“She’s definitely ready for the responsibility.”
“Hey girls,” Daisy picked up, the camera was facing a slew of flowers, and I knew she was hard at work preparing Luxe Flower Boutique 2.0 for its grand opening this fall. “How’s Lily doing?”
“Let’s wait for—”
“I got my client out just in time not to miss this call,” Juniper said with half her face all in the camera.
“Girl back up,” I said, laughing.
“Sorry, I was looking for my grapes.”
“Mmm,” Mags hummed. She was thinking what we’ve all been thinking. Juniper was definitely pregnant but not telling us for some reason. “Where is Lilac’s ass at?”
“Probably laid up under—”
“I am not laid up under my man,” Lilac interjected. “I’m working the Wetherbee event, remember?”
“Oh shit. My bad. I’ll make this quick because I still have a few things to get done for Saturday, and I can’t let these stores close on me.” I paused to grab my lip gloss from the center console. “Lily is ready. She retains information well, so I’m positive that she’ll only need to work with one of us a couple of more times before we let our little butterfly soar on her own.”
“Good,” Juniper said with her mouth full of grapes. “I work next so she can sit in with me.” I nodded and applied more gloss.
“Did you show her the reports?” Lilac asked.
“Yup, and I even gave a little speech about hard work paying off. You would be proud.” Lilac laughed and shook her head. “We made a good decision.” They nodded, and though Daisy’s face wasn’t in the camera, I knew she was nodding too. We talked for a few minutes and then ended the call. As I drove, I thought about how much I loved my sisters. How they meant the world to me, and I would go to hell and back for every one of them if I had to. Our sisterhood was stronger than ever, so why did I feel like I was alone?
2
“ M a, you didn’t have to come today.” I opened my apartment door wider and stared at the woman who raised me. There was a smile stretched across her mocha-colored face that I was sure matched my own. My mother was my everything, and I have to admit she was one of my biggest reasons for taking a new job here in Philadelphia and leaving my life in Baltimore behind. I haven’t lived here since I left for college eight-years-ago. After attending and graduating from Clark Atlanta University; I moved to Baltimore, where I worked and lived for the last four and a half years. I only came home on holidays. But I missed this place. I missed home.
“Boy, let me in,” she fussed, pushing my chest. Chuckling, I stepped back, and she sauntered past me. “Why wouldn’t I come to see my only son his first day back in the city.”
“Because I have so much to do, and my attention can’t solely be on you like I’d want.” I shut the door and followed behind her while she poked her head in each room. My luxury apartment was a little over twenty-five hundred square feet with three bedrooms and two baths. At the moment, it was mostly empty because the movers hadn’t arrived yet. The only thing inside was the suitcases I’d driven here with.
“I’ll be out of your hair before you know it,” she murmured, turning to look me over. “I only wanted to see for myself that my baby was home.” Her eyes watered, and I sighed.
“Come on, don’t do that to me.” I pulled her short frame into a hug and kissed the top of her head. “You know I hate seeing you cry, old lady. I’m home and here to stay.”
“Good!” Her voice cracked, and I laughed, letting her go. “Your uncles can’t wait to see you.”
“I can’t wait to see them either,” I said, truthfully. My uncles Umar and York were my father figures growing up. They stepped up when my biological father had decided that being in my life just wasn’t important enough to him. Ronald Fields was a coward that only crossed my mind when I looked at my mother and compared our similarities. She gave me her entire face, but I had my father’s coloring. All the Fields men were light and tall. I hated that I had gotten anything from him, but that’s where my hate stopped. I never wanted for anything, and I didn’t feel the void of not having him around. My mother’s brothers were all I ever needed. They gave me the sex talk, dropped gems on me… long story short, I become a man under their watchful eye, and I was proud of who I was.
“Have you talked to Ezra yet?” We walked into the kitchen. I was in the middle of making a grocery list before my doorbell had rung.
“Yeah, I’m supposed to be meeting up with him this weekend.”
“I’m glad you two will have the opportunity to reconnect.”
“Yeah, me too.” Ezra is my older cousin from my pop side of the family. We were close as kids, and then he went off to college in New York, and by the time he came back, I was off to school in Atlanta. Over the years, we still talked and kept each other updated on what was happening in our lives, but it’ll be cool having him around again. He’s the only connection I have to my father, and coincidently I was his only connection to his father as well. What are the odds that both our fathers—who are brother’s—turned out to be deadbeats? I shook my head at the thought. “When was the last time you talked to Viv?” Vivian was Ezra’s mother. She was one of my favorite people growing up. She treated me as if I was one of her own, and my mom did the same with Ezra.
“I just saw Vivi the other day,” she said, picking up the pen off the granite countertop and adding something to my list. “She was telling me how Ezra’s all in love and talking about marriage and kids.” I didn’t say anything because I knew what was coming. “It made me wonder when I’ll be able to brag about that to people.”
“Ma—”
“Whatever happened to the one girl…” She looked up at the ceiling and frowned. “What was her name? Cindy? Cynthia… No—”
“Kennedy.”
“Oop.” She laughed, knowing she knew my ex’s name. “Right, Kennedy. What happened to her?”
I shrugged and said, “I broke things off after I decided to move home.” Kennedy wasn’t for me. She was a cool girl, but when I made the choice to leave, it was without her in mind. I knew she was hoping that I’d ask her to come with me, but she also knew better. We did nothing but argue and have sex. I didn’t want that type of toxic energy moving with me. When the time is right, I’ll find my girl. In the meantime, I’m living my life.
“Mmm.”
“Ma, you can say it.”
“I never liked the girl. She only saw dollar signs.” I had a great job that came with an excellent salary and even better benefits, but I wasn’t rich. At least not my standard of rich. Kennedy’s problem was that she’d never been with a man who could take care of her the way that I could.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about her bright, hungry eyes anymore.”
“Praise the Lord.”
“Don’t use the lord’s name because you’re happy I ended a relationship you didn’t care for.” She laughed and leaned against the counter.