"Ain't no mistakin' it, you make me feel comfortable naked 
And that's why we ain't gotta fake it 
Pull up on you with no makeup, just gloss and mascara 
You filming me like a trailer 
That's what I need on the daily 
No pedal, but you drive me crazy 
You got me talking like you when I'm speaking"  
- Tink 

"Big thank you to everyone here for coming out. This is the first event my family put together and it's not going to stop here either. Y'all already know me and the crew. I want to officially introduce my wife, Bailey. If y'all follow me on social media then you already know what she looks like, and I'm not calling her up on this stage." I shook my head at Jerrell's antics while continuing to dig into my peach cobbler funnel cake I got from one of the food booths.

"This event is for the community. You don't need any money to have a good time with us. everything here is free to y'all, but don't go crazy. There are ten mystery boxes placed randomly down the street. If you see one, fill out the slip with your information and put one thing that you want to see changed in the neighborhood. We'll be giving away cash prizes to one hundred people. You can only win once, but you can get extra entries by winning the games around. Kids, go crazy with the games. There are prizes at every game booth for y'all. Save your tickets, you'll be able to use them as cash at every market in this neighborhood." 

The ticket idea came from Tone. He said he often would steal out of these stores because he didn't have money to buy himself anything. His dad, Jerrell's uncle, would use the money he made from selling drugs to feed he and his wife's own secret drug addiction. They hid it well, often times sending Tone to his grandmother's home with the excuse of them "working too much." He told me that he would even let one of his mom's friends do things to him because she would give him money. He didn't have to go into detail for me to know what her sick ass was doing to him. 

"So have fun, don't go crazy with the drinks Unc! Let the kids play! Everyone in green staff shirts work for me so show them the same respect you'll show me. Remember, this is a safe zone for everyone so don't even try it. We'll start shutting down at seven so turn up!" Jerrell ended his speech, handing the microphone back to the DJ that LJ hired. There are already people surrounding the stage waiting to speak to him, so I already know it's going to be a while before he makes his way back to me. Once I finish eating I'm going to make a point to walk around and get familiar with some of the people and local business owners that make this neighborhood what it is.

"Bailey, we aren't late are we?" I smiled at Noelle and Cam while opening my arms for a hug.

"No. We're just kicking off. How was the flight in?"

"Horrible. There was so much turbulence, but we're here now. I need some dick to make me feel better. Where's Lucas?" Cam spoke while running her eyes across the crowd.

"Not fucking with you." Essence sung out, causing everyone but Cam to laugh.

"Wait, what did I do?"

"Some nigga named Terrance came to him as a woman." I burst out laughing, nearly choking on my funnel cake.

"I'm glad you find my suffering funny, Bailey."

"Girl, go somewhere with all of that. You knew what you were doing." She released a dramatic sigh while looking over at the crowd of people.

"I'm going to let him enjoy this block party and whatnot, but I'll be at his front door tonight."

"You better book a room for yourself just incase. My brother's pride is something serious." Ess told her while taking one of the alcohol infused snow cones from Elle.

"And you can't stay with me. My wedding is in two days and Jerrell and I agreed not to have any overnight guests for the first six months in our new house, sorry bestie." I spoke up before she decides to randomly pop up at my front door. Plus I finally agreed that I'd stop taking my birth control after the wedding. We've successfully taken care of just about everything on my checklist. Noelle will be out here for exactly a month to oversee the office renovations, and I've already hired a hiring manager to work side by side with Jade to take care of the staffing. Jerrell has also been more than willing to take whatever he can off my plate because in his words, 'stressed eggs don't get fertilized'.

"I'll just stay with Noelle."

"Aht! I booked a presidential suite to cater to my man this weekend. You better go coop up in that one bedroom pool house with Essence." Essence flipped Noelle off without taking her attention off her snow cone.

"Your man? Let me find out." I teased her. I know her and Tone hit it off when she was designing the office back in Boston, and they went on a couple dates, but I didn't know they were still in contact with each other since Noelle's company is based out of New York.

"Anthony and I have a understanding, some what. We're both afraid of being in a long distance relationship, but it's exactly what we're doing. We agreed not to entertain other people while we're talking to each other, we talk every day, we've even exchanged 'I love you's'. We just haven't put a title on it, because that'll make it an actual long distance relationship."

"He told you he loves you? That's huge for Tone." Ess told her while trying to reach over for some of my funnel cake. I handed it to her, knowing I've eaten as much of it as I could.

"I know. We were both emotional the first time we said it. He doesn't even know that I'm out here, let alone staying for a month. The condo I rented will be ready on Monday, so we'll be able to spend a lot of actual time with each other." I noticed him walking up behind her as she was talking. His arms went around her waist and he started attacking her neck with kisses.

"Awww!" We all called out. Noelle covered her face with her hands and Tone continued what he was doing like none of us are standing here.

"I missed you too, Anthony."

"Mmhm, come with me so I can show you around." He started walking off with her, not even acknowledging any of us. I'm so happy for the both of them. They both deserve to be happy.

"Makes me want a man." Elle pouted.

"Not me. Niggas suck." Essence said with a roll of her eyes.

"Let that hurt go girl. Now if y'all will excuse me, I'm going to try and mingle and put my face out there." I grabbed a bottle of water and adjusted my staff shirt while walking off into the crowd.

"You thought you were going to beat me, huh?" I teased one of the neighborhood kids as I made the last basket. The booth attendant handed me five tickets and I handed them over to Sean. "Keep practicing. You're getting better every time I see you." I walked off from the game, looking around for Bailey. We're a couple hours into this block party and I haven't seen her since it started. We have three blocks blocked off, so I knew I wouldn't see much of her this event, but it's been too long for my liking.

"Who you looking for, young blood?" I looked over at the OG's who were sitting around the grill drinking beers.

"My wife. She's-"

"The lil fine ass dark skin joint with the braids and the staff shirt on?" I laughed, figuring that Bailey must have been over here to talk to them already.

"That's her."

"She's over by the DJ booth, dancing with the kids." I looked over in that direction and definitely noticed her over there dancing. 

"Preciate it." I nodded to them while making my way over to her. I noticed a nigga that I used to go to school with try and dance up behind her. She turned around fast as hell and said something to him. I don't know what he said back, but she held up her hand to point to her ring. I know how niggas are around here, especially niggas I went to school with. I walked up behind Bailey, circling my arm around her waist.

"TJ, I see you've met my wife." I felt Bailey's body relax, letting me know that she was uncomfortable around him. The cocky look on his face immediately dropped and I used the opportunity to kiss the top of Bailey's head.

"I was just introducing myself. I don't mean no disrespect. Y'all have a good night." He walked off and I had to stop myself from knocking his ass out just for trying Bailey without me being around.

"Look at you coming to my rescue. You must really love me, huh?"

"You better stop playing with me. You good? You want me to go beat his ass, because I'm on go for you." She let out a small giggle while turning around in my arms.

"No, I don't want you fighting. I very much appreciate you though. Do you want to dance with me?"

"I'll eat yo ass up on this dance floor." She rolled her eyes, looking up at me with a fake annoyed expression. I can't wait to see her fine ass in her wedding dress. She refuses to show it to me, but I know she's going to look good as hell in it. Hell she better look good in it after I seen how much she paid for it.

"I'm so happy with how this is turning out. I think we could do one of these once a month. It's an investment, but it's all going into the community so it's worth it." This event wasn't cheap at all since we wanted it to be free for all the residents of the community. All the food booths are local restaurants and we're footing the bill for everyone to eat free. We're also featuring all the venders on our non-profit website we launched as an extension under our company's website.

"Yeah, this shit is smooth. We'll discuss details at our next meeting. How long Noelle gonna be out here? She got that nigga Tone cheesing like hell." 

"She's going to be here for the next month. She came out early for the block party and the wedding and next week she'll start overseeing her team with renovating our office." She explained as I began rocking her side to side along to the oldies playlist the DJ is playing.

"I think we should enter an official partnership with her and her company. Business wise, she's a great asset to the company. That way we don't have to keep requesting jobs with her whenever we decide to expand out."

"You're right, and that's another thing we'll discuss at our next meeting. Now enough of business talk-" Bailey was cut off by someone clearing their throat. We both turned our heads, staring into the face of my mom. I glanced between her and Bailey, not quite knowing what to say. I communicate with mom every now and then through text, but I haven't seen her in person in a minute. 

"Let me give you two some space." Bailey spoke while pulling away from me. 

"I wanted to speak to both of you if that's possible."

"It's not, but take all the time you need with your son, Mrs. Price." A tight lipped smile grew on Bailey's face as she turned to walk off. My relationship with my mom is strained and I know the relationship she had with Bailey is past ruined. I still don't quite know how I plan to move forward with my mom to even try to start piecing together the brief relationship she had with Bailey.

"You look good, son."

"You do too. Who did you come here with?" I looked around, trying to spot anyone familiar from my mom's side of the family. I know she's most likely here with either my aunt or one of my female cousins.

"Your cousin Ciara told us about the event so we came down here with your aunt Sharon to check it out."

"Alright, well y'all enjoy yourselves and have a good time." She stood in place, not moving, letting me know that she isn't going to leave that easily.

"I miss you, and I want to spend time with you now that you're back in Cali."

"I've been back out here for two years now, Ma. I'm sure you knew that as well. What's the real reason you popped up at our event? You need something?" She looked down at the ground and that told me all I needed to know.

"Things haven't been easy with your dad gone. I've been living off my savings, but a lot of it went into your dad's investments. I'm not asking for any money. I just need some assistance getting into my own place. I can't continue living with your aunt. I'm trying to start over and rebuild my life and the first step is getting back into my own house." I stared at her for a minute, trying to decide how I was going to move.

"Let me discuss it with my wife before I give you a response to that." We do own a condo building that I can put her in, but she's not asking for that. She wants to be put up into a house.

"You're going to talk it over with your wife who doesn't like me?"

"You don't think my wife has a valid reason not to like you?" I asked, wanting to genuinely know her thoughts on how she contributed to what my dad did to Bailey.

"I'm not saying that. I'm saying that I'm your mother. You shouldn't have to-"

"Nah, I should have to. I've learned to make all of my decisions with my wife. My wife has been here for more more than anyone these past few years. I'm not doing anything behind her back regardless of who it's for." I learned my lesson with doing shit behind Bailey's back. Even when we weren't together she still made sure that I was straight. She continued rocking with me when she knew a way to legally break our contract from day one. I love her and I'm not risking what we have for anything.

"I respect that. I see how much you've grown with this relationship. Your father and I agreed to the arranged marriage with intentions that it wouldn't last longer than you gaining legal access to Rogers Industries assets. We were never expecting you two to actually build anything with each other, but I can't deny that I love you two together. What the two of you have built together is amazing. I'm really proud of the both of you." I nodded, not really knowing of an appropriate response to what she just said. I can't even process what she just said as a compliment. It sounds like a congratulations for not playing Bailey.

"Is there anything else you need so Bailey and I can have a actual discussion about what we're going to do?" After everything she just said I don't want to continue on with this conversation. It's going to put me in a horrible mood and I'm trying to remain a good host at my own event.

"Just my own place, and possibly an updated car. Anything you can do to help me son." I nodded and glanced around in search of Bailey. I quickly located her off to the side with an annoyed expression on her face while Cam talked her ear off. Probably mad about LJ seriously not fucking with her. Bitches always get with LJ and assume he be fucking around, but he isn't the type to fuck with more than one chick at a time. None of my cousins are, so the moment they feel played they end that shit with the quickness.

"Alright. I got your number, and I know where you at. I'll reach out to you and let you know what we decide to do." I gave her a side hug and turned to walk off over to Bailey.

"Rell, tell Lucas to stop being mean to me." Cam started as soon as I walked over. I shook my head and put my arm over Bailey's shoulder.

"That's a grown ass man, Camille." I responded as Bailey leaned into me. I hate that I just had that run in with my mom because now I no longer want to be at my own event. Bailey leaned up so that she could speak into my ear.

"Let's walk to the car so you can take a smoke break and release that stressful conversation from your mind." I grabbed ahold of her chin and kissed her lips. This is one of the main reasons why I'll never let her go. I've never had a relationship like this. Never had a woman read me as easily as she does. 

"Y'all make me sick I'm going to find Essence and Elle." Cam complained before dramatically storming off.

"Let's go to the car before people start noticing we're gone. I want to be able to finish out the event successfully."

"We will, but we need to do it without the annoyed expression on your face. I'm not even going to ask you what she wanted, because I just want you to clear your head. You can smoke and clear your head so we can finish the event and we'll talk about that random encounter later." She grabbed a hold of my hand, leading us over to where our car is parked. As soon as we got in I opened the glove compartment to grab one of the blunts I rolled earlier.

"You wanna go on a honeymoon? Just us this time." I brought up once the smoke had a little time to spread to my lungs.

"Where do you want to go? The last trip was my idea."

"I haven't thought about it. Thailand, maybe?" She nodded slowly and I could already see her planning in her head.

"That would be nice, and relaxing. If we stay longer than a week we'll have to be prepared to work during our honeymoon. Our schedule is still pretty tight." I reached over to rest my hand on her thigh while reclining my seat back some.

"I don't mind being on call for work matters as long as we're somewhere not accessible to everyone else. We can use a vacation after the year and a half vacation we took from each other." She cut her eyes at me and took her phone out of her pocket.

"I'll book it now so it's set in stone."

"Give me a kiss." I mumbled while squeezing her thigh. She climbed over the console into my lap and smashed her lips into mine. The moment her lips were on mine the conversation I had with my mom no longer existed. She pulled back after a few moments and smiled down at me.

"Finish smoking so we can end this event right." She made a move to get up and I placed my hand on the small of her back to keep her in place.

"Stay right here." She playfully rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her phone.

"You wanna fly private or commercial?"

"It's in your hands, baby." She nodded and began tapping away at her screen.

How do feel about Tone and Noelle's relationship? Incase you forgot, she was introduced in chapter 19.

Thoughts on LJ and Cam?

What do you think about Jerrell's mom showing up to the block party? Thoughts on what she asked of him?

Do you think the block party was a success? What do you think about Tone's ticket idea for the kids?