Page 32 of Soft On Her
“If that’s the case—” Suddenly, he stopped taking the steps and held onto the rails in the stairwell. He doubled over, agony washing over his face.
“Shit! Let me get you an ambulance,” I offered, placing my hand on his good shoulder.
“No! They gon’ take y’all stupid asses to jail. My reach doesn’t extend to Aruba. I didn’t even plan to come here. Take my phone out of my pocket and tell Patrice to come get me. You go get your woman. I just need some pain pills,” he encouraged.
“Oh, don’t act like it’s a debate on who you are going to choose. You made that clear when you helped jump me upstairs,” he laughed, placing his hand on his shoulder. “I’ll be fine until we touch US soil.”
I called Patrice, and she came to collect my father with an older gentleman with a salt and pepper beard. “This nurse said he can get you fixed up for a small fee. And he brought pain meds,” she announced. Patrice was doing what the fuck she needed to do to keep her job after the shit we pulled. They went back up the stairs, and I continued descending them. When I made it to the first floor, I wasn’t even sure where to look. I went out the front door and scanned the surrounding area for the orange sunflower print halter top Milani was wearing. Everyone was dressed in bright, vibrant colors, so she was going to blend right in wherever she was.
Realizing that Milani didn’t have anything on her besides our keycard when we left the hotel room, I figured she probably took the water taxi back to the island. It took me at least an hour to find her sitting on the iguana side of the island with a big ass lizard in her lap. Milani was off to a section by herself, staring out over the water with her feet digging into the sand. I plopped down beside her and looked over the water, too. Locating Milani and watching the waves crash into the sand was already taking some of the stress off my shoulders.
“Your dad isn’t lying. I can feel it,” she broke the silence after a few minutes. “Do you remember much from that day?”
“Every single detail,” I admitted.
“One of the first things I asked was where was Terrel and Levi so we could smoke. You immediately knew something was wrong. You’ve always been observant,” Milani smiled at me.
“Yeah,” I nodded, leaning back on my hands in the warm sand.
Milani looked back out over the water before continuing. “My dad saw the necklaces, and I told him I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend that day. I told him that I loved you. We got into it really bad. Your dad is right, he forbid me from seeing you again. Gave his men permission to use physical force on me if they saw me even look at you again.”
Hearing the pain in Milani’s voice turned my stomach, and I bit my tongue to let her get her story out. The iguana slowly climbed off Milani’s lap and wandered off since it lost her attention. Reaching across the sand, I placed my hand on top of hers while she continued.
“I also told him that I declined UF and was going to UC Davis. He blamed you for everything. One of my biggest regrets in life was always the last words between me and my father. I told him we were going to be together no matter what. He said over his dead body. I told him I didn’t care if I had to wait untilhe was in the grave if that’s what it took. He told me he’d show me a dead body, then left the house.”
She paused and took a deep breath before turning back to me. “I now realize that was a threat against you. I’m sorry. I never would’ve thought he’d take it that far.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for. Your dad’s actions are on him,” I assured Milani. Scooting closer, I wrapped my left arm around her side and pulled her closer to me.
“I can understand why your parents don’t want to let me in now. For so long, I blamed them for not doing more, and the whole time, we deserved everything that happened to us.”
“No, you didn’t deserve any of that. We can’t help the circumstances we were born into.”
“I know, but how do we move forward? I bust your dad’s lip and cut his shoulder up. He’s going to hate me.”
“Then a jump session was had,” I joked, hoping to lighten the mood, and it pulled a small smile from Milani. “My dad ain’t tripping, but he’s letting some random that Patrice claims is a nurse look at his wound, and I need to get him back home so he can see a doctor and get his shoulder taken care of. We probably made it worse during the melee,” I laughed.
“I can’t believe you helped me fight your dad,” Milani chortled.
“It’s me and you against the world,” I assured her. “My dad respects where I stand with you. The question is, are you going to let this come between us?”
“No,” she shook her head.
“Then let’s go. If we bring my father back any more injured than he already is, my mother will want to kill us both.”
Milani nodded, rubbing her hands together to get rid of the sand sticking to her palms. We walked back hand in hand and skipped over going back to the hotel room because Patrice and my father were already waiting out front of the resort.
The flight home was quiet, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Midway through the flight Milani curled up into my side, sleeping like a little hedgehog. I woke Milani up when it was time to land, and this was the quietest we’d been since reconnecting. Once Patrice announced we could deplane, my father grabbed our suitcase, and we gathered our purses. It was time to face the real world.
We were descending the stairs when my father emitted a loud, obnoxious laugh that made both of us look over our shoulders at him.
“Remember how I said Deja was missing and her location was showing at your lounge?” He cackled once we were all standing on the tarmac.
There were two awaiting black Suburbans a few feet away. Bill stood outside of one, and Jermaine, my father’s driver, stood outside of the other.
“Yeah,” I confirmed, waiting to be let in on the joke.
“Levi found her locked in the storage closet in the back of the lounge when he drove up there to see if she had left her phone there or something. Deja said you told the bottle girl, Candace, to take her back there to use the phone in private, but Candace locked her ass in there,” my father detailed, clearly amused by the story, not realizing the can of worms he was opening. I reached over to grab Milani’s hand while she gave me the side eye. “Deja won’t tell them shit, but she has asked to speak with you privately.”
