• 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 •

• 35 •

eneaj

"Thanks, Mom," I whispered, sitting in the passenger seat of her Ram truck.

"I knew you didn't need to move down there to Houston with that little girl. She ain't here right now helpin' you when you need her the most. I am."

"I don't even know where Yenvy is right now, Mom. Who knows what she's doin'," I sighed.

"You need your mother for everything. I'll tell you right now what I think she's doin' based off of everything you just told me: she's doin' your fuckin' girlfriend. And that's a fuckin' shame because  I actually was growin' on Val."

"Mom."

"You comin' back to Dallas with me for a few days or what?"

"I'm gonna get a hotel in Zinnias, erase myself a few days, and run the club remotely through Mrs. Smith. Take my space from everybody."

"Runnin' a club wasn't gonna be easy, and I told you that baby," my mom softly held my cheek, "I just hate you had to learn this the tough way."

"It's not even the club, ma. It's the drama...it's literally everything else but it."

"Your phone, your personal things, how are you gonna handle that?"

"Make a lot of phone calls and doin' a lot of cancellin'," I sighed.

"Take some time to yourself...but know that I'm here. And also that mother know's best," she told me gently.

I nodded, staring down at my lap.

My mom took me back to Dallas for the night, until I could sort out a hotel in Zinnias, and figure myself out.

It wasn't my childhood home, she had moved when I graduated into a smaller house. It was just her there, and her collection of cassette tapes and DVD's of famous movies and music.

"You can take the spare room. I'll set things up for you."

I got out of the vehicle, staring up at a house I had only seen a few times since she got it.

"I didn't scare you or anything did I?"

It was almost afternoon now, the sky wanted to get dark and it looked like it was about to rain. You could almost smell it in the air.

"I thought something bad had happened to you Eneaj."

She didn't know about the Yenvy's friend ordeal.

"I did too," I mumbled. "Hey, do me a favor, and don't tell anybody who asks for me where I am, okay?"

"Even Valerie?" my mother asked.

"Especially her."