Page 16 of Surrender to Love

“Well, you sound on top of it.”

“Didn’t want to make a bad impression in front of my new boss,” he says and I swear he winks.

Did he wink at me? Or is something in his eye?

“Oh good. I appreciate that. I also put a one-on-one on your calendar for next Tuesday so we can see how you are faring after your first week. But please, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or Lexie any time before then,” I say then stand. Following my lead, he stands and I grab the basket. “This is your official welcome and Lexie will show you to your office, class, and the faculty lounge. Happy first day.”

“It’s definitely a happy day now.”

“The basket is not that great,” I say with a laugh.

“I wasn’t talking about the basket,” he says and his eyes literally drag down my body.

That was a wink.

He is flirting with me… What the hell?

“Lexie, he’s ready,” I call out and she rushes in.

As soon as he walks out, I shake my damn head and text my man. Dr. Evans is handsome, but he’s no Shiro Bako.

SIX

“Are we still waiting on Ace?” Tre asks as soon as he walks out of my kitchen with two Bleu Mountain Brews in his hand. After handing one to Deuce, he sits at the table.

“No, he just hit us in the group text. Sade isn’t feeling good. He’s staying at the crib with her,” I tell him.

“I hope she’s okay, but at least, we can play Spades now. The rules for the five card draw shit was sounding like too fucking much,” Deuce says. “Spades, I can play. We partners?” he asks Quintus.

“Hell nah. Your ass can’t bet books for shit. I got Shiro,” Quintus says.

“Nigga, you already know it was me and Quintus against you two,” I say, then my doorbell chimes. “That’s the food.”

I ordered wings and pizza for tonight. The last two years have been a lot for us. Our parents, who we all thought would be married forever, got a divorce. Shuga found out Asali had been cheating for more than half of their marriage and we discovered we had a sister, Alami. In Hausa, her name means she was born on a Thursday, so that’s what I call her.

Aside from our new sister, we also discovered that our Shuga is the infamous painter, Nina Wright. She’s practically a damn millionaire and we had no fucking clue. Too much has been happening and I wanted to make sure things stayed strong with my brothers. So I started card night. We still have Sunday dinner once a month at Shuga’s but that’s with all of the family. My card nights are just for the original five. We drink, smoke, talk shit, and occasionally play some damn cards.

When I close the door after getting the food, Deuce’s big, greedy ass is standing behind me ready to grab it. He takes the bags with the wings and leaves me with the pizza and mozzarella sticks. We walk the bags into the kitchen, and after washing his hands, he attacks the food.

“Ay. This nigga bout to eat it all. Y’all better come get some,” I say and Tre and Quintus join us.

After we fill our paper plates with wings, pizza, and mozzarella sticks, we spread out on the two sectionals in my living room. I love a good blunt, so before I take a bite of anything, I grab a preroll from my stash book on my table and fire up.

All of us smoke except Ace. He’ll light a cigar every now and again, but that’s it. Me, Tre, and Deuce blaze all the time and Quintus only smokes during shit like this. Because of my little niece and his now pregnant wife, he never smokes at his crib or in his ride though.

I hit the blunt a few times then Tre reaches for it. I gladly pass it then kill my first slice of pizza. By the time we finish most of the food, we have smoked two prerolls.

“What happened to the game?” Quintus asks.

“I’m still down to play,” I say. “But I need something from you first, bruh.”

“What’s up?” Quintus asks.

“I need you to ask your people to find Kyrah’s ex-husband,” I admit.

Ever since she told me about his bitch ass, I can’t stop thinking about popping the nigga in his shit. I know what he did happened in her past but that shit last week wasn’t. He hurt her again and now I’m not going to rest until I hurt him. Some things about me never fucking changed.

“She can’t find him?”