Chapter 35

Trigger

“Those girls are going to be hurting this morning.” My momma sing-songs.

I look at her from my spot at the counter making my coffee. “Yep, but hopefully, the pain’ll be worth it.”

“Fingers-crossed.”

At that second, a frumpy Razz trudges into the kitchen with her eyes half opened and her hair up in a rat’s nest on top of her head only wearing my shirt and a pair of my socks that reach her knees. Even a complete and utter mess, she’s beautiful. I go about getting her a mug and fixing her coffee while Ma finishes flipping pancakes and checking the bacon in the oven.

“Here, darlin’.” I hand her the cup and get a gracious smile.

“Thanks.” She grumbles and takes a seat on the kitchen island swinging her legs about.

“How are you feeling, Rocky?” Ma asks.

“Surprisingly, good. Probably better than I look.” She plucks my T-shirt between her fingers and rubs her hand over the nest on her head. “I probably should’ve got dressed, but I wasn’t feeling it.”

Spook strolls into the kitchen with a disheveled Greer on his back and he sets her next to Razz on the island. Greer slumps and Razz giggles.

“You look beautiful, Princess.” Razz says as she nudges her.

“Shut it before I throat punch you.”

“Such violence.” Razz chastises.

“You ain’t seen shit yet. Don’t fuck with me before I have my coffee.” Greer snatches Razz’s coffee and chugs it.

“You are such a see you next Tuesday.” Razz chides. Greer stares at her confused and Razz takes pity on her and spells it out for her. “C-U-N-T.”

“Speak for yourself.” Greer grits and hands the empty cup back to Razz. “At least I was able to get up, shower and dress. You just rolled out of bed and said today, I’m going to go out in homeless style.” Razz takes in her own appearance and then Greer’s and bust out laughing. The main difference between the two is that Greer has on clothes and her hair is wet with the same messy knot on top of her head.

Thirty-five minutes later, I’m sitting next to Razz and enjoying the conversations around me. The women are talking about shopping and busting on Razz and Greer about their lady gardens, which in turn has Greer and Razz taking up for each other, shockingly. They are tag teaming the hell out of Dani, Lily and Ma. The men are talking business.

Before all the shit hit the fan months ago, the Chaotic’s and Devil’s had decided to go into business together. Brute finally wanted to clean up his club and Dad was always looking for new business ventures. Since the Chaotic’s and the Devil’s already have bars and the Chaotic’s have a garage, they’ve been dabbling in ideas.

“Y’all should invest in that old warehouse on Industrial Park Boulevard and turn it into a nightclub.” Razz suggests.

“Why a nightclub and not something else?” Brute questions.

“Well, we don’t have one. We have plenty of restaurants and bars, but nothing for entertainment. If you want to dance or have a night out, you have to go to Atlanta.” My brothers nod in agreement. “Plus, it’s not run day and night, seven days a week. It wouldn’t open until the sun went down. On nights that it would be slow, you could have karaoke, an eighteen and up night on Thursdays, Ladies night on Fridays and some other theme on Saturdays.” Everyone is staring and smiling at Razz. “What?”

“Glad to have you back, Rocky.” Ma whispers.

“It’s just an idea. You don’t have to go with it. I just remember being single and young in Hicksville and wanting something to do other than get drunk, gain fifty pounds from eating, watch tits and ass and playing with myself in a dark room.”

“Where’s the fucking tequila?” Greer growls. “She’s talking about her pussy again.”

Razz slams her hand over her mouth. “Shit.” She shakes her head hoping it will erase her comment. “My bad, it slipped.”

I pull her into my lap and breathe her in. “All is right in our world.” She looks at me confusingly. “Razzle Dazzle, you never cared before what you said and I love that about you. You offered up a suggestion when we were struggling to come up with one, another reason why I love you. If we’d been having this conversation yesterday or last week, you probably wouldn’t be sitting her giving your opinion, so all is right in our world.”

“This is us.” She whispers.

“This is us.” I repeat and crash my hungry lips to hers.

Through someone’s vanity, I learned what humility was. Through someone’s fruitlessness, I found a basket full of fruits that gave me purpose again. Through someone else’s incompetence, I found someone capable of loving me the way I desired and how to do the same in return.

We found US again and we’ll continue to learn how to mold and grow us with two beautiful children.

Thank you for reading Sublime Vanity.