by Coco Shawndé
“Sit yo hot pussy down.” I said pushing her back in the seat. She was cracking up laughing, and I grabbed her hand. “What time Dice bringing Easton to the crib?”
“She’s not. I told you she got all the boys at her house.” She said picking up her phone.
“Oh yeah? We kid free like that?”
“Yes!”
“I want you to turn up with me. Step out...you never go to the clubs with me.
“That’s because you don’t want me to bump into that Tiesha chick. She still calling?”
Sighing, I knew she was going to come with that. “Do you see her calling?”
“Whether I see it or not...why is she? You just told on yourself playa.” she replied, texting away on her phone.
“You don’t see her calling me because I cut all that off. You think I’ll go backwards after all this time of you choosing other nigga’s before me?” I said looking at her with a close eye.
“I didn’t put anyone before you.” she said with a laugh that told the truth.
“Yeah, a’ight. You knew what was up. I wasn’t trying to step on Weston´s toes back then, but I guess now wasn’t no better timing.” I spoke honestly.
“You right. I love you for coming back into my life.”
“I love you for letting me.” I said kissing her lips.
13
Dice
“How much will the loss be?” I asked one of the construction site managers. “Will it push me way off the budget?” Standing where my new nursing home/senior assisted living was being built, I was all hands on today. No makeup, jeans, and my yellow hard hat on, I was overseeing the men work hard at giving my vision life. As with any new construction, I was running into a few problems that were costing me millions.
“Due to us not having no real understanding of how much the damages will be, Mrs. Howard-”
“Just call me Miss Harrison.” I said not trying to be rude.
Since returning home, of course my family wanted to know all about Hosea. They wanted me to bring him around, but I wasn’t doing so just for the negative comments. They still were stuck on me holding loyalty to Chaunce as if Charli wasn’t enough for them to see how much Chaunce had loyalty to me. I guess since he was gone, he got a pass and I was the one that needed to bite the bullet. On another hand, Hosea wasn’t in St. Louis for me to bring him around no way.
“Sorry...Miss Harrison. We can’t give a solid quote until the men get in to start digging. I can say on the low end, close to three million dollars. Of course, my team will work effectively to save you, but there are other options. If we just position the pond on the south end, or even on the east or west...that will be the best to avoid water damage.”
“No, Absolutely not.” I said shaking my head, feeling myself grow pissed.
The land I stood on, I owned. But what I hadn’t done due to me in the house stressed the hell out...I didn’t have it inspected on what was underneath the ground. That wasn’t something I had to deal with when I built my first location. “It’s the Royal Diadem Pond’s. These high-rise buildings are seen from the highways. I’m known for my ponds. It has to be in the font in the entrance. It’s no other way I can even continue.” I said, not helping to go right in my feelings about this bad news.
I took time with the details, because that was what I was awarded on when I was the number one in the retirement home business. I had the top nurses, chefs, and the place was luxury. Just like the first location, I had one siding of the main building all glass. The high-rise had chandeliers on each floor that lit up all day and night. On the top floor you could even see a grand piano through the glass. All these details had to be done or I wouldn’t be comfortable. My brand...my business...it’s what I always did well in. I failed at many things, but this right here, couldn’t nobody tell me shit.
“Close out for the week. Shut it down.” I said knowing I was losing money by even shutting down. Knowing it was well over a hundred workers on the site daily, I was never going to shut down without them getting paid. So, I was still going to cut that check, and this was going to take from my budget. It was hard to do, but I couldn’t have them out here when I was no longer sure.
“Shut it down? Are you sure-”
“Dice Howard!”
With an attitude, I turned my head with a hard roll of my eyes on who the hell was screaming my name right now when I was about to cost myself a huge chunk of change and might just have to dish out more if I had this pond built.
“Who the hell-” Stopping myself, I rolled my eyes extra hard at him. Even though my first thought was to run in his arms, I didn’t.
“What?” he said walking closer, with a suit on. Since this was a hard hat area, I took him to the trailer. I let the site manager know I would talk to him before the day was out, but I did want them to finish for the day. Since the office was empty, it was just me and him.
“Hosea, when did you get back?” I probed, fixing my ponytail since it had been under that hard hat in the sun for hours.
“Today.” he smiled, showing off his straight set of teeth that I loved. We just sat staring at one another. Miani had already filled me in on how Hosea wasn’t too happy from not hearing from me. It wasn’t from nothing he had done. My family all in my ear had me isolating myself, but I did talk to him, just not as much as he liked.
“How you find me?”
“I keep up with shit that matters. Unlike you.” he said, pulling on his suit jacket as he sat up, making his eye connect even stronger.
“Don’t say that.” I said shaking my head, not wanting him to have the wrong impression. What I had been dealing with, I knew he wouldn’t understand it.
“I’mma say it and I mean it. Dice...I want this bad as fuck. I want this to work. I want to do a whole lot. Shit, everything with you and your son because y’all come together. But you showing me that this may be something you can’t do. Vegas showed me a whole lot, but maybe you tucked your feelings and left them there...I don’t know. I know you busy. Got a life. I’m not saying we need to be on the phone 25/8. If that’s what you want, I’ll do it, but I know there’s no time for it. I believed there was a gap of time in your day to at least check up. That’s all I wanted. I take trips monthly, so I don’t want you in the habit of not speaking to me because I’m handling business.”
“When I came back...it was a lot in my ear due to me being in Vegas with you. I-I let it get to me and I didn’t know how to bring that to you. I didn’t want to because I felt it was more of my problem than yours.” Telling half the truth, I couldn’t speak on the strange calls and text I had been receiving lately that not a soul knew of.
“We together? Then it’s something we both take care of. In my eyes, I could have taken care of that for you.” he said standing to his feet. He approached me slowly, and shoved his hands into his slacks. “Your family holds you like this?” he said standing me up, and wrapping his hands around me. Closing the space between us, he pushed me closer by my ass.
“No.”
“They kiss you like this?” Biting my lip, he grabbed my face with one hand as he thrusted his tongue in my mouth. Tonguing me the fuck down, I was damn near out of breath when he released me. “Do they?”
“No, Zay.” I moaned, hating that he was doing me like this. His hand crept down the middle stitching of my jeans, and cuffed my shit from the back getting a handful of ass and pussy.
“They make that pussy bite back on the dick? Give it to you from the back and get that dick drilling on that spot?”
Breathing heavy, I was trying to calm my inner spots down. With closed eyes, I finally opened up to him staring directly at me. “Answer me now, Dice.”
“No, they don’t. You know that.” I finally answered. “It was something I shouldn't even let hold weight in my life.” I admitted.
“Damn right. Don’t let it happen again.” he demanded. “What’s going on with this construction shit? When they looking to be done.” Still holding me, I had nowhere to
go, but in his arms.
“Hopefully two months. Maybe a few weeks added on to that. I ran into some costly problems today.” I sighed, knowing I still had to make the call on if I was shutting down work for the next week.
“What’s the problem?”
“The diggers are here to start the pond. I didn’t have the land inspected underground. They believe it’s some water lines below, and they can only do so much without causing a mess. If they burst the pipes, then there’s a flood...then I have to pay for damages on top of repairs. Not to mention the building is being affected. The last thing I need is water damage on buildings I’m fixing to have seniors living in. So right now, I’m contemplating shutting down for a week, but even doing that I’m losing money.”
“What you building again?”
“A pond.” I smiled, knowing he was going to laugh. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s not. I’m just laughing because I never seen you working or passionate about work related shit. Hell, I don’t see you working.”
Nodding my head in agreement, I understood what he was saying. Hosea had been such a kept secret, I hadn’t even introduced him to my family or most importantly, my son.
“Well I do. And today isn’t a good work-day. Three million at the least. I have it, just don’t want to take that big of a loss if I don’t have to.” I admitted. He side-eyed me, and I knew he wasn’t expecting me to be okay with paying the three million. One thing I could say, Chaunce took care of home. We matched each other´s hustle and we made each other wealthy. Money was always the least of our worries. Three million wouldn’t even put the slightest dent in my bank account, it was simply off of the strength that this was money used for me taking a loss. I should have done better homework on the land, but now I was paying for it. When hiring an inspector was nothing compared to what I may be stuck paying now.
“Big money grip.” he teased. “But nah for real, show me this shit. I want to see what you talkin’ ‘bout.” He said, heavily interested.
Taking him outside, I gave him the full tour on one of the golf carts. I showed him where the pond was to be placed, and pointed out the smaller ones that were going in the courtyard, so they could be in the view of the senior assisted living headquarters.
“I see what you're saying. It wouldn’t make sense to put a pond that size in the back.” He pointed out. “You trust me?”
“Huh? Trust you with what?” I implored.
“Look...I know some developers. You forgot Moss owns casinos and everyone one of our locations was built from the ground? Let me help you. Maybe this is what you need to see I’m serious. I’ll take care of getting the project finished. You take the backseat. I don’t want you stressed out about nothing.”
“Sounds tempting, but I have never given my business over to anyone. Not even my late husband. It’s too close to my heart.” I said, knowing this was too big of a project to hand over and it was costly as hell.
“Wasn’t we going to never compare the two?” he said, and I didn’t mean for it to sound that way. Taking a deep sigh, the only way I felt I could apologize from comparing him to Chaunce was letting him. With a shake of hands, he planned to step in for me.
Driving back around, Hosea had some urgent business calls. He then met the site manager and let them know work wasn’t being cancelled. Afterwards, we were discussing C.J meeting him and Yosohn and Duchess.
“C.J is very vocal about how he feels.” I told him right away. “Since he never knew his father, he does act overprotective of me at times. Just like he asks about him not having a father physically like the other kids, he questions me on why I don’t have a husband like his aunts. He doesn’t like that it just be us home all the time. He gets bored. So, he be gone with his uncles a lot of the time.”
“Little man gon’ make me work for my spot, huh?”
“For sure. But I don’t think he’ll dislike you. My baby is loveable. He’s not all cold, but he likes what he likes.”
“Sound like he wants a family.” he revealed to me, and I guess it was dawning on me that that was why C.J been this way his whole life. Home was somewhere he acted like he could never be. With Murk and his family, he was content, behaved, and most importantly happy! “Don’t look all down...we gon’ give him just that. Due time.”
“In due time?” I asked, seeing how serious he was.
“That’s my word.” he answered.
Sadly, Hosea had to leave, and I had a few strings to tie up before I could leave. On top of everything, I had to pick up my son. Hosea made clear that I needed to call him, and I wasn’t going to avoid doing so. I was actually looking forward to it.
Next Week
“You ran out of gas on purpose.” Hosea said, leaning down with one hand on the roof and the other on the door.
“What? Hosea, you tripping.” I laughed, knowing he would say anything. Sitting back in my seat, I was texting Miani.
“It’s cool. I missed you too.” he said going to hang the pump back up, and walking to my car window. His fine ass had four sleek braids to the back with a fresh lining that had me wanting to send my fingers all over his head. The red, green, and white track suit matched his Gucci slides perfectly. I noticed more Cuban links around his neck than usual, and his slugs were in his mouth. Yesterday he was all suited up, and today he was giving a whole new vibe. One thing about Hosea, he could dress his ass off effortlessly.
“Why didn’t you tell me your son played on the little league?”
“I could ask you the same.” I said matter of fact. Yosohn, Easton, C.J, and my other nephews all played together. We found out today when Hosea was on the field with Obasi. It was so many kids and different teams broken up due to age, I didn’t know Yosohn was even out there. Every practice, I was out there. Morocco was the team mom, so me and the girls would sit on the sideline taking care of the boy´s needs.
“You coming to help with this team party tonight?” he asked.
“I’m dropping my son off...that’s it.” I told him, knowing he wished I was helping baby sit over twenty boys between four and six. He could have that. “I’ll be there in the morning to get mine.”
“That’s cold, ma.” he giggled.
“No girls allowed. You’ll be a’ight. You have help with Obasi being there.”
“Damn, a’ight I see how you doing me.” he said rubbing on his chin hairs.
“I’m coming over, just not staying. Me and the girls are going out. Rocco´s birthday is tonight, so we out.”
“Turn up then. I’ll see you when you drop C.J off.”
“How long are you going to have Yosohn after they stay all night?”
“However long. It’s whatever.” he let me know. “Take your time picking C.J up. We can shoot to do something with the boys in the morning.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
With the day going on as planned, I dropped C.J off with Hosea. Lingering around, C.J came with a saddened face. “What’s wrong, C.J?” I asked kneeling down.
“Mommmy, why are you still hurr?”
He didn’t know I had been seeing Hosea, so I figured to tell him off to the side. “You know how I told you it would always just me and you?”
“Yes.” he answered like I needed to hurry up and get on.
“Well, mommy has been dating. Seeing someone really special to me.” I told him. “Are you okay with that?”
“I guess so.” he said not caring much.
“It’s Yosohn’s dad.” I revealed.
“Oh momma, you tripping. WHAT!?” he said smacking his forehead. “That’s coach.” he said laughing.
“Yeah, that’s like your coach.” I answered, trying to keep a straight face.
“I gotta tell Yosohn.” he said cracking up laughing, and running off. I was not expecting my son to laugh at the thought of me dating, but he really took off like that shit was funny.
“You good?”
“I just told C.J about me and you...the damn boy laughed and went to te
ll Yosohn.” I said shocked as hell.
“He something.” Hosea laughed. “You was worried about nothing. Everything is going to be easy.” he said kissing my forehead. I followed Hosea upstairs because he wanted to show me some pictures of the pond his designers put together that wasn’t going to cause any water damage by digging too far deep into the ground.
“Oh my God. How much is this? I want it!” I gushed.
“You got it baby.” he said kissing my lips, and making me the happiest. Just in one week, Hosea had fixed every possible worry I had. “I was thinking you should host a huge grand opening. Since this is in a new community, welcome the people in south county to come out for a day. All ages, and just do it up. I know this company. Well Keefe put me on because she did their wedding. Jhaere Moments in Time.”
“I know Jha...she does amazing events.” I said agreeing. “That does sound nice. I’ll have to get her number from Aja.”
“Yeah, gimme four weeks. Everything is going to be done for you.”
“I don’t know what to say…” I said totally speechless. He was going off to the bathroom taking a piss as if he didn’t just come through for me in a major way. I never expected all this. Definitely not since I was halfway fucking with him since coming back from Vegas. I felt dumb as hell for doing him like that. The same family that had so much to say about me being in Vegas with Hosea wasn’t here for me like right now. “You came through.” I told him, watching him standing in the doorway, adjusting his dick around.
“You know how you got it with me.” he said, turning me the hell on. He was looking so damn fine, and I knew I needed to be heading home. The way I have been lacking with the sleep, I needed a nap before going out to the club tonight.
“I’mma do you ass in like you been craving for.” Hosea said eye fucking me from across the room, pointing at me harshly with each word. I don’t know what my body was going through, but whatever it was, Hosea was about to give it everything it desired.
Locking the bedroom door, he swept me off my feet. “We can’t be all long. I need to go home and it's a gang of kids in the house.”
