more life / b.simmons (2)

51

2 months later

"you ready, baby?" amari calls to cameron as she puts her hoop earring in her ear. cameron waddles around the room, walking into her legs so she picks him up and places him on her hip. "lets go, baby." she says, kissing his cheek and then wiping away the mark her lip gloss leaves.

"okay, mommy," cameron says. grabbing her white birkin, she slings it over her shoulder before she grabs a few things for cameron. the car waits for her downstairs, at the front of the hotel, so she waits on nobody but herself.

the two of them quickly get into the hotel elevator, cameron babbling and pulling on amaris jewelry. she smiles down at him, letting him be a baby because he's not as strong as he is big. compared to adrian when he was this age, cameron is way bigger than he was, and amari just knows that he's going to be taller than both adrian and ben.

reaching the lobby, paparazzi swarm the outside, and security barricade the door so they can't get inside. amari rolls her eyes at their pathetic attempts at to get photos of people coming in an out of the hotel. that's one thing she never understood, paparazzi. what they gained, besides pictures, she never knew or would understand. the harassment, for what? unanswered questions.

amari shields cameron's face and holds him close to her chest as she exits the hotel lobby. the black rolls royce sits idly, exactly where ben said he'd be. two of security guard stand on the side of the car, blocking any paparazzi from getting near the car.

the two bodyguards move out of the way to let amari near the car. the taller one, cj, pulls the back door open for her so she can put cameron in his car seat. quickly strapping him she jumps in the front seat and ben peels out of the parking lot before she can even pull her seatbelt on. "hi, daddy!" he yells from the backseat.

"hey, lil man."

"slow down!" amari says, pulling the seatbelt across her chest, glancing at cameron in the backseat who waves at her. she relaxes seeing his smile, and then glances at ben, who only slowed down a small amount. coming to a stop at a light, ben leans across the console and kisses her cheek. she cheekily smiles down at her phone as she texts kyra to let her know that she's on the way to the restaurant.

things between them have been... working. he officially retired and is able to spend more time with both of his little ones, and work on rekindling things with amari. though they've been keeping it lowkey, he still takes her out on dates in places that he's able to keep a low profile—they don't need people in their business.

"you tell baby girl we're on the way?" he asks. amari nods, just as a text from kyra comes in, saying that she's almost there. a few days ago, kyra called amari, adrian, and ben, and said that they needed to have an urgent family meeting. amari had sensed some things had been off with kyra ever since she went away for college, but every time she brought it up, kyra changed the subject—especially when it was about basketball.

so that's why they're all in LA—everyone but adrian and arielle. adrian is too busy in kentucky to take a flight out here, but he already knows what's happening with kyra because he's the first person she told.

pulling up to the restaurant, bens bodyguards following closely behind them, he pulls up to the valet and amari gets out first. their plan is to have her enter with cameron, and then him walk in a few minutes later. they've been doing it for the past month, so it should work.

"i want to walk, mommy," cameron says as she pulls him out of his car seat. she sets him on the ground and grabs his hand and they start walking towards the entrance, cj escorting them to the front. amari keeps her head down as more camera snap pictures of them. cameron, being himself, waves at all of them or throws up a peace sign.