Page 21 of This: Blake & Emon

“So, you do remember your brother,” he said, leaning back in his chair, removing his glasses.

“Cut it out, Brooks. I’m here now.” She walked further into his office, settling into one of the leather chairs across from his desk.

“Two weeks later.”

“I’m grown.”

“Then act like it. Hiding ain’t grown.” He studied her face, noting how she didn’t flinch under his gaze.

“I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy to return a text? Pick up the phone? Check in?” He studied her face again, trying to put his finger on what it wasabout her. Maybe he knew but didn’t want to acknowledge it. Blake needed a life too. He understood that, but she didn’t need to go about it like this. “You think I ain’t know about Emon? About that night at Point Palace?”

“Let me guess, I was supposed to clear it with you.” Blake’s tone was even but firm. “I’m an adult. I was going to tell you when I felt the need to tell you. And since folks running their mouth, you didn’t need me to tell you anything.”

Blake wasn’t in the mood. In fact, she was the furthest from in the mood as a person could be. Things with her and Emon had been going great, and this interference was getting old. Tonight, she was headed to Emon’s for dinner and potentially being his dinner. Brooks wasn’t talking about shit, in her opinion.

“You know this ain’t about permission,” Brooks said, his voice softening slightly. “It’s about respect. And about you being safe.”

“I am safe, and I do respect you, but you can’t control who I date, especially not at my big age. I pay my own bills, so who and what I choose to allow in my space is on me.” She crossed her legs, adjusting her scrub top. “I respect you, Brooks. Always have. But you gon’ have to let me be on this one. I like him and he likes me. I ain’t coming up off of him and he ain’t coming up off me.”

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was probably Emon checking on her. The small smile that crossed her face didn’t go unnoticed by her brother. And her words weren’t lost on him either. He heard her and knew she was telling the truth, but he still didn’t have to like it.

“You feeling him like that?”

“Yeah.” She met his eyes steadily. “I really am, and I got dinner plans with him tonight, so are we finished here?”

“I guess. What do you know about him?”

“What does that matter, Brooks? I’m your baby sister, but your sister ain’t a baby.”

“I don’t know whether to like the new Blake or not. Old Blake listened.”

Old Blake wasn’t getting bent over the arm of her couch getting dicked down or ate like a death row meal,she thought.

She laughed. “Brooks, I have nothing to say. This is happening. Period.”

“I don’t like hearing my baby sister is out here acting brand new, getting gifts every day and running around with a man who—”

“A man who what?” Blake cut him off. This conversation had gone on a lot longer than she wanted it to. “Who owns legitimate businesses? Who gives back to the community? Or are we talking about a man who enjoys my company and actually asks about my day and how school is going?”

“A man who got shot and needed a safe house.” Brooks’s voice was ice cold. “Yeah, I know about that too. What you think Daddy would say about you playing nurse to street—”

“Don’t.” Now it was Brooks that was about to get cussed out and knocked upside the head. The way this conversation was going had her side-eyeing Brooks. Brooks was plugged in, but there was some shit he knew because of someone close to her running their mouth and that was suspicious. “Don’t you dare use Daddy against me, and since you know so much, you know Emon came to my place by accident. I ain’t sorry it happened. Shout out to the nursing degree.”

Brooks didn’t like the sound of that or any of what she had going on, but he had to respect it. She was grown. He’d let it rock for now, or maybe he wouldn’t. What he did know was that he wasn’t going to get through to her today. She wasn’t tryna hear it.

“Just be careful, and make sure he treating you how you deserve.”

“I love how the streets or your informants ain’t reported that back. Emon has been nothing good to me.”

Blake stood and so did Brooks. He walked around and hugged his sister. It was just the two of them now that they didn’t have parents. He wasn’t sure how to let her go completely.

“I’m always going to be your big brother, like it or not.”

“I know, but you gotta loosen up. I don’t need a babysitter. I’m good.”

“Ok, I’m taking your word for it, but don’t ignore me. I get worried.”

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