I hadn't really spoken to Aubrey in a few days. Honestly, it wasn't anyone's fault. I've been extremely busy with work. It's March and designers are ready to release their spring collections. So my time has been completely tied up ensuring that all deals go smoothly between my company and theirs. As for Aubrey, he's a multimillionaire so I can't blame him, I know that his schedule is extremely hectic.
I decided to send him a text message.
Avery: Hey Aubs 😉
I was laying on the couch eating a bag of chips and waiting for Aubrey to reply when Zac came and climbed into my lap with the cutest pouting face on.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
"I wanna go to the park", he replied in a soft voice.
"Well did you ask anyone to take you?"
He nodded. "Daddy said no."
"Why did your dad say no?" He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sure he has a good reason. Let's go talk to him." I stood up and bent to hold Zac's hand but he pulled away from me.
"I don't wanna go to daddy.", he said sounding scared.
My heart went out to him. By the way he was acting, he must have been misbehaving and not going to the park was probably his punishment.
"Okay, you stay here and I'll go talk to him."
He nodded and sat on the couch. I flipped the TV from the movie that I was watching to a cartoon for Zac. Vido was in the backyard shooting some hoops so I headed out there.
"Why can't Zac go to the park?", asked him.
"That's what you walk out here to ask me?"
"Yeah. He looks like he's gonna burst in tears."
"Good that means he learned his lesson."
I rolled my eyes. "Just tell me why you punished him."
"I don't see how me punishing my son is any of your business."
"It is my business because he's my nephew and godson!"
"Do you always gotta say nephew and godson. It sounds dumb. Just pick one."
"Well I'm sorry for taking my role as aunt and godmother seriously," my voice got loud. I felt my phone vibrate in my hand. I hoped it was Aubrey.
"Tweety, you gotta chill. You know that you're the only person who questions what I do concerning my son?"
"No, I'm not."
"You are. DJ nor Allie does. Shit neither does my babymomma-"
"Nina. She has a name", I corrected him. I hated when he referred to my best friend as 'babymomma' as if she was a pointless hookup.
He kissed his teeth. "All you need to know is he was being rude, not listening to me. You acting like I gave him a jail sentence or something. Shit, he's lucky I didn't whoop his ass."
"And if you did I would've beat yours." In return Vido laughed as if I just told him the funniest joke of the year. I unlocked my phone and saw that it was Aubrey replying to me.
Aubrey: Aubs? 😏 I like the sound of that.
Avery: What are you up to?
I walked back into the house to be with Zac.
Aubrey: Dealing with a hangover. You busy?
Avery: No. Why?
A few seconds after I sent the text a FaceTime request came through. I jumped up from the couch and ran to one of the downstairs bathrooms to look in the mirror to make sure I looked good. Then I ran back into the living room and sat down on the couch trying to act natural. Zac was staring at me like I was crazy.
"If you were a girl, you'd understand," I informed him and he made a face at me. I answered the call and waved at Aubrey.
"Hey Avie."
"Avie?"
"You called me Aubs ten minutes ago. I thought we were making cute nicknames for each other."
I laughed. "Okay, you got me. You can call me Avie."
"Psh. You saying that like I need your permission."
"Boy please," I said putting my hand up. "You look terrible. Hungover isn't a good look for you," I teased.
He smiled like I was giving him a compliment. "I had a rough night."
"What happened?"
"I had some people over at my place. Things got a little wild."
"Only a little?"
"Maybe a lot wild. Shit was crazy."
"Umm. Can we not use profanity? Children are present," I said and turned my phone to face Zac.
"I'm sorry. Hey lil man", Aubrey said and Zac waved at him. "What's your name?"
Zac didn't reply, he just turned and buried his face in my arm.
"This is my nephew, Zac. He's a little shy."
"Well, Zac, you're gonna get to know me. I'll be coming to see you real soon."
"You wil?", I asked while turning the screen back to face me.
"Yeah. I'll be in Miami for about four days next week."
"How come you're coming down here?"
"I'm gonna be filming a music video."
"Of course it's a business trip."
"Don't sound so jealous," he smirked. "I'm gonna slip in some time to spend with you, Avie."
"You really like this idea of mixing business with pleasure don't you?"
He smiled and nodded. "But speaking of business. When I come I'll be bringing the shipment of OVO apparel for your stores. My private jet is more than capable of holding everything."
"That's great and all but we haven't even gone over guidelines, discuss pricing. We don't even have a contract written up."
"Well all that can be discussed next week. I'll even make sure that a member of my company's legal team is present, since you want to do this the proper way."
"I just want things done the 'proper' way as you put it in order to avoid any discrepancies in the future."
"Discrepancies like what?", his tone sounded serious.
"I can't say what the future holds but what if something comes up and your company decides to sue mine? I just want to make sure everything is done legally."
"You're saying this as if you think I'd send my lawyers for you. Don't you know I'd never do that?", he asked but I didn't reply because I wasn't sure. "Avery, don't you trust me at all?"
"I feel as though I could trust you. I believe that your intentions are pure."
"But?", he asked.
"But, I've only known you for a month and a half now. It's a bit too soon for me to say that I do trust you."
"Well I hope that I prove to you that you can trust me."
I looked down. "I hope so too but that might be a hard job because I don't trust easy."
"Lemme guess. You gave your all to some guy in your pass and he took you for granted. He broke your heart but it took you a long while to put yourself back together. But now, you have a thick wall up, to prevent you from falling for anyone like that again."
"You think you got me figured out, huh?" I asked.
"Im trying to figure you out, but you don't give me much to work with. At least let me know if I'm on the right track."
"You're way off," I said quite matter-of-factly.
"I am?", he asked while raising a brow.
I nodded. "You can't figure me out because I'm not like the girls who you write about in songs." I used my hands to cover Zac's ears. "My life story is a lot more fucked up than theirs."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OMG. Drake said he's releasing the album cover for Views at 7:00. And it's 7:58, my time. So I'm kinda freaking out on the inside.