Page 11 of Rhodes to Love

My last day at my job was yesterday. Three months was a gift to them. I was ready to quit that shit when I realized Karima wouldn’t be coming back. After a week of not seeing her, I went to her complex and saw men moving shit out of her apartment. I had to call Aunt Kimiko and tell her about the mess I’d made. As much as I used to talk about Karima, she knew how much I loved her.

When I told her I was moving to Nashville just to be close to her, she rooted me on and told me I had better lock her down. I did the total opposite. Had I just stayed the course…Fuck!She was practically mine. I was ready to tell anyone who wanted to know that ‘we go together’ now. My heart was light, and I felt the happiness of a kid at the playground. I hadn’t had a girlfriend since I’d been in Texas, because I always knew she was the woman I wanted.

I couldn’t believe I fucked that up. Uncle Paul laughed at my ass like the shit was funny. That only pissed me off. I ended the call on him. I’d tried to call Karima from an unknown number and from the job, but she declined them all. She had to be expecting me to show up soon. I noticed she was way more spiritual than she had been as a teenager. It was like God talked to her. I could only hope He was putting in a word on my behalf because I needed all the help I could get.

I was two steps away from calling her dad’s place of business to get a message to her. However, if I knew Karima the way I did, she’d told her family all the details. They might be ready to jump my ass the minute I stepped foot in Nome. If they did, I knew I deserved that shit.

Taking a deep breath, I finished off my shrimp flavored Ramen noodles. A nigga was far from broke, but I loved this shit. Sometimes I even threw a few shrimp in there. Since I wasn’t a cook, that made them even more convenient. After putting my bowl in the dishwasher, I looked over at the boxes I’d started packing. When I found out she was leaving, I was on the fast track, trying to get out of here too.

However, something told me to wait. I knew I couldn’t wait too long though. I didn’t want to miss a day in her pregnancy journey, but here I was… missing months at a time. I refused to go a fourth month though. Taking a page from her book, I decided to call movers as well. They could finish packing this shit up. I didn’t have the energy. I barely had the strength to wash my locs.

When my phone rang, I knew that had to be Aunt Kimiko, because my phone was dry as fuck. It was crazy how I’d stopped fucking with niggas. When I went to Prairie View, niggas in Cheek were an afterthought. Most of the ones I hung around were running the streets anyway. They weren’t trying to do anything else. My Oakland niggas surely didn’t hear from me. It was like I’d disappeared off the face of the earth to them. My parents were the only people I could call out there… until they died.

I was a true loner… somewhat how Karima had been. She really didn’t have close friends, but hell, she didn’t need them. She had a town full of relatives she could kick it with. They were people who had her same interests and grinded as hard as she did. Grabbing my phone from the coffee table, I saw it was just who I thought it was.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Rhodes. You good, baby?”

“I’m cool, Auntie. What about you?”

“I’m okay. I just hate that you’re way out there. When are you coming back home?”

“I’m looking at flights leaving within the next week. I can’t take this shit no more.”

“That’s my baby. I need to see the fight in you come back. You’ve been in that apartment depressed about Karima when you should be tracking her down to make shit right. It’s gon’ take some work. She’s tough, but she’s a good girl. She won’t settle for bullshit, and I love that about her.”

When she said Karima was a good girl, my mind took off for the races, thinking about how I’d whispered that shit in her ear when I ravaged her pussy like I was looting that shit for valuables. Not to mention how she deep throated my dick. She was my good girl all right. She was my freak. She made the cliché a reality.Lady in the streets and a freak in the sheets.Once I matured, I knew that was what I wanted. I didn’t want another muthafucka knowing what my woman had to offer simply by watching her.

Karima’s short, thick ass was all I could think about. Again, baby girl couldn’t have been much taller than five feet three, but I loved that about her. She was lethal like dynamite. Like my aunt said, she didn’t take no bull?—”

“Rhodes!”

“I’m sorry. What you said?”

“I asked if you found something.”

“Not yet. I’m looking though. Can I hit you back? I’m thinking about driving so I won’t have to have my truck transported.”

“Quit being cheap. You know I’ll pick you up from the airport.”

“Yeah, I just want to make sure I get home in one piece though. Your bad driving ass almost had me under an eighteen-wheeler like Chevy Chase inNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

She hollered. “Oh my God! You are not going to let me live that down! I didn’t see that damn truck!”

“Kimiko! How you not see an eighteen-wheeler? It’s the biggest thing on the damn road!”

I laughed loudly as she smacked her lips. “Fuck you, Rhodes. Call me back and let me know what you find.”

I chuckled as I said, “A’ight. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She ended the call, and I put in details in my United app. When I saw a flight leaving in a couple of days, I went ahead and booked it. I just hoped Karima would be calm when I popped up on her ass. Although she’d stopped sharing her location, I knew I could track her down. Nome wasn’t bigger than my backyard in Cheek, so I knew I’d find her.

I was already feeling better about going home. Thanks to Aunt Kim, I’d laughed for the first time in a while. She was right. I was depressed. I knew being without Karima would do that to me though. Hopefully, when I tracked her down, she would realize that I was only human. Like the singer SiR said, I was out chasing amazing grace. I was definitely less than perfect. I didn’t want to lose again.

I’d lost her for years and had lost my parents permanently during that time. I couldn’t afford to lose her again. My actions showed that I was willing to risk it all for her love. I ruined her dreams for those girls in Nashville. She withdrew from school. She was pursuing a degree in family counseling. I derailed her plans all so she could be mine. Every time I thought about things, it seemed my actions got stupider and stupider to me.

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