Page 91 of Just Listen
“Okay. We’ll see.”
“Right. Now, come on. Let’s get out of here,” he urged, while opening the driver’s door.
With butterflies fluttering in my stomach, I grabbed Khari’s diaper bag, while Malice grabbed her, and her car seat. When I exited his car, I smoothed out my white bodycon dress with the fringes at the bottom. To bring the look together, I had a white and gold Versace scarf covering a portion of my hair. The flat gold gladiator sandals were fashionably cute, and just the right amount of appropriate to meet the family.
As we approached the house, those nervous jitters nearly got the best of me. Of course, Malice seemed cooler than the other side of the pillow, as he stood on the porch, with the baby in her carrier in tow.
After entering a code into the keypad, he pushed the double doors open, before allowing me to step in first. Naturally, I paused in the foyer, waiting for him to come completely inside.
“Lead the way,” I insisted.
He nodded, before strolling past me. When we stepped into the open space, I realized that downstairs was mostly an open-floor concept. So, I could see the enormous kitchen, breakfastnook, and living room. Not surprisingly, the living room is where people were seated.
“Aye, aye,” Malice announced our presence, and a thick peanut butter toned woman immediately sprung to her feet.
“Hey! Is that the baby?” She cheerfully questioned, as she jogged in our direction.
Smiling, Malice nodded. “Yeah, this her. And this is Jaylah.” He gestured at me. “And Jaylah, this is my mama, Ms. Dee.”
“How you doing?” She questioned me, with her arms wide open.
I definitely wasn’t expecting to be hugged, but I still walked into her arms and embraced her. She lightly squeezed me.
“Nice to meet you.”
I smiled. “Nice to meet you too.”
When we released one another, she immediately went to Khari, removing her from the carrier.
“Oh, my God,” she fawned, as she held Khari up, studying her face. “She looks just like Katie, my other grand baby.”
Malice lightly chuckled. “That was my first thought when I saw her.”
“Well, y’all come on and sit down,” she urged, as she headed to the sectional with my baby in her arms.
Malice glimpsed at me, before following his mama.
As I was switching across the living room, a slender girl who looked to be about my age and complexion scooted off the couch, and stood. “Ooh, I know you.” She pointed at me, and snapped her fingers. “You’re a Braxton girl.”
Ms. Dee squinted. “A Braxton girl? What that mean, Kita?”
“Mama, you know that song we be listening to by Guap,” she mentioned a world-renowned local rapper, who was also a close family friend of mine. “When he said he like his gal bougie and fine like the Braxton bloodline. He was talking about her and her family,” she rambled. “What the hell is Khamere doing with a Braxton girl? OMG. Is she your BM, Khamere?”
Shaking his head, Malice sucked his teeth. “You aint got no shame, huh? Just fan girling your ass off.”
“Nigga, forget you.” She waved him off. “I aint gotta front like we don’t be using her and her sisters on our vision boards. And she’s the one that a lot of them rappers be claiming they have a crush on.”
Listening, all I could do was titter, because she was unquestionably one of them ones that kept up with anything we had on social media. Personally, I never fully embraced that type of notoriety, but I was still highly visible, due to so many of my family members using social media for monetization or to platform whatever business endeavor. And we’d learned early on that posting and interacting with the followers is what kept us appearing relatable, along with boosting the different brands we had.
“Ummm,” Malice groaned, not sounding too excited to hear that. Funnily, he was relatively a young dude, but wasn’t too much into social media. So, he hadn’t heard of me beforehand, which means that he didn’t view me as a public figure. “Well, over here, she’s just gonna be Jaylah. None of that extra shit.”
“Yeah, okay.” Kita once again waved him off, before focusing on me. “You really had a baby with his mean ass?”
I snickered. “Mean? I haven’t really met that side.”
“Oh, well, then you’rerealspecial,” she assumed.
I cut my eyes at Malice…and I could’ve sworn that he was blushing. “She…she alright.”
