RJ chuckled, then shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, Azari.”
“N-nice to meet you too,” she said with a slight stutter.
Noah extended his hand and said the same as Azari stared at him, completely starstruck. He chuckled, breaking her out of her trance. I pulled her chair out and helped her sit, then went to my seat. Once I sat, I grabbed her trembling hand. She smiled tightly when she glanced at me.
“Azari, you from Cove City or ATL?” Noah asked.
“I’m from Atlanta, but Blake U is the place to be. Although I don’t engage in all of the activities, I enjoy the vibe.”
Noah nodded. “I know what you mean. I went to Howard and was in the band for a minute.”
“I know. I’m a fan.”
Noah smiled. “Well, I’m glad we were able to have lunch together then. I like meeting fans. You and Chozen met in class, huh?”
“Yeah. He helped me by picking up my cane when I dropped it. All the other students were rushing by me and looked irritatedthat I was in their way. Not him. He walked me all the way to my car.”
Noah smiled. “He’s always been a good guy. His spirit is genuine.”
She smiled and glanced over at me. The waitress came and took our drink orders as well as our food orders. Once she walked away, RJ said, “We know you’re in a hurry, but we had to see the woman that had that nigga doing the most.”
She chuckled and blushed. “Your voice seems way deeper in person.”
I chuckled. RJ’s voice was crazy deep. Nigga sounded like he could imitate a whole bass line in a song. RJ slowly shook his head. He got that everywhere he went. Everyone knew how deep his voice was already, especially when he became more vocal in Noah’s career, after Noah wrote a song about him. It was definitely different in person though.
The waitress brought our drinks and appetizers. I’d gotten the cheesesteak eggrolls for Azari and me to share, and not long after, she brought out our entrées. Most of us had gotten some kind of steak, but Azari chose shrimp scampi. We continued to talk and laugh until Azari needed to get back. The waitress came and boxed her food for her, then I helped her out of her seat. RJ and Noah stood, and both hugged her.
After we got to my car and I’d helped her in and got in myself, she angled her body to me. “Noah is your cousin? What kind of mess is that? Like for real?”
“Technically, he isn’t, but we look at each other as cousins. My aunt Candace’s husband, Uncle Carrington, is their uncle. I look at Carrington as my father. I never knew my bio dad, so him stepping up to help raise me meant a lot to me. Candace is my mom’s sister. They look at me like their ‘little’ cousin.”
I slowly shook my head at the thought of that. “I work for RJ’s architectural firm.”
“That’s so cool. Thank you for today. Xavier and my mama already texted to see where I was.”
“So tell me, do you already have a powerchair?”
“I do, but I wasn’t thinking this morning. I was feeling horrible, and I was rushing. It didn’t help I’d gotten into it with Xavier’s father.”
I glanced over at her to see her fidget in her seat. She was playing with her fingers like she was nervous about something.
“Okay. I only rented that one because I wasn’t sure if you already had one.” Grabbing her hand, I took a deep breath. “He isn’t as involved as he should be, is he?”
She didn’t want to mention it earlier, but I knew that was because she had to go to class. That was probably the last thing she wanted on her mind while trying to retain information.
“He’s barely involved at all. He called this morning to say he couldn’t get him this weekend.” She slowly shook her head. “And to think, we were supposed to get married.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Y’all were engaged? What caused things to change?”
“He didn’t want to have to take care of me. He was already a little salty he was having to chip in a little more. That was when I lowered my hours at work and went from full-time to part-time in order to go back to school. When I got the news about my leg and what I had to do, he bailed. He literally walked out on us. That’s why I’m so hard. I’ve dealt with heartbreak quite a bit, but that was the one that truly broke me. Not just because he didn’t want to take care of me, but he had no desire to really take care of his son either.”
“Damn. That’s fucked up.”
“Tell me about it. I get three hundred and some change a month for child support, but he hasn’t seen him in two months. I filed for an increase the other day. I’m tired of seeing my baby hurting because he misses his dad.”
She had it harder than I thought. “So what do you do for money?”
“I get disability income. It’s enough to pay the bills.”
