Having my parents with me in New York felt like the best decision in theory, but in reality, my home life went from peaceful to a living hell. Pam prided herself on coming into my room at random times, asking me how I was doing, offering to take me shopping, anything that involved us getting out of the house. Whenever I suggested that we invite Nicole alone, her mood change and she went back to the solitude of her bedroom, locking herself up and not coming out into dinner. Eddie was the exact opposite. He stayed gone most days and returned in varying moods. The first few days he was tired but still in high spirits, asking everyone how their day was while saying very little about his. His breaking point was Thursday, when he came home drenched in sweat, snapping on anyone that dared to speak to him. Pam, who was already suffering from cabin fever, snapped back, which lead to a two hour blow up where they called each other every name in the book. It took Nicole coming home from working a day shift at the bar to calm the two of them down. Friday couldn't have come fast enough. Gladys noticed my excitement as we sat down for breakfast.
"Someone's got a bright glow," she said, only taking her eyes off of her paper long enough to take a bite of eggs. "That means one of two things: you got some dick or you're tired of being cooped up in the house with your family."
I was not going to tell Gladys that I fucked her grandson in her house, so I opted to go with, "I'm happy to be here. Don't get me wrong; I love my family to death, but the entire situation with Preaux has changed them. Eddie spends all his time out doing God knows what and Pam is acting strange."
"And Nicole?"
"Nicole is Nicole. She comes homes, goes to sleep, and she's right back at work. She is much nicer to me though," I said, which was the only silver lining in this entire situation. Her efforts were small, but Nicole greeted me every morning when she came in from work and said goodbye on her way out. "Maybe I should invite her out to dinner or something..."
"As good as you cook? Why don't you make her dinner?" Gladys replied, giving her paper a ruffle. There was a knock at the door. "I'm not expecting anyone. I want you to go over to the door and don't answer it until I say so."
I took a leaf out of Urban's book, rising from my seat and gliding over to the door. I slid the peephole back a pinch to see who it was. Gladys' uninvited guest was tall, with broad shoulders and a menacing stance. I turned to give Gladys his description and saw her standing there wielding a gun. I pressed myself into the door, holding my chest as I was brought back to Savannah, standing at the end of Preaux's pistol.
"I...I...I don't know who it is," I stammered.
Gladys put down her gun and nudged her head. "Step to the side, sweetheart."
I stepped so far to the side I was halfway into the hallway closet when Gladys peeked through the peephole, her gun still tight in her hand. She let out an agitated sigh and swung the door open. I noticed that she had yet to put her gun away. The menacing figure I watched from the peephole stepped into the apartment, still retaining his eerie aura. While my appraisal of him was one of wariness, his was the exact opposite; I could feel him undressing me with those dark eyes of his, peeling off the wrap dress I wore and imagine doing something highly inappropriate to me in my boots he was eyeing.
"Did you come here to see me or my caretaker?" Gladys said, taking a protective stance in front of me.
His eyes widened in recognition. "This is Normani? Everything makes perfect sense now..." He reached over Gladys and held out his hand. "I'm Malone, Urban's brother and—"
"My mother's boyfriend," I reminded him, shaking his hand despite my mild disgust.
"On most days," he replied, holding my hand a little too long for comfort. I snatched it away and made a beeline for the kitchen, deciding to give Gladys and her other grandson some time to talk. "Gladys, how you doing? I thought I was gon see you at Briana's birthday party but I guess you only show up for certain grandchildren. It's all good though; like me, my kids don't need you."
I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep from putting that disrespectful bastard in his place. I couldn't blame Gladys for keeping her distance from anything Malone related and now I was wondering what Nicole was doing with him. For all of my offense, Gladys was the exact opposite; she shrugged off his harsh words and asked, "What the fuck do you want, Malone?"
"Urban sent me here to get some paperwork from you. He said something about a timesheet and some other stuff for the bank."
"Funny...Uriah always comes to grab any important paperwork himself. Or he sends Koi. Tell me the truth: what are you doing here?" Gladys demanded, placing her hands on her hips, making sure Malone got a glimpse of her gun.
Malone sucked his teeth. "Like I said: he sent me here to pick up some paperwork. Why the fuck else would I come here unless somebody made me? If you don't believe me, give Urban a call and let him tell you."
"That's exactly what I plan on doing..."
Gladys' house slippers slapped the floor as she retreated down the hall to call Urban. I started busying myself in the kitchen, staring at the meat in the freezer, deciding what I wanted to make for dinner. There was a shift in the hallway and saw Malone post up in the kitchen doorway, eyeing my like I was a piece of meat.
"Mmmm...Urban don went and got him a PYT. How old are you, baby girl?"
I cut my eyes at him. "Old enough to be your daughter. You know, considering that my mother is your girlfriend and everything."
"I never said I was checking for you or anything," Malone said, holding his hands up in the air. "Just wanted to make some small talk while my grandmother went to make a call. You been here a couple months, right? I would've came by and met you except me and your mother aren't on the best terms right now. She still a little mad about some shit that went down around the time you got here."
"What? You don't know how to talk to her either>"
Malone's jaw set and I could tell that he didn't like me getting on him for his behavior, but I wasn't going to kiss up to him. Never that. He rose from the doorway and took two steps towards me and when those didn't faze me he took two more, stopping a couple feet away from me.
"I don't take kindly to disrespect, little girl. Your mother can tell you as much. I don't give a fuck how much of my brother's dick you swallow—watch how you talk to me or else."
"Or else what?"
He placed his hand against the refrigerator with a slap hard enough to shake me on the inside. Leaning in close enough that our noses nearly touched, he said, "You gon find out why I got the most lethal hands in Brooklyn."
I opened my mouth to tell Malone that he could take his lethal hands and use them to stroke his prostate when his phone started ringing. With one last withering stare, he walked away, connecting the call as he arrived at his original spot.
"Talk to me...I'm out handling some business...is it that important? Aight, I'll be there in a few minutes." In a lower voice, he said, "Watch how the fuck you talk to me. That...shit don't mean nothing to a street nigga."
Malone poked his head back into the kitchen, peering at me as if to see how much I heard. I was quick on my feet, stuffing my head in the freezer and picking through the meats. I could see him advancing on me, probably to slam it repeatedly on my neck, and was saved by that familiar sound of Gladys' house shoes.
"You got lucky this time. Urban said Koi was busy handling some business so he decided to send his third in command..." She stopped at the sight of him close to the doorway and me pulling my head from the freezer. "Malone," she said, holding the files out to him without taking her eyes off of me. "Take the paperwork and get the fuck out of my house."
Malone snatched the folder from her. He mouthed to me, "Keep your fucking mouth shut, bitch," and said to Gladys, "See you around, old bird."
The front door slammed shut, leaving the two of us standing in an awkward silence. Gladys pointed to the door. "He do something to you?"
"Other than being a sleaze, no. I'm fine. Plus he knows better than to touch me," I replied, pulling a pack of frozen oxtails from the freezer.
Gladys cocked her head to the side. "Why, because you're fucking his brother?" I blanched at her brazenness. "Oh, you thought I didn't know? I came home the next morning to a spotless apartment. Too spotless. Uriah knows that I'm the only person that's supposed to be fucking in my apartment and by the random chance that he does he better clean up after himself."
"Are you mad?"
"Mad, no. Disappointed, yes." Gladys motioned for me to take a seat at the table. "I consider you like a daughter to me, and I would tell my daughter to keep those legs closed until that man is ready to give you a serious commitment."
"Have you thought that maybe I'm not looking for anything serious? Maybe I just wanted one night, no strings attached, just to clear my head?"
"The way you just spoke of Urban protecting you tells that you do want more. The same way he hopped on a flight to save you from whatever trouble you were in back at home." I hit her with another surprised face and she laughed. "Honey, when will you learn that nothing gets pass me? I know everything, the same way I knew it was only a matter of time the two of you got together. Did I think it was going to be in my house on my good sheets? No, but hell we've all done some inappropriate things. Ernest took me right where you're sitting."
I snatched my hands from the table. "Eww...you didn't have to tell me all of that."
"Girl, a little Lysol and some elbow grease works wonders. Besides, if you don't wanna sit on anything I fucked on you might as well just leave my apartment and give me back them Manolo Blahnik pumps I gave you. I got them from Chester, my main squeeze down in Alabama. He's got a thing for feet so—"
"Gladys, can I ask you something?" I said, trying to steer the conversation away from whatever she did in them heels that I love so much. "Do you think Malone is loyal to your family?"
Gladys pondered over my question. "I think Malone's loyalty will always be to himself. However, he's never done anything that would make me think anything otherwise. Why, did he say something while I was gone?"
"No," I said, deciding to keep the conversation I overheard to myself until I had more evidence. "He just gives me this really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach is all."
"Could be the evilness seeping from his pores. That boy has been a bad seed since the day he was born. It could have something to do with the fact that Ursula was on crack when she had him."
Urban never mentioned his mother being on drugs. "I didn't know that..."
"Urban doesn't like talking about her that much. He loves her, yes, but she's too set in her ways to make any changes for the better." Gladys caught the look I gave her and shot one back at me. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I thought she was...dead."
Gladys shook her head. "Well she might as well be dead to him," she said more to herself than to me. She moved right along to the next topic at hand. "I want you to do me a favor, Normani. Stay away from Malone. He's a bad seed. And another thing: stay out of bed with my grandson until he makes a commitment to you. Uriah is a man of means. If he truly wants to be with you, he will move mountains to do so."
The logical Normani completely agreed; Urban and I have slept together twice and both times were ruled by convenience. I wasn't ready to jump back into a relationship just yet, but when the time came I had a fear that Urban wouldn't even want that from me if we kept up at the rate we were going. How to break this down to him remained on my mind all day and I was still trying to find the words on my way home. I grew too comfortable in my thought and ran face first into a wall, or what I thought was a wall.
"I see you still ain't looking where you going," Bull said, peering down at me through those long lashes of his. He raised a curious eyebrow. "What was you thinking about this time around? Me, I hope."
"Nah," I laughed. "Other stuff. I have a lot on my plate right now and it gets the best of me sometimes. I'm sorry for bumping into you."
It was Bull's turn to laugh. "You so damn cute, I can't even beat to lie to you. You wasn't in my way; walked in front of you. But to be fair, you need to pay better attention to your surroundings. Niggas around here see a beautiful woman walking around by herself not looking where she's going and they'll try some funny shit whether you got the protection of the that nigga Urban or not."
"There's nothing going on with me and Urban," I said, quickly. Too quickly.
He held his hands up. "I never said there was. I'm just saying, your family is cool with his. Ain't no need to go on the defense...unless you dohave something going on with him."
"No, there's nothing going on," I answered for the second time with a vehement shake of my head.
Bull reached into his pocket and pulled out a flyer, one of the ones with a beautiful Instagram model on it and mad random niggas. "Good, then you can come through to my talent showcase over the weekend. I got a few of my artists performing and I might take the stage too."
"I don't know..."
"I'm not taking no for an answer," he said, slipping the flyer into the front slot of my purse. "Make sure you come through. Bring a couple friends too. I'll be sure to put you on the list."
"Bull—"
"I gotta take this call; it the club owner making sure I got the permits," Bull said, pulling out his phone and connecting the call. "I'll see you Saturday, gorgeous."
Life was like a baseball game: you had no idea what kind of ball the pitcher was going to throw at you but you had to take it like a G and handle business accordingly. It went from taking the man I was convinced I was going to spend the test of my life with to adding in a new one that shortly became my everything. And with his unavailability, here was another one I felt this strange attraction to. Bull was rough around the edges, but I had a good feeling he could make a homerun and slide straight into my heart.