Page 88 of In the Safety's Zone
“You feel some kind of way about it now?”
“Yeah, I mean I have a whole daughter now. Granted, I never did no foul shit that they didn’t want to, but I definitely didn’t treat them with the baseline of respect that I would want someone to treat Nia with.”
“I get that but everyone knows how determined some groupies are. We should treat them better but you can’t hold that against yourself. Just make sure that baby girl don’t fall for a nigga like you before you were healed and you’ll be good. Shit, we doing everything we can to break these generational curses as it is. I damn sure don’t want you to have the weight of all of this on you.”
He nodded as he swallowed a bite of his sandwich. After only a few days of training, we were both noticeably tanner than when we got to camp.
“It ain’t weight, but I have regrets. I wish I would’ve always been a good man to Rye, you feel me? I gotta battle with the concern that she might worry I turn back into the nigga I once was. The old me might never cross her mind but I hold on to that worry for the both of us. I carry it and do everything I can to ensure he never comes back.”
“Nah, I get it. It’s hard to think that you love her the way you do but there was a point when she doubted it or would’ve felt that you didn’t. So I understand.”
“I say all this to say that I want you to make sure that you treat Aphrodite how you’re supposed to from jump.”
“Bruh, I got her practically living with me and I’m doing everything I can so that she feels satisfied being with me.”
“Are you getting the same from her?” This conversation wasn’t going to slide by without him making sure she had my best interest at heart too.
“Yeah. She’s the bright spot in my day. I feel like just her being there is enough. She makes me laugh, we joke around. We just flow well together.”
Before I left for camp she presented me with a gift she’d had to have been working on for several months. It was a set of custom luxury luggage to use when we traveled. It was monogrammed with my initials in gold and it was one of the nicest gifts I’d received. I didn’t bother to insult her by trying to pay for it or give it back much to her relief.
“And you not cheating, right?” Antwan’s question snapped me back to our conversation and I almost swung on him for asking that shit.
“Hell no, why would you ask me that? You just heard me say that we vibe.”
“Right but you ain’t say that y’all were doing the do.”
“My nigga how old are you? Just cause I’m not talking about fucking doesn’t mean that we aren’t. If it was based on that alone she’d have our last name already but ain’t nobody kissing and telling. Shit, you don’t see me asking you about Rye. I mean I damn near don’t have to cause the two of y’all ain’t fucking shy about nunna what y’all do.”
This nigga had the nerve to grin like he was proud and I should’ve known better than to think I was insulting him. “Why the fuck would we be? I fucked up out loud, so I’m damn sure going to make up the same way.”
“I don’t think the neighbors knowing your name is the way that you make up to your wife, Antwan.”
“How the fuck would you know,Anthony? My Black ass is the one with a ring on his finger and you just over here still the single nigga.”
He flashed his wedding band like one of them chicks on social media and I cracked up laughing at him. I was happythat he was flashing that ring like his greatest accomplishment because it truly showed how much he’d matured.
“Did you really just throw your finger in my face flashing your ring like women do?”
“Damn right. I’m an honest man now, you can’t tell me shit about life now that I got a wife.” He did a fake toss of hair over his shoulder like women did and we both bust out laughing.
“Bruh, you a plum fool.” I clutched my stomach from laughing at his ass so hard.
“Don’t mean I’m wrong though. But I’m glad you ain’t on the type of time that I was. I ain’t seen your girl’s name out there unless she's on cereal boxes and shit. My daughter needs good female role models besides her mama and her godmamas. Having an auntie that's a damn tennis champion is some shit to brag on.”
“You crazy as hell.” His napkin flew across the table and hit me in the face and now I was back laughing at his ass. “What the fuck was that for?”
“You're an athlete and Phro an athlete. That means y’all gone have some big-ass, pro-sport, multi-talented ass kids. Listen, my babies might not be as big as yours but I will fight your ass if one of your kids tries to fuck with mine.”
“‘Twan, my nigga are you well?” I didn’t have an inkling of what the hell he was talking about. Me and Phro weren’t anywhere near ready to be talking about kids and for him to think that our kids would be bullying his was crazy.
He sat back with an attitude like our kids were really beefing already. “I’m just saying. We never know what Rye’s lil short ass genes gonna do. My boys might not top five eight so I gotta deal with Napoleon complex in my wife and my kids? I’m jealous as hell.”
He crossed his arms like he’d really thought this shit out and I just knew Grams had slipped his ass an edible in his travel bag.
“You know genetics don’t work that way, right? Your kids could end up tall as hell.”
Antwan shook his head before he picked up his bag of chips. “I done used up all my chances with God. Big Homie ain’t trying to run me no more favors. Besides as long as they're healthy, I wouldn’t care if they were classified as little people. They could be fifteen years old and I’d tote one around in one of them lil daddy carriers like I got Nia proud as fuck.”
