Moving to the rough streets of Harlem is a step back for Lorena after running from her supposedly good life in the suburbs of Miami.
She searches for freedom in the most unlikely of places yet in meeting Cross, she couldn't find herself more trapped...
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𝘅𝘅𝘅𝗶𝗶. 𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘇
Both Cross and I were deep asleep when the ring of the doorbell caused me to stir awake. My eyes fluttered open to the sunlit room because I preferred to never close the drapes. I enjoyed waking up to the sun. Sensing its brightness was always a cue to me when to finally wake up.
I smiled to myself, "Full house today." I murmured with a yawn into my hand after I sat up and stretched.
"Go get the do', baby," Cross mumbled, half asleep. His voice was muffled into his pillow as his face laid atop his arms. I think this was the first time that I was finally up before him.
I slipped out of bed, slid my feet into my comfy house slippers, and dressed in my Versace robe as I left out the room. Walking down the stairs, I was nervous. I knew that it was Kairo, but this was one of my first times greeting Alexis at the door.
After a few conversations with her, frankly the woman was intimidating. Nevertheless, she was cool and there was no bitterness between us about Cross. As a matter of fact, the only bitterness that seemed to have grown between us was about Kairo and how much her son had grew to favor me noticeably.
I still checked the peephole, as Cross always demanded, before swinging open the door with a friendly smile.
"Morning, Alexis. Hey, Kai." I greeted as Kairo already held his arms out to me trying to leap out of his mom's hold.
"Mommy!" Kairo exclaimed with grabby hands.
I visibly winced while Alexis looked taken aback. "Wait, you got my son in here calling you mommy?"
"No, Alexis. It really isn't like that. I tried getting him to stop calling me that several times out of respect for you but it's only so many times before his feelings get hurt, you know?"
Not to mention, it didn't help that Cross was always encouraging Kai to call me mom.
"Well I ain't good with that at all, Lorena." She spit out my name aggressively and with distaste. "You deadass thought that was okay? I woulda appreciated if you told me earlier so we coulda' got shit straight. Like how would you feel if that baby in yo' stomach got out and started calling me mommy, huh?"
I frowned, knowing that she was right. "I'm sorry. I can try to-"
"Whatever." Her eyes rolled as she finally handed Kai over who was getting impatient with his grabby hands. "Just cut that shit out, aight? I gotta go or I'ma be late fo' work."
She handed over his little backpack which only contained some kids books and a few of his favorite toys. She no longer needed to keep sending Kai over here with his stuff because Cross and I now had enough of his stuff in his room.
I hardly caught the bag because she had pushed it toward me so aggressively. Just like that, she stormed away with her arms folded, too mad to even say goodbye to her son. I watched her get into her boyfriend's car before sighing heavily and closing the door.
