“I already knew that otherwise I wouldn’t have followed her up. But since you said you been knowing I need you to say what you came here to. I didn’t see you on the schedule and I didn’t think you were working on music.”
The studios were in the lower levels of the building while our offices were located up top. The desire to keep everything under one roof was a safety measure for Lyric. She didn’t need to be running around and working all times of night anywhere that wasn’t secure.
She sat back and folded her arms with a frown on her face. “You trying to get rid of me?”
“Nope. Giving you the space to say your peace. You got bigger but ain’t shit changed about how the family dynamic works, Lyrie.”
Lyric nodded and I could tell my words were part of what had been on her mind. “Was she really worried about telling me?”
“You know your girl so you can answer that.”
Lyric was pulling at the ends of her hair nervously. “I guess there’s a part of me that feels…I don’t know. Weird about it.” That caught my attention because Lyric was never big on biting her tongue. When she went looking down at her hands I knew she was deep in her feelings.
“Weird how?”
She looked up but didn’t raise her head and I could see the conflict in her eyes. “Like she didn’t trust me enough to tell me about y’all dealing.”
My heart hurt for her because she was really thinking that their bond wasn’t as tight as it obviously was. “Never that, Lyric. She was worried that if shit went left with us you’d be angry with her. Or that you wouldn’t think she was good enough for me.”
“She’s my friend, if anything I wouldn’t think you were good enough for her.” Lyric sat back with a small smile looking better than she had before.
I matched her smile because I wasn’t sure if we needed to go deeper with her need for reassurance. “Cold blooded.”
“I know your history, bruh, you can’t really fault me for that one.” Her face was scrunched up like she was remembering one of the chicks I used to take down even though I tried to keep it away from her.
I sat forward and braced my forearms on my desk and despite this conversation I was glad everything was out in the open. “That’s true. But nah, she loves you deeply. Values your friendship. I’m sure you’ve told her about the birds that used to be nice to you to get to us. She took that to heart and didn’t want you to think our thing was a betrayal to you.”
“I know this is something that I’m feeling because of Trice. And I hate that ‘cause Porsha ain’t like her at all. And I know she’s not. It’s me thinking I’m not worthy of that type of love and loyalty that has me feeling like this.”
I could only nod because Lyric was doing the heavy lifting when it came to getting her mind right and I was clearly only here for moral support, silent amens or something along those lines. I wasn’t gone tell her how to feel about any of this but I of course hoped at the end of her thought process was her accepting us being together.
“I’m glad you hashed that shit out on your own.”
She huffed slightly before shaking her head and playing with her rings. Grant had done his big one finding a fiery orange diamond for Lyric and then he took it a step further by icing out her wedding band. I told her to stop wearing the shits but she laughed and showed me she was strapped in addition to the security she knew he had lingering around her when they weren’t together.
“G, told me I needed to get my mind right.” Her admission was just further proof that she had been working through her feelings for a minute.
Instead of making her feel bad, I had to tease her so she knew we were still good. “Your ass was somewhere pouting like a brat again, huh?”
“Not pouting, working through my feelings. He listened while I spoke and reminded me that if anything Porsha wasn’t trying to exclude me but protect me. And that I can understand.”
“But your feelings still hurt.”
She humped her shoulders and I knew that they had been but they were probably better now. Lyric looked up with a thoughtful look on her face.
“Maybe some. It’s wild. I am happy that y’all are together. I don’t even mind losing my importance in your life because I understand that you’re giving that time and attention and love to someone who’s truly worthy of it.”
“But that’s the thing, Lyrie. You’re my kid. My family. Ain’t nobody gone take the place of my firstborn. My heart don’t haveto stop loving you some to love her. That shit just expands to make room for everybody. You stop fucking wit’ me when you met her? Hell, when you and G got together? You ain’t say fuck City did you?”
She was fighting a smile but losing. “No.”
“Aight then. So why the hell you think I would be any different? I think I’ve more than proven that I got better EQ than the average nigga.”
Lyric sat up taller like she was feeling better about the whole conversation. “You do. Again, it’s probably just a me thing. I mean, Reina’s ass dippin’ out the way she did didn’t really help my ability to trust women. Then that shit with Trice was another stab in the back.”
“And look who has been there to help you heal those wounds? Porsha, Billy, Rye, Tiana, Rachelle, Carine and Yzzy ain’t have one problem bringing you into the fold. You out here hanging out with baseball Hall of Famer WAGS and wives of CEOs at the rodeo. Lawyer baddies and Hair moguls and shit. Women who got they own without they nigga same as you. Having girls’ weekends and taking trips. Calling in favors when Stew’s boys got kidnapped. Stood right there by Rachelle’s side comforting her until they were back. So it was never you who was the problem. Shitty people see your goodness and seek to exploit it for themselves. But you ran into plenty of good ones that showed genuine love. They taught you what real sisterhood looked like when you found it. Trice and Reina could never even get close to what y’all got going on.”
“Facts. Speaking of, when we heading back to handle business in the A?”
