Page 32 of Session 25

Koi had me fucked up. Whoever that nigga was that pressed me had to come see me. Yea, he had caught me off guard, but the next time I was gonna handle him. Right now, Koi had me looking like a fucking fool. Between her family running down on me, and now this new no named nigga, I was gonna have to play dirty.

See, I wasn’t trying to catch another charge, but with a chick like Koi, who played with fire. I felt like that was what I was gonna have to do. She had been quiet for too long, so it was only a matter of time before she showed her true colors.

Then for me to check her location on her iPad and find out her ass was in The Marriott.

“A hotel?” I couldn’t wrap my head around why the fuck she was staying at a hotel when we had a perfectly fine condo right here in Yonkers. The two bedrooms should have worked if she felt the need to keep her distance from me. She had already dropped my son off to his stupid ass grandma, so I didn’t know what more she wanted. But then again, I see I had underestimated her.

I didn’t think Koi would turn away a baby. That wasn’t in her nature. She was a nurturer. I saw it in the way she cared for her Godchild anytime she was around. So why couldn’t she put her differences aside for Ashton was iggin’ at me.

“She’s fucking someone, ma. We ain’t even been separated for a week, and she’s laid up in a hotel, fucking someone.”

“A week? Boy please. You may not have been single in your mind, but the minute you stepped out on that woman, you portrayed yourself as a single man. So what? She’s getting new dick. You’ve been sampling pussy all over the Tri-state area and now got a kid with her cousin!” My mother yelled in my ear. I expected her to have Koi’s back. They were tight like that, but shit, she didn’t have to act like I wasn’t her son.

“I hear what you saying, ma, but you don’t think it’s too soon?”

“Too soon? Fuck no, in my eyes, it’s about time. Koi stupid. I would have been made your chest cave in from playing in my face. She’s too good of a woman.” My mother chuckled. “Let her have her fun. If she loves you like we know she does, she may be back, but I don’t know, Marcel. This some grimy shit you pulled.”

“I know, ma. I’ve heard it from everyone already. What do you suggest I do?”

“For starters, keep that baby away from Koi before she kills an innocent child. Second, you better get up out of that house before your ass find yourself burning up in some flames.” I could hear her let out a long sigh. “She’s hurt, and a woman hurt is a dangerous one. I can come talk to her, but you know how she is when she’s upset. There is no talking to her.”

My mother knew firsthand how crazy Koi could get when she was upset. There were plenty of times when we were younger, and Koi and I would have arguments while I still lived at home with my mom. She would try to step in until one day Koi turned to her, slammed my bedroom door in her face, and told her to worry about the nigga she was fucking and not me.

We both were taken aback by her outburst. Koi was quiet and didn’t raise her voice. But this time she had caught me red handed in the act of setting up a meet up with the neighborhood head doctor.

“I hear what you saying, but I need to get him away from his drunk grandma.”

“Then it’s time to go look for an apartment. Shit. I don’t know.”

“What if I came to visit you for a few days?” It was a long stretch, but something had to give.

“With a baby? A fresh out the coochie baby? Boy, you trying to have me babysit. I ain’t stupid.”

“No. I actually need help.” My mother had me when she was young. We acted more like siblings than mother and son. My grandmother was raising both of us until my mother found her own place when I turned eight. Before then, we were both answering to my grandmother as if she was both of our parents. In the long run, it worked, but at times like this, I needed her to step up and be a mother, not a friend.

“Argh, fine. You lucky I love you and want to meet my grandson. But Koi is still my girl.”

“I hear you, ma.” A slight chuckle escaped my lips. “I’ll be there later, and you need to talk to ya’ girl about calling her fam on me. “

“You lucky Duke waited this long. Shid, my brothers would have tore your ass up long ago.” My uncles didn’t play about my mother. They were older than her and treated her like a princess. They had a helping hand in raising me as well, but they told me I was foul long ago for the way I was playing with Koi, so calling them would be pointless. They were raised on logic.

“Man, listen, ma, just listen out for the phone. I’ll be there before seven.”

I packed up as many items out of the apartment as I could. Koi wanted to show her ass; cool, she could figure these bills out until she came to her damn senses. I had a responsibility that didn’t concern her, and as much as I wanted to go knock her head between the refrigerator and the counter. I opted against feeding more into the bullshit. Koi was gonna come around sooner or later. If she thought the next nigga was about to step up and fix her, she had another thing coming.

“It’s about time you came and got him. I told you I’m not raising no new kid and whatever problems you and Koi have don’t have shit to do with my grandson.” Belinda sucked on the straw from her ice cup. Halfway through a bottle of E&J, I shook my head, picked up the car seat with Ashton inside, and looked around for the baby bag.

“Where is his bag?” Highly upset with Koi for dropping him off here, I continued to look around the cluttered living room. Belinda was a hoarder and had the nerve not to clean up behind herself. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a roach run across the coffee table.

“Hello,” I snapped.

“Nigga relax with all that snapping. Shid, you should be thanking me for keeping his crybaby ass.” Disgusted, I kicked the sofa she was sitting on.

“I ain’t got all day. I’m trying to get him outta here.”

“It’s in the fucking kitchen on the table.” She smacked her lips. “And don’t bring him back when he gets on your nerves.”

“Belinda, I wouldn’t leave him with you if you were the last person on earth. The way you raise these kids should be a crime.”