SALUBRIOUS

SB14

Nasiem Fareed

2:29 pm - October 21st 2023

Nas eyed his phone, internally going back and forth with himself. He knew he'd have to talk to Kimora eventually due to them having a child together. And no matter how fucked up Kimora was, there was never anything she could do to make Nasiem shun his daughter, Demi was the only innocent one in all of this. Nas let out a deep sigh as he pressed her contact name and pushed the phone up to his ear. He slightly leaned against his target shopping cart while listening to the callback sound.

"Nas." Kimora sighed, "I've been meaning to call you." She announced. Before she could start her speech, Nas cut her off. "Aye, what kinda car seat I need for Demi? I just got me a car and I wanna be prepared when she come with me." He explained, the short pause between Kimora's response called for Nas calling her name again.

"I'm here...umm, anything that's for her age range is fine." Kimora announced, affirming what Nas already had in mind. His favorite car seat matched the interior of his car, so he was happy to get it. About an hour ago, he drove off the lot with a gently used Hyundai Sonata. It wasn't necessarily his dream car, but Nas was thankful for it. Especially since he didn't give the dealership a lot to work with. His credit was just below okay, and his documented income at the flower shop wasn't much. So he was grateful to ride away in something that wasn't a hoopty. Nas was tackling at his checklist one by one. He envisioned getting his own space first, but progress in any order was still progress.

"Ight, preciate it." Nas replied. Just when he was about to hang up, Kimora called out his name. "Wassup?" He questioned, putting the phone back to his ear.

"After what transpired at Demi's party—I don't want you to think I told you to leave to separate you from Demi or for my own sake. I told you to leave, because I didn't want anything to escalate between you and my cousins...and possibly send you to jail or something." Kimora explained. Nas slowly nodded his head as he pushed his red buggy out of the isle. Target became one of his favorite places post prison release, he estimated he'd frequent even more now that he had a way up there to go at his leisure.

"I left too...if that means anything." Kimora added. Nas found himself on Demi's favorite section in Target—the toy isle. Even though her birthday passed and he got the gifts on her list, Nas still wanted to look. Christmas was nearing, anyway. "It don't mean anything, but Ight, Kim. You do everything else yo' mama say, what you want a DNA test?" Nas fussed.

"Wha—" Kimora cut herself off, "I don't want a DNA test, I know that Demi is yours." She spoke. Nas sighed as he ran his tongue over his top row of teeth. "I wasn't doing what my mama said, Nasiem. " Kimora added.

"Yeah...whatever." Nas replied as he continued to maneuver his cart through the store. "I ain't need nothing but the car seat size." He added before ending the call without a response from Kimora. He hated that the first birthday party of his daughter that he was able to attend, he got kicked out of. The memory irritated him every time he thought about it. That and the fact that Kimora only cried and watched as her mother ruined their daughter's birthday party.

Nas grabbed his receipt out of the self checkout, and slipped it into his pocket. He pushed the buggy out of the store and over to his car, where he then put the car seat box in the backseat before randomly leaving the buggy in the parking lot, and hopping in the driver's seat. 

- 7:32 pm

"I'm proud of you, nigga. You only been out bout two months, and you getting your shit together." Wham voiced as he bounced the basketball to the floor of his back yard basketball court, allowing it to leap over to Nas, who smiled as he nodded his head, clearly proud of himself as well. "Preciate it." Nas replied before shooting the ball into the goal.