Magic City Mondays

chapter veinticinco

DOS MONTHS LATER.

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"Zaire, make sure the balloons are tied tight." He nods and continues putting them in place. "You said Will is definitely coming right?" I nod. After the incident, Will and I settled our custody issues out. He apologized to me with a black eye and I swear I almost started laughing. He was talking weird because of his jaw too.

Zaire was placed on probation and so was Will after the incident. I didn't press charges because I don't wanna do Xariah's dad like that. He and Zaire agreed to stay away from each other at all times but I did catch Zaire trying to go to his house one day. Social media was booming about the big rivalry between them. Of course, Zaire being Zaire, made multiple tracks about him.

I walk over to Kleo as she talks to the caterers. I listen to their conversation for a minute before walking back into the house. I head upstairs and into Xariah's room where my mom is dressing her up. She's wearing a blue and white dress with blue Jordan elevens. "All she wears is dresses." I mumble walking out the room. "Stop hating on your own child." I roll my eyes and chuckle a little.

I walk into my room and hop into the shower. The guests will be here soon so I'm gonna get dressed now. I quickly wash, dry, and lotion. I decide to wear jeans and a tank because I don't need to look special. I begin zipping up my heels. "Hey baby." I look up as Dante stands there. I stand up and smile. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him.

"Where's Riah?" He asks as we head out my room. On cue, my mom walks out the room with Riah on her hip. "Hey Dante. Nice to see you again." She smiles at him. "You too Ms. Smith." Yup, he met my mom. We've been getting pretty serious about each other. Whenever I'm not at work, Xariah and I are with him.

We all head downstairs and they leave out the back door. I walk over to the front door after hearing the doorbell. "Hey. Come on in." I step to the side to let Melanie, Alexander, and Logan in. She hugs me. "I haven't seen him in a long time." I say motioning to Logan. I direct her to the back and right before I close the door, my dad starts walking in with my nephews behind him.

I hug him and he takes a second to look at me. "You've grown so much." He says and I smile a little. He hugs me again before walking off. I fist bump my nephews and they go outside with the rest of our family. I close the door and head outside. We wanted to have a small party for Xariah's first birthday.

"Where's Will?" I shrug. "Probably on the way." I pull my phone out to check the time. "It's one thirty. I told him one." Zaire starts shaking his head. "Let's just get started." Kleo suggests. I sit down next to Dante as Xariah sits in his lap. "We're opening gifts first?" Kleo nods. "That's how we did it at her shower." I laugh and Dante carries her over to the table to help open the stuff.

"This one's from grandad." He hands the box to Xariah and lets her open it. She struggles a little but eventually gets it. We look at the box and once I figure out what it is, thank my dad. It's one of those play kitchen sets. This is great for her because she's always trying to help me when I'm cooking. "Next one is from me." He says.

Xariah opens this one too as my dad gets his present out the box for her. "You got her a car." I shake my head. It's one of those cars that you push the baby in. I laugh as Xariah starts climbing into the pink car. Dante starts pushing her as she squeals. She puts her hand on the wheel and starts spinning it.

He brings her back to the table to finish opening stuff. Zaire got her a whole iPad to play games and my mom got her a vanity. They're acting like she's Stephen and Matthew's ages. Kleo got her lots of small toys and so did Melanie. I on the other hand, got her a new bed since we are gonna be transitioning her from crib to bed.