Interception (Book 6)

Chapter 48

A.J P.O.V.

"Alright, so I got you two of your favorites, pepperoni and mushroom pizza with extra cheese and a side of buffalo wings with bleu cheese,"

I sat back on the couch, watching Mariah open up all the bags of food she had just popped up over here with about fifteen minutes ago.

"And for dessert," she started again. "I picked up some white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, I'll put them in the oven for us later, you don't mind if I use your oven, right?"

I sighed. "Wassup with you popping up here unannounced now? What if I had plans tonight? Its Friday,"

She chuckled. "Plans with who? You don't know anyone out here but me, and you're damn sure not going out alone, that's not your style," she laughed again, continuing to unpack and separate our food.

"Ight, well what if I just wanted to be alone?"

"You were alone for a whole week last week, nobody needs to be alone for that long by choice, it isn't healthy, besides I heard how Mr. Vontello gave you hell this week, since it was your first week back at work, so I know that you need to relax and unwind this weekend,"

I was silent.

"So," She started again. "What do you wanna watch? Since this is a movie night and all," She tucked her feet under her butt, before looking over at me, slightly smiling.

I shrugged. "Ion know, you can pick whatever."

She smacked her lips together, continuing to scroll through the list of movie choices. "No, you're going to pick something, I've done everything else,"

I sighed, opening my mouth to speak, but the sound of my phone vibrating beside me stopped me. I quickly glanced over, and let out a small sigh once I seen mama calling me.

She had been calling me non stop since I flew back from Bora Bora, so I knew he probably heard the news by now about Marissa and I. Truth is, I wasn't ready to talk to her or anybody else in the family about it, so until then, they were all going to get ignored.

I hit decline quickly, and slid my phone into my pants pocket, not wanting to be bothered tonight. It was already bad enough that Mariah was here, forcing me to go through with this bogus ass movie night while wearing our pajamas and shit.

I turned back around to see her looking at me with a eyebrow raised.

"What?" I asked with a slight frown. "Who was that?"

"My mama," I said in a sigh. "She's been calling me since last week," she frowned. "Is everything okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure it is."

"How would you know if you haven't answered?" I sighed again. "My pops would call me if it was something serious, or she could've just texted or left a voicemail or somethin,"

She shook her head. "It's been two weeks AJ, I'm not telling you how you should feel or anything, but what I do think is that you have to stop pushing away your family .....she's probably calling because she heard from Marissa what happened between you two, and she just wants to make sure you're okay,"

"And to talk about what happened," I started. "I don't need everybody in my business right now, it is what It is, and ion wanna discuss it,"

She was silent for a second. "...if you don't wanna talk about it, that's up to you, but I don't think it's a good idea to push the people who care about and love you away....have you ever stopped to think about how you not answering or calling her back makes her feel? She's probably more worried than she should be because of how far away you are and you're choosing not to answer her calls,"