Page 25 of F*ckin' With Me
“Send the info to my Insta DM, and I’ll let Rashad know.” I had no intention of going to shit with them. I glanced at my baby, who stood there with a mask of disbelief. “Come on, baby. Let’s get to the villa to order some lunch and take a nap before dinner.”
Halfway to the villa, Simonette’s little voice came out. “Thank you for always taking up for me. Usually, it’s only my daddy who does.”
I dropped her hand and pulled her into my side to kiss her temple. “I told you that a lot comes with fuckin’ with a nigga like me. One of those things is protection, beautiful.”
It was crazy that the girl who tutored me all those years ago was the woman I wanted to be with. It wasn’t some glow-up type of situation where she was an ugly duckling, and then she was a beautiful swan. She was always a swan. She just needed to learn how to expand her wings to show those beautiful feathers off. I knew my feelings for her were real when I found myself on the phone with my father that morning after my tongue put Simonette to sleep.
Morning Talk With Pops . . .
“What’s going on, Son? How is it over there?”my father asked as soon as he answered my video call. I wasn’t surprised to see him lift and bite a piece of a beef stick. He loved those shits.
I took a sip from my water bottle before I responded.“It’s beautiful here, Pops. I’m definitely going to have to bring you here to spend some time. I’m happy I decided to come.”I laughed when he asked me if Rashad and Rissa were staying out of trouble.“Pops, you already know that Rashad is out here on his good bullshit. One of the married bridesmaids is a whore and sneaks off to do what hos do.”
“Now, I already told Rashad about messing with other men’s women. Hos tend to have the most irrational dummies as their men,”my father pointed out.“It’s like they know that their woman is looser than a goose but still wants to defend an honor that she doesn’t have. Tell him to be careful. How my baby girl doing?”
Igave him that look.“She’s out here acting like her mother. A damn menace, saying whatever pops in her head. She’s cursed Simonette’s mama and sister out.”We both laughed because we knew how she could be.“I appreciate how she has my baby’s back though.”
“Baby? She’s baby now? Tell me more about that.”My father’s brows were threatening to take over his hairline.
I dropped my head for a minute before I took a sip of my beer.“Man, Pops, the shit is crazy. I went into this on some ‘I was going to do a favor for someone who looked out for me’ type shit. In the midst of all of that, I realized just how cool she really is. It’s like she’s still the wallflower, eccentric, brilliant girl that I remember, but now she’s a woman. I mean, she still has a lot of the insecurities that she had back then. Now, after meeting her mama and sister, I have more context into why.”
If they were men, I would square up with their asses. My father didn’t say anything right away. A part of me feared what he would say. It wasn’t like I was a dog ass nigga, but in the same breath, I didn’t take these hos seriously. I gave them the level of respect they showed themselves to have. When I was in college, I only wanted pussy with no commitment. At thirty-three, I was ready to give someone my last name and put some babies in her.
“Son, I see that spark in your eyes. It’s the same spark that I had when I met your mother. She gave me hell in the beginning though.”He laughed with his words.“Let me tell you something. I need you to sit back andreally think about if you want to be with this young lady. I know you went into this whole thing as a favor, but if you’re interested in more, then make sure that’s what you truly want and can stay committed to that. You just said that her mother and sister treat her like shit. Could you imagine what would happen if you played over her heart?
“You could break what’s left of it. You know your mother and me were together young, and that shit was hard. The difference between females then and now is that they are bolder with their whorish ways,”he pointed out.“Discretion doesn’t exist nowadays. That’s a dangerous thing. I need you to know that you are ready to commit to one woman.”
I thought about what he said.Am I ready to call one woman mine?If he had asked me that six months ago, I probably would have said hell no, but that was before Simonette called my damn phone. She beamed me up into her one-of-a-kind spaceship, and I didn’t want to leave. The fact that she had never been in a relationship meant her heart was a clean canvas that I could help her paint a beautiful picture on.
“Yeah, Pops, I’m ready to be with one woman. I want that woman to be Simonette. I just want to make her happy and love her like you did Mom,”I confessed.
My pops smiled.“Then it will be so, Son. When do I get to meet my future daughter-in-law?”
Back To The Present . . .
When we got to the villa, I ordered our lunch while Simonette took a shower. I wanted to have a real conversation with her while we ate. I jumped in Rashad’s shower since his ass was somewhere on those peoples’ island fucking that man’s wife. The fact that ole girl continued to sneak out while her husband was here told me one of two things. Either her husband was fucking something too, or she was truly just that damn sneaky.
Simonette’s greedy ass was already eating when I got out of the shower. “Damn, you wasn’t going to wait for me? That’s cold-blooded.”
She stopped chewing and looked at me with soft eyes.Yeah, that shit is going to get me every time.“I was really hungry. I didn’t eat breakfast.”
I sat down next to her and removed the cover from my food. I gawked at my plate in disbelief. “Um, Simonette, normally when I order fries with my burgers, it comes with more than six fries. The fact that I can count the fries is a problem.”
She gasped, then leaned over to look at my plate. “Six fries! I could have sworn I left at least ten.”
That fucking girl took her fork and used it to count my damn fries. I wanted to be mad, but I couldn’t. I was happy that she was beginning to feel more comfortable around me, to really let her silly side out. I loved that shit.
I side-eyed her. “I’m not about to play with your little ass. You gonna keep playing, and I’m gonna toss you in the air.”
My hand went to her waist to tickle her. She roared in laughter. “Stop! I’m trying to eat, Day.”
“I’m Day now?” I asked her. I didn’t expect her to answer, so I started eating my lamb burger and few fries. After I took a few bites, I figured it was a good time to broach the conversation that I felt we needed to have. “Simonette, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to try this relationship thing with me? I mean, I know that I’ve said we’re in a relationship, but I do want your buy-in.”
She put her half-eaten club sandwich down. “If we do the relationship thing, will it be like real? I mean, I’ll be your public girlfriend?”
My mind computed her question. “Yes, it will be real. You will be my public woman. I plan to bring you to games, events, and let the world know that I am yours and you are mine.”
“Wha-what about the other women you mess with?” She nervously shifted in her seat to face me. “Will they know that you are in a relationship? Like, will you tell them?”
