Page 67 of Girl, We Go Together
And he don't have to have money
His love is just like honey
It's so sweet to me
This was another one of her favorites when we were in school. She used to hum this shit all through the halls. She didn’t even know I took a liking to Ciara's music just because of her. She had a good little playlist going, and as the sun started to rise outside, we had gotten her about ninety percent unpacked. I nuzzled my face into the crease of my arm as I let a yawn escape my mouth.
Her doe-shaped eyes looked over in my direction.
“You should go, Kass. You’ve been here since last night. You don’t work today?”
“No, I’m off. You?”
I offered to help, and I didn’t even take into account her having to work the next day. I just assumed she was off because she would have kicked a nigga out if she wasn’t.
“I’m off too.”
There was a moment of silence between us, and my goofy ass had to ruin it by yawning again.
“Shitttt,” I dragged at the end of that one.
I had worked a ten-hour shift the day before, and then made it my business to purposely bump into her to drive her home. Not to mention, I worked that shift off five hours of sleep. A nigga was honestly beat, but I’d rather help her with what she had going on.
“Go home and get some rest, Kass.”
She started for the door, and my ass walked over to that ripped-up ass leather couch and had a seat. I knew her daughter would probably wake up at any minute, and just as I was working the day prior and was up all night unpacking, so was she.
“Oriana, right? She’s gonna be up soon. How will you get any sleep if she’s about to be up and active?”
“I’ll manage.”
The bags under her eyes told me otherwise. Again, my mother raised me on her own, just as my grandmother had raised my mother on her own. I vowed to myself that whenever I had children, there was no damn way I would allow my children’s mother to be subject to the same generational curse that the women in my family had been through.
“There’s nothing wrong with needing help.”
Standing in front of me, I could see that Cayla was a strong ass soldier, and it sucked that she had to be. She stood there for a bit longer, and when she opened the closet beside the front door and pulled a folded blanket from the top shelf, I knew I had worn her down. She tossed me the blanket, and I caught it mid-air.
“I don’t have any extra pillows.”
“That’s cool. I’ll manage,” I said, stealing a line from her book.
She walked into her bedroom, leaving me alone in the living room. I opened the blanket and then tossed it over me. I took some of it and bunched it on the arm of the chair to make myself my own pillow. When I inhaled, the comforter smelled like a closet. I nudged my head around until I found my comfortable spot. With each blink, my eyes got heavier, and I welcomed the sleep as it invaded.
Chapter 24
Cayla
Iwalked into my bedroom and closed the door behind me. I slid out of my sweatpants and then lay in the bed. As soon as I snuggled up to Oriana, I knocked the hell out. I didn’t realize how bad I needed the sleep that I was finally able to get until I woke. I rolled over in my queen-sized bed, and that was the problem. I never had the space to roll over in my bed when Oriana was lying next to me. I patted the spot beside me and then shot my eyes open in a panic when I realized she wasn’t lying beside me. I quickly sat up and then looked over the bed to see if she had fallen off. I knew that if she fell, that shit would have woken me up because I would have heard it.I don’t even know this nigga for real,I thought as I rushed out of the bed. Time changes people, and although Kassidy and I were close in high school, that was then.
I didn’t even bother to put my sweatpants back on before I ran into the living room. Kass was walking around with Oriana in his arms. He had this little bounce to his walk, and his phone was in his free hand up to their faces. I recognized the voices of the Paw Patrol characters anywhere. Kass’s back was facing me as he swayed from side to side with my baby girl in his arms. She had her head laid on his shoulder, and in her hand was herfavorite blanket. I just stood there watching. My daughter was a mommy’s girl for sure, so seeing her so relaxed in the arms of someone else was foreign to me.
“This little nigga Chase could have gotten that damn cat out of that tree. Cats don’t even like dogs for real, little mama. Don’t believe this bullshit.”
I giggled, and when I did, he turned around to face me. He looked me up and down for a bit before his eyes locked in with mine. When his eyes trailed back down to my thighs, I quickly remembered that I was standing in front of him in just an oversized shirt and panties. I ran back into the room to put on my pants and then went back into the living room.
“I’m surprised she was chilling out with you,” I said as I walked in their direction.
When I reached my arms out for Oriana, she leaned her body closer into Kass, and that shocked the shit out of me.
