Goal, page 7
It was late, and after watching the Sires game on the Black Sports Network with me, the kids had gone to bed. I was contemplating doing the same when I heard the front door open. It was too early for Maleek to be back.
Did I forget to lock it? I wondered.
I froze, expecting the alarm to start blaring, hoping it would send whoever it was running, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I heard the distinct sound of the buttons being pressed on the panel by the door. Whoever this was knew the code. It had to be Maleek, but how’d he make it back so early?
I blew out the breath I’d been holding and relaxed before leaving the sofa and making my way to the foyer to greet him and give him my regrets on the team’s loss.
“Hey? You’re bac—” I stopped when I saw her—puffy eyes, a hoodie hiding her hair.
Tasha.
“Oh…I thought you were Maleek,” I said.
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well…I need to pick up a few things. I’ll be gone before he gets back, I’m sure.”
“Okay,” I uttered softly as she began ascending the stairs.
MALEEK
Dragging myself through the door, I dropped my duffel on the floor and quickly plugged the code into the alarm keypad. Then I stood there, taking in the quiet, the peace, the absence of the pain I should’ve felt about my woman of damn near a decade leaving me. Instead, it was like this invisible pressure that’d been weighing on me had lifted.
“Oh, it’s you. Good,” a soft voice said.
I looked up to see Nuri standing near the bottom of the stairs in pink shorts, a red and white t-shirt that resembled one of those plastic, white Chinese take-out bags—it even said “thank you”—a pink bonnet, and fuzzy pink slippers.
“You were expecting someone else?” I asked, mentally adding, like your boyfriend?
Soooo, I had no idea where that thought came from. Maybe the fact that she looked so cute, cute and sexy, had something to do with it. Even that damn bonnet was cute.
“No, I just…Tasha dropped by earlier. I mean, it was late but earlier than now,” she stated.
I frowned. “She did?”
Nodding, she affirmed, “Yes, she did.”
“Did she…did she say anything to you?”
“Just that she was picking up a few things. She was in and out.”
“She let herself in?”
“Yes.”
“A’ight. Well, sorry I woke you up.”
“You didn’t. I’m…trying to adjust to living here. Haven’t been sleeping well.”
“Sorry…again.”
“Don’t be. Hey, sorry about the game. You did good, though.”
I smiled, kind of tickled at her assessment of my performance. “You think so? Thanks.”
“Yeah, and you jacked that one dude up. He hit the wall hard!”
Now I was smiling wider. “When you’re skating that fast, hard hits are pretty much inevitable.”
“I bet. I’ve always wanted to learn how to ice skate.”
“Really? Then I’ll have to teach you.”
“That’d be great. Do you get cold out there on the ice? I was wondering about that.”
“Nah, the game is too fast paced; we’re basically constantly moving and have on all that gear. Half the time, I’m sweating out there.”
“Wow! Well, I know you’ve got to be tired. I’ll let you go to bed.”
“Tired, sore, banged up, you name it, but I’m used to it.”
“Yeah. So…see you in the morning?”
“Yeah…good night, Nuri.”
“Good night.”
* * *
Me: Hey
An hour later and no response from Tasha. So, I texted her again.
Me: Tash…
Her: What?
I could hear the attitude in that text.
Me: How are you?
Her: Wonderful. Great. I love living with my mom again.
I scratched my forehead before typing my response: I’m sorry.
Her: Yeah.
Me: Look, I just wanted to ask that you let me know before you come get the rest of your stuff so I can be here.
Her: Why do you need to be there? Did Nora complain or something?
Me: Nuri.
Her: Yeah. That.
Me: No. I’d just like to be here.
She never replied to my last text.
“She left?! You’re lying!”
I rolled my eyes at Ford’s loud ass. “I’m not lying, and do you think you can get any louder? I’m sure folks outside the arena can hear you.”
“My bad, but damn! Y’all been together forever. I just can’t believe this shit. I thought you two were solid,” he responded using his inside voice.
“We were. It was the kids. They were too much for her, and I understand where she’s coming from.”
“Yeah, kids ain’t no joke. It’s been a couple weeks since you got them, right? So…this is permanent? You keeping the kids, I mean.”
I shrugged. “I’m all they got.”
“Damn, that’s tough, man. The secret nanny still working out?”
“Yeah, she’s great. She basically moved in after Tasha left. I gotta find someone to take up the slack so she can get some off days. She don’t complain about the hours, though, and the kids love her.”
Ford smiled at me. “I see you still ain’t dropped her name, which means she’s stacked with a donkey ass, ain’t she? She ain’t up in that new house nannying your dick, is she?”
“My woman just left me, and you think I’m tryna fuck somebody?”
“A fine somebody? Yep.”
“I ain’t you, Loose Dick McGee.”
“Fuck you, Jones. You and Rapp act like y’all ain’t never fucked up.”
“That’s because we haven’t, Ford,” Rapp cut in.
“Good game, my brothers. We’ll get them next time! Uhhhhh, nah-nah-nah-nahhhh!” Robin Stick bellowed Master P style, offering Ford some dap as he exited the locker room. We’d lost another game, a home game. That shit always sucked. That was why I was hanging around the locker room for so long. I didn’t have the energy or the heart to leave just yet.
“Did Stick have a durag on?” Rapp asked. “He gotta stop.”
Ford laughed, and I shook my head.
“So, Jones…Sexy Nanny brought the kids to the game tonight, didn’t she? You gon’ let me meet her?” Ford asked, rubbing his hands together.
“Hell naw,” I growled.
NURI
“How old are you, Miss Nuri?” Junior asked through a mouthful of corn. I looked up from my plate to see him holding the half-eaten cob in his hands. Then I scanned the rest of the table, my eyes colliding with the expectant gazes of Jules and Maleek.
“First, no talking with your mouth full. Second, why do you want to know, Little Mister?” I answered.
“Because I know that Jules is seven and I’m ten and Maleek is twenty-six. How old are you?”
Twenty-six? I thought. Didn’t Coco tell me she read somewhere that he was twenty-eight?
“You’re twenty-six?” I queried, my eyes fixed on Maleek.
Chewing, he locked eyes with me and nodded.
Wow! So young to be so…mature, responsible, sexy as hell.
“Well, if you must know, I’m thirty-one,” I divulged.
“Ohhhh, that’s old!” Junior yelled.
With wide eyes, I protested, “No it’s not!”
“Man, it’s rude to ask a lady her age,” Maleek said.
“Why?” Junior chirped.
“It just is, and thirty-one ain’t old. Besides, Nuri doesn’t look thirty-one. At all,” Maleek responded, his attention on me again.
“How old does she look?” Junior interrogated.
“I don’t know…maybe twenty-six,” Maleek said, smiling at me.
In return, I swear my pussy purred in appreciation.
* * *
Hey, cuz! Just checking on you. Everything good? Mama said you were looking for a place to stay. Did you ever find one?
I stared at the message from my cousin Terry and shook my head. At that point, it’d been more than a month since I made the call to his mother, three weeks since I’d been working for Maleek Jones, and he was just now contacting me?
Asshole.
I ignored the message, resuming my current project. Maleek had ordered more furniture for the kids’ rooms, and I was in Jules’ room assembling her off-white-colored dresser. It was too cute with butterfly drawer pulls.
“Need some help?”
I jumped at the unexpected sound of Maleek’s voice, slapping a hand over my heart. Turning to face him, I screeched, “OMG, you scared me!”
“My bad, Miss Thirty-one,” he apologized. “That still blows my mind. You look much younger.”
“Thank you,” I said, sounding timid for some unknown reason.
“You’re welcome. So…do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Need some help?”
“Oh! Sure!”
We sat on the floor, working quietly for a while save for discussing what went where and who would hold what until he just started talking: “The kids seem to be adjusting well. They’re doing great in school. They seem happy. It’s kind of weird. Like, I’m a complete stranger to them and they act like this has always been their home. This whole transition has been easy, mad easy.”
“I think that’s because of you. You’ve never made them feel like they didn’t belong here or with you,” I said.
“You might be right.”
“I am right.”
He grinned. “Anyway, they just go with the flow, you know? I told them about Tasha leaving and they didn’t bat an eye.”
“Well…I mean, she wasn’t exactly…uh…”
“I know, I know. She…uh…struggled with this…change.”
“Struggled is a good word.”
Chuckling, he twirled the screwdriver he was holding. “Anyway, I…this all feels strange. They never mention their parents. At all. They don’t really seem all that sad. I…I still don’t know them, not really. I don’t know what life was like for them before. They’re great kids. I just wish Jules would talk more.”
“Therapy will help with all that. They lost both their parents. I’m sure that’s impacted them. I know it has.”
“Yeah. You’re still going to the therapist with us, right?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that,” he stated.
“You already met with her, right? Told her about them?”
“Yeah, I had to squeeze that meeting in, but I made it happen.”
“Good.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. Then he just stared at me, and I stared at him. Maleek was rarely home, always at practice or a game or a meeting. When he was home, he really tried to bond with his siblings and help me with household tasks. He was kind, conscientious, and so damn sexy. It was hard for me not to sneak looks at him, but now, I was out-and-out staring. So was he, and it didn’t feel awkward. It felt…right.
“Nuri,” he said, his voice deep and thick. Twenty-six? Well, he had the spirit and aura of a forty-year-old zaddy. I swear, I was falling in love with this man.
Real bad.
“Yes?” I squealed.
“I—thank you for everything. You’re so good with the kids. I just…I don’t know what I’d do without your help.”
“I like the kids. I…you’re welcome.”
“Nuri, I lik—”
Ding-dong!
The doorbell.
He blinked and shook his head. “Let me go get that.”
I gave him a nod and watched him leap to his feet and leave the room.
16
MALEEK
I opened the door, the chilly air whipping my bare legs in my basketball shorts. Before I could say a word, she lit into me.
“You changed the fucking locks?!” Tasha screamed. “You changed the locks, restricting my access to my own fucking home?!”
“You left,” I replied.
“And you obviously don’t give a fuck! You have not once come to visit me, called me, nothing! Just a dumb-ass text about letting you know before I come to my house!”
“Tash—”
“And I bet those kids are still living here, aren’t they?!” She said that shit as if she was catching me in a lie or something.
“I never definitively said they were going anywhere, Tasha. This is their home now.” I hadn’t raised my voice…yet, but she was going to have to calm the-fuck down.
“So, you really chose them over me! Seven years! Seven fucking years of my life wasted on a nigga I had to teach how to fuck!”
“Okay.”
“Okay?! Everything is always okay with you, isn’t it?!”
“Tash—”
“You know what? Sell this house. I deserve half of what it’s worth. I picked it out, decorated it. It’s mine!”
I stared at this beautiful woman, dressed head to toe in expensive clothes I paid for. Hell, she drove here in a car I bought. She still had my credit cards and was using them.
Shaking my head, I told her, “We aren’t married, and my name is the only one on this house. I’m not selling it and uprooting those kids any more than they already have been. Now, why are you here? To get the rest of your stuff? If so, you’re more than welcome to do that now, while the kids are at school.” I’d just finished my statement when I sensed, rather than saw, Nuri.
Turning from where Tasha still stood in the open doorway, I spotted Nuri standing at the bottom of the staircase in her light blue sweatsuit, her braids—a fresh ‘do some chick had done in my kitchen—were piled on top of her head and her lips were shiny like she had just put on some gloss or something.
Too cute.
“Uh…it’s time for me to go pick the kids up,” Nuri said softly. I don’t think I’d ever once heard her raise her voice. She was so damn chill. All the time, chill.
I nodded, turning to see Tasha still standing in the doorway, her head swinging from me to Nuri and back. “What? I’m in the way?”
“Actually, yes,” I said.
She stepped inside, crowding my personal space, her eyes narrowed as she turned to Nuri. She opened her mouth to say something, but I preempted her.
“Go ahead, Nuri,” I stated.
Nuri had barely made it out the door when Tasha shrieked, “Are you fucking her?! Her?!”
“No, and why you gotta say it like that?”
“Look at her! She’s fat!”
“A’ight, it’s time for you to go. I’ll send your stuff to your mom’s.”
“I know the-fuck you are not putting me out because I called that girl fat!”
“No!” I shouted, making her flinch. I rarely raised my voice, but this was stupid. She left me and was over here acting like it was the other way around. “I’m putting you out because this is my house, and you don’t live here anymore. You left, moved out. We’re no longer together and I’m not tryna deal with you yelling and shit, especially when the kids will be home soon.”
She backed away from me and threw up her hands. “The kids. The got damn kids! You know what, Maleek? Fuck you and those kids!” With that, she left.
* * *
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have acted like that earlier. I shouldn’t have insinuated that you were fucking that chubby girl. I know better. I just miss you, Maleek. I miss us. Look, I’m going on vacation with my mom. We’re going to Paris. When we get back, maybe me and you can sit down and talk, try to fix things. We’ve got too much history to just throw it all away. I love you.
I finished reading the text from Tasha and refocused on Jules, who was doing a great job of coloring the sheet full of African American inventors.
“I haven’t heard from you since I was discharged. Everything okay? How are the kids? Little Jules still not talking?”
I had to smile at hearing my mom’s voice, a reliable source of comfort for me. “My bad, Ma. Things have been hectic. The kids are good, adjusting well. Jules still doesn’t say much, but we’ve got therapy coming up. Hopefully, that’ll help us get to the bottom of that.”
“Hmm, I bet things are hectic. I’d love to meet the kids. I need to see you, too.”
“I know, Ma. I’ma make it happen. I promise.”
“How’s Tasha been handling everything? This is a huge change, can’t be easy for her.”
I sighed into the phone. It was crazy to me that my mom would bother to show concern for a woman she barely knew. We might have been together for seven years, but Tasha kept her interactions with my mom to a bare minimum. I didn’t push her because…hell, I don’t know why. Maybe I was embarrassed of my mom’s issues, and that would make me pretty much a shitty person.
“She left,” I admitted. “Said it was too much.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Poo. How are you dealing with the breakup?”
“I get it. It’s a lot. I understand her decision.”
“That’s not what I asked you, son.”
Silence from me. I was ashamed to admit how I truly felt about it.
“Did I ever tell you how me and your father broke up?” she asked.
“No, ma’am,” I replied, sinking deeper into the driver’s seat of my vehicle.
“I think you were two or three, and we were living in this tiny house in Memphis over on Kippley. Your father loved me the best way he knew how. He was always…well, you know.”
“He was always about himself,” I interjected.
“Yes, but he provided for us, and we were good for a time. Then I realized I didn’t like him. I loved him, but I didn’t like the person he was. I also realized he wasn’t going to change, so I decided I couldn’t go on pretending. Poo-bear, life was hard after I left him. You know this. It would’ve been much easier to stay, but I would’ve never been happy with him, and despite my battles with my mental health, I’m happy more days than not. I freed myself from him, but sometimes, when we don’t have the strength to do it, to free ourselves, the other party will do it for us. Ain’t no shame in being relieved about it.”
