Brown Sugar

TROUBLE BREWS

"Now bounce! Bounce! Bounce! Come on mama keep doing it, you're almost there!" The woman on YouTube yelled through the tv as I bounced on my yoga ball and folded baby clothes. I swear doing anything was a workout these days but this really helped with the sciatic pain I was having.

My body felt like it was falling apart from the hips down and I was just ready to be rolled into labor and delivery at this point. Of course my hospital bag was packed already and ready to go, I just knew after 36 weeks it tends to get a little tricky.

"Yo! Bae!" I heard Reggie soon after hearing the front door slam. He was bad at that, always slamming shit. "In here!" I said yelling holding the AirPod in my ear.

"Woah! You bouncing on that ball when you need to be bouncing on this dick." He said dry humping and smacking the air's ass making me laugh and roll my eyes. "Yeah all that sounds good but I don't see my fiancé enough for that anymore." I said kind of sad and shocked that we hadn't made love in a week. That was normal but not for Reggie, he was like a dog, hot on my trail most of the time. "Yeah I know, I'm sorry bout that baby. I actually wanted to come up here and talk to you bout all that." He said clearing his throat getting serious making me slowly stop bouncing. For some reason my heart was pounding, I wasn't a fan of building suspense.

He sat in the chair that was in the corner of the nursery rocking in it. "I been busy lately but it's for a good reason, I just don't want you to freak out before I can even tell you my plans." He said looking me deep in the eyes. I took a deep breath, "lay it on me." I said letting my hand slap dramatically against my thigh.

"You been on my top about getting a new house for us so that's what I been trying to do. Since I'm out the drug business we been living off my savings and that lick from No Name, which, don't get me wrong we still beyond good but the money could be better before the move." He said making me look at him, "Well what about the barbershop?" I asked confused only hoping he didn't do anything stupid.

"The barbershop is liquid gold but you gotta remember I built that with dirty money. With this detective sniffing around Lijah I need to make sure we all the way clean. And what better way to make sure you're all the way clean than having a government official in your pocket?" He asked with a smirk on his face making my eyes grow buck. "Reggie. Reggie! What the fuck you tryna say to me right now?" I asked leaning in, pointing to myself.

"That I got a councilman in my pocket Marlicia that's going to make sure my black ass stay out of jail and get the contracts I need to expand "Reggie's Cutz" so we good for life." He said outright. I sat in silence for a second trying to gather the information he just laid on me.

"What makes you so confident he's in your pocket Reggie? You said the same thing about Linsey and she tried to frame you." I said. "This ain't that though, Linsey was a bitter ex, I got real dirt on this nigga Sawyer." He confidently said.

"Sawyer!?" I said out loud shocked by the name. "You lying!" Covering my mouth I pulled out my phone to google just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. "Yes. Yes! That old ass nigga, you should've seen his face when I walked in that bitch." He said chuckling clapping his hands in evil satisfaction.

"Wait. So what's tea? What the fuck do you have on him?" I asked intrigued at this point. "His daughter Kinzey had an abortion last year, you know that shit don't look good for a pro-life motherfucka' like him. Especially down here in Atlanta." He said making me laugh and shake my head. "So to keep his dirty little secret he gotta do a few things for me but in return I'll fund some of his campaign. Get my foot in the door and start going to some of these charity events, meet some people with real power. The type of power we gone need baby." He said trying to convince me.

"Reggie I understand you have to stay protected but remember why you're doing what you are doing. You don't need to get too mixed in with those type of people, next thing you know they have a file on you, blackmailing your black ass." I pointed my finger at him hoping he was really listening.