Zuria
5 months later
"Zuria!" I heard Retta calling me in my sleep.
"Zuri." She called again as I popped up, looking around.
"What?" I spoke groggily as I squinted my eyes at the sun shining brightly into the room.
"What time it is?" I asked, running my fingers through my hair.
"Girl, it's noon. It's time to get up." She said to me as I looked around the empty room and down at the air mattress that I was sleeping on, that was slightly deflated from me laying here so long.
"And my landlord is coming in about an hour for an inspection so I'm going to need you to help me straighten up a little bit." She expressed and I nodded slowly.
"After that, we're going to go job searching again." She said and I sighed deeply, nodding.
"Okay. Just let me get up and get myself ready." I told her and she did as I said, leaving the room.
Sitting there a while as I picked my brain, I couldn't even believe that this was my life now. For the past five months it's been hell for me.
Mitch ended up selling the house after about two months without even saying anything to me. Leaving me with no where to go. The five thousand dollars he did give me, I combined it with the small savings I'd had, simply trying to keep the house up and bills paid for the first two months but after he sold it, all of that money basically went to waste.
Ms. Gladys and my mother were still being advocates for Mitch, claiming they didn't want to be involved in this petty mess that we were creating for ourselves so now I was living Retta, in her very small two bed room apartment.
Clearing my throat, I stood to my feet and stretched my body out. I then began to straighten up the room a little, rolling the air mattress back up and putting it back into the box.
"Z, are you up?" Retta knocked on the door and I couldn't help but to roll my eyes.
"Yeah." I replied, grabbing clothes from one of my duffle bags.
"Alright, cool. I made food too if you want some." She went onto say and I nodded, keeping note of that. I just needed to get my hygiene together first before anything else.
After grabbing the clothes I would wear today, I made my out of the room and down the hall toward the bathroom. Closing the door behind me, I looked in the small mirror, seeing that my hair was a mess and my nails were chipped and all I had left at this point was my dignity.
After sulking for a minute, I finally got undressed and began my hygiene routine. It took me no more than 20 minutes since the hot water seemed to always be nonexistent after a while of showering in here.
I had to make due with what I could.
After I was finished with my shower then my oral hygiene, I got dressed and made my way back to my room to put everything back into my bags.
"Hey, Z. I think we should go down to my job again and she if they'll hire you." Retta spoke as I did before I walked back out of the room and met her in the kitchen.
"I think they might hire you this time." She went on and I shook my head in defeat.
"I'm not going back there to be disappointed again, Retta." I explained to her, since we'd already tried and they'd denied me multiple times which was insane to me, considering it was gentlemen's club.
Who the hell were they to be picky.
"Plus I don't really even want to be a bottle girl." I rolled my eyes at the thought. That wasn't my cup of tea, that was her thing.
"It's not about what you want, Z. You have to get a job some time. Do you want to live here forever?" She went onto explain and I nodded, knowing she was right but there were other jobs out there for me.
"Well I guess I'll just have to keep looking." I shrugged.
"Alright. Well let's clean up a little bit and then we'll be on our way." She said to me and I nodded in agreement.
*
Mitch
"Damn, the homie out here making moves." The homie Pablo spoke in excitedly as he looked around the new building.
I'd just purchased a new space to open up my second facility, outside of the barbershop business.
"Can't believe my nigga about to own a whole strip club." He went on, making me chuckle.
"Wait until I tell the hood this one." He facepalmed hisself.
"You about to have all the bad bitches from the hood out here auditioning, nigga." He went on, scrolling his phone.
"Alright sir, all 20 pole installments will be completed by next week. By then you should be cleared for your grand opening." The realtor spoke as he walked up on us and I nodded slowly with a smile.
"Aight. That's great to hear. Thanks again, man." I shook his hand before he said his goodbyes and made his way on.
Looking around the place one last time, I was excited but humbled at the same time. It was great feeling to be moving up in my life. I needed this shit, considering everything I'd been through.
Walking out of the place, the homie Pablo told me he was going back to the shop because he had a few heads to cut so I just sat outside and waited for my mama to pull up.
Seeing her car pulling up to the side of my building, she got out with a smile before Marley got out as well.
"Daddy!" She yelled for me as she ran up on me and I grabbed her, putting her in the air.
"What's up, babygirl?" I smiled wide, kissing her cheeks as she hugged me tightly.
"I missed you." She pouted, grabbing my beard like she usually does and I nodded slowly.
"I missed you too." I expressed to her.
It'd been a long 5 months for me. After court with Porsha and refraining myself from killing that bitch, I'd ended up being granted with full custody of Marley.
Not only because I was the breadwinner but Marley ended up telling the people that her mama was hitting on her. Honestly, I never expected to her to do that but when she did, I knew I had to get her out of there.
So now her mama was looking at jail time and that wasn't enough for me but it was something.
It was definitely something.
"How are you, baby?" My mama spoke, rubbing her hand down my cheek as I looked down at her.
"I'm aight." I expressed, putting Marley down onto her feet as she now clung to my leg.
"This is your building?" She asked, looking up at it with a smile.
"Yeah. It's officially mine, got the keys and everything." I explained to her as she looked at me with a huge smile on her face. A smile every nigga in the world hopes to put on their mama's face.
"I'm so proud of you, baby. You've worked so hard and you deserve it." She went on and I nodded slowly, looking down at my feet.
Though all of this was good and it felt like I had the world in my hands, falling out with my shawty was probably the worse thing that could've happened.
I hadn't seen Z in months and I didn't know where she was or what she was doing. Our mama's had a strict rule not to disclose information about each other to us since the family was still close and there was no chance of them not being just because of us not being together any more.
"Son, I just want you to know that all of this is amazing. You are doing everything that you've said you would." My mama went on to say.
"And it wasn't easy to believe, considering the drugs and the bad boy mentality you had when you were younger." She chuckled, making me smile.
"I'm so happy and so proud of you for making your dreams a reality."
"But never forget, the ultimate goal is love." She went on to say and I nodded slowly, looking down at Marley.
"Family and the people you love is the only thing that can make you feel whole on this planet."
"Not a bunch of money or cars or materialistic things."
"You understand me?" She asked and I nodded slowly.
"Yeah. I get what you sayin', ma." I expressed to her.
"Love is the holy grail and without it, you will always feel empty."
"Remember that."
*