Page 10 of To Hades & Back
“I guess, since you’re rudely here at one in the morning.” I stepped to the side to let her in.This is going to be fun.“What are you doing here, anyway?”
She looked around my apartment with disgust written all over her face. My apartment was nice by normal people standards, but Evelyn was far from normal. In her eyes, this was the gutter. After her silent judgement of my apartment, my mother finally offered me her attention. “Are you going to introduce me to your lil thug boyfriend?
I started to curse her ass out. After the dick that man gave me, no one, and I mean no one was going to talk about my man.My man, my man, my muthafuckin big dick man!Before I could say anything, Hades came out of the bedroom with basketball shorts and a wife beater on. When he answered the door, he only had boxers on. He came over and stood beside me. “Good morning, Mrs. Copeland.
“My name is Hades Basil, not hooligan or thug. I’m not sure how your husband would react to an uninvited person knocking on your house door at one in the morning, but as for me, it requires me to bear arms to protect myself and my woman. It is my second amendment right, ma’am.” The smile he displayed after he finished talking made my pussy quake.
My mother tilted her head. “Your parents named you Hades?” She snickered rudely. “Is your father’s name Zeus?”
I grabbed Hades’s hand when I saw his jaw flex. “No. Actually, my older brother’s name is Zeus. My other brother’s name is Poseidon, my two sisters’ names are Hestia and Hera. My father’s name is Kronos, and his father’s name is Uranus. Shit like that happens when you have Greek lineage.”
My mother’s face was unreadable. She probably was trying to ascertain if he was serious. “Greek lineage? You look like your run-of-the-mill black boy to me.”Why is she being so fuckin’ disrespectful?
I started to say something, but Hades held his finger up, looked in my direction, leaned down, then kissed my lips. “Mrs. Copeland, looks can be deceiving. My grandfather, Uranus, is a Greek native of Volos, Greece. My grandmother was an African Greek woman. That was where the melanin entered our lineage. My mother is a Black woman from here in North Carolina. So, I am far from a run-of-the-mill Black boy.”
Yeah, my mother didn’t have anything else to say. If I knew her well, then she was still going to find something.Let me get her focused so she can leave my house.“Why are you here? We are tired and ready to go to bed.”
She chuckled under her breath. “Typical for you to let a man live with you in this small apartment. I’m here because you blocked me and thought that would be the end of it.” She reached into her big purse and pulled out an envelope. “Here is the information for your father’s party. I have made the announcement that you will be there. Do not make a liar out of me.”
Oh yeah, I’m about to cuss her flat the fuck out.“We will be there, Mrs. Copeland,” Hades said before he took the envelope from her hand. “Thank you for the invite.”
I stood there shocked to silence, just like my mother. Her face scrunched. “You are not invited.”
“Well, if he’s not invited, then I’m not coming,” I cut in. “Pick your battles, Evelyn. It’s both or none. Remember, you don’t want to be a liar in front of all of your friends and daddy’s colleagues.”
She was pissed, and it was comical. She was in a corner which was something that she wasn’t used to. After an intense staredown, she gritted. “The attire is black tie. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that type of dress code.”
Hades tittered. “I’m sure I’ll manage, Mrs. Copeland. Now, as your daughter has told you, it is late, and we are tired. You can leave.”
My mother’s eyes bucked before she laughed. She glanced at me then said, “Not sure why I’m surprised that you haven’t grown up yet to make better decisions. I will see you at your father’s party. Your dress options are also in that envelope.”
Without a response, I moved to my front door and opened it. With a smile, I said good night. Her hips swayed as she walked past me. Her eyes scanned me from head to toe, then she gave me some parting words. “It would do you well to lay off the carbs.”
I wanted to say something, but what was the point. This was how my parents were, hateful. My mother claimed she loved me because she still talked to me. If this was how she acted, I would rather her not.
A SHORT TIME LATER…
“Damn,her mom was on her like that?” Poseidon asked.
We were at our family’s sports bar after a club meeting. This was the first chance that I had to tell them what happened when Jin’jer’s mother popped up at her house a few weeks ago. I had been in my girl’s skin since that night. It was crazy that I was in a relationship, a monogamous one at that. The public was in a damn uproar.
I stayed on Jin’jer’s ass because there was something about her that made me feel safe. If she wasn’t at work or I wasn’t handling business, we were together. She claimed my house was too far from the hospital that she worked at, so I spent mostnights at her house. The nights that she was off, we spent that time at my house. She had a permanent seat at our family dinners now. My mother loved her, which made me feel great. When you had a mother like hers, you would need all the love you could get.
“Yeah, bitch was disrespectful as fuck. Y’all know I don’t do disre-fuckin-spect. I wanted to knock that bitch’s Sheryl Chisholm wig off her damn head.” I took a drink from my beer. “Now my girl is all nervous about going to this fuck ass birthday party. I don’t know what the fuck is up with her parents, but it’s something.”
Zeus looked like he was deep in thought before he focused on me. “Have you looked her people up yet? It can’t be that hard to find them with a name like Jin’jer. You know her mother’s name is Evelyn.”
I hit my forehead. I’d been so engulfed in this bubble with my baby that it didn’t dawn on me to look her people up. “Fuck! Hell no, I didn’t. I’m tripping.”
I pulled my phone out, went to my internet search bar, then put in my girl’s name. An ass of shit came up. I opened the first article on the page then scanned it. “Her father, David Copeland, is a Superior Court Judge in Boston, Massachusetts. It looks like he has been since she was a teenager.”
“Well, that explains her parents’ rigid ass ways. That had to be a lot of pressure being the daughter of a judge. Something must have happened when she was younger with him. Was she?—”
I cut Zeus off. “Nah, I already asked her that. She was adamant when she told me nothing like that happened. I could tell she wasn’t lying,” I told my brothers.
Poseidon’s head leaned toward his shoulder. “This shit is both weird and refreshing to see. You really like this woman. I venture to say that you love her. Have you told her?”
“Told her what? That I love her? Nah, we’re not there yet,” I told him.
