Page 59 of What You Do To Me
“Tiomi I really wasn’t meaning it like that, but I still shouldn’t have said it.”
“You’re right, you shouldn’t have.”
“I just fuckin’ said that didn’t I?” he raised his voice, so I knew he was getting frustrated. Truthfully, I wasn’t really that mad at the comment because he knows first-hand what my bag looks like and it was him that decided that I didn’t need to work right after I had the baby.
“Look, I don’t want to argue, I just wanted to apologize about what I said.”
I stepped in front of him, wrapped my arms around his waist and looked up at him. “I know baby. I wasn’t even tripping for real.”
“You play too much, Tiomi,” he said shaking his head. “Look, I’m about to step out with Shad to handle some shit. Do whatyou want to the house, it’s yours, I’ll set up a spot in the guest house like you said.”
I didn’t bother to respond to the last part of that because we both knew that I was going to respect his wishes. It was a little extra on my end to put the girls into two different playrooms.
“Be careful and come back to me, Jawan.”
“I got you. You gone give me some before I leave?” he asked, and I laughed.
“How about we put that on ice because then I’ll know for sure that you’ll be making it home to me.”
“Oh, I’m coming home regardless, but we can do that,” he responded before dropping a kiss on my lips and just like that he was gone, and my worries came back. I just prayed that God protected them while they were out.
When I woke up the next morning, I rolled over to see Lae’s small body curled up on her father’s chest and Jarae stuck to his side also curled into a ball. They were all asleep with their mouths wide open, Jawan snoring like a grizzly bear. After admiring my family for a minute, I got up to handle my morning hygiene. I needed to get Jalae together before I left since Jawan still claims she’s too small, even though she’s gained so much weight.
Today was my first day back to school and I was super excited about it. It’s the main reason that I couldn’t sleep in this morning. I had to fight tooth and nail to get him to agree to let me go back right now with everything going on, I’m just glad he gave in. Even if I did have to bribe him a little. I moved around our room getting my stuff together for my shower and what I was going to wear for the day.
Once I was showered, I walked into the room where I saw Jawan and the girls were finally awake. I made my way into the closet to put on the matching bra and panty set that was waitingfor me. After I had that on, I walked back into the room so I could get my baby together.
“Let me have her so I can get her together babe. We have an hour before we need to be leaving the house.”
“Leaving the house to go where?” he asked me without even looking in my direction.
“Jawan you know today is my first day back to school.”
“Oh yeah, that. Do you have to go baby?”
“Yes, I do so get up and get Jarae together. Or would you rather me drive?”
He didn’t give me a verbal response. He instead sucked his teeth and grabbed Jarae to bathe her in her bathroom while I did the same with Lae. I knew he wasn’t happy about me going to school for a number of reasons, but he was the one that pushed this, so now I’m in it and dedicated. It didn’t take us long to get the girls together and all I had to do was slip on the gray two-piece jogging suit from fashion nova and my midnight navy ones that Jawan had recently got me. Once we were all dressed and ready to go, we headed out the door. Jawan wasted no time annoying me about my choice in clothes for the day.
“You had to do all that for school?”
Rolling my eyes, I looked in his direction. “All of what baby?”
“That,” he used his index finger to point at my outfit.
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing, Jawan? You bought all of this.”
“Yeah, for you to wear for me, with me. Niggas gone be looking at your ass and shit while I’m not around.”
“Boy shut up. I don’t want nobody but you.”
“Yeah, because you know me. It’s not you I’m worried about anyway, it’s the muhfuckas that like to act like they don’t know.”
Instead of entertaining his stupid conversation, I changed the subject. “Are you sure you can handle them at the shoptoday? Granny said she would cancel her appointment to keep them for you.”
He sucked his teeth like he always did when he didn’t like my line of questioning. “They my kids too, Tio, I got them.”
I noticed that we were pulling up to campus, so I started gathering all my stuff to get out. I was kind of feeling a way because I no longer liked the thought of being away from my family.
