Book #4 of the Love & Trauma series || 𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗢𝗙𝗙 to "Threes Company"
Toby is fresh out of prison and ready to relive his second chance out in modern day.
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𝐌𝐀𝐘 ❷ ⓿ ❷ ❷
The Ashanti vinyl record spun on its player and sounded highly around the large living room of the modern farmhouse. "Movies" was playing out the speakers as Anicia unpacked the cardboard boxes with her bubble wrapped plaques inside. She was comfy in a desert teal cropped muscle tank with low armholes, braless and boyfriend sweatpants, with her natural and thick tresses in a messy bun and barefaced.
She started to unwrap the horizontal plaque and humming the lyrics when someone knocked on her front door. She trudged along in her slouched socks toward the front entry where a white piano and its bench sat to her left with two rectangular windows. She unlocked and opened the dark chocolate steel front door.
Her mother and Arlene were standing on the other side gracefully dressed and designer pumps. "Hey. What're you guys doing here?"
Arlene snapped her finger rhythmically to the Ashanti playing on the vinyl record. "To see your new place. You must be cleaning. You got the classic Ashanti playing and shit."
"Unpacking."
Grace walked in behind Arlene, eyeing her eldest daughters attire as she closed the door. "Where is you bra, sweetheart?"
"Off, in one of those dressers." Anicia leaded her mother and sister further into she and her boyfriend's home. "I'm comfortable in my own home, Mother. I could walk around butt naked if I even want to."
"I know that's right." Arlene looked around the interior, "This is nice sister. You and Landon chose right."
The record cut abruptly from Grace lifting the needle-cut on the tinfoil cylinder. "This is a nice little place, darling. But you know your father and I could've built you something bigger on a land that we own."
Anicia rolled her eyes. She knew her mother was about to start and that's why she stayed away. She can only deal with her mother for so long because of her non-filtered comments. Unlike her father Adonis, Grace came from money—billion dollars worth—her Seattle native and based Grandfather has the second largest private foundation and first African American to do it. So a nice size house for two adults was small to Grace.
Her mother was used to the castle mansion with maids, butlers, and chefs. The only reason she met her husband, Adonis, a Long Beach native, was her fashion modeling career that took her to New York Fashion Week where Adonis attended. Coming from a different background, Adonis had gotten her to humble herself a bit. But not too much of her changed. Grace still had her snobbish behavior towards certain things.
