“Ay. You don’t open doors when we together, alright?” I said simply. “Not the whip and not a building. Stand or sit till I get there.”
She scoffed but nodded. “My bad.”
I gestured for her to lead and followed her to the doorway. Instead of opening the door, she slid to the side and let me open it from behind her.
When we walked in, I was greeted almost immediately and dapped a few of the workers while I led Myome to a little booth in the corner.
I always sat in the same spot where I could see the door and my whip at the same time.
Someone quickly came to get our orders. I got my usual and Myome just copied my order. Then we sat in silence for a beat.
“So are Chandler and Rome your only siblings?” Myome asked.
“Yeah.” I locked my phone and flipped it face down.
“Who’s the oldest?”
“Chandler. I’m in the middle and stupid ass Rome is the baby.”
Myome smiled.
“Rome is funny.”
“Rome needs to get his shit together,” I countered.
“Who doesn’t?”
I shrugged. “What about you? Do you have siblings?”
“Yeah. I have two brothers and they’re both older than me.”
“You close to them?”
“Not as close as you seem to be with yours,” she admitted.
“Why not?”
I had issues with my siblings and we all had fucked up attitudes sometimes, but I couldn’t see myself not talking to them every day honestly.
“Sibling rivalry.” She shrugged. “My parents are your typical middle class people but they raised me and my siblings to compete over everything. They really played into the whole having a favorite thing and drilled it into us that if we didn’t make a whole lot of money we were basically pointless.”
“Damn.” I shook my head. “That’s fucked up.”
“Yeah.” Myome shifted in her seat. “Uhm, Major is a doctor and Zamir is a lawyer, so they’re doing amazing and I’m… chasing a failing music career.” She forced a small smile and scoffed. “My parents hate my dream and I don’t like to deal with the negativity or the shit they feed my siblings who then repeat it to me like it’s their original thoughts.”
“Damn,” I repeated and shook my head. “Well, ay, when you get that top fifty album, your family gon’ have to take that shit and eat it.”
“We can only hope.” Myome exhaled. “What about you? What’s your family story?”
I shrugged. “Not much really. We grew up poor. Eventually I dropped some shit good enough to get us out the hood. I plugged Rome and he took off. We hired Chandler for our PR, made our dad our accountant, and retired my mom so she can take care of her grandbabies. So the whole family is on the payroll.”
“That’s commendable, Drix.”
“Thank you.”
We looked at our waiter as he walked over and set our food on the table.
“Thank you,” Myome said softly.