recognize / b.simmons

50

it's the friday before the all star game, aka valentine's day, and amari sits in the nail salon with her mom. her parents were in town for all star weekend like ben and amari planned—her parents know about the dinner tomorrow night, just not why—but her parents are going out on a date tonight, so her mom is looking nice for her dad.

"what shape should i do?" her mom asks, the lady filing down her nails.

"you don't like the ones i pick. just do round," amari says. her mom wasn't a fan of the long and pointy nails that amari sometimes gets. she once got extremely long, sharp as blades red nails and her mom freaked out.

"what are you getting?"

"almond," amari says, taking a deep breath through her face mask. she's gotten extremely sensitive to smells, so she wore a mask to lessen that.

her mom nods and and tells her nail tech to do the same thing. amari chuckles and rolls her eyes and wills herself to relax in the chair.

"so," her mom says. amari already knows that she is gearing up to talk about ben. she's been making not-so-subtle-subtle-hints. "are you doing anything with ben tonight?" a small smile spreads across donteias face and amari sighs and lolls her neck to the side.

"mama," amari answers, an annoyed tone in her voice. ben and amari didn't have plans—at least not any that she knew of. she didn't care that much. "we're not doing anything, he's probably resting up for sunday." amari says, but she knows that he's most likely with his teammates right now.

"it's only two o'clock. you have 10 hours to figure it out."

almost an hour later, both amari and her mother were done in the nail salon. they both got almond shaped nails, amaris ombré and her moms silver glitter with a single pink one.

amari pays for their nails and they exit the nail shop and head to amaris car. they get in and amari starts it and they drive off. "do you have any names for the baby?" donteia asks, going to her notes app and looking at a list.

"we have a few, yeah."

"does ben want a girl or a boy?" her mom asks.

"girl," amari says with a smile. it was still so cute to her that he wanted a girl.

donteia looks at her, astonished. "really? i thought all men wanted sons."

"thats what i said, but he wants a girl. i want a boy," amari says. her mom nods and scrolls through her list of names. amari glances at her mom, catching a glimpse of her screen. "are those baby names?"

"keep your eyes on the road, girl! and yes," donteia says. "for boys, you should consider omar, jacob, demetrius, adrian, corey, mason, rashad—just names to keep in mind." donteia says. amari smiles and thanks her mom and soon enough they pull up to her apartment building.

they get out and make their way inside and into the elevators. amari and her mom make it upstairs and amari unlocks her apartment. her father sits on the couch, the channel on TNT where it's showing pre-all star games. "hey, daddy," amari says, setting her bag down on the counter.

"hey, sweetie!" amari walks over to the couch and takes a seat next to her dad, tucking herself underneath his arm and he leans down and kisses her forehead.

donteia smiles at the two of them and takes a seat on the other side of amari. "let me see your nails," he says, grabbing donteias hand. "ah! i like them." he compliments, raising his eyebrows. he grabs amaris hand and examines her nails. "how come you didn't get bright colors?"

amari shrugs. "wasn't feeling it," she says simply. her dad chuckles and returns his attention to the TV.

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