Page 35 of Standing In The Sun
“Hello?” Lunar cut into their back and forth to answer his phone once he was out of the booth.
“What you doing?” Apple inquired.
“In the studio.” He was barely listening to Apple’s voice, his fingers idly tapping against the armrest, his mind only halfway in the conversation.
“Who all there? I’m in Emerald City and was thinking about driving up to you.”
Lunar smirked, stretching his long legs out in front of him. He knew Apple too well. She wasn’t just ‘thinking’ about it—she was already on the way, probably halfway to the freeway by now.
“What yo’ nigga gon’ think about that?” His voice held a teasing edge, laced with that signature Lunar pettiness. Bringing up Bently was him being petty, and he knew it.
Pimp shook his head while Aku’s face said everything—she still wasn’t feeling Apple.
Apple clicked her tongue, kissing her teeth in that way that told him he had just annoyed her. “I’m single…been single.”
That was Apple for you. Always claiming independence, always moving like she had no attachments, even when everybody knew otherwise. She was one of those‘I’m single until I’m married’type of women. Never putting a rush on commitment, never eager to slap a title on anything. It was the thing that made her enticing but also made her exhausting. The reason why they never quite worked.
And the reason they could never fully let go either.
Lunar adjusted Kamari on his lap when the baby reached for him, his tiny fingers patting at Lunar’s chain before settling against his chest. He was such a loving baby when he wasn’t terrorizing everyone and everything.
“Oh yea…single,” Lunar repeated, his tone flat, unimpressed. “What you tryin’ to come my way for?”
Apple’s laughter curled through the phone, soft but dripping with suggestion. “You know why…” Her voice dipped into something lower, smooth, and practiced. She was a man-eater on most days. She knew the power of her model-like face and vixen- sized hips.
Lunar’s brows furrowed together. His smirk didn’t fully fade, but his patience for whatever game Apple was trying to play was running thin. “Nah, I don’t…tell me.”
Before she could answer, a sharp beep cut through the conversation. Lunar pulled the phone away, his eyes flicking to the screen. It was Ahvi. “Aye, let me hit you back. This Ahvi calling.” He didn’t wait for Apple’s response before pressing the button and bringing the phone back to his ear. “Yea?”
Ahvi’s attitude was already on ten. She missed Kamari and with Dro still missing in action, her patience was hanging by a thread. “Stop answering the phone like that. Where my baby?”
Lunar’s smirk returned, stretching slowly across his lips. He could hear the agitation in her voice. The mix of frustration and worry that always sat right at the surface when it came to Kamari. He knew she hated being away from him.
Lunar let his head fall back, amused. “What - they only had water for the cereal again?”
For a second, there was silence, then, laughter. The real kind—the kind that made her voice shake, the kind that softened the edge in her tone. “You ain’t never gonna let me live that down, huh?”
Lunar grinned. “Hell no.”
He could still remember on his last visit to see her, the way she went off about it, standing in the middle of the jail rec room, arms folded tight across her chest, ranting about how tax dollars should at least cover some damn milk. She had been pissed. Real pissed and he spent the whole time trying not to laugh while she fumed.
He glanced down at Kamari, who was staring up at him with big, curious eyes, his tiny hands still gripping Lunar’s chain. “Kamari, you wanna talk to your mama?”
Kamari babbled something, his head shaking in that wild, exaggerated way that made Lunar laugh as he barely dodged being hit by Kamari’s head.
“He said no,” Lunar snorted.
Ahvi’s scoff came through the speaker. “No, he didn’t. Let me talk to my baby… put it on speaker.”
Pimp elbowed Aku with a knowing look.
Lunar pressed the button, setting the phone on his lap so Kamari could hear her voice. “Aight – he can hear you.”
Ahvi’s voice softened, turning sing-songy. “Mariii… Kamari, what you doing, baby?”
Kamari blinked, then proceeded to blow spit bubbles, completely unbothered.
Lunar smirked, watching the exchange like a spectator in an ongoing battle. “Yea… he real focused right now.”
