Page 80 of Love U Down II

I cut him off. “My album is done. It’s been done for a while.”

“So why haven’t you released it?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Look, I’ll make a deal with you. Let me finish these interviews with Chandler and we’ll sit down and talk about my music.”

“Alright.” He peered into the room again and nodded. “We’ll talk about your album and you’ll check your email while I watch television.”

“Yeah. We can do that.”

“A’ight.”

My dad dapped me and I took a step back while he slowly rolled himself down the hallway.

He was open about his body still feeling the same it had two weeks ago but he was mobile, so we were calling it a win.

I watched him hit a corner before I pushed back into the room and sat beside Chandler. I was letting her handle the interviewing and she, Rome, and I would each pay a third of the salaries we were promising.

I only halfway listened while they finished. We all shook hands afterwards and I sat with Chandler while I watched the ladies file out.

She let her head fall forward and rest on the table. I moved to a closer seat and rubbed her back softly.

“You a’ight?” I asked carefully.

“Yeah.” She groaned and slowly lifted her head. “I’m just tired to be honest.”

“Go home and get some rest.”

“When are you going to go home and get some rest?”

“Soon,” I lied.

Her eyes flicked up and down over me and I knew she knew I was lying but she didn’t call me on it. She just gave me a small smile and nod and set my hand on her arm.

“I want you to look me in my face and promise me you’ll rest soon.”

“I promise.” I nodded. “Soon.”

“Good.” She patted my arm then climbed to her feet. “Take care of yourself.” She leaned down and kissed the side of my head. “You may be bigger, but I’m still the older sibling, Berlin. I’m not fucking around with you.”

“I hear you.”

“Good.” She wiped where she’d kissed then headed out.

I sat at the table for another minute or two before dialing Rome.

He answered on the first ring.

“What’s going on?”

“Pops is cool. I just wanted to update you on what was going on with the in-home care.”

“Y’all found somebody?”

“Yeah. We got four people for around the clock care. It’s going to run us almost sixteen hundred a month each. They’ll get all the major holidays off but I figured that was cool because we’ll all be at our folks’ spot anyway.”

“Sounds good. Take it out of them label checks by the month.”

“A’ight cool.” I exhaled. “You straight?”