Page 22 of Dom 4
I winked. “I am.”
“You deserve that.”
“So do you.”
She blinked quickly a few times like she didn’t want to get emotional and then she spoke louder. “Now where the hell my food? I’m starving. This baby got an appetite like her daddy.”
The waiter came by and tried to act normal but kept doing double takes because the entire table looked like we were sitting under a spotlight and somehow still blending in at the same time. Amour wiggled in my lap and started playing with my bracelet.
O’Shynn nudged my arm. “We need to talk later.”
I nodded. “We will.”
Mailk’s phone rang and he excused himself to answer it outside for his agent. The moment he stepped out, the vibe shifted as well. We were three women who knew too much, survived too much, and still chose each other anyway. Malik returned to the table with his phone in his hand sliding back into the booth like he never left. He had that presence that made people look twice but not in a thirsty way; it was just his aura, and he was a center of the room type of fine. He didn’t interrupt anything but instead, he just read the room real fast, and he was into O’Shynn, I could tell. I had to admit they did look good together.
Amour wanted her mommy back, so Keondra had Amour in her lap now, passing her a piece of cornbread to keep her busy. O’Shynn leaned back with her drink watching me the way she always did when she was about to say something real. She sather Burberry sunglasses top of her hair. Her eyes were clear and direct. I don’t necessarily think O’Shynn hid from emotion, she just didn’t invite it unless she was ready to do so.
“Okay,” she said with her voice low enough that only we could hear it. “Let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the dining room before somebody at this table start pretending.”
Keondra looked around all exaggerated. “Which one, cause ain’t shit but plates and high blood pressure seasoned food up in here.”
O’Shynn sucked her teeth, but she smiled. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.Showing up in the hood, looking like a respectful mother of one, picking Dique up from the damn airport? That’s some real growth and character development, a blessing and a damn plot twist.”
Keondra laughed, because she knew it was love disguised as shade and she felt good being accepted, especially with O’Shynn. O’Shynn was just a bitch and people knew it, unless she was comfortable.
“I said I was trying,” Keondra replied, adjusting Amour’s little shoe. “I didn’t say it was easy. He’s, he different with her now than before he was sure she was his,” she said with her eyes still on Amour. “He’s present, he checks in, he’s a little softer and I ain’t used to that. I ain’t used to someone wanting to stay around even if it’s only for her… it’s just something I never had.”
None of us said anything for a second and not because it was sad but because we all understood it. O’Shynn tapped the table with her nail. “And that’s why you don’t sabotage it.”
Keondra’s just stared. “I’m trying not to, but he got girls callin’ his damn phone all day when he’s around and he know I hear it. He knows I don’t like that shit. So, it’s like… how you want me to act brand new all the time, especially when you do certain shit to take me there.”
My voice was calm when I spoke. “Because you’re not reacting to who he was. You’re reacting to who he isright now and right now he’s trying and if you keep fighting him like he’s still the old version of himself, you’re going to drag him back into it. The truth is you’re his baby’s mother, not his girl or his wife so of course he’s going to do what he wants. It’s up to you to keep your legs closed if you don’t want to feel that way but truthfully he isn’t just present for her, he’s present for you too because trust me, no matter what females he deals with, you and Amour now come first.”
Keondra let that sit and I could tell she heard me even if she didn’t love what I was saying. O’Shynn nudged my leg under the table, knowing I had just said something that was going to replay over and over in her head later and then she took her turn.
“As for me,” she said, looking straight at me now. “You want to know why I’m here with Malik eating cornbread in the hood, with no shadows, no cartel cameras breathing down my neck?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
She let out a slow breath not being dramatic but just being honest. “Because I wanted to feel normal just for a second. I wanted to talk to someone who knows my name but not my world. Someone who laughs because something’s funny… not because they’re scared.”
Malik didn’t interrupt although he still couldn’t quite put the pieces together. He didn’t comment either. He just listened like a man who already knew he was in deep water but wasn’t going to drown either way and watching his demeanor, in my opinion, it made sense why she liked him. O’Shynn glanced at him and in that look was everything she didn’t say aloud, it’s almost like she was saying,I want this, but I don’t trust it yet and if it goes left, I’ll burn the whole fucking thing down.
I leaned forward resting my elbows on the table. “So, what you gonna do?”
O’Shynn took a slow sip of her drink again. “I’m gonna enjoy my food,” she said. “And take it one day at a time. If he breaks my heart I’m burning his house down though.”
Malik scooped some collard greens in his mouth and laughed. Keondra pointed at him. “Sir, she ain’t jokin’. I just want to make sure you understand that before we proceed.”
Malik raised his hands in surrender. “Shit, I hear everybody loud and clear.”
Amour looked up at me and hugged my neck for no reason at all before hopping on over to O’Shynn. O’Shynn hadn’t been too acquainted with her for long periods of time, but she was trying and I could tell she loved her niece. Even if it were just for now, none of us were cartel, or wives, or attorneys, or rumored names in the damn headlines. We were just three women who had lived rough lives, sitting in a soul food restaurant in the hood, eating cornbread and breathing freely because peace like that didn’t come often, so we didn’t rush it.
After everyone had a good meal, we were too full and when we stepped out of the restaurant, the heat met us again. It still held the strong stench of food in the air along with cologne and weed. It was a regular evening in the hood with kids playing up and down the streets as well and looked like everything was fine, although everything isn’t always what it seemed.
It was all good but the shadows who was posted near us shifted his energy and focus, almost at the same time, like dogs catching a scent. One of them, named Rell, barely moved his head when he spoke, with his eyes still on the street ahead.
“Hold up,” he said in a low and controlled tone. “Stay right where y’all at.”
