Page 51 of Honey's Special Roux

She shook her head. “What about it? In fifteen years, I’ll be thirty-five years old, Marquise. I want to have a solid foundation set way before that. I can’t wait for you. I’m sorry. Please, don’t contact me.”

Her lip trembled as she stood up and left.

“Honey! Honey, please!” I yelled after her.

“Hey, loser!” Dayari called out to me. Her voice pulled me to the present. She leaned her back against the driver’s side door of her car, while a pair of sunglasses shielded her eyes from the bright sun. I smiled and strolled over to her. When I was close, she jumped into my arms and pulled me into a tight hug.

“I missed you, too.” I rubbed her back for a few moments.

Dayari was one of the few people who supported me the entire six years. She let me call her every two weeks. She visited me on holidays. She kept me sane through a time when I really could have lost my mind.

She planted her feet and punched me in the arm. “Don’t get into any more trouble. You hear me?” She pushed my chest.

“I hear you. I didn’t plan on getting caught up this time either. Somebody snitched on me and?—”

“Aht. Don’t even worry about any of that right now. Focus on the fact that you are a free man who can go sleep in a real bed tonight. You can take a shower without having to watch your back. You can eat some real food without worrying about if a nigga spitting or shitting in your tray. Focus on the positives because if your ass goes down again, I’m not visiting you, calling you, putting money on your books, or anything.” Dayari’s face was stern and held no hint of a joke. She was dead ass serious.

“Look, I’m not trying to get lectured the first ten seconds I’m out. Can we roll through the hood, get me some Timmy Chan’s, and head to yo’ folks’ house?”

“Do you think riding through the hood is a good idea?” She unlocked her door, and we got in.

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I don’t think you’ve got friends on the block anymore. You literally don’t know who could have snitched on you, and riding through might put a target on your back.”

She wasn’t wrong. I’d spent countless nights mulling over who could have dropped the dime on me, but I kept coming up empty. Despite the blood in, blood out fight, the only enemies I had were dead—or so I thought.

“You right. We can swing by Mouse’s crib if he’s still on the Northside on the way to Timmy’s on Cullen. I need to see my homeboys, at least.”

Mouse and TK kept in touch. They never came up to the prison, but they answered my calls every now and then. They also kept money on my account. I owed them big time for what they did. To know I didn’t lose everybody I cared for made the lonely days more bearable.

“Fine. You know the address?”

I shook my head. “Did you bring my phone? We can plug that bitch in to get a charge, and I can find his address in my contacts.”

She chuckled. “I put your phone on the charger last night. It’s in the bag in the back seat.”

“Good looks.”

I leaned over the center console and picked up the bag from the back seat. I pulled out my phone and tucked my wallet in my pocket. The court had seized all my digital assets, which was fine. I had a couple hundred thousand in my accounts for them to take. However, unbeknownst to a majority of people in my life, I kept a safe in a hidden location that held two million dollars in clean bills. Once these folks got off my back, I’d be up again.

“I’m about to text you the address I have on file.” I copied and pasted the address and hit send. Then, I tapped the number and put the phone up to my ear as Dayari adjusted her GPS and pulled out of the prison parking lot.

“Hello?” Mouse answered.

“What’s good, my nigga.”

“Marq?”

“The one and only. You at home?”

He laughed. “My dawg free! What happened to the fifteen-piece they dropped on yo’ ass? I know it ain’t been fifteen already.”

“Nah, man. I got out on good behavior.”

“Fa sho, fa sho. I’m not in that spot no more. I can text you my address. Who you with?”

“It’s just me and Ari’s bigheaded ass. We only swinging by for a second so I can get my grub on and wash the memories of the cell off my skin.”

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