Streets and Sheets 5

21.

Emerald

—

I got home and I wasn't tired so I was actually glad to see the lights on when I pulled up. I walked up the steps to the back door knowing that the kids were in bed and I could take a shower hopefully calming my body. Sloane had kept the kitchen clean like I asked and put the boys to bed. He was up typing a way in his computer when I got home. I leaned in the wall for a bit kicking my shoes off.

"Hey. The boys are asleep." He said sleepily as I walked past the TV.

"I'm going to shower and I'll be back down." He nodded as I walked. I wanted to be in his presence for the first time in a while. Once I got upstairs, I slowly opened the boy's doors to see how they were sleeping. Afterwards I striped down to get clean. The water did relax my body a lot as I scrubbed my shin of the day. I got out moisturizing my skin and grabbing so thing to lounge in. 3:37am felt like noon to me right about now. I walked back down stairs sitting next to Sloane. He closed his laptop, stretching out, and placing his head on my lap.

"How was your night? I looked down at him telling him about how crazy work was. He listened to everything I had to say even though he hated that I was working.

"I'm surprise your here." I said softly rubbing h my hands through his hair. I was so tired of our situation I forgot how god it could be. Times like these remind me of when we first got together.

"Really?" He asked. I though he would have let the sages at the club and ran things from his office like he had been doing for a while.

"This was prime time for you to be at work. I didn't think you would step away. Plus with this being your time with them and all..." I replied. There was underlying shade that I'm sure he caught.

"I'm tired of splitting my time with them. I need us to get back to a family unit because hearing that come out of your mouth makes my skin crawl. I can't deal with the schedule, there is two of everything and I just..." He had made this known time and time again.

"I'm not ready to move back in yet. I miss you and what was but we have to move forward together." I cut him off in the middle of his rant.

"Together huh?" I assured him.

"Together."

"I'm just realizing what's more important." He shifted around. I watched his eyes wonder as he collected his thoughts.

"I don't worry about Vegas because I have a good team of people and I have a good team of people here too." Sloane did one of his random pop ups to Vegas right after Nasir was born. At that time I did want o see him not talk to him so I guess it was the best time to see what was going on in the west coast. He was able to check in the books s d see how the money flowed. He stayed out there for a few weeks over seeing operations and keeping things together. At that time, even though the baby was just born, his absence didn't affect me. I had gotten used to the Flaky side of him and figured that my life would be this way for a while.

"I'm glad you're here. I'm glad your priorities are falling in to order." I kept my voice low in order to keep the mood consistent.

"I want to ask you something." I too a deep breath it even filling my head with possible situations.

"Yeah." I said looking forward.

"I'm not trying to pick a fight..." He sat up, now facing me. I curled up trying to stay warm.

"Ok" I said back. I was confused and a little afraid about where this could go.

"I saw the plan B box and I just wanted to know... I need to know if, we'll really why..." I zoned out a little bit. He was definitely asking me if I had done anything outside of our relationship. I understand why he would ask and I'm not even upset that he is because that's what it looks like.

"No. I took it after you came over and we had sex. The next day actually." I let him ask son follow up questions so we were on the same page.

"That was a good night." He rubbed the back of his neck thinking about it. He wasn't wrong wrong about that. Even though we were pissed at each other, it was a good night.

"It was. May have been too good THATS why I took the pill." He shook his head. I could tell he wanted to explode be the way he pressed his hands together.

"You called me over here for that you know. I mean you could just come home but that's neither here nor there." I rolled my eyes at him. I didn't want this conversation to be about our living situation because it was working out just fine.

"And you came right?" I replied.

"And so did you. Multiple times." I forgot who I was dealing with.

"Yeah whatever" I though I had a smart ass mouth but Sloane was king if the come backs.

"Having another baby when Khalil is turning three in two months and  Nasir is only 8 months isn't going to be good go any of us." I immediately followed up. He deserved to know what steps I took to get to this point.

"So what are you trying to say?" He asked. Sloane was trying to calm himself down but I couldn't see if it was working or not. His breath was heavy and his leg began to shake. I shifted towards him.

"I want another baby. I do..." I started as crazy as it may sound. I loved the idea of growing our family.

"But we are not in a place where we can add another person, a baby, in to it right now or in nine months." I broke it down to him further.

"Plus you and I know that you didn't pull out." He laughed, finally looking up at me.

"I really wasn't trying to. But I understand and how ever you want to move on with..." He stopped, looking me dead in my eyes and leaning in for a kiss. With out a thought I kissed him back. I placed my hand on his chest still trying to figure out if I wanted him to stop.

"Condoms." I said once his hands made their way to my thighs.

"You want condoms?" He asked kicking his lips.

"That's the only way it's going to work because your timing is off."

"You got jokes?" He asked pulling me closer.