Gangsta's Paradise

Bonding Time

Lauren

"Oh my God! Stop staring at me!"
"I'm saying, you look good baby. I can't stare at you?"
"Ugh, you get on my nerves!"
"Come here. I haven't seen you all day!"
"Boy, you've been talking to me though. Take a picture, it'll last longer."
"Oh I'm definitely taking pictures. And videos."
"Whatever!"

He walked up and scooped me up into his arms, sitting on the sofa with me in his lap. I smiled at him and ran my fingers through his hair. He smiled at me and leaned in for a kiss. We started making our but his phone started ringing.

"Hello? I'm saying man, what you want? No! I already told you no, Tanisha..."

I got up from his lap and walked to my washroom. He'd told me a little bit about his baby mama so I knew her name and wanted to give him his privacy.
I gathered Cam's white clothes and put them in the washer. I then took his colored clothes out the dryer and went to his room to put them up. I folded what needed to be folded and put it in his dresser. I then hung the other clothes. I went back into the living room and Nip was texting away on his phone. He looked pissed.

"Ermias, what's wrong?"
"I want my daughter! She's so fucking irresponsible."
"What happened?"
"She's dropped my daughter off to my mom, talking about she's going to Las Vegas with some nigga!"
"Wow. She couldn't drop her off with her mom?"
"No. They don't talk like that. And she always does this to my mom because she knows she won't tell her no."
"Well, Nip, you can go get her and bring her over here. Or I'll see you another time."
"Naw. I'll bring her here. I really wanted to spend time with you."
"Well, with both kids here. There definitely can't be any funny business."
"What the fuck? Why?!"
"Nip, first of all, Emani just met me! We told her we were friends and that's what we're going to be in front of her. And two, these walls are thin! We haven't done it with Cam here so we can't do it with both of them here. Absolutely not!"
"Damn! Now I gotta jerk off like a little teenage nigga in the bathroom."

I laughed and he shook his head. He went to go get Emani from his mom's house while I straightened up the area where I put the guest bedroom. It's in the main room but there's an area where I can put the blow up mattress. I blew it up and put some fresh sheets on it and three small pillows.
Nip knocked on the door and I opened. Emani ran up and hugged me and I hugged her back. She's such a sweet little girl. I asked if she ate and she said her grandma had fed her. So she went and took a bath and Nip tucked her in. We turned off all the lights except the hall light and went in my room. It has its own bathroom so I took a shower before Nip did. We got in the bed and as soon as his head touched the pillow, he was out like a light.
The next morning I work up to giggles. I opened my eyes and came face to face with Cam. Emani was also lying beside me while Nip was beside her, looking at me.

"Dang, why y'all all in my grill this morning?"
"Mommy, you snore!"
"What? No I do not!"
"You do Pooh. But it's cute."
"Haha! Did you just call me Pooh?!"
"Yep. You my honey dip, Goldie Loc!"
"You with all these nicknames this morning! Haha! So, who's hungry?"
"Me! Me!"

I laughed and got out the bed. We fixed pancakes, eggs, granola and a fruit salad. I looked at Nip as he looked down at his phone.

"What's up?"
"I gotta studio session this morning. It's all the same time Mani has to be to school."
"I can take her. I have to go into town anyway to learn more about the role."
"So you got it?"
"Yeah, they called me yesterday."
"Cool. Well, if you could take her that would be amazing baby."
"Yeah, no problem."
"I'll call and let them know you'll be taking her to school. You'll have to show them your id to drop her off."
"Okay. I got her."

We all got ready and Nip kissed Emani bye. He then gave me a kiss and picked Cam up, tickling him. After he left, we all got ready and left out. I dropped Cam off first since his school is the closest to the house. Me and Emani then headed to her school.

"Lauren, do you want more kids?"
"Yes! I want at least three more!"
"Do you want girls?"
"Oh I can't wait! To have a little girl where we can go and get mani's and pedi's and just have bonding time will be so awesome!"
"I wish I had that..."

I looked at her out the side of my eye. This isn't my first time noticing that Emani seems sad sometimes. She's a beautiful and amazing little girl. I hope she knows that. We finally made it to her school and I went and signed her in. I told her bye while giving her a hug and left. I would mention my observation the next time I see Ermias.

I headed into town so they could tell me about my next role. It's an independent film and is supposed to go straight to Netflix. I honestly like doing movies like these because they pay straight out and there's no guess work about if the next season will be renewed or not.
When I got to the studio where we would be meeting, some of the other cast was already there. And low and behold: Tremaine was standing there. Ugh! I can't stand him!