When I Met You

Chapter 7

"Ok... Lil man what were you saying?"

"I was wondering do you and mama need privacy... you know to talk?" Lorenzo asked.

Dashon looked at Penda, waiting for her to answer. Penda looked at Dashon and then back down at her son trying to make a decision. All of this is up to her to be honest.

"Yes Renzo, we do need to talk. Thank you so much for being respectful." She decided.

"You're welcome mama. Come on Paris, let's go upstairs and watch some cartoon." Renzo instructed as he got up from the table. His little sister followed behind him.

Penda and Shon made eye contact once the kids disappeared. "What you got on your mind?" Shon asked. "What was that about, Shon?" She questioned. "What was what about?"

"This whole restaurant talk." She answered. "I mean, your son agrees. Don't you think it would be a good thing?" He pressed.

"No, I do not. I have real things to do here. I don't have time to experiment with a restaurant to see whether or not I'm going to be successful at it. I need to get on my own two feet and I mean as soon as possible. I can't do that trying to open up a restaurant." She told him.

"And on top of that I have to pay for the place and property. I don't have enough money for that." She reminded him.

"I'll pay for it or you can just start you a job and save up enough money to pay for it. Whatever you do, I support you." He offered.

"Well I choose to not open up a restaurant and focus on goals that are guaranteed to happen. How about that?" Shon shook his head and sighed.

"You're grown Penda. You are... so I can't tell you what to do. Only thing I can do is give you advice. And my advice to you is, take a chance. This could really be big for you. Babygirl you gotta get all of the 'what if it don't work' thoughts out of your head. Sometimes you gotta make sacrifices to be successful. Maybe this is God trying to show you something... who knows? Just in case it is, I don't think you need to ignore that." He explained.

When he called her babygirl, that sounded sexy to her. She snapped back into reality and shook those thoughts out of her head.

"Chase your dreams is all I'm saying." He added. "But once again, it's your choice." He finished. Penda stood there quiet. Really thinking about what he just said. She really didn't know how to respond to that.

I mean he was right but then again her becoming successful at that restaurant isn't a guarantee. She doesn't have time to see if something is going to work... right now she needs a real job so she can provide for her babies as soon as possible.

"Just give me some time to think about it okay? But until then, I need to go job hunting." She said. "Alright, that's cool." Shon agreed.

"You still taking me to your job?" I asked him. "Yeah." He responded. He grabbed his phone looking at the time.

"It's 9:35. We need to be getting ready." He spoke. "Fine, I will let the kids know." She spoke and then went upstairs.

As Dashon was about to stand, his phone started ringing. He looked at the caller ID, 'Ma Dukes ❤️' flashing across the screen. He smiled and answered quickly.

"Hey mama." "Hey baby, you okay?" "Yes I am fine. How about you? And how's grandma?" He questioned.

"She's doing fine. She has been asking about you. I am doing fine as well. How about you, Lauren and the twins come over? I missed you guys so much!"

"I know but..." he trailed off. How is he suppose to tell her this?

"I-i um..." he stuttered.

"You what? Sweetheart, what's going on?" He sighed and took some deep breaths before responding.