July 22
7:32am
Cole reached over and turned off his alarm. "Baby, wake up." He whispered to a soundly sleeping Jemaika in their penthouse suite bedroom in New York City. "Babe! Jemaika! Yo ass gonna be late baby girl." He said once she started stirring in her sleep.
"Mmm mm I'm calling out today. I don't feel good."
"Yes you do girl. You just gotta get them limbs moving... take a shower, brush them yellow ass teeth! Imma fix you sumn good to eat."
She raised her hand from beneath the blanket to give him the finger but he kissed it. She giggled, snatching her hand away from Cole.
"Please please baby baby baby please." Cole said, imitating Mars from She's gotta have it. "When you get off work, I wanna go see the city. I ain't really get to when we was here on tour."
"Which part? It's a whole day type thing."
"Okay, then we do the whole day. I'm done around 12, you?"
"About three."
"Damn, it take you at least 2 hours to get ready. So let's just do dinner tonight and make a day of it tomorrow."
"Sounds good, now let me get my last thirty minutes before I kick your ashy ass."
—
Once I was all dressed and prepared for a long morning of interviews, I went down to the lobby where my driver Jermaine was already standing out front waiting for me. He drove me straight to the studio where my first interview was. Geoffrey had been blowing me up about my singles hitting the charts and trending on social media. He was so excited I couldn't say no when he told me about all the publicity events he had set up for me this week. When I got into the car, Geoffrey called to make sure I was on time.
"So, what was your inspiration for your music. Songs like Drip and These Arms?" The young woman smiled.
"I bet you're expecting me to say something like 'there's this girl in my life who completes me and I just wanted to write a song for her letting her know that I love her this much'" he said holding up his hands as if to measure the amount of love he meant. "...or some shit like that right?" He smiled. "If you were to ask me that a year ago, I would've told you all about the girl I was in love with; who I thought was in love with me. But love don't..." he trailed off, becoming uncomfortable with giving details of his personal life on live television. The host caught on and ushered him into the next question seamlessly.
"Well, even if it isn't love, it's been rumored that you're dating child actress and r n b singer Jemaika? Can you confirm this for us, Luke?"
"Uh yeah... we are in a relationship. It's still very new, she's cool though. You know what saying like that's my girl." He smiled, rubbing his forearm. "we're really good friends, that's more important to me than trying to find love. True friendships last longer. They're way more genuine, in my experience."
"So, if your ex isn't, and if Jemaika isn't, where is this passion coming from? Who are you writing for?" She grinned, leaning forward, resting her elbow on the accent chair.
"I write for me." I nodded, looking the young woman in her eyes. "I write about the love that I imagine I deserve... how I want to be loved, how I want to love."
"Some might say that by doing so, you're manifesting the love you want by making your requests known the higher power?"
"Oh yeah. Yeah, most definitely." I chucked, "Maybe I've already got it and just don't know it yet."
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and agree. Sometimes things are right in front of us and we just haven't gotten hip to it yet." She said, collecting her cue cards into her lap and looking Cole in his eyes once again. "Alright, Luke. I just have one more question."
Cole nodded.
"So it's my understanding that that today is the anniversary of your adopted mother's death. Adjoa Adebanjo." She paused giving Cole a sincere look before continuing, "For those watching who may not know, Adjoa Adebanjo was a prominent public figure in the city of Detroit her legacy li..."
I couldn't hear or see anything except for the image of my mother laying in the casket at her funeral. The last time I had seen her. My ears were ringing and I could hear her voice clear as day, "you're doing so good, baby. I'm very proud of you." I blinked a tear away and the next thing I hear is Geoffrey saying my name while squeezing my shoulder. "Come on, Cole. Wake up." He said into my face. I was frozen. Blindsided on national television.
"Cole I am so sorry. If I had known what today was I would've never made you work today. We're gonna cancel all the rest of the interviews today I don't want anyone else digging into your pain right now. So what do you want to do, son? I can have Jermaine take you back to the hotel while we get you a ticket for the next flight out..." he just kept talking on and on and on.
"G. I'm good. I'm fine, don't worry about it."
"No, it's not fine. I don't know why she brought that up or how she even knows."
"It's cool, G."
"It's not, Cole. You froze up on live national television. She ended the segment without you, son. It doesn't get more not cool than that." He shook his head and patted my leg. "Come on, let's get you something to eat." He said, waiting for me to get up and follow him.
My phone then dinged. I unconsciously felt some sort of happiness seeing his contact pop up in my notifications. As much as I didn't want to, I've come to like Lonnie a lot in the past few days. We haven't talked or anything since the river walk, yet just thinking about him made me like him more... ew. I got up and found a more secluded area of the lobby and opened the message after a few seconds of hesitation.
B😈
Today, 9:24 am
B 😈- damn, you good lil dude?
Cole- you was watching?
B😈- I was
Cole- oh.
Cole- wait, how u get my #.
B😈- same way u got mine u stalker
Cole- ?
B😈- you never said who dis so I know u got me saved. prolly under Black with a purple devil emoji.
Cole- 👮🏻♀️🚨.
B😈- got em.
Cole- damn nigga 😅
B😈- so you was adopted?
B😈- nvm. we can talk about sumn else.
B😈- i heard about the party for dame.
B😈- i wasn't invited.
Cole- for good reason.
B😈- as long as mo ain't there i don't see where a problem would come in.
Cole- Cobe gone be there.
B😈- and.
Cole- and? Nicca u got beef with everybody on the west side.
B😈- correction, my crew got beef with the whole west side. ws is full of opps
B😈- what that got to do with me being at the party? Plus Me and Cobe cool.
B😈- im still making up for lost time with my lb. i wanna celebrate him too lil dude.
Cole- why u always call me lil dude 🥴
B😈- do u prefer lil chocolate nigga.
Cole- i prefer Cole.
B😈- see ion really like that tho. how abt sumn like idk... u need a nickname.
Cole- cole is my nickname.
B😈- oh word? so that's not yo real name? who tf are u then lil dude.
Cole- my name is colin
B😈- ew.
Cole- eff u.
Cole- that's what my momma named me
B😈- yo birth mom?
Cole- yes.
B😈- aight den colin.
B😈- can I call u luke? LJ?
Cole- that's weird.
B😈- aight, we can circle back to it. Anyway, i hope your day gets better.
Cole- it already did.
B😈- woah slow down there bud.
Cole- not cuz of u 🥴.
B😈- 🤧ttyl.
Cole- nigga are u 12 😂
B😈- 🖕🏽.
I looked up from my phone smiling noticing that Geoffrey had found me and was still analyzing me. "Let's go." I mumbled, leaving the set of the talk show.
"You feel like you still wanna go to this next show? LaVar is even more invasive than this woman here." He asked, walking beside me twice as fast due to his shorter stature. He looked up at me, waiting for me to answer.
"Uhh. Yeah, I got it, G. I just wasn't prepared, now I am." I nodded, ready to take on whoever else wanted to press me today. In the back of my mind, I knew I had Lonnie to thank.
[03112021]