Omiri reached for the door, and once he had it open, I climbed out and he followed. While he collected mine and Avi's things, I unbuckled our baby girl and followed him intothe house. He set our things up in his room and mumbled something about placing an order for whatever we needed.
We only viewed the bedroom which was fully furnished then the living room which was also furnished with a massive, L-shaped black sectional centered in the open area. There was a two-sided fireplace with four double-seater armchairs that matched the sectional on the other side. The fireplace was glass and extended to the ceilings that had to be at least thirty feet. The house was beautiful yet also felt lifeless.
I sat on the sofa while Omiri sat below me with his back against it, watching Avi crawl around exploring the unfamiliar surroundings.
"So what's next?"
Omiri shifted and dug a wallet out of his pocket, removed a card, and held it over his head for me. I took it from his fingers and he grabbed Avi who crawled over to him. He playfully tossed her in the air, making my baby break out in a fit of laughter.
“What’s this for?”
“We might be here for a minute. Use that to get stuff. There damn sure isn’t any food and shit out here; so we can order something for tonight and I’ll get with my chef and let him know to stock up.”
He dropped his head back and brought Avi down enough to kiss her face before he tossed her in the air again. “And before you argue with me about it, the account you have is for Avi.”
I grinned and flipped the card between my fingers. “I wasn’t going to argue. You told me to accept the privilege of your life, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
“Ahh hell, I see I fucked up with that.”
“Indeed you did, sir, and there’s no going back.”
“You hear that, Avi, your mother is about to run up a tab. But she can get that though because she gave me you and you’re priceless, pretty girl.”
He kissed her face and her little laugh was so perfect.
“This is a Crescent Bank Black Card. You sure you want me to have a direct link to your bank account?”
“Man, give me my shit back.”
I lifted and pushed the card into the back pocket of my jeans. “Nope too late. Access granted.”
He smiled, shaking his head. “That’s cool. I blew up your spot, so this is on me. I’ll take that hit.”
Back to the reality of why we were here…
“So what now? Your season is starting and I have work.”
“My PR team is working on it. Van is drafting statements for both of us but I told her I wanted to holler at you about it before she sent anything out.”
I lifted and stretched out on my stomach, folding my arms before I dropped my chin on them. “What kind of statement?”
“Confirmation that Avi is mine and we’re co-parenting. I figured you didn’t want them, knowing I was knocking them walls down.”
I narrowed my eyes and he grinned but kept his focus on Avi.
“That’s not going to make them leave this alone.” I knew how these things worked. Confirmation would only have them running with that angle and trying to find details to dispute that claim. Neither of us would be able to show up in public without cameras in our faces so they could pick our lives apart.
“Nah, it won’t be, but we have to say something.” He turned and studied my face. “I’d rather them accept that we’re a family than let them run with you’re trying to hit my pockets or that Avi’s not mine. I’m not feeling that.”
“Yeah…” I sighed, turning my face to the side to rest my cheek on my arms.
“I know it’s fucked up, Kari, but they’ll get bored with it. We just gotta hold it down for a minute until they do.”
“The crazy part is I deal with this daily, fixing my clients’ problems and bad decisions, but I damn sure never expected to be the crisis.”
“You want Van to handle this for you? I know this is your shit but you’re on the other side now. She can work on a plan.”
“There’s not much she can do. I know how this works. At this point, I have to be my client. Limited engagement with no direct comments or responses to what they’re saying about us. Releasing basic information that says a lot but doesn’t really say shit at all then we go back to our boring lives flying under the radar, blah, blah, blah.” I rattled off what I delivered to all my clients at one point or another.
