Page 9 of Love Me Now: Adrian & Kwamé
The table rumbled with laughter.
“Plus, you not about to have my sister keepin’ house and home without aweddingring. You got life fucked up if you think that.”
“Antonias is right,” Percy interjected. “If you know she’s the one, what are you waiting for?” Percy was sensitive about shit like this. Having tragically lost his family, he didn’t play about niggas fucking over a good woman.
The doorbell to Main Slice sounded, briefly grabbing our attention. In walked a couple we knew all too well. Well, we knew Bryan Holmes. He kept his wife in the shadows and barely let her ass come outside. Word on the street was that his missuswas pregnant. From my spot, I couldn’t tell. That didn’t mean shit, though. Mrs. Holmes was bad, so I could see how Bryan was stupid over her.
Bryan threw his head up at us as he led his wife to an empty table. Noticeably, his wife’s eyes barely lifted from the floor. Although a soft smile was on her face, it was more because that was her natural expression. The smile didn’t so much as make her glow, and if I noticed that shit, then everyone else did too.
“Don’t be like that nigga, mane,” Percy commented. His eyes were on Mrs. Zia Holmes. “Zia looks unhappy as fuck.”
Our eyes bounced to Percy. His gaze was still locked on Zia.
“Percy knows Zia from back in the day,” Adir supplied.
For a brief moment, Zia glanced up. She looked directly at our table as if she heard us discussing her. Only, she looked dead at Percy.
Adir chuckled. “Easy, Perc. We ain’t tryna have a shootout in the middle of a pizza joint.”
We laughed and so did Percy.
“Facts,” Alli added. “Bryan be on the bullshit, but he better watch his step. It’s some hungry niggas ready to knock his ass off.”
Collectively, we agreed. Bryan was flashy and talked a lot of shit. He’d only been through Dr. Bell & Associates once after being stabbed at a nightclub. Since then, he’d been on his best bullshit. He was practically begging muhfuckas to try him. The way the young niggas were out here taking over every fucking thing they could get their hands on, he was going to meet his match one day.
“Like I was saying,” Percy continued, “Marry Kwamé and quickly.” He tweaked Jessie’s chin. “Don’t let another nigga get the opportunity to raise my niece.”
Hell, I didn’t want her own fucking daddy raising her. I’d be damned if I gave a random nigga the space to do so.
“All this marriage talk is too much for me,” Alli mumbled. “Y’all niggas gettin’ soft.”
“Right,” Antonias said. “Forgive us for being happily unified while you hop from bitch to bitch. Mind you, that shit is whack.”
The table rumbled with laughter again.
“It wasn’t whack until Bianca quit playin’ wit’ you, nigga,” I reminded him.
He waved me off. “It was whack, then, too. I was frontin’ like a muhfucka. My pillows were sick of me cryin’ on them bitches.”
We laughed so loud, Jessie shrieked louder than us. She had no idea what she was laughing at, but the sound of her doing so was all I needed to keep me grounded. I wasn’t fucking this up for nothing.
“Still can’t believe you were engaged to the enemy, nigga,” Dothan reminded Antonias.
Antonias grimaced. “Can’t believe that bitch threatened me.” He chuckled.
“The fact that you let her walk off that boardwalk is crazy,” Alli mumbled. “I was ready to bury that bitch.”
“Soon and very soon,” Antonias stated.
Dothan added, “Patience, Alli. We’ve got this.”
An hour later, the ladies were finally done. Russ brought them back to the office where I immediately caught the glow of my lady’s face as she smiled from ear to ear.
“You smilin’ too damn hard, baby. A nigga had his hands on you?” I nearly yoked Kwamé up out of the little slides she had on her pretty feet.
Kwamé and the ladies burst out laughing. “No!”
“Oh,” I replied and eased up some. “Shit, ain’t no mo’ spa days. You got spa days at the fuckin’ house.” The ladies were in fits, but I was dead ass serious. “You laughin’, but yo’ ass gon’ slip wit’ all that damn oil on the bottom of ya feet.”
