Ghetto Love Bird

21. Trap Queen

“Mamas,” a soft finger trickles down my cheek, and I quickly swat it away.

I groan in response, slowly opening up my eyes. I come face to face with roman, and I can’t help but smile.

“Mhm,” he hums amusingly, “wake your fine ass up.”

“What time is it?”

“Just a little after 8 actually.”

I spring up quickly, “eight? Roman, why didn’t you wake me?!”

“I’m getting a serious sense of Deja Vu here.”

“Yeah,” I throw my legs over the bed to climb down, “well you didn’t learn so well from the last instance.”

“It’s all good, Honey, relax, I called Western and Sorayah’s okay.”

He called Western?

“You checked in on Sorayah?”

“Of course, I knew you would be tired, and worried, I made sure I could ease that.”

My heart swells with warmth, and I sigh, placing one hand on my hip, and the other on my forehead. 

“I still need to get home,” I murmur, “but thank you, that was . . . sweet.”

“Anytime, mamas.”

I head into the cabana’s bathroom to pee and freshen up. It dawned on me what exactly happened last night.

“Roman!” I yell.

“Huh?”

“We’ve gotta stop at the pharmacy.”

I finish up in the bathroom and rejoin him outside. He had his shoes on as he swiped through his phone.

“I didn’t hear you back there, b.”

“I said, we gotta stop at the pharmacy, you didn’t pull out last night.”

“I didn’t pull out,” he raised both eyebrows at me, “If I remember correctly, you were wrapping those legs around me, and begging me not to stop.”

I scratch the back of my neck, grabbing my purse.

“I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” I lie, and he rolls his eyes.

“Yea, ight. We’ll do a little pit stop.”

#

Tiredness hit me the moment we started driving, and I dozed off a few times before we arrived at the pharmacy.

“I’ll go grab it,” he says, putting the car in park.

“Thank you.”

I watched as he disappeared, before pulling my own phone out of my bag. I called Tera to check-in, and also let her know that I’ll be home soon.

“w***e,” Tera whisper yells and I snort, “okay miss ma’am I see you.”

“I’ll be home in a few minutes, Tera,” I announce, ignoring her tactics and she hums, “thank you so much for watching Sorayah.”

“b***h don’t get me f****d up, you know you don’t have to thank me.”

“What would I do without you?”

I glance around, a small smile on my face as she continues to tease me. From the corner of my eye, I find Rico standing at the corner of the building, staring straight at me.

“Tera . . . I’m gonna have to call you back.”

As I hang up, I slip on my shoes and grab my dress as I climb out of the vehicle. With my lips pursed, I walked up to him, an ugly smirk on his face.

“What the f**k are you doing here?” I whisper yell, and he just blinks at me. He smelled like he usually did, like cologne, and weed, and was dressed carelessly in a black hoodie and matching sweats.

“What chu’ mean?” He tilts his head at me, “this is a public place last time I checked, honey.”

“Are you stalking me?”

“Stalking you?” he scoffs, “Nah. Your boy in ere’? Maybe.”

“You need to stop being a f*****g psychopath, Rico. You ain’t slick.”

“I ain’t tryna do nothing to my baby mama, c’mon now Honey. But you messing with the wrong dude.”

“Who are you to tell me who to mess with –“

“You,” he lifts himself from the wall, standing tall to peer down at me, “got that nigga over on our turf. s**t don’t work like that.”

“He isn’t bothering anyone,” I fold my arms, “don’t trouble.”

Rico laughs, throwing his head back, “you know, every day you get cuter.”

He lifts his hand to stroke my cheek, and I pull my face away.

“Stay away from me.”

“Like I said, this ain’t about you. But if you keep allowing ole’ boy to come over on this side, we may have a problem.”

“Allowing? Nigga that’s a grown-ass man –“

“That’s after your p***y,” Rico shrugs, “if you stop giving it to him, he’ll stop coming.”

I clench my jaw, staring dead Rico dead in the eye, but he wasn’t intimidated, and I didn’t expect him to be.

The pharmacy’s door swings open, and Roman steps out. I clear my throat, taking a step away from Rico.

Roman looks in between the two of us, and Rico turns his head to him.

“You got a lot of nerve coming up here, Roman,” Rico folds his arms high up on his chest, “I’m tryna see what you’re up to.”

“Don't be a silly nigga, Rico, I ain’t start nun, so there won’t be nun.”

Rico takes a step forward, raising an eyebrow, “Is that so?”

“Rico –“

“So what, you call the shots around here now, huh?”

“I ain’t say all that but if that’s what you think then who am I to say no,” Roman smirks, obviously enjoying seeing Rico all riled up, but I hated it.

“So now you’re f*****g my b***h, and you feel like you’ve got all the power in the world, huh?”

Roman’s eyes land on mine at the same time that I raise my hand to slap the s**t out of Rico.

“I’m not your b***h, nigga.”

I walk away as he grips his face, and Roman hesitantly followed behind. Rico spits on the ground, his face red as he watched us leave.

I sit in silence, gulping. I knew Roman was pissed, I could see it all over his face.

“I know that you’ve . . . been around. But you’ve f****d Rico too?”

“Rico’s my baby daddy,” I admit, and Roman’s face spins to look at me so quickly I swore he got whiplash.

“That nigga’s Sorayah’s father?”

“I wouldn’t call him a father,” I scoff, “more like sperm donor.”

“Well s**t,” Roman blows out a breath. He hands me the paper bag with the plan b, and I gladly take it from his hands, and push it into my bag.

“Is that an issue?”

“Nah, more like a complication,” he says, rubbing his chin as he drove with one hand, “I won’t let no nigga take away what I want.”

I settle my seat, tiredness washing over me all over again. It made me happy that he felt that way, not that I was looking for anything more, but he didn’t judge me.

He didn’t have anything else to say about it and rested his hand on my thigh.

Once I was home, he gave me a small kiss.

“I’ll see you?”

“Of course, mamas, ill call you soon. Go head and get some rest.”

I place another kiss on his lips before he hops out and opens up my door for me. He slaps my ass as I walk away and I giggle but give him a disapproving look as I disappeared inside.

With a sigh, I plop onto the couch to catch my breath. My mother was nowhere to be seen, and frankly, I didn’t have the energy to find her. I gathered myself, showered, and changed to prepare some lunch for Sorayah, then texted Tera that she could drop her off.

When they arrived I had been knocked out on the couch.

“Last night must’ve really been something.”

“Mommy!”

Sorayah screamed with joy, jolting me out of my sleep.

“Hi, baby,” I embrace her as she hugs me, “how was your night?”

“It was really good, Eastern and I built forts,” she grins and I gasp.

“Really? Did you sleep in them too?”

She nods excitedly and I gasp again, “im so jealous!”

“We can build our own tonight, mommy.”

“Yay,” I squeal, “go ahead and change your clothes, I have lunch set up for you. I’m gonna talk to aunt Tera.”

Sorayah obediently leaves, and I turn to a smirking Tera.

“Girl don’t even start,” I sigh, placing my head on my palm.

“I didn’t even say nun’,” she feigns innocence, plopping onto the couch as well, “how was it?”

I pout, letting out a small whine, “it was really good.”

“I could tell,” she chuckles, “he called Western this morning because you were all knocked out, I think that’s so adorable.”

“Isn’t it? I was so surprised when he told me.”

“He sounds like a keeper sis,” I cringe, shaking my head.

“Let's – let’s not.”

“What?” she widens her eyes, “you don’t see something there, Honey? Come on.”

“Tera, you of all people know that my lifestyle isn’t exactly fitting for a monogamous relationship,” I tilt my head at her as if she forgot, “roman is . . . he’s an amazing person, but I’m a whore.”

“Oh my goodness,” Tera sighs.

“What? I’m just saying it as it is.”

“Whilst that may be true, Roman knows that, and he’s still pursuing you.”

“Or maybe he’s just enjoying my p***y?”

“Nah, I don’t think it’s like that, sis, that man checked up on your offspring, he wants all of you.”

I cover my face, letting out a loud groan.

“This just makes everything so complicated now.”

“Listen, sis, imma’ just tell you what I can like always,” Tera leans forwards on her knees, twirling her car keys in her hands, “Roman obviously doesn’t care that you’re a s*x worker, maybe just . . . talk to him to find out where his head is at, you know? You’ll never know unless you talk to him. That is – if you see something real with him.”

“I . . . I don’t know, I think I do?”

“Well . . . just introduce it as a basic question, don’t go too deep and find out his general thoughts on all of it.”

“You’re right,” I bite my fingernails, tilting my head from side to side, “you’re right.”

“When do you guys plan to meet again?”

“I don’t know . . . he said that he’d call me,” I run a hand along my neck, “honestly he has a few things going on over at the West Coast. Do you think Western would know any suppliers?”

“Like . . . drug . . . suppliers?”

“Yes, Tera, drugs suppliers.”

“I don’t know,” she scratches her forehead with a lone finger, “I can ask him though.”

“Sure, thanks.”

“Look at you, being a good trap queen.”

“b***h, if you don’t shut the f**k up.”