Page 5 of Are You Going to Love Me

“Let’s go, bro,” Augustus spoke up, offering Priya a look before she could tell on herself. “We got moves to fucking make; I don’t have time for your lover’s drama bullshit tonight.”

“We ain’t done,” Maximus stated, flicking the test on the floor. He backed away from her before he could say or do more. But he steadied his emotions and headed down the hall, paying attention to how Augustus lingered behind.

Inside the Mustang, with his blunt sparked up, anger rising, he was ready to go. When Augustus joined him in the car and pulled away, he chuckled. “Why you treat her like that?”

“Like fuckin’ what?” Maximus grumbled. “I’ve been pretty fuckin’ good to her. She pregnant and it ain’t mine. Don’t that seem like an issue?”

“I been told you to let her ass go back to the streets,” Augustus shared. “But naahhhh, you was in love.”

“You seen any of these niggas around her?”

Augustus smirked like the serpent he was. “Nigga, I ain’t finna break up your happy home.”

Maximus kissed his teeth in detest.

“But Wando was sniffing around her a few times. I tell you what. Let’s divide and conquer. You break down the product, I’ll pull up on Wando and see what he knows. You know that nigga likes to talk.”

“I’ll pull up on him.”

“You want to go back to jail? Let me handle it. Plus, it’ll be one less thing you cry about.”

“Man fuck you,” Maximus huffed.

two

. . .

“Poppi, you’ve got to eat,”Eden huffed, as she stood slightly bent in front of the woman who’d molded her into who she was today.

Poppi Ellis, her once vibrant grandmother. Her red nails, lipstick, and quick wit had everyone in Trae Way showing admiration for her. She sold work, made plates, and took in whoever she needed to before passing the reins over to Mama. Unfortunately, Mama wasn’t anything like Poppi. She wasn’t caring, nor did she look out for her people the way Poppi did. Even her name was insulting to Poppi’s legacy. She was a great-value version of the woman Poppi was.

“I don’t want peas. I want those muthafuckas out of my house!” Poppi shouted, knocking the peas away from her. She wore a scowl as she looked around, paranoia making her eyes bounce around the room and through Eden.

Eden huffed, tired and on the verge of being overwhelmed. Tonight was her first night at Midnight and the first night she was leaving Poppi in the hands of her almost-CNA cousin. Aysha needed some extra money, and Eden needed someone other than Staysha to sit with Poppi. Before the Alzheimer’s diagnosis fully set in, Poppi loved Staysha. She loved the gossip and the dancing, and JoyChatting, she and Staysha did. As the disease progressed, Staysha – who favored their mother – Poppi's oldest daughter, was the object of Poppi’s aggression.

Never once did Staysha hold that against her grandmother. She, like Eden, knew their mother was a piece of work and had done the unthinkable to Poppi, Eden, and Staysha. However, Eden still wouldn’t put Staysha in the line of fire or upset her grandmother.

Eden stumbled backward slightly to keep the peas from spilling over the carpet. “Who is in the house, Poppi?”

Poppi’s eyes were fixed on one of the tall vases in the corner of the room. “Look at them looking at me. Like, I won’t shoot them. They came in here to take my shit and your shit too!”

Eden sighed as she looked at one of Poppi’s beloved pieces. Standing to her full height of five feet five inches, Eden placed the bowl of chicken and peas on the coffee table and trekked over to the vase.

“Is this the only one, or is there more?” Eden questioned as she picked up the tall, heavy vase that she was banned from touching as a child.

Poppi’s eyes continued to dart around before grumbling, “You got them all.”

“Okay,” Eden hummed as she shimmied the vase down the hall and into a closet. When she returned, Poppi had grabbed her bowl of chicken and peas and started eating them with her fingers. “You didn’t want the spoon?”

“No, I’m going to use this in case they come back,” Poppi stated, scooping up the chicken and the peas she insisted on having.

“And what are you going to do with the spoon, Poppi?”

“Scoop their fucking eyes out like I did that nigga who tried to break into my shit last night,” Poppi grumbled with a mouth full of food.

Eden knew that night. It wasn’t last night, more like years ago when Gary Strong started dipping into his supply and coming up short on his drops to Poppi. He started making threats toward Poppi, Eden, and Staysha before breaking in. Poppi may have had a big heart, but she ran the Trae Way Gangstas like any man would. That type of position made you ruthless, and Poppi was never going to let anyone take, abuse, or threaten her or her girls. Eden remembered peeping through the back door from her spot in the kitchen as Poppi dug his eyes out with a spoon.

“Alright, well, the only one coming in here tonight is Aysha, is that okay?” Eden asked.

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