn’t be an issue for me to start out working five days a week twelve hours a day for a few weeks.

Gwen entered the kitchen. “Hey y’all.”

My mother sat down at the table across from me. “Hey. What are you doing here this early?”

“I dropped the kids off at school, and I wanted to come by and holler at Lisa. Girl, I heard Sintonio got the brakes beat off him last night at the lounge on Coast Grove. They said some guydragged him through the lounge and commenced to beating him like a runaway slave.”

Thankfully, whoever had delivered the gossip to my sister either didn’t know what I looked like, or they didn’t see me. I was pretty sure that rumors were floating around that Sintonio and Capri were fighting over me, and that was the furthest thing from the truth. But since Sintonio didn’t want anybody knowing his dirty little secret, I was sure he wouldn’t correct anyone that assumed incorrectly about what happened.

“What in the world?” my mother frowned. “I know Sintonio isn’t your favorite person in the world, but I get the feeling that you’re hiding something. I’m not sure if you’re protecting him or what, but something about the way things happened with you and him seem off.”

Reason number two that I wanted my own place was because though my parents gave me plenty of space, there were still times that they asked too many questions. And nine times out of ten, they were always questions that I didn’t care to give the answers to. They were starting to ask more questions about my kidnapping. They also wanted all the tea about what happened between me and Sintonio. Of course, there were things that I couldn’t tell them and things that I simply didn’t wish to tell them.

“Like I said, I never liked Tay, and Sin started hanging back with him hard. Tay is just always in something, and I didn’t like Sin hanging around him, but he’s an adult, and I can’t tell him what to do. Whatever he was indulging in out in the streets started to change him, and I didn’t like what I saw.” That was all that I was willing to give.

“No body is perfect, and relationships are certainly a lot of work, but never feel that you have to settle. If you no longer felt good about marrying Sintonio don’t give a second thought to the wasted time and money. Peace is priceless.”

“That it is.” I nodded and finished my coffee.

“I have to get going.” My mother glanced at the watch on her wrist as she stood up. “The meeting at church starts in ten minutes.”

Inwardly, I prayed that as soon as my mother left, my sister didn’t probe me further about the whooping that Capri put on Sin. Capri. The moment his face clouded my brain, my nipples hardened. The way they felt rubbing against the thin fabric of my shirt made me feel weird. A month later, I was still grieving and hadn’t thought of sex in the least bit. But Capri. The moment I realized that he was sitting beside me at the lounge, I felt butterflies in my belly. The feeling wasn’t because of fear. I wasn’t afraid of Capri doing anything to me, and I couldn’t figure out if it was because I had that much faith in him or simply because I just didn’t give a damn about dying.

“I know this is probably a silly question, but what are you doing tomorrow?”

My brows pinched together as I tried to think of why Gwen asked me what I’d be doing. “Um, probably the same thing I do every day. Nothing. What’s special about tomorrow? Should I be doing something?”

Gwen didn’t respond right away. Instead, she studied me with the look of pity that I’d become accustomed to. “Lisa, tomorrow is your birthday. Please don’t tell me you forgot.”

---