"You still at the gym?" Xavion asked Ant, as he drove back into the city. He had just been informed that his shifts for this week had changed, so he'd be out on the trucks doing deliveries in the morning—except nobody told him that. So he drove all the way to his job for nothing.
"Yeah, wit' the boys," he replied. "You not workin'?"
"Nah, I gotta be in at 6," he shook his head. "I was gon come by since I can't tomorrow morning but—"
"It's Xavion...back up! They tellin you come through," Ant laughed. "Tyson say he got his progress report, signed and everything," he explained, and Xavi couldn't help but to laugh.
"Aight, I'm gon be there in a while," he chuckled. "They got gloves?"
"Yeah. They excited now," Ant laughed.
"That's what I'm talm' bout," Xavion dapped Tyson up. "We could shadowbox and then do mitts, get your shit on," he nodded once he saw Ty's report card—all A's and B's finally. Tyson's mom even wrote him a little note thanking him for the extra incentive.
Before Xavion got his gloves on, his phone started ringing, and it was his older sister—Desireé. She was 32 compared to his 26, and he loved acting like he was her older brother.
"Hi Pooda," she smiled and he rolled his eyes.
"Hi Des, wassup?" he chuckled.
"Nothin', I was just bored. Sky and her daddy went to get ice cream and I'm here alone," she sighed dramatically.
"Are you asking me ta' come over, Desireé?" he chuckled.
"Yes. Maybe I just wanna see my baby brother! Is that a problem?"
"No, dramatic ass. I'm at the gym, can I come through after?" he wondered as Tyson came back toward him.
"Yep, bring me some food please, I love you," she smiled widely. "Be safe!"
"Aight, I love you too," he signed it to her, and she did the same before hanging the phone up. He was glad he didn't have to go home after this, he'd just be up looking at nothing. His body was used to being up and working right now.
"Yo sister bout bad as fuck," Tyson shook his head.
"G, shut the hell up. Get in the ring before I beat yo' ass," he pointed and the younger boy simply laughed,
"You do love me," Desireé placed her her hand over her chest when her brother handed her the food. "How was your day?" she asked as they sat on the couch.
"It was straight, I drove all the way to work, aint have to work so, it's whatever," he shrugged. "How bout you?"
"Good! I got off early, so me and Sky was just being lazy all day," she chuckled. Skylar—his two year old niece was his sister's only child, the first grandchild in their family. Desireé got married when she was 21, as a junior in college—to her college sweetheart, Dawson.
He and Desireé were always extremely close, as it was only those two for ten years, until Dymond was born. Although they're six years apart, you couldn't tell, they were truly the best of friends. Sometimes when they went out, all three of them, people thought they we're Dymond's parents—it never failed to disgust them.
After a little more talking, he and his sister grabbed throw blankets from her basket in the living room and cozied up on opposite sides of the couch to watch a movie. It felt good to just relax and chill with his sister even if it was going on 9:00 at night.
"Now where is this man wit' my child? Her bedtime is in 30 minutes and he doesn't have to take her to daycare in the morning," she shook her head, and as she went to call him, the front door opened, Dawson and a very sleepy looking Skylar walked in, being carried of course.
"Is that my sunshine?" Xavion spoke to catch her attention and her head immediately shot up from Dawson's shoulder. "Hi babygirl,"
"Uncle Zay!" she shrieked, kicking her legs until her dad put her down and she ran over to him, hopping on the couch to hug him. "I miss you!"
"I miss you too, boo boo. You had a good day?" he asked, kissing her forehead, making her smile. When Sky was born, he felt his heart grow ten times it's size, she was so precious to him, he felt like he had his own baby when she was born.
Although he wasn't working with much right now, he tried to give Skylar whatever he could give, even if it was just a t-shirt from an out of state match, he loved buying his niece gifts. He enjoyed taking her out on the weekends and FaceTiming her while he took breaks from his workout.
As Sky told him about her day, he could tell she was exhausted. "You want me to put her down?" he signed to Desireé. He knew if he said the word bed, she would protest heavily.
"Yes please, she needs to brush her teeth and wash her face. Can you see if she'll use the bathroom too?" she signed back and he nodded, standing up with her in his arms as she continued to babble on.
He took her in the bathroom and she immediately went to the toilet to use it. He turned around like he always did, covering his eyes, because—in her words, 'boys can't see you pee'. He was glad she knew that, especially since she was in school. He wasn't afraid to fight children.
She then brushed her teeth, beginning to yawn and rub her eyes, prompting Xavion to take over, and wash her face as well. He lifted her off her stool and took her back in the living room to say goodnight to her parents before taking her into the room to change her into her pj's and a pull-up, just in case.
"You go night night too, Uncle Zay?" she wondered when he put her bonnet on.
"Yes, baby. When I go home, I gotta go night night too," he chuckled, beginning to tuck her into her Doc McStuffin's bedspread. "Can I have a kiss, please?" he offered his cheek to her and she leaned up to give him one. "Thank you," he grinned, giving her one back.
After he said her nightly prayer with her she was more than ready to call it a night and get some rest. "Love you," she smiled up at him, signing 'I love you' like they always did before he left her.
"I love you, Skylar," he signed it back before flipping her big light off and her night light on.
The next morning, Xavion was dragging his feet out of the door at 5:45. Right now, he'd typically be running, but the fact that he was just waking up threw him off severely. All he wanted was to crawl back into bed.
A hard sigh left his lips as he pulled into an open parking space in front of his job, dreading the day before it even began.
"You gotta be kidding me," Mari whined, getting out of her car, seeing the back tire completely flat in the back. She was already a few minutes behind her schedule, snoozing through her four alarms.
She didn't know what she rolled over but she literally heard her tire burst, and she felt the rims hitting the street. She quickly snatched her phone out of her pocket, her frigid fingers typing a text to Sahara to let her know what happened.
: man why my damn tire popped. ima be late 🙄
best💕: okay pooh. be safe, call your daddy.
Emari nodded in agreement to her friends text, dialing her dad's number while popping her trunk, praying she had a spare.
"Hey Moo," her father greeted.
"Hey dad—did you take the jack from my car?" she asked, traveling to her trunk, thankfully seeing the spare but not the jack to get the car up.
"Yesterday I had to replace mama's brakes. Why what happened?"
She groaned audibly, throwing her head backwards. "My tire's completely flat, hole in it and all. I could change it and everything but I needed my jack," she explained, also letting him know where she was, so maybe he could come by with his, but he was unfortunately already at work.
"Call Buddha, he might be around there. But if he's not, call me back and I'll come, baby," he said to her, and she nodded along.
"Okay, I'll call him. Thanks daddy,"
"Love you, Mookie."
"I love you too," she chuckled. He was always the more affectionate parent, especially as he got older. She thought it was adorable.
After calling her brother—waking him from his sleep, he told her he'd come replace it and for her to sit still, but she had little to no gas, and couldn't just run her heat like she had a full tank, which led her to sitting in her car, in the 25 degree weather.
She sighed, seeing the cars whizz past her, wishing she was one of them, so she could be warm at work, seeing the little kids—and the not so little ones as well. Emari loved her job, she got to meet so many different families and see all different types of babies and kids, she genuinely enjoyed the medical field.
As she leaned her head back and began getting comfortable, a UPS truck behind her startled her, and she looked to her left, seeing a delivery driver approaching her window.
"You straight?" he asked, blowing into his hands for warmth once she rolled her window down, apprehensively at that. She wasn't really one to talk to strangers but she had her mace not even an inch away.
"Uh, my tire flat," she gestured at the back. She looked at the man who approached her, not even noticing at first how attractive he was. His skin was just about as dark as hers, and he genuinely looked like he should be in front of somebody's camera.
"You know how ta' change it?" he wondered.
"I do, but I don't have a jack on me—my brother's supposed to be comin' but I'm not sure when he gon be here," she said and he nodded, looking as if he was contemplating something.
"I uh, I got one in the truck, I could do it for you, it's cold, you know? Don't want nobody out in the cold if I could help," he shrugged and Emari's eyebrows shot up.
She was more than a little skeptical, she didn't know this man from Adam, and here he was randomly offering his help to her. She'd seen too many episodes of SVU to not be suspicious.
She was also freezing, though.
"Uh, okay, sure. Thank you," she nodded and he did the same, heading back to his truck to get what he needed.
She snatched her taser from her middle console and stuffed it in her coat pocket, making sure to keep a hand on it while she walked around to the trunk again.
"It's this one, I assume," he pointed at the clearly flat tire and she nodded. "The hell you hit?" he mumbled to himself, but Emari heard him, and she stifled a laugh, because she didn't know either.
She watched him as he worked, still astonished that a random UPS driver stopped to help her change her tire in the dead of a harsh Chicago winter.
The fact that he was fine was only a bonus.
"You're shitting me," she gasped when she felt a raindrops directly on her scalp, as she had braids in her hair at the moment. "Um, I think it's gonna rain!" she called to the man as he was beginning to jack her car up.
"Rain? Man," he sucked his teeth. "Well you should probably get in, Yo' scrubs gon get all wet and sh—stuff," he immediately caught himself, and she couldn't help the small smile that quirked up on her face.
"No, no it's cool, I have an umbrella—" she started to say as it started picking up. "Lemme get it," she held up her finger and rushed to her car grabbing her huge clear umbrella and coming back to hold it over him.
"You don't have to do all that, I'll be—"
"No, you're really helpin' me out, least I could do. Go ahead, it's fine I promise," she nodded and he hesitated before she smiled and his eyes went wide before he nodded his head as well and continued on. Her phone started ringing and she saw it was her brother, whom she completely forgot to inform that she was okay.
"Moo, I'm finna leave, where you at again?"
"Don't leave! I'm okay now I—"
"How? Yo tire magically fixed itself Emari? Dad came?"
"Zion stop cutting me off! Anyway, somebody stopped to help, you don't have to come. Plus it's freezing rain right now," she explained.
"Moo, who the hell you wit?" he asked, and she sighed silently. He was always protective over she and Mycah. He was already an aggressive personality, completely opposite to hers.
"A very nice UPS driver. He's—"
"He? I'm finna come, just in case,"
"Buddha! I'll be done in five minutes, I'll text you the license plate number okay? And we can get on FaceTime, don't waste your gas, I'm okay," she tried to reassure him. He was silent on the other line for a few seconds before he replied.
"Aight, Moo. Call me," he said and she simply switched the call to FaceTime. "Lemme see him," he immediately said and Emari flipped the camera so he could see what she was seeing.
Ten minutes went by and by this time Emari was freezing and slightly wet. The umbrella covered a bit of her but she was holding more so over him.
"Aight, you good," he popped back up from the ground, and she looked down, seeing a brand new tire on her car. "I could put this in the trunk?" he wondered and she nodded, stepping back so she could get to it.
"Thank you so much, you really just saved me," she expressed her gratitude as he shut her trunk. "I really appreciate it," she smiled at him and he did so back, his smile only serving to make her smile wider.
"Yeah, no problem. Glad I could help you out," he nodded. His phone buzzed as she was about to speak again and his eyes widened when he saw the message. "Oh shit—I gotta go, but you have a good rest of your day," he rushed out.
"Oh, you too! Thanks again!" she called as he sped back to his truck. He nicely waited for her to get in her car and turn it on before pulling away, honking as he passed and she waved again. "That was surreal as hell," she mumbled.
"Hell yeah, some movie shit. Niggas ain't never that nice," he chuckled and she smacked her lips. "They not!"
"He was fine too?! Girl should'a snatched that number up," Sahara spoke as the girls sat across from each other at their lunch hour.
"I wasn't even worried about that," Emari chuckled. "You know I'm never late, I was stressed out!"
"See, that's what happens when you work with a punctual doctor. Franklin is late every day—so I take my sweet time every morning," she shrugged and Emari shook her head at her friend as another coworker entered the space.
"Leave Robinson alone, we get work done on our side," she teased. "What you on this weekend?" she wondered.
Sahara and Emari had been best friends since they first met in their sophomore year of high school. Sahara was a transfer student and loved the way Emari wore her hair that day in their homeroom class, so she decided to tell her and the rest was history.
"Girl gotta go visit Shaad's family. I'm already irritated, his funky ass mama gon take me there," she shook her head, referring to her boyfriend of two years—Rashaad.
While Sahara and Emari were extremely similar in that they were both more on the reserved side and had rather calm tendencies, Sahara was very easy to agitate and her temper was quick, compared to Emari who was more of a slow burn type of girl.
"Don't y'all get to arguing, because them you and Shaad gon fuss and I don't have time to play therapy," she said jokingly.
"Girl fuck you," Sahara laughed, making her friend laugh in turn as they finished up their lunch.
they met!
look at xavi being the perfect gentleman lol
my sis had the pepper spray on hand. as y'all should as well be safe out here ☝🏾
how did y'all enjoy this chapter? im so happy y'all likes chapter one 🥺 i could just cry.
also, as y'all can see when xavi is signing with his family or to anyone, the words will be italicized :)
what was y'all favorite part of this chapter? lmk!