The day Kenia called me, telling me about all the things that was going on with my dad, she kept true to her word, telling me what went on at the hospital. Thank God, the damages that my dad endured wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. His ribs were bruised badly though, hence the reason he was having trouble breathing. They did do different x- rays on him, and scans, just to make sure that his ribs weren’t fractured, or something else that was more serious. Luckily, it wasn’t any of those things. They kept a close eye on him for 24 hours, giving him pain meds, keeping an ice pack on the area, and letting himget rest. Kenia told me that even after the shit happened at work, where he got jumped, he took his ass back to work the very next day, and that would explain the pain that he was still in because he never gave his body a chance to rest or try to heal.
I ended up scooting over on my side of the bed, and I picked up my phone that was on the nightstand, looking at the time. It was a little after eight in the morning. I saw that I had text messages. Both my sons texted me good morning messages, along with letting me know that they loved me. They knew that they were on thin ice with me, and that would explain the sweet good morning messages from them. I won’t lie, seeing them fighting each other like that yesterday evening, that shit broke my heart. I knew the close bond that my boys had, so to see that their relationship had come down to them fighting like that, broke something in me, but their dad handled it, and I could only pray that I didn’t have to worry about them throwing down like that again.
I had another message from my best friend, Milan. She was asking me when I was coming back, so that me, her, and Shai could go to dinner, along with wanting to know how my dad was doing. I had a message from Law too. He’d texted me good morning as well. I responded back to all the messages, and I swear, the second my message went through to Law, my phone started ringing with a facetime call from him. I smoothed down my hair with my hand because I’d forgotten to wrap it last night, and I propped myself up on the bed, having my back against the headboard, and I answered, waiting for the call to connect.
“Good morning, Boobie,” he called out, with a smile on his handsome face.
From his surroundings, I could tell that he was at home, and in the bathroom. He was standing at the sink, and because of the way he had the phone propped up, I could see the towel that was wrapped around his waist. Left over water from his shower wason his chest, and this sounded thirsty as hell, but I wished that I was right there in front of him. I would have licked up all those drops of water that was on his body.
“Why I feel like you haven’t called me that in a long time? But good morning. How did you sleep?” I asked him, my eyes only on him.
These days, I felt like Law, and I were starting all over again from the very beginning. He was my peace. My safe space. I knew that we had so much work to do before we could get back to how we used to, but I loved this feeling that he was giving me these days. I loved it when I would get around him, and he would have my cheeks burning like this, due to all the smiling that I was doing.
“I slept good, baby. Real good. Shit would have been a little better if I had you here, lying next to me. What about you? How you slept?” he asked, and I chuckled.
“I slept good, but I don’t think Shai felt the same. We slept in the same bed, and I only woke up because she was yelling at me, telling me to move over. I guess I was sleeping too wild for her,” I let him know, and he shook his head.
“I already know how that go. What ya’ll going to get into today?” he asked me.
“I’m not sure yet. Probably just going to chill around the house with our dad for a little bit. I’m sure later, we’ll probably go and see some of the family that we have here. What about you? Where are ya’ll going today?” I asked, paying attention to his every move.
You could tell that prior to him calling me, he’d just washed his face. Now, he was using his other products to finish out with his skin routine. To me, it was so attractive when a man was well groomed. I’ve never been around Law, and he had dirt in his nails, stink breath, ashy skin, none of those things. The same way I kept my maintenance up as a woman, he would do thesame thing. I’m not sure how other women around the world would feel about a man having a skin care routine, but I loved that shit.
“Dutch hit me this morning. He said that he wanted to grab lunch. I told him that I had the boys with me, and he told me to bring them. You know me, and that nigga haven’t spoken to each other ever since that day he came to my office, and I pretty much accused him of having something to do with my father’s death. I been thinking about that nigga ever since that day. Even though Knox is my biological father, you know that Dutch is the one that I look up to as my real pops, since he’s the one that raised me, and taught me pretty much everything that I know. So many times, I’ve wanted to hit him up, tell him about my day, and just see what he was up to. I pray that when we sit down today, we can clear the air, and he’ll rid my mind of that bullshit that I convinced myself to believe about him killing my pops,” Law shared with me, picking the phone up, so that he could be closer. The way he had the phone propped before, it had him a little far away. Now, I had the perfect angle of him.
“Just as much as you’re over there missing him, wanting to call him, and reach out to him, I’m sure that he’s been feeling the same way, which is why he called you in the first place. You gotta know that whatever was done in the dark, it’ll eventually come to light, Law. Even if the truth doesn’t get exposed today when ya’ll meet up, eventually it will, so just ponder on that,” I let him know, and he nodded his head, agreeing with that.
“Where are the boys?” I asked him.
“I hear them out there, so they probably getting ready. You look so pretty, mami. Damn, I wish I could snap my finger, so I could be right there in bed with you. That pussy in the morning be dangerous as fuck. After that shit done sat there, and marinated overnight, and then I slip it in first thing in the morning….man, talk about a good fuckin time. Shit,” he said,shaking his head, being dramatic as hell. I laughed at him, but at the same time, I was eating all of this up, loving the things that he was saying to me.
“Drop the towel. I want to see that dick,” I had been waiting for a chance to say that. The second I said it, I heard my sister groan from the bed, and I fell out laughing because I didn’t know that her ass was up. All this time, I was under the impression that she was sleeping.
“I swear I’m not sleeping in the room with your ass again,” Shai said from the bed, and I laughed, and playfully kicked her.
“I didn’t know you were up,” I told her.
“Shai- Shai, what’s good?” Law asked her, and she sucked her teeth, not even bothering to answer his question. I let him know that she was ignoring him, and he just laughed it off.
As if we were a happily married couple, I let him know that I loved him, and he told me the same in return, and then we hung up the phone. I placed the phone back down on the nightstand, and I laid down on my back, putting my hands behind my head.
“You really paid money to an attorney to represent you, so that you could divorce that man, only for you to be back with him, and carrying on like ya’ll are together again. I swear your ass needs help,” Shai said from the bed.
This was just the mild version of what my mama would say to me. My mama would go in, telling me that if she was Law, she wouldn’t have taken my ass back. It was like the running joke between my friends and family, calling me out for getting a divorce, only for my ass to go right back to him. That’s why in the beginning, I was trying to be sneaky and hide it from them as long as I could, but my friends and family knew me so well, that they just knew that I had been up to something, and creeping with him, so it was only a matter of time before it got exposed. On top of that, with Law and I being well known, whenever we were spotted out together, paparazzi was quick to take ourpictures and upload them to the blogs, so I couldn’t be private even if I wanted to.
“I smell breakfast. I think daddy is cooking. Good because I’m starving,” I announced, sitting up in bed, and then I swung my feet around, placing them on the floor, so that I could stand up.
Shai sat up in bed as well, and she stretched. I left her there, so that I could go over to the bedroom door, where I had my house shoes, and I quickly slipped them on my feet. I opened the door, so that I could walk out of the bedroom, and I went down the hall, where the guest bathroom was, and did the pee dance, as I moved around, lifting the toilet seat up, and I handled my business, and then flushed the toilet.
I washed my hands once I was finished, and because my toiletries were still in here from last night, I went ahead, brushed my teeth, rinsed my mouth out, and I did a quick morning skin routine. By the time I was opening the door, Shai was in the hallway, heading to the bathroom, so that she could handle her business. My sister really wasn’t a morning person, and could be the biggest bitch in the morning, especially when she didn’t get much sleep, so I was going to stay my ass out of her way. She was probably already annoyed as hell with me, since she claimed that I slept wild in bed last night, and then I had the nerve to get on the phone, flirting, and what not with Law, while she was trying to get her rest, so I knew that she wasn’t my biggest fan right now.
I went out into the kitchen, where I could hear bachata music spilling from the small speaker that my dad had resting on the kitchen counter. I didn’t walk into the kitchen right away because I had the perfect view of him, standing in front of the stove, with his back towards me, and he was singing along to the song that was playing, along with trying to move his body as best as he could, considering the pain that I’m sure his body was stillin. His shirt was off, and because it was, you could see the beige wrap that was hugging his ribcage. Even with it wrapped up, you could see the purple bruises that were still peeking out along his side, and having to see that, I found myself getting angry, knowing what happened to him at work.
Shai and I were able to get a little bit of the story out of him yesterday about what happened at work, and basically the home that he was working on with other contractors, he’d gotten into it with one of the men because the man claimed that my dad was starting a new project at the house that they weren’t supposed to start yet. Words were exchanged, they fought, having my dad beat his ass, so the next day, the guy came back with his friends, and that’s how he was jumped. When my dad told the story, he told it so nonchalantly, like this kind of shit was everyday behavior with him on the job. I knew he could have a temper, and he could be a hot head, rubbing people the wrong way, so I wouldn’t lie, I was afraid that this shit would happen again, but it would be worse the next time around.
It's like he could feel my presence behind him because he turned his head to look at me, and when he did, he laughed, seeing that he’d just gotten caught singing, and dancing. It was crazy how Shai and I had literally stolen this man’s entire face. We were literally just the female versions of him.
“How long you been standing there? Come here,” he said to me in English, which I was surprised about because he would mostly only speak to my sister and I in Spanish. It had to be the meds he was on for pain.
