Page 18 of Through Treacherous Weather
“Yeah.”
His answer was real short, so she decided not to pry further. Esco seemed like the type to want to keep work professional and not personal. He was strict for sure, but she didn’t mind a private man. In many ways, Esco reminded her of her father. In her opinion, they had been around each other enough that it shouldn’t feel awkward, but sometimes, it did. Fatima didn’t know anything about him, and maybe that was the way it was supposed to be, but if they had to be together, she at least wanted to be able to converse with him.
“That night at the club. I saw you talking to my brother and cousin. How do you know them?” she asked.
Esco glanced over at her with furrowed brows. “I was talking to Justice and Loyal. I didn’t know anyone else. The triplets. I don’t know Truce that well.”
“I know who you were talking to,” she smiled. “it’s a long, complicated, ghetto story. Justice is my brother. Loyal is my cousin.”
The blank expression on his face was comical, but it wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before. At that point, they all enjoyed telling people that the triplets had different fathers just to see the reactions they’d get.
“Oh okay,” Esco responded slowly. “I know them from years ago, we used to run in the projects together.”
Fatima’s head bobbed with a curt nod. She could definitely see him being a bad boy. A bad boy that had turned his life around. That was attractive. “What made you get into security?”
“By the time I decided to stop doing illegal shit, I was a grown man with bills and a kid. I didn’t want to work some minimum wage paying job that would have me away from my daughter forty hours week but living a shitty life because I didn’t make any money. I saw that being a bouncer at clubs didn’t require any kind of degree or special skills, and the pay was decent. Me being me and wanting to be my own boss, I took it a step further and started my own shit.”
“That’s dope. I was so proud of my father when he transitioned into a businessman and a businessman only. That’s a good look.”
Silence resumed, and Fatima felt a bit slighted when Esco didn’t ask her anything about herself. She tried not to take it personal. Wise would appreciate his professionalism. Maybe she wasn’t his type. Maybe he had a girlfriend…
The question was on the tip of her tongue, but that would have been doing too much. She wanted a lil’ boo, but she also knew who she was. The daughter of Wise Jacobs didn’t chase niggas. The niggas chased her.
At the mall, Esco stayed close behind her as she loaded up on candles, perfume, workout sets, and a few pairs of shoes. Escowatched her spend his rent on one pair of shoes. He knew she had two jobs, but he also knew the way she lived was courtesy of her father, and he wasn’t mad at it. As she shopped, Esco had visions of an older Star tearing the mall up and being a spoiled princess on his dime. Giving kids a good life didn’t mean designer. It meant a good, stable, loving home filled with affection and quality time spent. It was fun times and countless pictures. It was three meals a day and clean clothes and shoes. It was words of affirmation and guiding the child and helping them to make good decisions in life. But Esco wanted Star to have the world. She deserved it, and he was determined to make it happen.
Fatima’s shopping spree ended with so many bags that Esco had to carry some of them. As they approached the exit of the mall, Fatima’s stroll slowed. “Hmmm. I’m wondering if I should get takeout from the steakhouse across the street or go home and whip up a quick meal. What are you in the mood for?” she turned to Esco, who was stumped by the question.
Scratching at his brow with his thumb, he pondered for a bit. “I really hadn’t even thought about it.” Wise had stressed that he wanted Fatima to treat Esco like he was at home, but he didn’t expect her to be cooking for him.
“I can’t even lie that stir fired cabbage you made the other day with shrimp and sausage was like that. If all your meals are that fye, it’s always going to be cooking over takeout, but it’s not my choice.”
His compliment made Fatima blush. “I’m really craving crabcakes from the steakhouse, but I’ll whip us up something really good tomorrow.”
By the time they reached Esco’s Escalade, she had run various meal ideas through her mind. By the time they made it to the steakhouse, she had decided on lambchops, garlic mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and sweet potato casserole. Fatimawasn’t just a spoiled rich kid. She could burn in the kitchen thanks to her grandmothers on both sides. In college, Heiress and her other friends used to love when Fatima got in cooking mode. Heiress had told her more than once that she cooked better than her mother.
The thought of Heiress made Fatima go to her social media page. If she still hadn’t posted anything, then Fatima was going to call her because that wasn’t like Heiress at all. She was curious about what her friend was up to, but no matter what Justice and Esco had implied, she didn’t think that Heiress was the reason she got shot at. She stood on the fact that if it had anything to do with Heiress, the men could have come to her home because Heiress knew where she lived.
She had posted her hand holding an ice cream cone. The ice cream was black and looked interesting. It definitely went with the aesthetic that Heiress usually posted. Everything on her page had to be carefully shot and placed. All of her pictures even had to have the same filter. Heiress was very anal about the things that she posted. Fatima had been afraid that once she moved, they wouldn’t talk as much. No longer college students they were adults with jobs. Esco knew everything that had transpired, but she still decided to wait until she had a little more privacy before she called Heiress and filled her in on all the things that had occurred since her departure.
Chapter Nine
When the womanon stage stopped singing, the crowd erupted into loud applause for her, Trinity included. Once she was done clapping, Trinity picked her glass of wine up and drained it of the contents inside. The host took the mic from the woman that had just performed and thanked everyone for coming out.
“That was nice,” Mike smiled as Trinity grabbed her clutch.
“Yes, it really was. I haven’t been to a live show in a while, and the jazz segments were very nice and soothing.” Standing, she pivoted and followed Mike out of the venue.
Mike. He had been introduced to her by the woman that owned the event space Trinity usually taught her classes out of. Every month, Trinity taught at least three classes. There was a lash class, and she had a class teaching people how to open their own home healthcare agencies. The three classes alone usually brought in around $35,000 a month for her.
Mike was forty-four, and he owned two car dealerships. He also owned a carpet cleaning business. In her opinion, he was handsome enough. Trinity knew that not every man was going to be Damson Idris or Dave East. She just wanted a cultured man that she could have fun and good sex with. On a scale of one to ten, so far, she had to give Mike a strong seven. Trinity hated tofeel shallow and petty, but his round belly was a slight turn off for her. She’d never had any kind of plastic surgery done. There was no Botox in her face or fillers in her lips.
Trinity did weightlifting and cardio twice a week. Once or twice a week, she also did yoga or Pilates. She made it a point to keep her body tight, so she didn’t feel bad for wanting a man with muscles or at the least a toned physique. A man didn’t even have to have a six-pack, but she didn’t desire to have his protruding belly in the way every time they had sex. Men like Grey had her spoiled. Shit, look at Chicago and Wise. There were plenty of older men out there that took great care of their bodies.
Body type and looks aside, Mike seemed nice. Trinity was open to going on another date with him, but there were no butterflies or sexual chemistry on her part. A woman could most definitely fall for a man’s personality and become sexually attracted to him, and that would be the only way she had sex with him. As it stood, she didn’t have to give a second thought to whether or not she was going to have sex with him.
Trinity was fine with the sexual partner she had. Well, not really, but she didn’t want to replace him with Mike. When she went to Grey’s house the sex was amazing as usual. In fact, it seemed different that time. More intense. Trinity was treading on dangerous territory because Grey was absolutely growing on her. If she could get the D five nights a week, it still wouldn’t be enough for her. She had it just that bad. But he on the other hand, was either having sex with someone else or sex truly didn’t faze him like that. It had been a week since they had sex, and it was crickets. He hadn’t even reached out to her to say hello.
Okay, so he was a single parent, and he had a job. Trinity still believed in her heart of hearts that he could make time for what he really wanted to make time for. If he couldn’t get a sitter, she could go to him once Shai’Ann was asleep. Trinity hated feeling like she was more into a man than he was into her.Before it had been strictly sex. Somehow, it had turned into her feeling some kind of way because he’d never sent her flowers or done anything romantic. The moment she started being in her feelings, Trinity knew she was getting in too deep, and she agreed to go out on a date with Mike. While she had a good time, it did nothing to help her through her dilemma because every time Mike did or said something, she compared him to Grey.
