“Here,” she said, placing her half eaten apple on the night stand and crawling behind me. “Let me put it on you.” I lifted my hair and smiled at the beautiful charm that dangled from my neck.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, more to myself than to her. “I’m gonna call him.”
I jumped out of bed and grabbed my phone, darting to the bathroom for a bit of privacy. Luke answered on the first ring.
“Babe,” he said, his voice smiling.
“I love it. I love you,” I said excitedly. Talk about an ‘I fucked up gift’. Luke could fuck up anytime.
“I’m glad, beautiful. I need to let you go, but call me if you need me okay?” I could hear men talking in the background, but they seemed to be coming from a distance.
“Okay, I love you, and um, be careful,” I said, feeling stupid about calling. I should have just texted. Luke had some important shit to do.
“I love you too, babe. See you in a few days.” Luke hung up and I wanted to get in the car and drive to him, just so I could throw my arms around his neck and feel his body against mine.
“Hey, lover girl,” Red called from the bedroom. “Hurry the hell up. I’m cooking breakfast.”
I made my way to the kitchen wearing Luke’s t-shirt and a pair of his basketball shorts. I had not even begun unpacking my bags, but I saw them stacked neatly against the wall in the bedroom this morning. I was shocked to find the kitchen full of women. Jenn, Baby and Juggs sat at the bar, Luci, Maddie, Texas, Carla and Brooklyn sat at the table and Red stood in the kitchen propped up on the counter scrambling eggs.
“Hey, sleepy head,” Jenn said, standing to hug me. I smiled and said hello to all of them as they took turns hugging me and made room for me at the table.
“Bitch, you look good even after a shitty day,” Brooklyn said to me, taking a drag off of her long cigarette. Her deep red lipstick covered the butt of it and I wondered if she knew that Luke’s house was smoke free-not that I was going to say shit to her about it. Everyone looked just like me, still in pajamas with no makeup. Everyone, except Brooklyn, who was fully dressed and looked like she had already been up for hours.
“Thanks, Brooklyn. You look great this morning,” I said, shooting her my teeth baring smile.
“Well, that’s because I was up at the ass crack of dawn to see my man off. I have to work hard at this shit,” she said, waving her hand in front of her face. “If I had a day like you had, shit, I would have just stayed in bed.” Great. Apparently, everyone knew about yesterday.
“Why don’t you tell us about it,” Carla suggested. “It will do you some good to get it off your chest and we could probably help you with some horror stories of our own.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Worm told me what happened, and girl, I went off. I couldn’t believe he talked to you like that, but we have all been there,” Luci added, getting up and helping Red bring the food to the table. More chairs were gathered and soon we were all scrunched around Luke’s small dining room table.
“Let’s pray,” Red said, grabbing my hand in hers. Brooklyn sat to my left and found my other hand as we all shared a moment to give praise, ask for forgiveness, guidance and a safe journey for our men. Funny, I never took them to be religious.
“Spill it,” Maddie snapped. My head shot up and I couldn’t believe that she was actually speaking to me. Well, this was a start.
“Apparently, my ex-boyfriend, Jeff, is friends or some shit with Frankie,” I said, ready to elaborate further, but was cut off by Luci.
“Oh, they ain’t friends. Jeff works for Frankie. He is some kind of computer genius and helps Frankie do some illegal money laundering shit. From what I hear, Jeff had no idea about your history with Frankie.”
“Frankie knew what he was doing,” Baby said. It was the first time that she had spoken and her voice sounded squeaky compared to everyone else. She seemed small and mouse like, but was very pretty. I wondered if she was still interested in a job.
“Well, you all know that Regg was on Dallas at that time, figuratively speaking of course,” Red said, holding the platter of pancakes in her hand and giving me a look. I raised my eyebrow at her, knowing she was sending me some kind of warning. It took everything I had not to smile. I had Luke, there was no way I would give him up for anyone, even the oh so charming Regg. She broke the stare and passed the platter to Carla across the table and continued, “Regg said that he didn’t say anything to Luke because he had the situation handled and he didn’t want Luke losing his shit and doing something that would in turn, hurt the club.” Everyone nodded and mumbled with full mouths in agreement. It was obvious that Luke was known for his temper.