Page 117 of Love's Most Wanted
“Oh my gosh, no! My friends are coming, and Mommy didn’t make enough food for y’all big, greedy asses!” Banks exclaimed, running into us as she came down the stairs.
“Nobody about to eat, baby girl,” Bashar replied, smirking as much as he could. “We not even staying long.”
“Where Mama at?” Lequay quizzed.
“In the kitchen cooking,” Banks replied hesitantly, her phone glued to her hand like always. “I’m serious about the food!” She shouted to our backs as we started toward the mouth of the big ass kitchen.
“Smells good in here.” Shakur smiled as soon as we walked into the bright kitchen with high ass ceilings and too many damn ovens.
“Yep, but it’s not enough for you guys. Y’all eat too much, and Banks is having company,” she replied, chuckling as she hugged and kissed each one of us.
“We know. Yo’ mini me told us that already.” Khari leaned against the counter. “Let me know when you got a second.”
“I have one now. I’m just waiting for the timer to go off.” She cut the burner off then pointed to the oven timer to show us. “So, what’s up?”
For a minute, silence hung in the air, and low-key, a nigga was transported back to my childhood when I was scared to tell my mother something. She never spared the rod majority of the time, so nine times out of ten, you was getting yo’ ass beat.
“We went to Devante’s church and kind of told everybody who he is and everything else,” Cemone spoke up finally.
“What?” Her brows furrowed as she absentmindedly took a step backward. “Why? Why the fuck would you do that?” She whipped her head around to look at each of us. “I’m asking a fucking question!” She blew up when no one had said shit yet.
“Because he needed to be put on fucking blast for what he did, Ma,” Lequay answered, worried eyes on our mother.
“That was so stupid! Y’all have had a great life, and now you went and did that shit, making him think you need him and that you care!”
Her yelling could clearly be heard over this mansion because Prime entered, brows kissing as he eyed us all, already blaming us for his wife’s displeasure.
“Fuck is going on?” Prime queried.
“These fools went down to Devante’s church and told them his real identity and everything else. Whatever the fuck that means.” She shook her head.
“We told ’em he was gay, he left his kids in the dust, and that though he was married, he was still doing dirt,” Shakur summarized as my mama shook her head constantly.
“I don’t get what the point of that was. Where this even come from? I ain’t even know y’all still thought about that nigga.” Prime frowned in confusion.
“We don’t. Not really,” I replied, sitting at the big marble island. “But my girl, she invited me to her family reunion, and her aunt’s best friend is Devante’s new wife. When he acted like he didn’t know a nigga, calling me son like he was trying to be funny, I got mad all over again. I told them about it, and we came up with the plan.”
Prime digested my words but had no response.
“And now, he thinks y’all have been worrying about him and caring or needing him this whole damn time!” my mother barked, cutting the timer off before it could even sound off and snatching the buttery rolls from the oven then tossing them on top of the stove.
“Because we do care, and we did need that nigga,” Khari replied calmly, making everybody look his way. “It has nothing to do with you or Pop, because I couldn’t have asked for better parents, but if you think for a second that the nigga who was my father consistently for seventeen almost eighteen years ghosting me and my brothers ain’t gon’ bother me, then you mistaken, Ma.
“I get he was ya husband, but it ain’t the same. And shit only got worse when I had kids of my own because I couldn’t fathom doing some shit like that. Everybody else had to deal with the fallout of his bullshit except for him. He got to go off and be happy and start a new family. Then had the nerve to double down on his actions when Shakur reached out. He’s a coward, and the only way he ever gon’ have a chance at changing is if muthafuckas stop acting like he never did the foul shit he did. So yeah, I am bothered, and if any of these niggas in here tell you they not, they lying.”
My mother’s demeanor had visibly relaxed a little bit as she took Khari in, while Prime hugged her into his side, his lips pressed to her temple.
“I understand. But maybe it didn’t have to be in the church and so public.” She replied in a calm tone that she hadn’t had since we told her this shit.
“Nah, he needed to be embarrassed the way he embarrassed everybody else,” Bashar said.
“Exactly, and nah, I don’t need that nigga, but I can’t say what he did don’t still get me tight on occasion,” Lequay added.
“Maybe this is what he needed to pull him fully up out that fucking closet then,” Prime said.
I didn’t know what he needed, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit better.
FEW DAYS LATER…
