Page 24 of Pulse of True Soulmates

His nose turned up. He had a befuddled expression. “Who the hell is Sophia?”

“Damn, we’ve been sitting here all this time talking about shit, and I didn’t tell you that Ariel had a six-year-old daughter named Sophia. I’m surprised that Aeon hasn’t told you. Ariel wants them to meet like on some big sister, little sister type shit.”

Mr. Vernon stared at me with a tightened jaw. “That little girl of mine didn’t even tell me that she sat down with Ariel. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have known. So, this bitch abandoned my daughter to turn around and have another one? Wow! How did Aeon take that?”

“Not good. She feels bad about feeling bad though. It’s crazy how parents can fuck shit up for their kids.” I mumbled the last part.

Mr. Vernon took a deep breath. “I’m happy she has you, Declan. To cover her when I can’t. When I heard Ariel say something about going to lunch at my party, I took it with a grain of salt, you know? For years, Ariel made these promises about coming to see her, to spend time with her, and she never did. I was shocked as hell when she showed up with that ten thousand for Midnite.”

When I came over here earlier, it was for something completely different. I mentioned how upset Aeon was about the dinner with her mother. I assumed my baby told him about it. That led to an almost hour conversation about Ariel. It was the women’s brunch day. I stopped over here before I was on my way to Tiberius’s house to chill with my boys.

“I’m happy that I’m here. Your daughter means everything to me.” I rubbed my sweaty hands down my pants leg. “Keeping that energy, the reason I wanted to come chop it up with you was to tell you that I plan to ask Aeon to marry me soon. It’s respect that I come to you first to ask for your blessing.”

His head dropped with a chuckle. “I definitely didn’t see myself being dealt the big joker today. So, you want my blessing to marry my baby girl? Do you have a ring or is this an ask me first situation? His expression was stoic.

“I have a ring.” I reached in my pocket to pull out the ring box that held Aeon’s engagement ring. “I bought it a couple weeks ago.”

He opened the box as soon as it was put into his hand. The room was silent as he examined the ring. He took it out the box, put it on his pinky finger, and held it up like he was a diamond expert. “This is nice and just my baby’s taste.”

“Yeah, Fatima helped me pick out the perfect one.” I smiled thinking about the day Fatima sent the picture to me. We were shopping for the ring the next day. “I know me and Aeon have been together a little less than a year, but I know she’s myforever.” I tittered, then said, “I knew that shit the first day I went to her house and cleaned it for her. I’ll do anything for that fuckin’ girl, man.” I spoke to myself more than I was speaking to Mr. Vernon.

My focus came back into the room from my thoughts of Aeon. Mr. Vernon sat there with the ring still on his finger and his eyes on me. It took a minute, but a smile welcomed itself to his face. “I’d be proud to call you my son. I knew this was coming though. Senior already put me up on game.”

Well, damn!We both laughed at that. That sounded like my father, making sure to give him the heads up so he would be prepared. My father would never let me walk into a situation that would end in failure. We talked for a little longer about my proposal plan before I left. It was time to chill with my boys.

“If I was her daddy, I woulda told your ass no. Made your ass sweat,” Derrick teased. “You better believe when a nigga comes for my baby, I’m going to tell him no just because. I don’t care how much I like his ass.”

We all laughed. “That’s because you’re aggie as fuck. Dude probably isn’t going to ask you first. They’re gonna go right to Love Bug and ask her without your blessing,” Tiberius said with an arched brow.

The way that Derrick’s face tightened, you would have thought that it already happened. “I wish someone’s son would ask my daughter to marry them and didn’t come through me first. I would kill that nigga, then console my baby girl at his fucking funeral.”

“Yo, Derrick, I keep telling you to use that therapist’s number that I gave you. You’re way too violent for no real reason.” The concern in Georgie’s voice was comical.

He referred him to a therapist like three months ago when a delivery guy said something sexual about Iesha after she closed the door when he delivered her food. When the guy rang the doorbell, Derrick watched him through the camera like clockwork. When he heard the guy say he would fuck Iesha until she was darkskin, you would have thought Derrick was a track star. He accosted that poor man in his car and now the delivery service blackballed them.

Derrick held his middle finger up in Georgie’s direction. “Man, fuck you. I’m not violent at all. I’m a protective lion about my pride. Lions are cool until you give them a reason. So, no, I’m not violent. You have got a lot to say about everything, but what Julian asked you over twenty minutes ago. What’s up with you and Fatima?”

Now that was a good question. I didn’t need to ask, because I’d seen his car at her house when I was at my baby’s house. It would be there when I came over and be there when I had to leave for the day in the morning. All eyes were on Georgie now.

“We chillin’. Nothing too serious but nothing too laxed,” he said nonchalantly. Georgie was a quiet dude, but in the same breath, he would pop off relentlessly. He used to be heavy in the streets before he moved to Charlotte, but after a battle with death, he gracefully bowed out.

Julian snickered. “Nothin’ too serious but nothing too laxed? Does that mean that y’all are dating exclusively, but not in a relationship?”

“I guess you can say it like that. We’re in the process of seeing if we want to be in a relationship. The only way you can really do that is put all of your focus on each other. It’s still toosoon to say that we’re going to be in a relationship though,” Georgie responded.

I thought about what he said as I drank my beer. “I guess that makes sense. Most people date multiple people to see what they like best. It sounds like you’re aput all your eggs in one basketkind of man.”

He chuckled. “I don’t have time to talk to a bunch of different females. I have way too many things to do in life than juggle potentially crazy bitches. I talk to females one at a time for my sanity.”

“Yeah, that’s a good method. No one wants an Alesha on their hands,” Julian quipped with a smirk.

It was my turn to hold up my middle finger. After Alesha’s pop-up at my lounge, she fell back because she found a new nigga to obsess over. The only reason I knew about her and her new dude was because she felt it necessary to tag my page into a post about them that her dude was also tagged in. I wasn’t sure what type of dude she had, but in my mind, he screamed pussy. There was no way that I would allow Aeon to tag another dude in a post with me for any reason.

My phone rang on the table that we sat on. I picked it up when I saw it was Fatima.“What’s up, Tima?”

“Get to Presbyterian Hospital. Aeon had a bad episode. I had to call the ambulance.”Fatima’s voice was panicked.

I jumped up from my seat.“What the fuck? I’m on the way.”I disconnected the line. “Aeon had to be rushed to the hospital. I got to go.”

---