Page 7 of Christmas Luvin

OnethingAleciawas going to do was tell my business about howIdid in court to everyone.Shewas really the proud big sister thatInever got the chance to have.Ithink a lot of her excitement came from being able to see that the coaching she’d poured into me had paid off.AlthoughIwas the one who had taken the bar and passed it,Igotta admit that a lot of stuffIlearned about how to rule the courtroom and be a damn good lawyer came from mirroring and studyingAlecia.Evenwith me being an attorney now, ifIhad the time in my schedule,Iwould go to court, sit in the back, and watch her dominate because there was always room for me to grow.

Aftertalking withDuchessa little more,IfoundPandoraandPee-Wee’sgrandmother, whoIloved to death.Ihugged and loved on them, and thenIwent around the room, speaking to everyone else.AleciaandKelseywere both sitting down on baby duty.Marcellus,Kelsey’sson,Outkast, andLibertywere all on the floor, playing together.BeforeIcould even bend down to pick one of them up,Marcellus' handsome little self came over and reached his arms out for me to pick him up, soIdid just that.

“Hi,Handsome,”Icooed, calling him by the nickname his unclePee-Weehad given to him.

Iwas holding a darker baby version ofMontana.Thosebig, hazel eyes of his lit up asIheld onto him, wanting to just eat him up.Hishair wasn’t in any kind of braids or plaits today, so his big, curly fro was out, and he was adorable in hisNikesweatsuit with whiteForceson his feet.

“Bri,” his little voice said, melting my heart.

Iwas aroundMarcellusa lot, andIwould try to con him into saying, ‘Bri.’We’dmastered it about a week ago, so to hear him remember it really had me gushing.

“Youneed to go ahead and have one,”Kelseysaid, causing me to laugh.

“See,Ilike being able to play with babies, feed them, watchTVwith them, have all kinds of fun, and then hand them back to their owner,”Irevealed.

SheandAlecialaughed.

“Youneed to have a talk with my brother then,Bri.Hehas it made up in his mind that he’s going to have one of his own very soon,”Aleciatold me.

Irolled my eyes and groaned.Pee-Weewas the reasonIhad hopped my ass on birth control.Hewas going to catch me slipping one day, soIwent ahead and got on the pill.Aleciagetting knocked up again kind of hit too close to home for me.Granted,Iknew her body literally had nothing to do with mine, butIremember the night before her wedding when all the women were in that beautiful home inHawaii.Aleciaswore she wasn’t having any more kids any time soon.Sheswore on that, and then, boom.

See,Ididn’t wantGodto make me out to be a liar like that, soIran my ass to the doctor literally the same dayIfound outAleciawas pregnant.Pee-Weeconstantly sent me videos and pictures of cute babies onInstagram.Heshowed me outfits and talked about baby names, and in the middle of us having sex, he would talk about me having his baby.Iknew for a fact that ifIwasn’t on the pill,Iwould have been pregnant already.

Iwon’t lie;Idid want a baby.WhenIgot around all those beautiful babies in the family, my baby fever would be through the roof, but thenI’dhave voices in my head telling meIwasn’t ready.

“Bria, let me get your measurements again,”Esmeraldacalled out to me.

Esmeraldawas cool.Shewas introduced to us almost two months ago when the fittings started, and she had the kind of personality that just drew you in and had you feeling as if you’ve known her all your life.

Iwrapped up playing with the babies and followedEsmeraldato the back.Itwas the holidays, soDuchessopted to do red dresses for the bridesmaids, whichIfelt was a really good choice.Eachof our dresses had a different design, andIwasn’t picky by far, but allIasked was thatIgot something that was tight fitting and showed a little cleavage.Iwas little as hell, andIdidn’t want to look like the dress was wearing me.

Thedesign thatEsmeraldahad come up with for me was breathtaking.Therewas long and flowy with a slit that started from my hip, and it was one-shouldered.Thelast timeIwas there, the dress could have been a little tighter, soEsmeraldahad made the adjustments.Now,Ihad changed into it, and onceIhad it on,Ihad to suck in the little stomachIdid have, so she could zip it up from the back.Istared at myself in awe, loving the fit.

“Beautiful.Mami, don’t even gain a pound because this dress won’t zip up in two weeks,”Esmeraldasaid, making me laugh.

Iwas standing in the middle, so all the women could see me, and they complimented how beautiful the dress looked.

“TellDuchessy’all need to wrap all that shit up.Theseain’t my baby’s hours to be out running the streets.”IheardPee-Wee’svoice talking shit.

Iturned around to see who was on the phone with him, and it wasAleciaon aFacetimecall.Ibet he was the one who had called, being all nosey and trying to see what we were doing.

“Pee-Wee, that’s a grown ass woman,”Aleciasaid.

“Yeah, yeah.Fuckall that.Putthe camera onBri,” he demanded.

Esmeraldawas going around the dress, mentally determining if anything needed to be adjusted.

“No, because she has her dress on.Youdon’t need to see it,”Aleciashot back, andIheard him laugh.

“Thatonly applies when you getting married.Thegroom can’t see the bride’s dress.Flipthe camera,” he ordered again.

“I’mabout to hang the phone up,Efrem,”Aleciathreatened, andIheard him laugh again.

Listen,Iwasn’t going to say anything becausePee-Weehad a way of embarrassing the shit out of me without even trying.Justthinking back to the day he’d gotten shot and embarrassed the shit out of me in front of his family had my cheeks turning red.Whilehigh o pain medication, that man really told his family about the unprotected sex that we often had.Iwasn’t even going to let him hear my voice becauseIdidn’t want anything off the wall to escape from his lips.

Iwould see him whenIgot home and started begging him to get ready, so we could go and get ourChristmastree.Astired asIwas, we needed to get a tree.Itwas the first week ofDecember, and we still hadn’t gotten a tree.Somedays,Pee-Weegot home super late, and the stores would already be closed, and other daysIgot home too late and was too tired to get it done.Wewere getting it done tonight, though.IfIhad to drivePee-Wee’struck myself, we would get it done.

Iwas at the crib, chilling in the backyard while smoking on a fat ass blunt with my laptop on the table, watching my numbers go up from theChristmassweatsuits that had just been made available for purchase at noon.Myclothing line,PromiseLand,had dropped the new his and hers sweatsuits, and that shit was going crazy.

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