Page 8 of Welcome to the Table
When she said his name, my blood instantly boiled. I stepped away from her with my brows crinkled.
“What the fuck does my father have to do with any of this?” I had to ask.
“Before we graduated, your father went to my mother and told her to send me to another state because I made you weak. Athena doesn’t know anything about this. Of course, my mother listened for the right amount of money, and he offered to pay for any school I wanted to go to, as long as it wasn’t in Louisiana. He didn’t want us together,” she said through tears.
My body filled with rage. My fist became one with the mirror as it shattered. With blood on my hands, I grabbed Klarity and pulled her out of the bathroom. We briskly walked back to my section. Hellcat was dancing with a bottle in his hand and a blunt in his mouth. He turned and saw me standing there, instantly knowing who Klarity was.
“Nah, nigga, I know that ain’t Klarity black ass.” He laughed, put his shit down, and went over to hug her.
She hesitantly hugged him back.
“You are coming with me, and don’t say shit or take shit. Wherever you are staying, leave that shit there. We are starting over, together.” I gave her a look, and she knew I meant what the fuck I said.
“Hold on, nigga. Is she married? Kids? Husband? You just saw her again after how many years? Fuck no, she is staying her ass right where you found her.” Hellcat was drunk, but I would explain everything once he sobered up a little.
“Nigga, I gotta tell you some shit, but this ain’t the time or the place. She is coming with us.”
For the first time, he didn’t go back and forth with me. He grabbed his bottle and blunt, and we left the club and went straight to the jet.
“Calliope, hello, where did you go just now?”
I snapped out of the past and looked up at Klarity.
Melph didn’t know Klarity was with me because he almost never came to my house, and when he did, there were no signs of her. I knew this meeting would be a shit show.
I stared at her. She was fucking beautiful. She had on a red spaghetti-strapped dress with the same Swarovski crystals on the left side of the dress. She had on her red bottoms with her Guerrilla vest that stopped mid-back. Her hair was pulled to the left side with red stones on the right. Her face with the lipstick made me think of them wrapped around my dick, but later for that. We had shit to do, and we were already behind.
I adjusted my dick and stood to my feet. She turned to walk ahead of me as my hand went to the small of her back, and we were out the door. All was forgotten. We walked to my garage, and I looked at all the cars that I had accumulated over the years.
“Which toy are you bringing out today?” she asked, smiling.
My eyes looked over each car from my Range Rover to my old school shit. I already knew which car I was going to choose, so I grabbed her hand and took her to my favorite car. It was a gift that I’d gotten myself but hadn’t had a chance to ride. I knew Hellcat would bring his out because that nigga was a stunna. We stood in front of my red and chrome 2025 Polaris Slingshot.
“We are taking this today. Some fly shit,” I said, and walked her to the passenger side.
I opened the door for her to sit and went to the other side to get in. We pulled off and headed back to the city to meet up with the crew. I knew shit would get ugly; I just hoped I was making the right decision.
“Okay, Daddy, you are showing out today, huh?”
We took the dirt road to the highway. My hand was on her thigh while the other gripped the stirring wheel. I gave her a brief smile as we rode through the city to the second line. I had a feeling in my gut that shit was about to shake, but I brushed it off because it had been a while since I’d stepped out, and I hoped like hell I didn’t regret it.
Melph and Hellcat knew I didn’t go out unless I had to. Crowded places, unless I had to. I didn’t even want to be partof the family business, but I was forced into this shit. I half expected Athena to have my back, but she didn’t. She agreed with everything Melph said and expected of me, but I wasn’t that nigga. I wanted to put my degrees to use and live a regular fucking life, but that’s not what my father wanted. He wanted me to be a part of something that I hadn’t planned on, so I just went along with the shit. If I told Athena what the fuck he made me do when I was sixteen, she would be on his ass. Athena didn’t play about her kids, and Melph knew that.
“What’s on your mind, bae?” Klarity snapped me out of my thoughts. Her hand rubbed the base of my curly hair. I had that good shit.
I glanced at her, giving a half smile. I had been fucking with Klarity for a minute, but it was something about her that I couldn’t trust. I didn’t have any proof that she was on some foul shit, so I didn’t speak on it. My eyes gravitated back to the road, and I answered her.
“Nothing. Just thinking about some shit.”
I left it at that, and she removed her hand from my head. I watched her from my peripheral as she folded her arms and pouted like a brat. Any other day, I would have catered to that shit, but I couldn’t today because my mind was focused on this meeting that I was having with my father. I continued driving, tuning her ass out because I didn’t have time for her bratty ass attitude.
Chapter 2
Klarity
“No, don’t go. Turn around. Go back to the house. We not leaving like this,” I told Calliope, pulling at his arm that rested between us.
We were dressed and ready to head out, but I needed him to level with me. He turned to me with charcoal black eyes, and I knew he had changed into another person. He pulled his arm from my grasp and gave me a smug look. Then, he made a fast U-turn, almost flipping me out of the car, and headed back to the house. He hit 100 on the dash to get us back to the house. I knew he was pissed, but I didn’t care. We were not leaving the house with our energy off. We needed to be on the same wavelength.
