The Unusual Suspects Book 2

Justin

"She's gonna kill you for sure." My dad said with a slight laugh as we sat in the restaurant talking for a minute. I had to laugh at that myself too because he was right, my mother is gonna kill me for what I did. "Don't get me wrong, I don't think she'll be upset with your choice, but more on the end of she had nothing to do with it. You know you're literally the apple of her eye...so you already know how she is." he added after taking a sip of his drink.                                                                "I know Pops. It's like I didn't do it to spite her, but we just got caught up in the moment." I said. "I can see that. I mean...you're not much different from how we were at your age though. Couldn't nobody tell us nothing and even if they did, we wouldn't have listened." We both laughed off of that too. My dad really wasn't a bad dude for real. "One thing for sure though, you got taste! I'd love to say you got that from me, ya feel me?" he said and there we were laughing again. I for sure got my sense of humor from him, without a doubt.                                                              "Yeah she's something special, but absolutely easy on the eyes." I said to him.                                        "Yeah she is, your baby momma was too. So I see you got a type." he said.                                               "What you mean?" I asked him as I went to take a sip of my water.                                                                 "You like the foreign looking thick ones." he said and I had to think about it, he had a point.         "I mean...that was a coincidence. I'm not gonna lie, off of first glance, who could pass either up? But it's like they both brought something different to my life and that's how we ended up locked in." I said and he nodded. "Just this one...is a different type of locked in." I said to him.                        "And that's cool for real. Just don't allow the marriage part to be what you get hung up on. You still got a promising future ahead of you Jay, that still matters too." he said to me.                             "I know. I mean she's already in college and I'm on my way. She has her hustle and I have mine. We got this on lock, trust me. No slacking off over here."                                                                                     "I hear you. But also remember you gave up all your I's for Us. And you gotta do everything with Sincere in mind too. You became a husband and a father in one moment." I let those words sink in for a moment because it was the first time I thought about it. Don't get me wrong, I love Sincere, he's a great kid but now this ain't Mr. Justin and Sincere, it's Sincere and Dad. I'm kind of ready, but I just hope I don't fail him at any point. "I know that face...what is it?" he asked.         "I just don't want to fail him as a parent." I said.                                                                                                   "Here's the thing Jay, you not wanting to fail him, already let's me know that you won't. I know you didn't have the best role model in me, but you can learn from my mistakes though. What counts most is being there, and I can already see that you are. There's no manual to parenting, you learn as you go along. Don't focus on being perfect, focus on being present. A child might forget things you've done, but they won't forget if you were there." That actually made a lot of sense, he be really dropping gems on me.                                                                                                               "Damn you're a hard man to find." I heard Mar say and I instantly turned and saw him and Tony walking over to where we were sitting.                                                                                                                       "How y'all find me?" I asked them.                                                                                                                             "Bruhhh I always got your location, you forgot?" Tony said as he looked at his phone and I laughed at that. "How you doing? I'm Anthony, This gotta be your Pops." Tony said as he reached over and shook my dad's hand.                                                                                                                                         "You were definitely raised right. I'm well, how about yourself?" he said to T.                                       "I'm doing well too, I can't complain." Tony replied to him.                                                                         "Y'all are more than welcome to join us, have a seat." My dad said as Tony sat down beside him and Mar took the seat by me.                                                                                                                                            "I'm Martin by the way, nice to meet you sir." Mar said as he shook my dad's hand too.                      "Army brat?" My dad caught that real quick.                                                                                                               "Yessir, how can you tell?"                                                                                                                                                 "Your handshake. You made eye contact, firm grip, web to web touch. They teach us how to properly give a handshake there so I figured your dad or mom must've taught you."                            "Yeah, my dad definitely taught me that as a child. Made sure to always enforce the eye contact thing too. That always stuck with me." Mar told him.                                                                                         "It shows. You have a strong presence about you..." he told Mar. "...You as well Anthony. You give vibes like you run shit." My dad told him and he was so spot on.                                                                      "Man Jay you gotta learn that reading people thing from your Pops, that's slick." Tony said. We all sat around talking, laughing, sharing, and all that. It's funny because we used to do this very thing with Mar's dad, but it felt nice to be able to do this with mine. It absolutely hit different and I was thankful for this for real. I looked at my watch and I couldn't believe how much time had passed at this point. Couldn't even tell because we were all just enjoying the conversation.             "Well...I'mma leave you young folks to it. It was nice to meet y'all and Jay you already know you can call me whenever. I got the bill y'all." My dad said as he went to stand up.                                           "You don't ha..." he cut me off real quick.                                                                                                                   "What I say?" he said with a sound of authority but a smile on his face. I just fell back. "I got it, y'all be safe out here." he said as he waved everybody off and went up to the front.                               "He cool as fuck for real." Tony said as I sat back down.                                                                                        "Yeah...I've grown to realize that too." I said before I focused back on them.                                             "So...you know why we're here." Mar said. I knew but I wasn't even ready for what they were about to say.