Page 11 of No Remedy for Love

“Hey baby. Is the food done yet, cousin?”

Reanna gave Ferris a peck on the lips as she made eye contact with Remi. His cousins looked at each other in shock and then at Reanna with pity. Trying to punk Remi was the wrong move for her to make. The fact that she made her presence known at all was a bold ass move.

“Is this a joke? For real, y’all. Am I being punked? Who the fuck is this bitch walking around this muthafucker like she paying bills up in this bitch?” Remi stood up and pounded her fist in her palm with every word she spoke.

“No bitch, the question is, who the fuck are you?” Reanna put her hands on her invisible hips defiantly.

“I’m the bitch that’s about to drag that botched BBL the fuck up outta here!” Remi advanced towards her, but Ferris blocked her path.

“Reanna, go put your shit on and peel out.” Ferris was trying to help her out, but she insisted on being a bitch. If she wasn’t helping him make money, he would have sent her stupid ass packing for good. She had the nerve to have a sense of entitlement with him when she had a nigga waiting for her at home.

“Seriously, Ferris? This random bitch come here and now, it’s fuck me all of a sudden!”

Ferris was grateful for his cousins because he needed them to hold Remi back while he dealt with the mess that he had created.

“Relax, cousin. Granny is right upstairs.” Kela moved her pot off of the fire to try to talk some sense into her cousin.

“Exactly! Which is why I don’t understand why y’all got this hoe in here walking around half-naked disrespecting her.”

Remi was heated as she watched Ferris lead the other woman upstairs. Shiva was snickering under her breath but she wasn’t making a move to intervene. She hated everything about Reanna and she wanted Remi to beat her ass. She wasn’t a snitch and that’s the only reason why she never told her cousin about the other woman always being over there. Reanna was always throwing shots at her, and she was fed up with it. Her brother was only using her, but nobody could tell her that. She really thought she was a bad bitch with that awkward shaped body.

“Let me go! That bitch don’t scare me!” Reanna yelled, as Ferris pulled her along by the oversized shirt that she had on.

“Get your shit and get the fuck out!”

Reanna was hurt when Ferris threw her clothes on the floor in front of her.

“If you wanted another bitch to come through, you should have just said that.”

“That bitch, as you so freely call her, is my cousin and this is her muthafucking house! That’s why I told your stupid ass to stay in the room. And you better pray that I can talk some sense into her cause it’s on sight if she ever see you again.”

“Is that supposed to scare me?”

Ferris chuckled at her naivety. “Man, let me walk you out before Cuz show you how she’s really built.”

Remi’s pretty face and nice shape had a lot of people fooled. She was like Mayweather in heels, and a lot of people underestimated her. She had a soft voice with a hard right hook.

Admittedly, Reanna was embarrassed about how she behaved but she didn’t know that the other woman was his cousin. She had never seen her before but she was happy to hear it. Remi was beautiful and whoever worked on her body created a masterpiece. Reanna was sure that if Ferris had to choose, she wouldn’t be his choice. She was relieved that the other woman was family and not competition. Still, she wasn’t about to let him think that she was intimidated by nobody, even his family.

Ferris called his cousin and was happy when she said that Remi was in the room talking to their grandmother. Once Reanna got dressed, he rushed her down the stairs and out the front door. Now, he had to do some damage control with Remi and hopefully keep her off of Reanna’s ass until he didn’t need her anymore.

Reanna sighed as she pulled into her assigned parking spot and killed the engine on her white QX80. She saw the black one in the other assigned spot and knew that she wasn’t gonna be home alone. She looked in the cupholder and grabbed her wedding ring, putting it back on the finger that it should have never been taken off of. Reanna loved her husband unconditionally but she resented him just as much. She’d been knowing Blaze all her life, even before they started dating. She was his sister’s best friend so she was always around. They started dating in high school, and Reanna was envied by many.

Blaze LaRue, standing at six three, was their high school’s basketball star as well as the most popular student. He was a walking orgasm with his caramel complexion and full kissablelips. His dimpled smile was one of his best features with the prettiest set of perfectly white teeth that she’d ever seen. Even his name sounded like stardom and he was destined for greatness. His future was mapped out at an early age and talks of him possibly getting drafted had her talking marriage soon after graduation.

She and Blaze got married young, and that was her goal. She wanted to marry him before the fame so there would no doubt in his mind about her loyalty when the money did roll in. Blaze LaRue was supposed be in bright lights with millions of dollars in endorsements. Unfortunately, that never happened.

Blaze’s mother, Jean, had always been a street woman for as long as she could remember. His grandmother, Bertha, became the mother that he never had but always longed for. Since his mother liked to shop more than pay bills, they always ended up moving with his grandmother when they got evicted from one of their many apartments. After the third time, Blaze was over it and just decided to stay with his grandmother indefinitely. His sister was sneaky so she liked to live with their mother. Since Jean was never home, it was easy for her to sneak her boyfriends in.

Bertha had eight kids and numerous grandkids, but Blaze was her favorite. He was always there when she needed him, and she was more than happy to agree to him living with her. He was her baby, and she worked hard at her two jobs to make sure that he had everything he needed. Her daughter didn’t care but she wanted the best for Blaze. Although he had scholarships that paid for college, Bertha worked her ass off to get her grandson a nice car to get around in. Her kids and grandkids were livid when she got it but she didn’t care. Blaze was off to do great things, well, that was before she got sick.

A few weeks before his senior year of college, Bertha passed out at work and was rushed to the hospital. After being in ICU for three days, she was diagnosed with COPD. So many years of smoking had finally caught up to her and she couldn’t even breathe without the assistance of oxygen. Bertha immediately went on government assistance since she could no longer work. Thankfully, she owned her home and it had been paid for a long time ago. It was big enough for one of her loved ones to move into and assist her, but that would never happen. Her kids declared her a nuisance from the start and they didn’t have time to devote to her care. They had their own lives and they went on to live them. Blaze, on the other hand, postponed his senior year of college, ruining his scholarship chances, to give her the care that she needed. His young wife, Reanna, resented her and him for altering her life.

Once Bertha was able to get a nurse out to see her and monitor her progress, Blaze went back to school and got two degrees, accounting and business. He was a smart boy, so Bertha had no doubt that he could do it. He never complained, but she felt guilty about being the reason why he didn’t get to live out his dreams. He got discouraged while looking for jobs because none of them were paying the money that he was looking to make. He decided to go back to school but he took his career path in a totally different direction. He went to cosmetology school and became a licensed barber. That proved to be another blessing that he didn’t see coming.

Blaze was a wiz with numbers and one of his cosmetology teachers took notice of it. Once he told some of his friends about the young mathematical genius, he ended up putting his accounting degree to use while still being a barber. Blaze made good money as an independent payroll advisor and he never had to step foot in an office to do it. Most times, he did his work onhis off days or at night once he left the barbershop. He made enough to support his wife and take care of his grandmother.

Reanna jolted as the ringing of her phone pulled her out of the daze that she’d been in. She smiled when she saw her best friend and sister-in-law, Blaire, calling. Blaire had always been her go-to person and she gave the best advice.

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