Chapter Sixteen
The soft jazz music that sounded through the speakers of the flower shop always made Kross’ heart sting. Every time he stopped by, he had to face the cold truth that he was in the shop for all the wrong reasons. If it were a perfect world, he would have been making the weekly visits to the flower shop to surprise his lady with a fresh bouquet of ruby red roses just to see her smile. However, the circumstances were different. Instead of his flowers being placed in a nice vase to be put on display in the condo, they rested at Cassie’s headstone, left in the blazing Miami sun to wither away just as fast as he bought them.
He maneuvered through the store and trekked straight over to where the roses usually were. He had a late start to his morning; however, he was sure he made it to the shop in time to be one of the early customers who got to grab a bouquet of roses. To his dismay, the display was empty, causing a deep sigh to drift out of him. He knew he could pick another arrangement of flowers and Cassie would still appreciate them, but he didn’t want to. With the guilt of losing access to Aniyis eating at his heart, he felt obligated to come correct for this visit to Cassie’s grave, so he needed them fucking roses.
“You’re lucky I picked up the last two,” he heard from behind him, prompting him to look over his shoulder to be met with the sight of Remedy.
She stood with two bouquets in hand and a smirk etching her face. Once he turned around to face her, she extended a bouquet to him.
“Damn. Good looks,” he thanked her as a smile full of gold grills graced his face, full of relief.
“Mhm. Consider it my good deed for the day.” She shrugged nonchalantly before turning on her heels and heading to the register to check out.
Running into her at either the flower shop or the cemetery had become a normality at this point. Her routine visit of Deno’s grave happened to coincide with Kross’ routine visit with Cassie. There were times when they would share a brief greeting with each other. Then there were times they would be so consumed with grief and emotions that they wouldn’t even bother to glance in each other’s direction. If they didn’t speak, neither grew offended by it since they both knew some days were harder than others.
He followed her to the checkout line where they stood behind a few people. They waited in line patiently, and before they knew it, it was Remedy’s turn. She sat her bouquet onto the counter to be wrapped so she could pay for them, but her brows quickly bumped together in confusion when she felt Kross’ long arm reach over her and sit his bouquet down on the counter as well.
“We together,” his baritone voice announced, nestling in her ears as he spoke to the cashier behind the counter.
It was almost second nature for Remedy to protest and tell the cashier that they were in fact not together and she could handle the cost of her own bouquet, but she bit her tongue. Because she managed to snag him one of the last sets of roses, she figured he was just repeating the cycle of being kind.
They now stood next to each other at the counter, waiting for both bouquets to be wrapped in plastic so he could pay. Neither glanced in the other’s direction. Instead, they stared straight ahead and assessed the cashier’s every move. Being this close to him allowed Remedy’s nostrils to catch a whiff of his Bond No. 9 cologne he misted on his pulse points. It had been a while since a nigga’s cologne made her knees weak, but today, Kross was testing her strength. The aromatic notes of teakwood and lavender were hitting each and every hotspot she had in her body, and she couldn’t help it, even if she tried. He smelled like a nigga who had his shit together and would turn the world upside down behind his respect, and from the few conversations they had, Remedy knew he gave exactly that.
After the roses were wrapped, Kross reached into his pocket and extracted a crisp blue hundred to pay for them. Before she could grab her bouquet, he used his massive hand to grab both and thanked the cashier. Again, Remedy had to bite her tongue as he led the way out of the store and held the door open for her. Because she decided to just shut the fuck up instead of telling him she could carry her own flowers, she earned another kind gesture of him escorting her to her car.
She wasn’t used to back-to-back kind gestures without a nigga telling her what they wanted from her in the midst of his actions. Men lusted after her constantly, so not many things were done out the kindness of their hearts and without the motivation of potentially earning some pussy. With Kross, though, she didn’t catch that vibe. Hell, she couldn’t even determine whether he was attracted to her. It shouldn’t have been that hard to come to terms with the fact that he was just being kind without having any expectations to get something in return.
Once she hit the locks on her key fob, he was kind enough to open the door for her so she could slide into the driver’s seat. That was when he finally handed her the bouquet of roses.
“Thank you.” Remedy smiled lightly at him, earning a head nod in return. He made his way back to his car with a gait full of confidence and swagger, and he felt her eyes on him each step of the way.
She pulled off before him, and he followed right behind her, knowing they were headed to the same place. They managed to arrive at the cemetery right after each other and snagged parking spots next to each other. Remedy let out a heavy sigh as the heavy feeling of grief began weighing down on her. She missed her father terribly, and as more days went by, it was beginning to feel like she was the only one grieving. Melo shut the whole world out and acted as if Deno’s passing didn’t affect him at all. Whenever Remedy tried to talk to him about it, he would just shut down and go radio silent. And with Ava, she just wasn’t in her right mind half the time for Remedy to ever disturb whatever state of reality she was in. This was a battle Remedy had to face on her own, and the more she fought, the weaker she got.
She was pulled out of her thoughts as her car door was held open so she could step out. “You good?” Kross asked, noticing the despondent look etched on her face after he had already opened the door. If he knew she was having a moment, he would have respected that and went about his business.
Quickly, Remedy nodded and unbuckled her seat belt to step out. “I’m straight. You straight?”
“I’m straight, shawty,” he confirmed with a chuckle.
With their flowers in hand, they made their way to the entry of the cemetery. Once they passed the gates, they went their separate ways to find their loved ones.
Kross eased down into the grass as he sat the roses down at Cassie’s headstone. A light laugh aired out of him at the sight ofthe action figure Aniyis left his mother. It was still propped up with its arms in defense mode since little man claimed it would protect Cassie.
“We got such a special kid, baby,” he said to her, his smile never leaving his face. “I always wondered how the fuck you kept shit pushing while I was locked up, but when I look at him, I get it. He’s all the motivation a nigga really need. I wish I could be as good to him as he is to me.
“Every time I come to see you, I feel like I’m telling you how I fucked up in some kinda way. Raq not letting me see ‘Niyis, and as much as I hate that shit and feel like nobody can keep me away from my son, I know she right. I got a lot of heat coming may way. Niggas got money on my head. Ain’t no telling who watching me, and the last thing I want is a nigga to up they tool on me while I’m with baby boy. He don’t deserve to go through that shit twice, so I gotta sacrifice to keep him safe. I need one of them hugs from him right about now. A nigga starting to feel like I’m in this shit by myself, and that shit hurt. I just wanna know when it’s gonna start hurting a little less. You feel me?”
A calm breeze brushed over him for just a second. He was a strong believer of life after death thanks to his mother, so he took that as a sign of Cassie being in the moment with him and assuring him that everything would be fine eventually.
He thugged it out for another hour or so before he sat a kiss on her headstone and wished her goodbye. As he exited the gates of the cemetery, he noticed Remedy’s car still parked next to his. She had the window cracked slightly, allowing light streams of smoke to filter out of the car. With a smirk etched on his face, he detoured from his car and made his way over to hers.
“You tryna’ match?” Kross asked as he craned down to the window.
She lowered the window, allowing a rush of smoke to hit his face. “Yeah, I’m down with that,” she agreed while hitting the locks to her car.
An amused chortle escaped him as he shook his head. “No disrespect, shawty, but your car small as hell. Pull up to mine.” He made a smooth head gesture to his car, extending the invite.
Her eyes shifted between him and his Maybach briefly. Before she could utter a response, he pulled on the door handle and opened the door for her to step out. She did just that and followed him to his car, where he was kind enough to hold the door for her again. Her rounded ass sank into the plush and luxurious leather of his seats as she marveled at the sleek design of the whip. She was no stranger to nice shit, but this was her first time in a Maybach. She refrained from dropping her jaw since she didn’t want to inflate his ego. As he made his way around the car, she seized the opportunity to gawk at him. He was dressed down today, which she knew wasn’t the usual for him since every time she saw him, he was designer down with the iced-out jewelry to match. Even in his crisp white tee and casual Denim Tears shorts, he carried the same finesse and pull he had when he put that shit on.
