“My treat.”
“Nah.”
Wonder kissed her teeth. “How are we celebrating you, and you’re paying for it? Stop acting like I’m broke. I’m not those other females you’re used to dealing with. I’m a whole boss out here.”
With a laugh, I popped her on the behind. “That you are. Aight, you can take me out to eat, and I want to go to a five-star joint. I’m ordering lobster, steak, all that. And don’t think just because you’re about to spend a few hundred dollars on a meal that I’m giving you this D because I know my worth, and it’s going to take more than that to get me out of these boxer briefs.”
A cocky grin eased across Wonder’s face. “Oh you gon’ eat Big Mama from the roota to the toota if I spend on you like that. I don’t know what you thought this was, but don’t give dick to half the city then try to have standards with me, G.”
I put my fist over my mouth and laughed loudly. “Yo, you are sick.” I pecked her on the lips. “Aight, be ready to go at eight. I have one more stop to make then I’m going home to get ready.”
“Okay.”
I felt lame as hell. For the first minute of the car ride, I had a smile on my face. I kept glancing over at my book that was on the passenger seat. I had accomplished something worth being proud of. When I arrived at my grandmother’s house, I decided to leave the book in the car. Telling them I wrote a book wasn’t something I was ready to do. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they’d be proud of me, but I just wasn’t comfortable. I’d never heard the words ‘I’m proud of you’ from anyone in my family. But in their defense, I’d never done too much for them to be proud of. When the time was right, they’d know.
Wonder had me all discombobulated because I didn’t notice my father’s car parked out front until I got out of the car. It had been a few years since I saw him. It was odd to me that he was suddenly coming around so much, but maybe there was some holiness in him. If he still had enough love for my mother to be there for her while she was going through, I couldn’t even be mad at him for that.
When I walked in the living room, my grandmother was sitting in her favorite recliner. My mother was lying on the couch with a blanket over her, and my father was sitting on the love seat across from the couch.
“What’s going on?” I greeted everyone collectively.
Out of my entire life, this was the longest that I’d seen my mother sober. She was on medication and though she was still tired a lot of the time, her eyes were no longer yellow, and she had put on some weight. It was sad that sickness was the only thing that made her back away from the bottle, but hopefully, she’d get to enjoy some of her life with a clear and sober mind and make the best of whatever time she had left. She was excited about Misha having a baby and actually told me she didn’t think she’d ever have grandkids.
“Hey,” my grandmother was the first to speak. “You came by on the right day. I made vanilla pound cake.”
My grandmother’s vanilla pound cake with glazed icing was my favorite dessert. I could eat it every day. She never made just one because I could eat half the cake in one sitting.
“That’s what’s up. Me and Wonder are going out to eat in a bit. I just stopped by to see how y’all were doing and if you needed anything.”
“Hey, son,” my father spoke up.
I nodded my head at him, and my mother sat up. “If it was possible for you to bring me some energy, I’d love that. Other than that, I’m okay. You look good. Like, you look happy.”
I chuckled. I wasn’t sure what looked so happy about me since I wasn’t smiling, but I’d take the compliment. “I guess I am happy. I’m free.”
My father stood up. “Can I talk to you for a minute? Outside?”
I didn’t stop by my grandmother’s house for all that, but I was going to hear him out. We stepped outside, and I sat down in one of the chairs my grandmother had on her porch. My father sat down in the other. “I know we’ve had a strained relationship for a while now. I’m not perfect. I’ve never been perfect, and I never will be. I’m also old school where kids going against their parents is considered disrespect. I didn’t like you calling me out on my mess. I couldn’t take accountability, and I wanted you to do as I said and not as I did. I was wrong. I wasn’t wrong in wanting the best for you, but I was wrong with my delivery.”
It was crazy that I had to turn thirty for my parents to attempt to right their wrongs, but I guess better late than never. “It’s cool. I’m not really one to hold on to grudges. My life has to keep moving regardless, so holding onto the past is pretty much irrelevant. Unless someone did something real foul to me.”
“You have so much of your mother in you,” my father chortled. “But there’s definitely some of me in there, too. I think I really used to hate that side of you because it was like lookingin a mirror. You weren’t afraid to challenge me and call me out on my mess. Really, you were the only person that ever did it to my face. And I thank you for that. It took me a while to fully acknowledge it, but because of you, I knew I could fool most people, but I couldn’t fool God. I really had to buckle down on changing. So much so, that I stepped down from preaching for a bit. I said I wasn’t going to step back into the pulpit until I got it together.”
I looked over at him. I couldn’t judge him for how long it took him to get it together. It took me a minute myself. “Straight like that, huh?”
“Pretty much. I cut off women and any other bad habits. I have a job at the Rec Center, and when I’m not working, I’m somewhere trying to become a better man. I’m sure you don’t need to know everything, but I’ve been celibate for two years. I’m trying.”
“Two years? Damn.”
“Tell me about it,” he chuckled. I never thought the day would come when my father was talking to me about not getting any. I never wanted to see the time I had to go two years without sex. That was one of the main reasons I wasn’t trying to go back to jail.
“Ain’t no way,” I shook my head.
The short talk with my pops wasn’t bad at all. I had to get going, so I ended the convo and chatted with my grandmother and mother for a few minutes. I didn’t want to be late for dinner with Wonder, but I did give my father my phone number before I left. I couldn’t believe how a nigga’s life was coming full circle.
Iwalked into the restaurant that I was meeting Nina at and saw her waiting to be seated. “Hey, boo.” I was genuinely happy to see her.
She hugged me, and I handed her the book she’d ordered from Wilde’s website. His book had been live for a week, and he had already sold sixty paperbacks. He had sold more eBooks than that, and the amount of people that were asking him if he was working on anything new was crazy. He hadn’t even begun to think about a next book, but I told him he needed to keep it going. Wilde was so talented that it would have been sad for it to go to waste. The night before, we lay in bed for at least an hour discussing possible storylines. When he told me some of the things he’d been through or witnessed, I was shocked. The reason I felt people liked his book so much was because it was well written and realistic. I was so happy for him.
