by Kelly, Marie
What the fuck?
“Would you like some, Alvaro?” Kanada turned to ask me and Ma looked up at me.
“It’s good too!” Ma said around a mouthful.
I was so fucking shocked all I could do was nod my head to say yes.
Kanada happily went to make me up a plate and I took a seat next to Ma. I stared at her and she frowned.
“What you looking at boy?”
“You! You’re actually eating food from someone else! You don’t ever eat from anyone else!”
She looked at me and chuckled.
“Kanada isn’t anyone, that’s my…” I frowned when she paused.
“Your what?”
“My peoples. Now mind your business.” She waved me off and went right back to eating.
“Pssh peoples.” I taunted. “What you know about having peoples?”
Ma poked me with her knife and went right back to eating. I mean she was fucking the plate up! Smacking her lips and all that good shit. Something only some good ass food could make you do.
“There you go.” Kanada placed a plate down in front of me and the sweet aroma crawled up my nose and instantly made my stomach rumble.
Wanting to see if it tasted as good as it smelled, I said a quick prayer and dug in.
“Damn! This is good!” I admitted after just one mouthful.
“Thank you.” Kanada smiled.
Unfortunately, that was the only conversation she was going to get out of me because just like Ma, I sat there and ate like a starving person. Ma’s food was good as fuck but Kanada’s had a sweet taste to it. Shit was good!
Two plates later and I sat at the kitchen island feeling full as hell.
“That was good as hell, girl.” I complimented Kanada when she grabbed my empty plate.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome but I got that.” I took my plate away from her and brought it to the sink to wash it.
I cleaned up the rest of their plates before going to my office to deal with some shit.
A few hours later and I finally emerged from my office emotionally tired.
Ma had brought me my lunch and dinner to my office, so I went to the kitchen to put away the empty plates.
“Oh, you still awake?” I asked Kanada when I walked into the kitchen to see her standing at the fridge.
“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep so came for some milk.” She raised her glass to show me.
It was almost midnight, so I expected everyone to be asleep.
“Little man sleeping?” I asked referring to TJ.
He really was a sweet little boy that KeKe was very fond of. They were building a strong ass friendship.
“Oh yes, he wanted to go to bed early because he wants to see KeKe when he wakes up.”
We both laughed.
“KeKe said the same thing when I called her earlier. Talking about the quicker she goes to bed the quicker she will get to see him.” I shook my head and we laughed.
We couldn’t keep those two away from each other even if we tried. They didn’t care that they were now going to the same daycare and spent all day together, they would still want to see each other after.
Nowadays, all KeKe talked about was TJ—much to Brittany’s annoyance—she was big mad!
“They really are something else.” Kanada chuckled with a shake of her head.
“Well, good night Alvaro.”
“I was about to go watch a movie, if you’re not tired it would be nice if you joined me.”
She turned to look at me and then nodded.
“I would like that.”
I grabbed us a few things to snack on and led her to my theatre room down in the basement.
“It’s like a whole apartment down here.” Kanada observed and I nodded.
Down here I had another kitchenette, bathroom, bedroom and theatre room.
I set the snacks down on the table and went over to pick and start up a movie.
We both settled on Creed 2—since it was a fire ass movie.
“I love this movie.” Kanada beamed and I looked over at her.
“The movie or Michael B Jordan?” I asked with a raised eyebrow and she fell out laughing.
“He’s cute too but seriously I love the movie. The direction they went with it. I couldn’t imagine having to face the son of the man who killed my dad.”
“Wow, I think you’re the first chick I know who actually likes the movie and not the actor.”
And I was being deadass. Most chicks wanted to watch it because of him and couldn’t give a fuck what the movie was actually about.
She chuckled. “Jealous?”
“Nah, never that. I’m secured in my shit ma.”
“I won’t lie and say he’s not cute but he’s not the best thing going.” She coolly shrugged.
“He’s not your type?”
“Ummm, not really.”
I opened my mouth to ask another question but stopped when I realized I was about to ask her what her type was.
Don’t even open that fucking door nigga. I told myself and shook it off.
“Okay then.” Was the only thing I could think of to say instead of what I wanted to ask.
“What about you? What’s your type?”
No! She did not ask me that?!
Like I was trying to prevent, I found myself scanning my eyes over her body that was looking just right in the pajamas she was wearing. It did nothing to hide that ass that was almost swallowing up the sofa she was sitting on as well as her hips.
Her smooth toffee colored skin looked so soft and plumped.
My hands started to sweat as I imagined what it would be like feeling on her body. My mouth twitched as my mind projected thoughts of what her skin probably tasted liked.
Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, so more of her pretty ass face was exposed.
Damn.
“Um, I don’t really have one.” My mouth said but my mind was saying she was hitting my type box.
“Okay.”
We eventually went back to the movie and broke out in different conversations during it too.
After that movie was over, we still weren’t ready to sleep, so we put on another one but spent more time talking and laughing together than we did watching it.
It was almost four in the morning before Kanada yawned and stood to her feet. My eyes gravitated to her body and I was stuck like fuck staring at her.
She was fucking beautiful and there was no denying that.
“Thanks for the movies and good talk but I’m going to get a few hours sleep before TJ wakes up looking for KeKe.”
We laughed together.
“No problem, I enjoyed myself.” I smiled at her.
Honestly, that was the most fun I ever had with a chick that wasn’t sex. Chilling and hanging with a chick were just something I never did. If it wasn’t fucking, we didn’t really do shit together—even Brittany.
When we went to the club together, she was with her girls and I was with my boys.
But sitting there spending those hours with Kanada was nice.
She stretched out her body, gave me a little wave and walked out of the room while my eyes burned a hole in her fat ass.
“Damn.”
A’Moya Morse
The next morning
“Hi baby, how are you?” My mother greeted me when I walked into the kitchen.
“Hi mama. I’m fine, how are you?” I asked and kissed her cheeks.
“Good, thank you for asking.” She signed.
Although I was quite good at reading people’s lips, my parents preferred to talk to me using sign language. I didn’t mind it because it was their way of practising and perfecting it.
Once it was determined that I was losing my hearing at the age of ten due to the tumours, they made sure to learn it.
I never questioned why I had to lose my hearing—I just thanked God that I was able to hear for the time that I did. There were some deaf people who I met after, who were bo
rn deaf and I felt sorry for them.
I saw it as a blessing because I knew what my family’s voices sounded like, the sound of the wind blowing, birds chirping, cars purring and children laughing. My world was quiet now but it wasn’t always like that.
“Where’s daddy?” I signed.
“At the store.” My mama responded and I nodded.
She looked me over and then stroked my cheek.
“Are you really okay, A’Moya?”
I thought about her question and sighed.
Truth is, I wasn’t okay and that was because of Pharaoh.
I wasn’t even sure what it was about him that had me so fascinated but I was, from the moment I saw him in my stall that night. Something about him gave me a funny feeling—a feeling that I had grown accustomed to liking.
I knew without him having to tell me that he was from the streets or what he did for a living, but I knew that outside of that, there was more to him. Something about his eyes, the way he looked at me that night we met, that let me know that I was right.
It was full of fury and agony, but there was also a gentleness in them too. I knew I was right when he helped me even though he was angry about it later on. Still, something inside of him led him to help me that night, and that’s why I helped him.
There were more sides to Pharaoh, I could feel it and I wanted to explore it.
And that was why I found myself in a funk. Since he took me to his house that night—two weeks ago—I hadn’t seen or heard from him again.
I went from bumping into him at random times, to not seeing him at all for these few weeks.
It had me wondering if he was okay or if he was just simply hiding from me and that was playing on my mind too.
The night at his house, he opened out to me and spoke all night. I didn’t even sleep at all and I wasn’t tired. Finding out about his life was so interesting to me, sleep was the last thing on my mind.
I slightly smiled to myself when I remembered how he took his time talking to me to make sure I picked up on what he was saying.
He really was a caring guy even though he tried very hard to hide it.
Usually, I hid my deafness from people and kept my long curly hair down so they wouldn’t see my hearing aids—people were judgemental and from experience after I told them I was deaf they treated me differently—however, I didn’t feel scared to tell Pharaoh and he took it very well.
He didn’t treat me like a person with a disease—like most people who believed that they could catch it just by talking to me—but he still treated me like a person. He was just more gentle in how he did it.
My mama taped me making me realize that I had zoned out on her.
“I’m fine mama.”
I watched as she fixed her hands to sign something to me but stopped when my two sisters walked into the room.
They smiled and waved at me before coming over to give me a hug and kiss.
“How are you?” Kian, the eldest at twenty-nine, signed and I told her that I was good.
“It’s nice to see you.” Blanche, who was younger than me at twenty, signed after.
“It’s nice to see you too.”
I had a close relationship with my sisters who became extremely protective over me once I lost my hearing. They spent a lot of time fighting kids at our school who made fun of me knowing I couldn’t hear them.
My sisters were my rocks and I felt bad that I hadn’t been home in almost a month.
“I came over to see if we could catch a movie together?” I asked with a smile and their faces fell.
“Oh sorry, Moya but Darren asked me out to dinner.” Kian answered referring to the guy she recently started dating from her job.
“And tonight is my sleep over at Kennedy’s house.” Blanche said talking about her best friend.
“Oh, okay that’s fine.”
I was a little disappointed because I was hoping spending time with my sisters would keep my mind off of Pharaoh.
That night at his house, I could see he was holding on to a pain that was haunting him and I wanted to know what it was.
Despite the disappointment, I sat and talked with my sisters until it was time for them to go. My dad arrived about an hour after I did, and although my mama said she would watch a movie with me, I could see that my dad wanted some alone time with her and I didn’t want to disrupt that.
After promising I would come home more often than I had been, I left my parents and walked out of the house.
It was like as soon as I stepped out of the house and the night’s cool air hit my face, it awoken thoughts of Pharaoh. If someone asked me what about him had me so distracted, I wouldn’t be able to tell them.
I had tried not thinking about him but I couldn’t.
Sighing out, I lifted my eyes from the ground and gasped when I locked eyes with Pharaoh. He was standing on the other side of the street, dressed all in black with his eyes locked on mine.
Everything inside of me was telling me to be scared of a man like him, but I wasn’t. I didn’t fear him; I was captivated by him.
He kept his eyes on me as he puffed on the blunt that was hanging from his lips and instead of listening to the little voice that was telling me to walk the opposite direction, I ignored it and walked over to him.
“Hi,” I said and he looked down at me.
“Hi.”
He took another pull off the blunt, dropped it to the ground and stepped on it. His head tilted up slightly as his lips curled up and released the smoke away from my face and then he looked down at me.
“I’m sorry to come here but I didn’t know your number.” He said slowly and I watched as his perfect lips formed each word.
“That’s okay.”
He looked around for a few seconds while licking his lips and then he looked at me again.
“Can you come over?”
I read his lips because I couldn’t hear his voice but if I could, I imagined that it would have been low and small judging from the nervousness I could see in his eyes.
He had missed me as much as I missed him and he was nervous asking me to come over. And that’s why I knew there was more to him than he was willing to show. However, it was something I was willing to explore more. He was a mystery to me.
There was no doubt in my mind where I wanted to go, so I confidently responded, “yes.”
Kanada Alton
One week later
Christmas was fast approaching and I was excited about it! I loved the holidays and even better now knowing I was in a position to buy the things I wanted for TJ. Last Christmas was bad because although I worked a lot, Terrence took the money and did what he wanted with it.
I was able to hold on to a few dollars and bought TJ some pajamas because that’s all I could afford. But this year—thanks to Alvaro and Ma—I was able to get everything I ever wanted to get for TJ. Especially because he had been so strong dealing with the times I had us sleeping in my car.
Although that was weeks ago, it felt like a long time ago because I was in a complete different place now—emotionally, mentally, finically, and spiritually. I was loving my job too. Everyone there was so nice and easy to get along with.
I wasn’t sure if that was because they knew I was a close family friend of Alvaro’s but everyone seemed nice and the job was enjoyable.
Now that I was making some good money—since Alvaro’s pay package was amazing—I told him I was going to find my own apartment and all I got was threatened by him and Ma saying I had better not. So I offered to pay rent and got the same response.
I didn’t know what I did that deserved God helping me the way He was but I was thankful and made sure to tell him every day. Alvaro was a godsend.
I wasn’t the only benefiting from Ma and Alvaro either. TJ was doing so well. He was that happy, fun loving boy he used to be before Terrence kicked us out. He kept a smile on his face during our hard times, but I could see it wasn’t the same like it used to be.
For
a young boy, he was smart and knew we were not doing good. Sometimes I felt like he smiled to please me but now, I could see and feel it was real. He was happy!
And not only that, he was doing so well at daycare.
His friendship with KeKe was getting stronger every day too. She was the sweetest little girl ever and loved her some TJ. She was always talking to him and teaching him things—since she was a few months older, about to be four.
I looked up from the book I was reading and smiled at the kids playing nicely together.
Since today was Saturday, I decided to spend it with them. I gave them breakfast—so Ma wouldn’t have to get up—bathed the both of them and did Keke’s hair and now we were in the den. While they played I caught up on a few books with the new Kindle I bought myself recently.
Today’s pick was Taking the Heart of A Hitta by author Toy from Leo Sullivan Presents.
All that thugs and kingpins stuff I loved! I lived vehemently through the female characters in these urban fiction books. But something inside was telling me that I was living with a real one!
Something about the way Alvaro moved and talked let me know that he was into a lot more than just businesses. The constant disappearances didn’t help with my theory, plus one day his brother Jashawn was here and I know I heard him call Alvaro, Wrath.
I thought about asking him what that was about but honestly, I was too scared to. So for now, I would just continue to live with the little fantasy I had in my head of who Alvaro really was and allow these books to feed it.
As if I thought him up, Alvaro walked into the den and immediately grabbed my attention. He was a real manly man, like the ones I read about and I couldn’t help looking at him.
A charismatic smile appeared on his perfect face and his eyes lit up at the sight of KeKe.
“How’s daddy’s baby doing?” He asked and I unintentionally nibbled on my bottom lip at the sound of his deep, raspy voice.
Alvaro had the power to make a girl orgasm from just talking alone!
Keke snapped her neck around at the sound of his voice and took off out of her chair.
