Page 3 of Ony If It's You
“Okay…” I frowned waiting for him to tell me what that had to do with me.
“You ready to get back in the ring?”
“You know I am, but Pres said?—”
“Fuck Pres!” he barked, cutting me off. “I’m your father and promoter.”
“And he’s my fuckin’ trainer, Pop. I’m not going behind his back and getting myself involved in whatever bullshit plan you’ve thrown together. Shit is hot enough for me right now.”
“You don’t trust me?”
I wanted to shout hell naw, but for the sake of sparing his feelings I lied.
“I do.”
“Okay then, this will be good for you. The opponent is easy too so it’s easy money.”
Tandy was done making my plate, so she bagged it up and handed it to me. Reaching into my pocket, I fished my keys out because I was about to bounce.
“You telling me that the opponent is easy lets me know this is some bullshit. I don’t need shit handed to me, I love a challenge, you know that. Hit Pres up, if he agrees I’ll fight, if not… well, you know how that goes.”
Reaching over, I tapped Ms. Phyllis’s cheek and smirked before turning to leave. I wasn’t going to jeopardize my career any further than I already had on account of my father nor was I going to be a part of the pissing match between him and my uncle.
“JV!” he shouted behind me. “Javyous!”
He continued to call after me even when I was out the door, but I kept going. Since shit went down at my fight, I’d been keeping my distance only coming around him when I absolutely had to because he never saw the error in his ways. That was what I hated about him the most. Had it not been for Ms. Phyllis, I probably would have been just like him.
She always took the time to talk to me, explain shit to me, try to make sense out of the irrational shit that my pops did. I could tell that she was disappointed when she’d learned that Iwas entertaining multiple women just like my pops. She didn’t even try to hide the disgust when I brought them to the crib nor did she attempt to get to know either of them. I felt a little bad because I didn’t like to disappoint her, but it was what it was. Kecia and Zoey fit into my lifestyle and understood me because I didn’t have the time to be emotionally attached to anyone.
Pushing the thoughts of my father and Ms. Phyllis to the back of my mind and putting my car in reverse, I pulled out and headed in the direction of my home.
Chapter Two
Kehlani James
“Are you sure you want them to stay the night, Granny? Si has a project that’s due tomorrow that we were going to work on tonight.”
Jean, my grandmother, spoiled my kids to no end. I wasn’t surprised though because she spoiled me too, even at my big age. My grandmother had been taking care of me since I was four. My mother wasn’t ready to be a mother, so she gave me to my grandma and my father was doing a life sentence for a murder charge. He called his mother, my granny, every day though so we had as much of a relationship as we could.
“Kehlani just bring the stuff he needs over here. I wouldn’t be telling you they were staying if I wasn’t sure,” she fussed.
“Okay, okay, I’m just asking. You’ll have them while I’m away for Brooke’s wedding, so I don’t want to overdo it.”
“Bye,” she snapped and disconnected the call.
Laughing, I tossed the phone on the bed and got back to folding clothes. I was set to leave for Vegas in two days, so I wanted to make sure that everything was clean and in order before leaving. My OCD wouldn’t let me go anywhere without everything in my house being cleaned.
“Ms. Jean cooking?” my best friend Celeste asked from the doorway with a bag of chips in her hand. She damn near lived with me because she was here every day.
Celeste and I had met in middle school when her family moved to Crescent Pointe. Her father got a job with the local real estate company that paid more than his previous job in Colorado, so they’d moved here and we had been thick as thieves ever since. I’d met our other friend Brooke the same year, in the summertime, but for whatever reason she and Celeste stayed at each other’s necks. Celeste swore Brooke was a hater and was using us. Brooke swore that Celeste just didn’t want me to have other friends. I stayed out of their beef and remained neutral. I could tell that Brooke hadn’t wanted to invite Celeste to her wedding, but she had to appease me.
“She cooks every day, so I doubt that she wouldn’t cook today, plus she wants the twins to stay the night, so she is for sure going to make their favorites.”
“Hell yes!” She fist pumped. “Jocey loves chicken, so I know those lemon pepper wings is on the menu.”
Jocey also known as Jocelyn was my six-year-old daughter and her twin brother was Messiah who we all called Si. I’d had them when I was twenty and they were my world. Their father Pharaoh and I had met in high school. He was a few years older than me, so by the time I’d made it there he was already a junior, but that hadn’t stopped him from snatching me off the market as soon as he saw me. He claimed to know that I was wifey material from just seeing me.
Because Pharaoh was so suave with his words and because I was so naïve, he was easily able to sweep me off my feet and have me ridiculously in love with him. He was the guy that all the girls wanted in school and I was ecstatic to be the lucky one to have him. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have left his trifling ass right where he stood.
