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“Make it about the baby all you want, Bubby, but you know this is about you wanting to get Lourdes under the same roof as you.”

“Well, two things can be true at once.”

___________________

I pulled up to Naz’s house and I had to ask myself if it was really a Monday. Cars were parked all around her house and I heard bounce music blasting. She lived on the Westbank and that’s where my new house was, but we stayed in completely different areas. I lived in an upper class Harvey subdivision called Stonebridge, whereas Naz lived on the hood side of Marrero. The area had undergone some gentrification so there’d been an influx of upscale townhomes and duplexes. However, you could look right across the street and see multiple run down houses. Naz was in her element though because she was living large in a neighborhood she could be herself in. Nobody cared about her blasting bounce music and having a party at 6 pm on a Monday because they did the same shit.

“BAEEE?! YOU OUTSIDEEE?!” Naz answered her phone screaming. “The door unlocked! Come help me beat these hoes in Uno!”

I removed the phone from my ear while looking at it in disgust. She was doing too fucking much. She had to be drinking or just showing off for her guests because she never called me bae. We definitely didn’t sit around playing Uno together. For a second I thought about leaving, but I was ready to get this shit out the way.

“Come outside. I’m not coming in.”

“Why?! I made a seafood boil and we got home made daiquiris and hurricanes. Come inside and turn up with us!”

“Man, it’s Monday and I got business to tend to. I ain’t tryna turn up. Come outside. Now.”

“Oop, y’all hear this nigga?” She apparently had me on speaker as she cackled with her friends. “He swear he my daddy.”

My face twisted up because she was trying too hard to paint a certain picture and I’d never been more turned off in my life. For her this was all about keeping up appearances and nothing more. Clout and status moved her. I wasn’t knocking it but I wasn’t going to be a part of her illusion anymore.

“Nazaria.”

“I’m coming, Ali. I’m putting on my shoes now….huh? No, I’m not going no where,” she laughed while responding to whoever asked her a question. “I’m coming right back, bitch, I swear. My nigga pulled up to lay eyes on me. I know y’all hoes ain’t used to that!”

Tired of hearing her, I hung up and the radio started playing again because my phone was connected to bluetooth. I was annoyed and needed a distraction, so I turned the radio up. When I realized what I was listening to I laughed under my breath. “Doing 2 Much” by Moneybagg Yo and Yo Gotti explained exactly what I was dealing with right now.

TAP! TAP!

The woman in question who was doing too much knocked on my window and I unlocked the door. She slid into the car and I had to do a double take. The pink blush, curly hair, and skimpy Hello Kitty booty shorts and crop top had her looking like a Lourdes clone. Physically, they couldn’t be more opposite but she sure was biting Doll Baby’s swag and it was off putting.

“About time you made time for lil ole me,” she grinned before puckering up and leaning in.

I backed away. “Now you know we don’t do that.”

“Really, Ali?” She asked like she was really devastated, but I wasn’t moved. When we first started messing around it was her who set the rules. Her two main ones were no kissing and that we always had to use protection. She claimed that was her way of respecting her relationship. Nevermind the fact she was sucking my dick on the first link.

Having sex with Naz for my first time showed me that sex didn’t have to be deep or meaningful, and I carried that with me into adulthood. That’s not to say that I never kissed anybody I was seeing because that was a lie. Hell, Naz and I had kissed plenty of times while we were fucking. But we didn’t greet each other with kisses and shit nor did we sit around swapping spit. I just wasn’t big on being overly affectionate like that…until I met Lourdes, of course. I guess it was true that different people brought different things out of you.

“Yea, really.” I went to turn the radio down but I accidentally turned it up.

“Calling my phone, going ham. Damn Pam, you be doin' too much. All on my Instagram tryna spazz out, you be doin' too much. Wanna screenshot while we FaceTime, you be doin' too much. Got me on speakerphone 'round your friends. Ho, you really doin' too much…” I quickly turned it off, but the lyrics had already caught Naz’s attention.

“Nigga, you tryna be funny?” She asked while looking at me sideways.

“Are you? What you got on?”

“I was chilling in my house before you had me come out here. Ion care about it being cold because I’m going right back inside.”

“I ain’t talking about the weather…but don’t worry about it. I pulled up on you because we need to talk.”

“We sure do. I wanted you to come by yesterday so I could let you know that I wasn’t tripping about that lil photoshoot with your baby mama. You had already let me know that you felt strongly about doing that for your daughter. I wasn’t feeling it at first, but I get where you were coming from. So you don’t have to explain or apologize because the outside noise ain’t getting to me.”

“Naz…” I uttered as I struggled to regather my thoughts. I knew exactly what I wanted to say but she caught me off guard. She was basically repeating what she’s already said on IG, but I didn’t think she’d reiterate any of that to my face. She was really ready to put up with whatever to keep me around. For most men that would be the biggest ego boost but I felt bad for her. Not bad enough to continue dealing with her though.

“I’m so serious, Ali. From the second you told me that you were expecting a kid, I gave you my blessing to handle your business so I can’t trip about you doing that.”

I guess that was true to a certain extinct but she was lying to herself. When I was tripping about being left out of Lourdes’ first maternity shoot she said verbatim “I thought that was usually for people who are together.” She didn’t want me doing a maternity shoot with Lourdes because of the message it was going to send, so I know she hated the fact that I’d posted it. Instead of saying that she was trying to convince herself and me that she was okay with it. I don’t know if she was trying to make herself feel better or if she didn’t want to push me away by complaining. But I think it was a little bit of both and I hated that she was suppressing her true feelings. That type of shit only turned people into ticking time bombs.