Page 56 of Smoke

“That ain’t no better!” We shared a laugh. “Did y’all enjoy the honeymoon?”

“Yeah, man. My wife had the time of her life. If she wasn’t already pregnant, she would be pregnant. Hell, if she could get pregnant while being pregnant, she’d be double pregnant.”

I shook my head. “You so fucking ignorant.”

“What’s up with you, for real though? You looking all happy and shit.”

I thought I’d been keeping shit under wraps, but I guess not. All week long, I’d been hanging with Romi. I’d picked her up for lunch or took food to her. I waited for her to get off to make sure that nigga wasn’t anywhere around. When she left from spending time with her baby, I met her at home to check the house. Every night this week, one of my trusted street niggas was sitting on her house, ready to fire off if he showed up.

After Jaeda was able to pull the camera footage and I saw him grab her the way he did, I wanted his head. It wasn’t even the fact that I was feeling her. She was a woman, carrying his child, and he was too fucking comfortable putting his hands on her. That shit would never sit right with me. She fucked up by telling me she didn’t care if he disappeared. That was all I needed to hear. To keep him from getting suspicious, I told her to act normal, and if the police came snooping to call me, and I would take care of it.

“I’m cooling, man.”

“Mama told me you’re feeling a pregnant woman.”

“What the fuck!”

He laughed. “Shorty from the reception? She was bad, I’ll give her that. But you and a pregnant chick? That’s throwing me for a loop.”

“Yo’ mama is gonna get enough of telling you my business. Damn. I bet she already told Mama Steph and Mama T.”

“So she ain’t exaggerating?”

I sighed. “Nah. I’m feeling her. She… she’s soft, Maceo. You know I’m used to aggressive ass women. Romi ain’t like that. She’s all soft and gentle and shit. She’s a good girl.”

“Them good girls will make your ass fall in love. Look at your brother. He got ahold of Salima, now he’s a fucking simp.”

“I know you ain’t talking about nobody being a simp,” Deuce said, walking into the section with Steel behind him.

We stood and dapped him before reclaiming our seats.

“Smoke, why the fuck you got us in this ghetto ass place?” Deuce asked, looking around.

I chuckled. “So anything that’s not yours is ghetto?”

“Hell yeah. Security tried to stop us at the door, and I almost had to put a bullet in his ass.” He frowned as he poured himself a glass of liquor from one of the bottles we’d already ordered. “What do you have going on?”

“Listen to this shit—” Maceo started, but I cut him off.

“I’m looking for a nigga for my client,” I answered.

“What does that have to do with you?”

“I made it my business,” I said, lighting my blunt.

“He must be fucking,” Steel said, slapping Deuce’s arm.

“I’m not.”

The two of them looked at me in disbelief. It was no secret among us that I had a little habit of playing where I worked from time to time. There wasn’t any drama behind it because the women understood what it was.

Deuce took a sip of his drink. “So you made it your business to look into a nigga for a client you ain’t fucking?”

“Sounds about right.”

“Whatareyou getting out of it? You don’t do shit for the free.”

“Satisfaction. I’ll explain it all in a minute. We’re waiting on one more person.”

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