Do Overs

seven.

"Now, I need to tell you about your father"

"Do we have to talk about him?"

"He keeps contacting me, he said he wants to see you and I when he's in town in the next two weeks. My spirit doesn't trust it" Julianna cleared her throat. As explained before, Julianna and Lorenzo were still married but estranged. They had a very volatile relationship towards the end, all Julianna had ever wanted from him was a mutual agreement on getting a divorce, which he did not want. Lorenzo wasn't the type of man you wanted to anger, so Julianna always tried to avoid contact with and from him.

"Neither does mine. He hasn't been to Toronto for about 4 years now, why is he back? If he even does come back, it can't be for us" Camilla questioned. Camilla hadn't been in contact with her dad for nearly 2 years, he rarely came to Toronto. He usually stayed up in Vancouver or Ottawa to avoid drawing attention to himself. Lorenzo had a bit of a reputation in Toronto, he wasn't liked very much but he was feared. Camilla preferred to keep it quiet that he was her father, not even Aubrey knew who her father was or what he looked like.

"He didn't say, but, I want nothing to do with him. If you wish to see him, then that is fine"

"I just want him to stop harassing you" Camilla said, evidently concerned. She'd witnessed her father do some horrible things to her mother when he wasn't able to reconcile with her. "Mom, I'll talk to you when I get home. I don't need Aubrey hearing this" she picked up her phone, heading Aubrey's footsteps.

"Alright, bye. Love you"

"Love you too" Camilla smiled, hanging up the call. She quickly exited the bathroom, wearing a white robe with her hair in a high ponytail.

"Ready to talk?" Aubrey asked, as he sat in his desk chair. He beckoned her over to come and sit on his lap.

"I guess" Camilla was confused as to what they had to talk about.

"I spoke to Baka this morning-"

"This is about the whole Kam thing, isn't it?" She sighed. Camilla didn't like idea of Aubrey dealing with that type of stuff, it reminded her a lot of the things her father did. Although she couldn't say this to Aubrey, he wouldn't get it since he had no idea who her father was.

"Yeah, look, I know you don't like it. But, this is a chance for me to put a stop to things" Aubrey rubbed his hand against her thigh as a form of comfort.

"There's nothing to put a stop to, your idea of putting a stop is killing these niggas. There is no good outcome, Aubrey. You were in jail for something you didn't do and I know that angers you, but you think killing anyone will make you feel better"

"That's not the aim, I wasn't going to kill anyone. It's about respect, C" Aubrey responded. What he really wanted to say was "yes, killing them will make me feel better" but he thought that'd send the conversation in a different direction.

"I don't know why we had this conversation, your mind was made up before we even spoke. Do what you want, I've got to get to the gym" She fanned him off, getting up from his lap and walking away.

"Don't be mad" Aubrey followed behind her.

"I'm really not mad" she shrugged.

"C, I can tell"

"I'm not mad, but clearly you don't respect me. I'm telling you something for your own good. You're the same one ready for us to open up our dream business, but you wanna be doing shit like this? Businessmen don't do that"

"So, you are mad?"

"Shut up" Camilla sighed. "I'll do what I always do, you do the bad stuff then I fix it"

"I haven't done anything yet, I am focused on us getting everything on track but it's hard, C. If I just sort this out one time, then it's not an issue anymore. We can move on"

"Like I said Aubrey Drake Graham, do what you want" Camilla forced a smile.

Camilla had been off with Aubrey for a while after that, she didn't even kiss him goodbye when she was leaving. She arrived at the gym to meet her friends a little bit late, but the mood she was in meant that she didn't really care.

"Someone's a bit moody today" Alisha poked Camilla's stomach as they sat on the exercise bike. Brielle was across from them on the treadmill, she wasn't really doing anything physical apart from jogging and staring at herself in the mirror.

"I know right, you've barely said anything" Brielle addressed Camilla.

"I'm just annoyed" Camilla sighed, pulling her hair in a ponytail, to which she had ended up revealing a small hickey on her neck.

"Is that a hickey?!" Brielle yelled, causing the few people in the gym to stare. "Mind your business!" She glared, then ran over to Camilla.

"You had sex?" Alisha whispered in shock.

"Been a long time since you had anything but fingers, eh?" Brielle laughed, slapping Camilla playfully on the thigh. "Seriously though, what's wrong. You should be happy"

"It's just, my dad and Aubrey and I'm hungry and-" Camilla began to speak, then began to cry a little bit.

"Don't cry, C" Brielle and Alisha said in unison, rubbing her back.

"What did your dad and Aubrey do?" Alisha asked.

"My dad wants to see me and mom, but I don't trust it. My gut is telling me something is wrong, and then Aubrey just-" Camilla stopped herself. She wasn't able to explain why she was mad at Aubrey to her friends, especially Brielle. What was she supposed to say? 'I'm mad that my boyfriend and his friend have plans to kill your baby father'?

"Aubrey just, what?" Brielle gestured for her to continue.

"He and Baka are up to some fuckery again, and I'm trying to talk him out of it but he won't listen"

"Anytime Baka's involved, there's always something serious going on" Brielle added. "Don't worry Cami, at the end of the day, he's a grown man. He knows what he's doing and even if he doesn't, he'll learn from this and you just have to be there for him"

"If he's doing something really bad, then you have to kinda distance yourself from that part of his life. Focus on the good side of things, if things get too out of hand and you can't take it, then you know what to do" Alisha looked at her.

"I mean, I trust that he knows what he's doing but it's like he's not looking at the bigger picture. We're trying to pick up where we left off, he's taking us back so far" she sighed. "Thanks though, guys"

"Now, you can tell us why you've got that" Alisha pointed to Camilla's neck.

"Well, when two people love each other, they-"

"Camilla!" Brielle laughed.

"You know why I got it" Camilla laughed.

"You don't even need to be here, you definitely had enough exercise" Alisha laughed.

All in all, Camilla knew she would just have to leave it up to Aubrey to make the right decision. She was hoping their conversation would make him reconsider.