“Hello?”
“You answered.”
Hearing his voice made my eyes water. I’d never gone this long without seeing or talking to my brother. “Are you okay?”
“I miss you.”
A sigh escaped me as I sat back in my seat. “Carlos…”
“I fucked up. I know I did. The power got to me, and I started tripping. Can you come home so I can apologize in person?”
I thought it over for a while before agreeing with, “I’ll come so we can talk, but I’m not staying there, Los.”
“I’ll take that. Can you come tomorrow evening?”
“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Aight, Whis. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
After disconnecting the call, I checked Beethoven’s text, and his reply made me chuckle.
Mr. Smith: I want to talk to you about this face to face. We also need to discuss when you’ll be serving me my favorite food.
The chicken over rice?
Mr. Smith: Don’t be cute Whiskee. You know what I said my favorite thing to eat is.
You’ve been very affectionate and open lately. I didn’t think there would ever come a day where you’d tell me you wanted me sexually.
Mr. Smith: Should I stop?
No. I like it.
Mr. Smith: You gon like this dick too.
Beethoven!
Mr. Smith: Wait until I’m in that pussy. Then you’ll really be saying my name.
Get off my phone Bay.
Mr. Smith: I’on want you calling me what everyone else calls me.
Then what do you want me to call you crazy?
Mr. Smith: Beethoven or Baby. Daddy works too.
???? I will see you later baby. I’m about to head home and get ready for the meeting.
The whole time I drove, a smile stayed on my face. This man was something else, and I was starting to like him more and more.
Meeting with a wedding planner made things even more real. This wasn’t just a regular wedding planner; this was a wedding planner that had been used by the Smith family for years. She stayed on trends and had a young team behind her, but the sixty-year-old woman hadn’t come to play and knew exactly what she was doing.
We basically went over color schemes and menu options so she could put together a schedule for us to try and approve certain things. We also discussed venues. When it was over, Mariam told us that Tim wanted the wedding to happen in three months. With it being late March, the idea of a June wedding wasn’t bad. I was just surprised he wanted it to happen so soon. I shouldn’t have been. After all, this was a business deal, and Carlos made it clear Tim wanted us married before he gave him the next shipment.
However, Beethoven had gotten his father to change his mind about that, which I appreciated. They may not have trusted my brother’s leadership, but they trusted my father’s men and his clientele, and the product was moving just as well now as it was when Robert Carter was in control.