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“I know I am, anyways what is my Louri doing?”

“In the den with my mama and my Granny is in the kitchen cooking dinner,” I giggled. Armias had to go check in at his barbershops today and he was going to a progress check on our building that was being renovated. My mama was off today, so she was happy to come over and help me. She and my Granny had been in the trenches with me since I pushed Alouri out. My mom took off from work for six days after I gave birth to make sure I got adjusted well. Anytime Granny stepped into our house she’d clean, do the laundry, and cook a hot meal. Armias always dropped money in her purse before she left and she’d call him once she was home to fuss about it.

“Bitch, you could be at a hair appointment right now!”

“It’s hard to explain, Dream. It just feels weird leaving my baby…especially for selfish reasons.”

“Taking care of yourself is not selfish. You have to be at your best to be the best mother you can be.”

“Damn…that’s a word.”

“So live by it, hoe.”

An hour later, I was eating the red beans and fried chicken wings that my grandma had cooked. All that losing weight and diet talk went out the window because this home cooked meal was too good to pass up on. She had also made brownies for dessert. When I really started my weight loss journey she was not going to be allowed to cook at my house anymore. We all sat at the kitchen table eating while Alouri slept in her pink portable bassinet.

“Why y’all keep checking those phones?” Granny asked.

“I’m tryna see where my man at,” I answered shamelessly. He’d been gone since 10 in the morning and it was now 4 pm. I missed him and he must have felt it because it looked like he was on his way home.

“He’s at working making money, girl. Don’t badger the man.”

“I’m not, Granny,” I laughed. “We share our locations with each other, so I’m checking his.”

“Whew, y’all young kids can do anything with them cellular phones. I wish they had that back in my day. I would’ve used it for my cheating ass husband.”

My Granny always talked about how her late husband, who was also the father to her kids and my grandpa, was a cheater. She’d give him props for being a loving father and a great provider, but she never let me forget that he was a dog ass cheater. Her kids hated when she brought it up, yet that never stopped her from doing so. In fact, I think she liked getting them worked up over their “no good ass daddy.” Her words, not mine.

“Lulu,” Granny smacked the table to get her attention. She knew something was wrong when she didn’t acknowledge her talking shit about her daddy. I knew something was wrong because she had put down her fork to text someone who clearly had her fucked up. All I heard were her long red nails clicking against the screen.

“Mama, who you talking to? I know a man don’t got you that heated.”

My dad abandoning her and me had turned my mom into a man eater. I really wanted her to find somebody good and settle down, but she felt like the chances of finding a good man were one in a million. I didn’t blame her for thinking that way either.

“Girl, no…it’s my damn sister,” she hit the power button on her phone, put it down on the table, and returned to eating her food.

“You and Auntie Luna fussing?” I asked in disbelief. I’d never seen them so much as raise their voices at each other, so I wasn’t sure what they could be arguing about.

“Yes, cause I don’t like when people mistreat my child.”

“Awwww lawd,” Granny groaned.

“Huh? Who’s mistreating me?”

“Your Auntie! She’s always talking about how you’re like a second daughter to her but she didn’t come see you in the hospital. Under the circumstances, she should’ve flown there. You and Alouri literally could’ve lost y’all lives and she had no urgency about seeing you. I let that slide because you had a lot of traffic in and out the hospital everyday you were there, so I knew you didn’t notice that your Auntie hadn’t stopped by to see you or the baby. When I asked her why she didn’t come she claimed that she was tired from working overnight and that she’d visit y’all here. But has she come over in the past month? No. I didn’t want to fuss with her about her lack of support, so I’ve been ignoring her. But I can’t even say that because she barely calls or texts me and I just realized it’s been that way since Christmas. I know I didn’t make it over to her house, but that’s because I got drunk here and took my ass to sleep on that sofa. I know she’s not mad about that, so she must have the same secret animosity her daughter has. She gon’ text me today asking can she borrow a pair of my red bottoms for some Masquerade Ball she’s going to. She actually asked me if I could drop them off at mama’s house, so she’s not even trying to see me to borrow my shoes! I straight up told her that I ain’t fooling with her because she and her daughter are funny acting.”

That was a lot and I was barely able to keep up.

“Mama…you were right when you said I didn’t notice that Auntie Luna was absent from the hospital. It’s never crossed my mind this whole time that she hasn’t seen me or the baby since I gave birth. You don’t have to feel a way on my behalf because I don’t care. Maybe she’s upset because I didn’t put my ill feelings to the side to meet her grandchild, and that’s justifiable.”

“The hell it is,” she spat. “You had a genuine reason to stop fooling with Lyss. I was preaching for you to be the bigger person at the time because you were pregnant and I really didn’t want y’all fussing on social media. But Lyss’ best friend started that shit. She clearly got with Kendall while you were still with him. Even a dummy can do that math and it’ll add up. Then she went out of her way to have an argument with you and Nalyssa chimed in when she should’ve checked her friend. I told that to Nalyssa and all she did was claim it was a lot that I didn’t know. I let it go because she was pregnant and didn’t need me digging in her ass when life was clearly already doing that. But my point is, Nalyssa ruined y’alls relationship and she seems to be okay with that. Luna kept trying to press Lyss to apologize but she never tried, so obviously she ain’t sorry. Despite all this, I still embraced my great nephew by visiting him multiple times and checking in. I should’ve listened to that voice inside my head.”

“What was that voice saying?” Granny asked.

“To be a united front with my daughter and to say fuck whoever whoever wasn’t fucking with her. That’s what the old me would’ve done, so I thought the devil was on my shoulder trying to get me to do something evil. I actually did view Lyss as a daughter. She was my baby before I had my own, so cutting her off felt like the wrong thing to do. But I was looking at those screenshots from that argument the other day and I realized that girl hates Lourdes. I can’t fool with or be around anybody who has that much hate in their heart for my baby. And Luna must feel the same way.”

“No Luna doesn’t, Lucia…” Granny sighed. “Lord, I said I wouldn’t say anything.”

“Say what?” I leaned forward.