Page 16 of Disrespectfully, Relic
“Nigga, the way you were damn near drooling over my phone, I’d say she’s an option. What, my judgment doesn’t hold weight?”
“Until you sign the contract you asked for, no.”
“Whatever. I bet, I won’t do shit else for your ass,” she clipped, walking off just as music and laughter flowed into the lobby from the studio door swinging open.
Kennedy breezed into the room while Shabu stepped out with Sojourney in tow. His curious gaze flitted to where his wife’s friend had disappeared to and then toward his brother, whose face gave nothing away about the conversation that had just ensued.
“Ou bon?” he checked.
“Toujou,” Relic assured before focusing on a quiet Sojourney. “What’s up, Saucy? You’re heading out already?”
“Yea. Mea says my boyfriend is looking for me, and I don’t want him finding out where I am. He can’t know about this offer. Not yet, anyway.”
“What are you waiting for?” Shabu asked, making her push out a breath before scratching through her messy ponytail. Her contrite stare gave him an answer without her having to speak.
“She wants her ducks in a row first, so she can leave his ass. He beats her.” Relic voiced the truth he’d concluded from her triggering jump at the table. “Is he going to be a problem, Saucy? My family has enough shit going on, so I don’t need anyone adding to that.”
“Honestly, I can’t say how Slim will react, and I don’t want to bring trouble to your doorstep. I need to think on this and figure some stuff out.”
“You know how to find me once you do. We’ll walk you out.”
Relic went to the main door and opened it for her, leaving his proposal up in the air for her to reach for it whenever she was ready. If he found a better artist before then, and she missed out on the opportunity, that was her loss.
Shabu tucked both hands into his pants pockets to combat the chill and strolled to his brother’s side, watching Sojourney jog down the sidewalk toward a vehicle with a missing hubcap and dented driver door. She hit her locks, dipped inside, and started her car before peeling off without pause. A black Honda pulled out right behind her as he tossed his head.
“Her nigga got her on lockdown. You gon’ have to either get her away from him or cut your losses, bro.”
“You ain’t telling me shit I ain’t peeped, but you know me.”
Shabu scoffed. “You want what the fuck you want.”
“And I’ll get her. If push comes to shove, I’ll put her up somewhere, but I want to wait until shit hits the fan with them. That way, she’ll feel like she can trust me and will think twice about going back to that nigga.”
“So, you’re going to wait until her life is threatened to save her? You ain’t shit.” Shabu shot his brother a condemning glance while Relic laughed before patting him on the shoulder as they headed back inside. “I hope you paid Whoop for that find, ‘cause you know I don’t even like her on social media. I already caught her searching up that fuck nigga’s page since he got my baby with him.”
“She let my niece go with her baby daddy?”
“Yea, and he’s been posting Navy nonstop, using her for damage control ‘cause his fans went in on him ‘bout getting his girl pregnant without taking care of his first kid. Now, Whoop got an attitude, when I told her to tell his folks fuck nah when they asked for my baby. They didn’t even tell her that his bitch ass was here.”
Hatred seeped from every word Shabu spat about his wife’s baby father, making Relic scratch at the stubble on his chin while debating the best advice to give, even if it wasn’t what his brother wanted to hear. Navy didn’t share their blood at the end of the day, so the options were slim.
“Stop whining, and either press that nigga about what’s yours, or keep sharing your family, ti frè. What you’re not going to do is cry about it like a hoe. Bust a fucking move.”
“It ain’t that easy with my baby involved, but this is why I don’t talk to yo ass,” Shabu responded, flinging open the studio door before they entered. “Then, you wanna feel left out when me and Titan exclude you.”
“You’ve been excluding me for years, and it ain’t got shit to do with me not wanting to be a fucking counselor to your problems. Tell your wife, had she picked me, her baby daddy would’ve been in the dirt before the blood test results got back. He’d have never made it to the NBA.”
“Don’t ask Whoop to do shit else for you, bitch.”
A snide smirk unfurled on Relic’s face when his brother knocked their shoulders together, making him stagger, before stalking off because he couldn’t stomach the truth. Relic let that petty shit slide. Shabu would get over it, and he was hoping that he could oblige his brother’s request to not bother Savvy because her replacement would end up better. Relic was banking on transitioning Kennedy into a beneficial position for the family’s sake after doing some research of his own.
“Who in the fuck?”
Kennedy froze before reaching for her shower nozzle, turning off the steaming water to listen for the pounding she’d sworn she heard over the R&B blaring from her speaker propped on the sink. When the harsh thudding sounded again, she sucked her teeth and flung open her curtain to step out. After snatching her phone off the toilet tank to pause the Bluetooth connection, she grabbed her robe from the bathroom door hook to throw on. Her eyes flitted to the foggy mirror before she grimaced and then peered down to tie her robe shut. Kennedy hated seeing her reflection most days.
There weren’t enough mental pep-talks or self-reassurance in the world to make her love the hideous scorched flesh that replaced her once perfect skin. Stares she used to receive for being gorgeous were swapped with ones of repulsion or curiosity about what transpired to cause her defacement. Kennedy loathed reliving the most traumatic moments of her life for strangers even more, but she did it with a smile on her face. She couldn’t reveal to the world the huge blow her confidence had taken since the incident.
“Hold the hell on, I’m coming!” she screamed, snatching off her bonnet to toss aside before stalking to her door when the pounding resumed. It was barely eight in the morning, so there shouldn’t have been a soul at her apartment and especially without calling. “Who the hell is it?”
