“ T his semester we will be focusing on childhood learning patterns…” My new professor, Professor Gaines, explained the syllabus while the class took notes. I tried to keep focused on her lecture but it was difficult.
Two weeks had passed since I spoke to my mother and I was feeling slightly guilty. We hardly ever fought but I had to stand my ground. She was dead wrong for going back on her promise.
Because of her bullshit I had to apply for student loans and get in debt, which I wanted to avoid. Hell, I don’t even have a credit card. I was serious about keeping my credit good and my name clean.
After the stress of securing a loan and dipping into my savings for my books, I needed to relieve some stress. Quan had been texting me a lot this week and finally we were going out tonight.
Since the night I met him, he’d been on my mind. In between filling out loan applications and cursing my mother out in my head, I daydreamed about him wrapping his arm around me and pulling me in close.
He had a sophisticated thug appeal to him that made me wet. He was def the type of nigga that brings out your inner hoe. I couldn’t wait to see him.
When he told me he was taking me out, he demanded that I wear something nice.
After class, I rushed home to get dressed for our date. I poured my body in a high waist gold pencil skirt and a white leotard that exposed my back. I slid my French tipped toes in some black open toe stilettos. My hair was pulled in a slick bun while my lips were matte nude and my faux eyelashes were on fleek.
Misting myself with my Chanel perfume, I waited for him to pick me up. While staring at my phone to check the time, Nova called me. We hadn’t spoken since she stormed out of my mother’s engagement announcement.
Since I was currently mad at our irresponsible ass mother, I picked up.
“Wsup,” I asked, while peeping out my blinds in anticipation for Quan.
“Skye, I met my father,” she started.
“What are you talking about?” Her father had been dead since she was born.
“Antoinette lied to me! She fucking lied all these years! He’s alive! We took a paternity test and did a rush for the results. He came by the other day…” she began to explain.
With every word she told me about our mother being a side hoe, my stomach did back flips. I cringed as the truth came to light. Perhaps what Rico’s children said about their relationship was true. She had been fuckin’ him while their mother was alive and when she died they made their move to get married.
“Are you there?” Nova asked in between her tears.
“I’m here, sis. I can’t believe that bitch! I cannot believe she did this to you, to us!” I yelled. My mother was a hoe who put men before her children. In retrospect it had always been this way. There was always some loser ass nigga around who she did everything for while neglecting us.
“I haven’t even spoken to her,” Nova admitted.
“What is there to say? She will only lie some more. All she does is lie. I didn’t even tell you that she took back her offer to pay my tuition!”
“What the hell? I knew she would do that! How are you going to go to school? What do you need from me? I can help.” That’s the thing about Nova. We may not always get along, but she is always there for me. Every semester, she gives me about $500 towards my books and extra money for other supplies. She looks out for me like a big sis should. In fact, she actually does more for me than my mother.
When I think about it, Antoinette had never done much for either of us. I was just blindly loyal because she was our mother. I’ve always pitied her for the way she grew up and thought it wasn’t her fault we were poor. But it was. She is a lazy, hoe-ass liar!
“I had to take out a loan,” I replied.
“Fuck that, I’m giving you some money this weekend. See if you can cancel that loan. I’ll just dip into my equity. I don’t want you to start your life behind and be a slave to debt,” my sister replied. As bad as I wanted to take her up on her offer, I couldn’t.
It was time for me to be independent. I didn’t want to end up like Aoki or worse, like my damn mother.
“Nova, I appreciate the offer, sis. I really do. But I can’t accept money from you right now. I need to be independent.”
“You’re so stubborn,” she laughed. At that moment Quan knocked on my door.
“Nova, that’s my date. Let’s meet up this weekend to talk. We have to confront our mother,” I said as I hung up the phone.
When I opened the door, Quan stood there dressed in a pair of nicely fit flood pants, a fitted jacket, and a pair of Tom Ford loafers. His shoes cost more than my entire outfit. Actually, it probably cost more than all the outfits I’d worn over the last few days.
“Damn, you look gorgeous,” he complimented.
“Thank you. You look good too,” I replied.
“Let’s get out of here.” He reached for my hand, pulling me away. We walked downstairs to his ride, which was a decked out Range Rover.
Opening the door for me, he gave me assistance into the car. He hopped into his side and pulled away from my apartment. While cruising, he turned on the radio and Ro James’ “Permission” was on.
“This my shit,” he spat as he turned the volume up.
“It is a sexy song.”
Butterflies had taken up habitat in my belly. My nerves were such a mess that I couldn’t even speak.
“Where are you from?” he asked after the song went off.
“I was born in D.C., raised partially in The Gardens and the rest of my childhood I lived in Oxon Hill.”
“You so damn prissy to be from the hood,” he lightly chuckled, while stopping at a red light. I was staring straight ahead, but I could feel his eyes burning into the side of my face. Avoiding the awkwardness, I turned to him.
The moonlight brought out the light color in his eyes. They had become hypnotizing.
“I’m not that prissy,” I protested.
“That shit ain’t a bad thing, shorty. Prissy girls are cool. I can’t stand no ghetto bitches. Too damn loud. Always want to throw hands. I’m like bitch, if I wanted to date a loud, violent motherfucker, I’d be with a nigga. I like my women soft,” he laughed as he drove away.
“I bet you ain’t never even been in a fight,” he assumed. It couldn’t have been further from the truth. I’ve been in fights in high school. Lost some, won some. Bitches like to try you when they think you’re meek. I used to get picked on for having long wavy hair. They would say that I think I’m cute.
Yeah, bitch, I think I’m cute, but it ain’t got to do with hair. It wouldn’t matter what grew out my scalp, I would have high self esteem. But since Quan didn’t like women who fought, I nodded at his assumption.
“Nope, I don’t fight,” I lied.
“I figured. You too pretty to fight.”
“Where are you from?” I asked to divert attention away from my lie.
“Uptown! I’m from Harlem, B.”
“How’d you end up down here?”
“College. Damn, your young ass was probably in middle school when I entered college. I’m out here robbing the cradle.”
“I’m legal now,” I sassed, while playfully rolling my eyes.
“That’s all that matter. I should’ve asked for some I.D. My man’s got caught up with a young bitch once. She was sixteen, had an ass like she was twenty-five. He ended up doing five years for that. ”
“That’s crazy, but what school did you go to? What was your major?” I probed. He was so fine and I wanted to know more about him.
I loved his New York accent, and the way that he carried himself.
“Are you with the feds?” he joked because of my questions.
“That shouldn’t matter if you’re not breaking the law.”
“True. Well, I went to Howard. I majored in business and currently I’m the CEO and partial owner of a chain of coffee houses called Mocha Hut.”
“Oh wow, I’ve heard of them. They’re all over the city. There’s one next to my school that I study at sometimes.”
“Yep, that’s me and my business partner’s company. I spend most of my time in our headquarters in Silver Spring. I make my rounds to the other locations. I may have seen you before.” He winked.
“Nice. You’re an entrepreneur.” That would explain why he was paid.
“What do you want to do after you graduate?” he asked as he reached Georgetown, D.C.
“I want to teach English and dance.”
“Oh yeah, you did tell me that. What made you get into that?” he pried.
“I love the English language. I like to read and write and I want to give back to my community. I feel like teaching is the best way to do that. I don’t want to do it forever. Eventually, I want to publish my poems and stories. And on top of that I am a dancer. I’ve been in lots of ballet shows.”
“Damn, I’m feeling you. You sound like you have a good heart. Teaching is a tough gig. These little niggas these days are crazy.”
“I know but someone has to do it or they won’t get the help that they need.”
“True,” he replied when he parked in the garage.
After walking over and letting me out, he placed his hand around my waist and walked me out of the garage to a hotel.
I hope he didn’t think that I was sleeping with him. Just because he was fine, doesn’t mean he could get my pussy on the first night. No matter how bad I wanted to pounce on his dick, I knew I had to take it slow so that he would respect me.
“There’s a dope restaurant on the roof. I have a reservation. We’ll overlook the water,” he announced when he opened the door for me. I exhaled a breath of relief.
When we arrived to the roof, my nerves began to rattle again. It was a gorgeous view. In all my years of living in the DMV, I had never seen Georgetown from this perspective.
The moonlight bounced off of the dark, rippled river while other lovers strolled by. Colorful flowers decorated the balcony where we sat and soft jazz music played in the background.
“It’s beautiful up here,” I complimented.
“I only wanted to see you in a beautiful light. You look too good to take to hood-spots, like where I met you.”
“I thought you said it was your friend’s lounge. Why are you trying to convince me to not go back?” I asked.
“Just because it’s my friend’s lounge doesn’t mean that it’s for chicks like you. You deserve to be in the finest places. Not no smoky hookah spot with a bunch of d-boys and wannabe model chicks. Like that girl you were out there with?”
“Who, Aoki?”
“Yeah, whatever her name is. I could tell by looking at her that she was a gold digging thot. I watched her as she looked every man up and down, sizing them up. Trying to see how much they were worth by what they were wearing.”
He was wise because he had Aoki down to a science.
“I know you ain’t like that. I got that energy from you. And after talking to you, I know for sure you not about that life. But why are you hanging out with her?”
“Aoki isn’t all bad. She’s a good friend. She used to go school with me. That’s how we met.”
“Let me guess, she dropped out to dig in men’s pockets?” He laughed as the server came over to take our orders.
We quickly scanned the menu. He ordered a Jameson on the rocks and the steak dinner, while I ordered salmon and a drink with mango, champagne, and rum.
I attempted to distract his attention away from Aoki because I cared about her. She had been a good friend to me despite how she carried on with men. As long as she wasn’t fucking my man, I could care less what she did.
However, I did like that he was able to read people. He was smart and intuitive. He was much different than that asshole Chad.
“Are you single?” I asked, because you can never be too sure.
“Yeah. I’m about my money right now. Looking for a wifey, though,” he replied.
“What about you?” he threw back at me.
“Yep.”
“What happened to your last boyfriend?”
“His name was Chad, a thug who was controlling and cheated on me. I loved him so I stayed with him. But when he became stalkerish and borderline abusive, I broke up. But that didn’t stop him. He stalked me so bad that I had to move off campus and my grades suffered. Eventually, I lost my academic scholarship…”
As I told Quan more and more about Chad, I could see that he was visibly upset. I could see him turning red while the vein in his temple throbbed. It was sexy how much he cared about me.
“That nigga needs his ass whooped for doing that to you. I’m sorry you lost your scholarship. I can help you with that,” he said.
“How? There is no way I can take money from you.”
“Not from me. I don’t know you like that,” he laughed.
“Then how can you help me?” I asked.
“Mocha Hut has a scholarship fund. For some reason, no one applied this year and we have a lot of money to give away. Fill out the application as soon as possible so that it looks legit. I’ll get my board to approve it and can cut you a check at least two days after we get the app. Cool?”
My eyes lit up like fireworks. This man was amazing and this was only our first date. He didn’t even know me but he cared about my education unlike Chad, who sabotaged it.
And I didn’t feel bad about taking that money since it was for scholarships anyway. I was still earning it off my own merits.
“Thank you so much!” I gushed.
“You’re welcome, shorty. I like to support black women getting their education. Don’t ever let a nigga get in the way of your success. No nigga is worth it.”
His advice was heartwarming and well received. For the rest of the dinner, we talked about everything. From our hopes and dreams to our childhoods.
The conversation didn’t end there. Eventually, we walked down to the water and sat at the ledge. We dangled our feet over the edge while we talked even more. I told him about my mother, which also pissed him off. I explained to him what had just happened with Nova and my tuition.
“Damn bitch is wild! I can’t believe you turned out so well after being raised by her,” he barked.
“It’s a wonder how me and my sister aren’t both crazy.”
“She’s supposed to look out for you. And here she is choosing some dick over her daughters. How she gon’ give a washed up football player your tuition money? That simp should have had some cash saved from his NFL days. I hate bum ass niggas.”
“It’s so frustrating,” I fussed.
“It’s cool. You got the Mocha Hut scholarship.” He smiled, making me feel better about my mother. However, Nova and I still needed to talk to her.
After the date, he dropped me off without trying to come in. I loved that he didn’t try to get some ass but it made me want him even more.
“I can’t wait ‘til I see you again,” I confessed when we reached my door.
“I’ll make it happen. And don’t forget to apply for the scholarship,” he said before planting a light kiss on my lips. My body shivered all over as I watched him swagger away. It wasn’t until he reached his car that I opened my door and got in.