CONNECTED

32.

"For being in this position again." He told me. "For you, the girls, the son I'm bout to get-"

"Wait" I laughed as I cut him off. "What son?"

"The one we having as soon as we find a new spot." He kissed my forehead, rubbing up and down my arm. "You gone give me a Son right?" I knew Julio wanted more kids in the future and so did I. I wanted a team of little girls to pick up from cheerleading practice and dance class.

"I like being a girl mom." Cali and Cari were so fun. They literally were my broke BFFs.

"This shit cool, but don't you want a little bad ass boy running around?" I thought about Taejin and how cute he was. He adored Nicole and always tried to protect her in his own little way. "Julio Jr."

"I don't know about no Jr. but I guess." We looked through houses for a couple hours until we grew tired. There were five that we really liked, but they still didn't have everything we wanted.

"You wouldn't consider living at The Odyssey?" I yelled as I heard the toilet flush. "We would have everything we're looking for." The Odyssey had so many different floor plans to offer and we could make whatever renovations we wanted before we moved in.

"We'd also be paying close to ten thousand dollars in rent every month. If you wanna live close to Nicole, just say that."

"I just miss her." I hadn't seen my Bestie all week due to her getting situated in her Penthouse. I thought she was crazy when she told me she had been secretly paying rent for a place she wasn't even living in, but now it made sense. She wanted independency from Tae, which meant she had to move out of the house he bought for her.

"Convince her ass to get back right with Tae." Julio mumbled. "Nigga been killing mothafuckas all week." He glanced over at me.

"Really?" I immediately began to worry.

"Yeah but he just letting off some steam." I kept my negative thoughts to myself.

"How's he really doing?" Tae and I were family outside of his relationship with Nicole, but we rarely spoke if they weren't on good terms. We didn't have the type of relationship to call one another out of the blue and I wasn't playing middle man in their drama this time around.

"I told you he been killing people like he helping out God or some shit. He gets in his feelings when I ask so we haven't talked about that situation since he told me she gave the ring back. I went looking for it at the church for like three days straight and I still didn't find it. You know how much money I could've gotten for that ring?"

"Julio it's not something to joke about."

"I'm not joking!" He laughed it off. "All this shit Nic fault."

Nicholas was indeed the root of all the drama but he was Nicole's blood and I truly believed she was doing the right thing. I just hated how things had to play out in order for everything to come to the light.

Maurice was pretty much out of the picture for now and Mila wasn't talking to anybody; because of that, Marcus wasn't coming around. Julio wasn't affected by their absence at all, but I missed my friends and more importantly, Sunny.

"Who calling you?" Julio mumbled in my ear. We were just dozing off when my phone rang. Nicole's name and picture flashed across the screen.

"Were you sleeping?" She asked as soon as I answered instead of saying hello. She was standing on her stool in her closet. "I need your help."

"What is it?" I didn't bother telling her I actually was asleep because I knew it wouldn't matter. "Why you look like you about to go somewhere?" I squinted my eyes as I turned down the brightness on my phone, watching her pull several pairs of pants off hangers.