Page 5 of Only You

Jourdan knew what she was doing when she decided not to sell this house. Since she left California, she’d been trying to lure me to the East Coast. We grew up with a tight-knit family, sobeing away from her for that long had been trying on my mental health, especially with the loss of both our parents.

I would never tell her this, but I’d planned to leave for a while. I’d started the transition after my last pop-up visit here in NC. I started packing up my shit and contacted my realtor. Then, after she popped up that night with that photo, he had my houses under his rental management company within a week, and I was out.

I also placed a few of my most trusted men in charge there. It was the same as when Devin put me in charge of the distro before making me one of the two. That trust I spoke of was what little I was willing to give. So, I wasn’t worried about that either. Like I’d told Stephon earlier in the year, I felt like we were stronger together.I didn’t care what he thought; having him in my family legally and as my chosen one made me feel invincible.

Shit, where in the hell is my stethoscope?

My mind was all over the place; I needed to be grounded. I often felt like I was floating off the face of the earth. Things had been better since moving here, but they weren’t. If I were being honest with myself, I was missing Tayla. I didn’t know what to think about the information I’d learned that night.

I tried not to think about it or Tay. There were so many days when I wanted to find her and ask her if the shit was factual. However, I was determined to leave the past in the past. Especially if it were true, that would hurt more than not knowing. I was probably being a bitch and falling right in line with the whole miscommunication between friends shit that everyone hated, but I had serious fucking trust issues. The things that had happenedwith my father and the entire photo fiasco exhibited every reason why I couldn’t trust motherfuckers. Those trust issues worsened when I took over as one of the two.

Shit I’m a damn walking contradiction! Trust or not trust her nigga pick a side.

Instead, of dwelling on all my fucked-upness, I threw myself into ‘work’ and this damn hospital emergency room department. I was over that shit too; I said I no longer wanted to be in the ER when I lived in The LAnd, yet here I was in another damn ER. The only upside was that it was slower than the typical gunshot wounds and weird ailments that I dealt with there. You’d be surprised at how many things I’d had to help people remove from their rectum.

It wasn’t that I wanted out of medicine altogether. I just needed to slow shit down. I had planned on transitioning to pediatrics or family medicine, but the ER and the streets made sure I didn’t have time to dwell on shit. I’d promised my father, after my mother died, that I wouldn’t give up medicine because my mother loved it, no matter the toll it took. He wanted my sister and me to always have something to fall back on. I knew this drug shit wasn’t forever, and I definitely couldn’t see myself doing it for as long as he did.

However, while I was still immersed in it, I needed to locate Nina Nine, Tayla’s mother, if I could even call her that. I’d put out light feelers to see if I could find her, but I hadn’t heard anything. I didn’t want Steph or Jourdan to know that I was looking. Stephon had explicitly told Jourdan’s ass that while she was pregnant, she wasn’t to do a damn thing except get taken care of and have their baby. I agreed. But she’d had the baby last month. I just hoped shedidn’t ramp back up with all that vigilante shit. Parenthood had slowed them all down. I was the last man standing, leaving me to handle the problem when the time came.

Shit!

My phone was ringing, but I was unsure of its location. I walked around until the sound got closer, finding it between the couch cushions. It was Jourdan.

“What’s the deal, JoJo?” I asked into the phone I held on my shoulder as I finished packing my work duffle. I could hear my niece Angel Journee crying into the receiver. They had named her after Steph’s middle name and my late mother. I also had no idea why Steph’s mother had named his ass Angel because there was no fucking way he was that. However, my niece Angel came out of heaven with her cute little pudgy self. Before Jourdan could answer me, I heard Steph.

“Baby, give her here,” he said, and that’s when Angel immediately stopped crying. I could hear Steph laughing in the background because she hated that he was able to do that.

“Anyways, it sounds like you’re still at home. Why?” Jourdan said.

“Damn time manager. I was heading out before you called, and now you’re holding me up.”

“So, now you can’t walk and talk at the same time?” I grabbed my work duffle, locked up, and headed to my truck. I’d bought two cars since moving to NC. One was my Mercedes AMG 63; the other was my matte black Chevy Tahoe Z71.

“Aye, tell Steph, I’m about to be on my country boy shit like him!” I said and laughed. I’d told him when he went with me to the dealership to get it that it was country, like his big-ass Ford Raptor. He hated it when I called anything his country. I started the truck and backed out, ensuring the garage was closed before pulling off. I would talk to them on the way.

Although I felt Cypress was a country town, I enjoyed the proximity of everything in a smaller city. I didn’t have to jump on the interstate to get where I needed to be. Tonight, I was cutting through the neighborhoods. I couldn’t tell you what it looked like before I arrived, but Cypress was a city in transition. Streets that I knew used to be the hood, based on the run-down houses that sat there, were now being torn down. In their place, new modern homes were built.

Steph cut into my thoughts when he spoke because Jourdan had put the phone on speaker.

“Fuck you, Brice. Ol’ fake ass NWA member, nigga wanna be Ice Cube so bad.”

“Tsk, got damn I’m glad you set it off, Wu-Tang. Who do you think you are today? Ghostface Killah? No, wait, Ol’ Dirty Bastard,” I said and laughed.

“Nah, yeah, I’ll be ODB. Ooh, baby, I like it raw. Ask your sister,” he said in a serious tone.

“Yo, Steph, pause. Angel, tell your nasty ass daddy not to talk to me about the shit he be doing with your mama.” I could hear Jourdan laughing in the background.

“Aww, grow up, Brice, and don’t be cursing around my baby,” Jourdan said.

“What’s this? Gang up on Brice day because I know that nigga just said fuck me.”

“I’m her daddy. I can say what the hell I want.”

“Steph, one of these days, I’m going to fuck your big ass up. Aye, let me get off here, though. I just pulled up to the hospital.”

“I know where you work and what kind of car you drive. I may be beside that shit when you get off,” Steph said, and I laughed again.

“Talk to you later, I love y’all.”

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