Page 54
“A bomb threat? At an event hall? Man, ain’t no way. Somebody had to call that shit in.”
“Who would be that miserable?!”
“I can think of a few people, unfortunately.”
Naz was at the top of my list. When we were teens I watched her go out of her way to torment her enemies and she’d often brag by saying “beating a bitch ass is just the cherry on top. I can make somebody’s day worse by not lifting a finger or breaking a nail.” This type of scheme was right up her alley. However, Lourdes had some dry beef with her cousin. It was dry to me because I really didn’t understand why ole girl had so much animosity. Her best friend had gotten with Lo’s ex, but I wasn’t convinced that she was taking that girls’ unwarranted issue with Lourdes to heart. I chalked it up to blatant jealousy and misplaced anger. Lourdes had everything Lyss didn’t. Her baby shower was last month and although it came together really nice, she didn’t have a nigga by her side and her misery could be felt through the pictures. On top of that pregnancy didn’t suit her well and makeup didn’t even help her look prettier. It was possible that she wanted to ruin Lo’s day because hers didn’t go how she imagined.
“I’m just trying to see what we can do because rescheduling this last minute isn’t the answer. We can get another date with the hall easily, but the other vendors have been paid in full and they’re most likely booked up for the rest of the year. Attempting to reschedule with any of them at this point could result in a cancellation with no refund. Oh lawddd, this ain’t nothing but the devil!”
I took a deep breath and remained calm. It was easy to get all excited and worked up, but that wasn’t going to fix the situation. NOLA Skyline was out the window, so we had to figure something else out.
“Relax, Mama…we’re not cancelling or rescheduling. Whoever is attempting to fuck up our day won’t win. We just gotta find somewhere else to move to.”
“I checked out all the halls I considered before booking NOLA Skyline. They’re all booked up today because it’s a Saturday, so I’m sure any venue we find will already be hosting someone. I considered doing it at my house, but I don’t have the space for both of our families.”
“Yea….,” I sighed in defeat before it hit me. I had a house and the lower level was empty. “But I do. Fuck it, we gon move the babyshower to my house, Mama.”
I never wanted everybody knowing where the fuck I stayed because it was hard to shake that street nigga mindset. But I wasn’t in the streets anymore and I didn’t have any active beef. It was also only family and friends coming to our baby shower. Now, it was a lot of family and friends because 85 people had RSVP’d. Having all those people in my house wasn’t ideal, but we had the space to make it happen and it was the only convenient option we had. I could put my discomfort to the side to ensure that Lourdes got the baby shower of her dreams.
“Are you sure about that, Armias? Haven’t you started moving in?”
“Yea, but I’m getting all new furniture and none of it is set to arrive until after Thanksgiving. The only room that’s fully furnished is Alouri’s room and the master bedroom. All of the bathrooms are finished too, so the decorator would have space to set up however she wants in my living room and it’s really big.”
“It’s definitely big enough to set up tables and stuff,” she agreed. She’d been over to the house with me and Lourdes. “I just wasn’t sure if you wanted all those people in your house.”
“It’s not what I want, but we gotta do what we gotta do. I’ll shoot you my address and you send it to the vendors. I’ll meet them over there asap.”
“Okay. I’ll come over too and assist. Where’s Lo-Lo?”
“In the living room getting her hair done.”
“Good. I didn’t call her with this because I didn’t want to stress her out. My baby would’ve just started crying.”
“I wouldn’t blame her. When you told me we had an emergency I was ready to handle it and not mention it to her, but I think it's best that I tell her what’s up. I don’t want her to be taken by surprise in a few hours or hear from somebody else.
“Shit,” she hissed.
“What now?”
“Who’s going to notify all of our guests of the address change?”
“Fuck…I guess I gotta handle that, too.” I’d do a mass group message, put it in my Close Friends that I never used on IG, and even post on my public story that there’d been a location change. I wasn’t going to post my address, but whoever was coming to the baby shower would see it and reach out to me if they needed the new location.
“I’ll help you out with that as far as our side of the family goes. All it takes is word of mouth.”
“You right about that…I might tell my cousins and sisters to handle it because they got bigger mouths than me. But I gotta go shower and get dressed, Mama. See you in a bit.”
“Okay, baby. Love you.”
“Love you, too,” I ended the call while heading straight for the bathroom. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and took the world's quickest shower. I threw on black Chrome Heart sweats with the matching Hoodie and white G-Nikes before grabbing my keys and heading to the front of the house. Just as I suspected, Versace, Aspen, and Aneesah were camped out on the couch while Fendi did Lourdes’ hair. I spotted an unfamiliar face and she was laying out makeup on the counter top, so I assumed she was the makeup artist that Lourdes had hired from the beauty shop Fendi and Versace worked out of.
“About time!” Aspen jumped up just to run and hug me. It had been about two weeks since I’d seen her, so of course I hugged her back and kissed her forehead. I knew she probably wanted to talk my ear off and catch up, but I really didn’t have time. I was about to let her know that but she continued to talk.
“I was about to come check on you but Lourdy was like let him sleepppp,” Aspen mocked Lourdes’ voice, making everybody laugh except me. Lourdes was the first to take note and she immediately stopped laughing.
“What’s wrong, Armias?”
“Mannn, I got something to tell you but don’t trip, okay?” I’d moved over to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. Fendi was styling the front of her hair, so I wasn’t in her way.
