😗sorry for any mistakes

Atlanta, GA

November 9th

Saturday

"Do you want these or the other ones?" Matthias asked, holding up a pair of Jordan ones, the Shadow 2.0 while they stood in the kid's footlocker.

He and Kennedi were having their annual daddy and daughter day. It was a day that consisted of him taking her shopping and they went out to eat. He was very busy with work but always made sure to try and clear his schedule on the weekends so they could have these types of days.

"Umm," She put her finger on her lip with her thinking face on "Both?" She questioned.

He looked at the shoes and thought about the shoes she just tried on "Yeah" He said. He talked to one of the associates that he talked to before to get both shoes before he grabbed Kennedi's hand.

They walked up to the front so they could pay for the shoes, he even got a pair so they could match.

"Thank you," He said, grabbing his receipt and bag. They walked out of the kid's footlocker into the crowded area. Christmas was next month, a lot of people were out shopping.

He wasn't the type to go out and shop for Christmas. It was always too many people for his liking. He only shopped online and 2 months ahead so he got everything.

"Where to next Mami?" He asked as they walked down past other stores.

"Crocs?"

"I already ordered you some crocs" He chuckled.

"Can we go to Auntie Anne's?" She asked, looking up at him. He nodded, keeping a grip on her hand. They walked down a few more stores until they made it to auntie Anne's building.

The smell of pretzels hit his nostrils causing his stomach to growl. He didn't know how hungry he was until now. He picked her up so she could see the menu better "What you want?" he asked.

"Umm, pretzel bites please," She said and started pulling on one of his braids. He nodded, thinking what he was going to get.

"Here you go ma'am"

"Thank you" He heard a familiar voice say. Kennedi gasped "Daddy, it's Laniii" She pointed to Ailani, who was too busy on her phone to notice them standing there.

"She doesn't see us?" Kennedi frowned and wigged out his arms. He put her down, she marched in front of Ailani and stood there with her hand on her hip.

Matthias couldn't do anything but laugh, he just knew she got her sassiness from his sisters.

"Oh my gosh," Lani jumped, putting her hand on her chest. She chuckled a little "You scared me, where did you come from?" She asked.

"We were standing right here the whole time," Kennedi giggled, hugging her legs.

Matthias couldn't help but stare at her. She had on this black velvet sweatpants set with royal toe Jordan ones. He assumed she just got her hair done since it was different from yesterday when they were on facetime.

He kept taking a glance at her backside. She was very blessed.

She waved at him as Kennedi grabbed her hand and started talking her ears off. Kennedi really liked her which was very shocking to Matthias. She didn't do that with anyone else except her and Sarayah.

"Where is Rayah?" He heard Ken ask, after her order and paid for their pretzel bites.

"With her daddy for the weekend," Lani replied, slickly rolling her eyes but Matthias caught it but wasn't going to ask in front of Kennedi.

"Are you here shopping too?" Kennedi asked.

She shook her head no "No, I just wanted these pretzels" She laughed.

Matthias shook his head. She really came to the outlet just to get some pretzels.

"Here you go sir,"

He grabbed their food, he furrowed his eyebrows at the one napkin that they gave them. He picked it up and saw it had a number on it, he looked up and saw the light skin girl that took his order, smiling at him.

He gave her a tight lip smile and left the napkin where it was. He thought it would be nicer than throwing it away in her face.

"C'mon," He said to Kennedi, he opened the door for her and Lani before walking out. "Daddy, can Lani come to eat with us?" Ken asked when he gave her the small cup of her pretzels.

"Oh no, I don't want to Intrude on yalls day" Lani shook her head.

"Please Lani," Kennedi pleaded, giving her the eyes.

"It's cool wit' me. We were going to get pizza." Matt told her, hoping she would say yes. He hasn't seen her except for those two times this week they picked Sarayah and Kennedi up at the same time.

She looked between them and sighed "Sure, why not?" She shrugged.

"Yaayyaaa" Kennedi squealed.

_________________

"You okay?" Matthias asked Lani as they sat at the table in Mellow mushroom. She was typing away at her phone, looking annoyed.

She put her phone down and gave him a smile "Yeah, I'm fine" she sighed.

He nodded, letting it go. He learned to just leave whatever it was that was bothering her and allow her to talk to you first or she would get annoyed with you instead.

"So you said that you were going to wait until her second session to ask?" She asked, looking over at Kennedi who was sitting next to her coloring.

"Yeah, her new therapist said it would be good to let her get more comfortable with her first before asking" He responded, smiling at Kennedi when she looked up at him.

Kennedi's first therapy session on Tuesday went okay. She didn't want to talk and was whining when Matt had to leave the room so they could get to know each other.

Her session took longer than it should have. For a whole hour, she was whining or either not talking or getting mad at her therapist for asking so many questions.

Matt had to go through the talk he had with her before they got there again for her to understand that everything was going to be okay.

She opened up a little, talking about family and school but shut down when the topic of Cora came up. They just ended it there and decided to try again next session.

Lani nodded "It's going to take some time getting used to"

He nodded, agreeing "Lani, I've been on green all week," Kennedi smiled.

"That's good Mami, you gotta keep it up tho." She said.

"Mhm," Kennedi nodded, going back to her coloring.

Lani's plan was actually working to Matthias' surprise. Her behavior in school improved this week, no teacher called him about her acting out. She didn't argue with her teacher this week either, especially since she had Rayah.

He could tell Sarayah was the type of friend Kennedi needed and Kennedi was the type of friend Sarayah needed.

Ken was quick at the mouth and always put someone in their place versus Rayah being quiet and shy and didn't defend herself but Ken was always there to do so.

Rayah kept Ken from doing or saying certain things. They were opposites but it worked.

_________________

"Hi, mommy!" Sarayah beamed when Lani opened the door, surprised to even see her but covered it up with a smile.

"Hi jellybean, I missed you" She cooed, hugged her then kissed her cheek.

She shot Jabari a glare making him roll his eyes before she looked back down at Sarayah "Go put your stuff in your room, I'll be there in a minute"

"Okay, bye daddy" She turned around to hug him. Lani could hear the slight sadness in her voice, only pissing her off more.

"Bye princess, I'll see you on Monday okay?" He kissed her cheek, "Okay, don't forget again" She pointed at him.

"I won't, I promise" He smiled, Lani rolled her eyes. He said the same thing last week but forgot and Lani had to take her to school which wasn't a problem but he wasn't about to keep lying to her baby.

Lani waited for Rayah to go into her room, once she heard the door close, she mugged Jabari as she let him inside the house and they walked to her kitchen.

"Lani, don't start bruh" He shook his head, sitting Sarayah's bookbag by the island.

"Nah cause on some real shit Jabari, you got my daughter fucked up," She said. Lani wasn't even the type to curse much unless she was mad and he pissed her off.

"This second weekend you brought her back earlier than what you were supposed to. You got my baby thinking you don't want to spend time with her and that's fucked up" She ranted leaning on the counter as he leaned on the wall.

Lani let him slide last weekend thinking maybe something came up but then he didn't take her to school all week in the morning like he always did, which made her upset. Then earlier today they were arguing back and forth because he said he was bringing her back home today which isn't part of their deal.

He gets her from after school on Fridays and takes her to school Monday morning. Lani keeps her during the week so she was confused at the sudden change and didn't like it. It wasn't fair to Rayah.

"It's not even like that Lani bruh" He sighed.

"Then explain it to me because you not finna keep doing my baby like that."

"It's Bonnie bruh" He huffed, she frowned.

"Ever since I told her to stay out yo' dating life and shit, she wanna argue all the time cause she thinks I want you back" He rolled his eyes.

Lani cringed, the thought of her and Jabari being together made her feel weird. Yes, they had a child together but she always saw him as a friend nothing more.

"She being mad insecure and want argue all the fuckin' time and I ain' finna have Rayah hearing all of that. Then when I had to pick Rayah up in the morning I couldn't because she wanna start shit saying I ain' takin' ha' ta' school and me and you doin' some shit on the low" He scoffed.

Lani frowned "Why would she even think like that after the 2 years she's been around us?" She asked, confused.

She and Jabari never gave the energy or the impression that they had feelings for each other. If you didn't already know them or didn't ask them, you could never tell they were even together and had a child together.

Despite their relationship before, they were really good friends now.

"All because I asked her to stop began in yo' business like you asked me too. Kno' she thinks it's because I want you"

Lani asked him if he could talk to Bonnie about leaving her relationship life alone. She kept trying to set her up with random people or friends she had and it was very annoying because Lani was never interested.

"Fr tho, all this arguing makes me want to divorce fr" He admitted.

Lani sucked her teeth "Really Bari? You made a vow, and y'all relationship ain't gon' be perfect" She said, going into the refrigerator to give him a water.

"You cheating on her?" She asked, handing him the water.

"What? No, why you ask that?" He chuckled.

"Because I know you. You got that same look in yo' eye that you had when you cheated on me" She laughed. Ailani was glad she could get to the point where she could laugh at the fact she was cheated on.

He laughed with her "Nah, but on the real Lani, I almost did. I stopped myself befo' I could tho." He shook his head.

"Once a ho, always a ho" Lani chuckled.

"Yo' I'on think this relationship shit is for me, I tried" He tried to reason.

"Bari, you are a grown-ass man still being childish," Lani said bluntly. "You sat there and married that girl and now talking about cheating on her, too damn grown fa' dat" She shook her head at him. She thought he actually grew up but he didn't.

"Aight, that's not the only reason I want a divorce and that ain't the only reason I want to cheat. All this arguing is draining as fuc and I didn't even cheat, granted I did think about it but I didn't. All this arguing around Rayah ain't it either. It's like we're good until Rayah comes up and she finds a way to start an argument about how I'm out here cheating, with you of all people. No offense" He ranted.

"But she fuckin' up what I gotta do for my daughter because she wanna accuse me of shit that's not even true. If we were fr, I only thought about cheating when all this arguing started. I'm not finna get accused of shit I ain't do. Damn sholl and about to keep someone around that wanna pick a fight bout bullshit either" He added.

"I'm glad you actually want to leave before cheating on her but you need to seek help for the commitment issues you have. Every time yo' relationships go through a problem you cheat. That's not right." She advised him.

Jabari had extreme commitment issues. She gave it to him, he really tried with Bonnie, even married her but now he was going back to old habits off of a little arguing.

"And BonBon, she needs to keep a distance from me from now on. I'on like how she's trying to bring me in yall issues when I don't do anything. You need to ask her because it sounds like she has had some undercover pressure about us and just now speaking on it. And you needa fix what's going on and fast because my baby now finna feels like you don't wanna be around her anymore" She finished, leaning off the counter and going into the freezer.

Lani protects her peace and daughter at all cost, nobody was about to ruin that either by trying to accuse her of something when she never gave off that idea in the first place.

She also wasn't about to have someone moving weird around her either. She should have known when Sierra said she didn't like Bonnie then it was a problem and Sierra likes everyone.

"Aight, fr tho, my fault Lani. I ain mean to— You don't need to apologize to me, you need to apologize to Rayah" She cut him off while she defrosted the chicken breast and shrimps.

"I might as well have cheated on youuuu, As much as you accused me of cheatin' " Jabari started singing.

"Jabari shut up," Lani busted out laughing. "Mane I felt Keyshia on dat one" He laughed, she chuckled, shaking her head at him.

"So stupid but You can stay for dinner if you want. I'm making Tacos" She smiled and danced a little.

"Yo' ass loves you some damn tacos" He shook his head.

"And do," She said before walking out the kitchen to go get Rayah from her room.

_________________

"Okay, where is your bonnet babe?" Lani asked once she finished wrapping Sarayah's hair in her Silk scarf.

Rayah walked over to her vanity that Lani had in her room. It probably was a little too grown for her to have since she is only 5 but Lani thought it would be cute.

She smiled watching her put the scarf on herself and the right way. When Lani looked at Rayah, sometimes it was crazy to her and always amazed her.

She really made this person, she really carried her for 9 months. It just never fails to amaze her. Rayah was also what Lani needed, she may have gotten pregnant young but Rayah saved her life.

Lani wasn't the most stable, mature person before she got pregnant but Rayah changed all of that. She made her the better woman she is today.

"Mommy, can I ask you something?" Rayah asked, coming to sit next to her on the bed. Lani nodded, putting the vaseline on her lips.

"When are you going to be happy?" She asked lowly.

She scrunched her face up "Happy? Mommy is happy baby" She chuckled "I got you" She smiled.

Rayah smiled "I know but like..... oh like auntie Si is with Ru."

Lani chuckled "You trying to say mommy needs a man?" She asked. Lani couldn't believe what she was hearing right now. Her 5-year-old daughter is telling her to get a man.

Rayah shrugged and hugged her "I just want you to be happy like Si" She mumbled.

"Listen, mommy doesn't need a man to be happy. I'm very happy with you and me. But you're comfortable with mommy to start having male females?" She asked, rubbing her cheek.

She wanted Rayah to be okay with that before she even tried to think of that idea. She remembers when she wasn't so happy about Jabari dating Bonnie when they first started and she didn't want a repeat.

"You aren't going to forget about me right?" She looked up.

"Noo, of course not. You're my first priority and nobody is ever going to change that" She assured her. Lani would rather be single forever than to be with someone that thinks they are going to come before her child.

"Okay"

"What about Matt? I lik—Whew look at the time girl. It's time to go to bed" Lani cut her off, jumping up from the bed as Rayah started laughing.

___________________________________

Heeeeeeyyyyyyyyy

A little filter chapter🫶🏾

Thoughts?

Jabari and Bonnie situation?

Y'all think Bonnie had undercover pressure with Lani?

Not rayah saying mommy i'm tired of you being lonely 😭😭😭

125 for update!!

BYEEEE UNTIL MY NEXT UPDATEEE🦋