"And we'll keep it this way when she starts school. Monday through Thursday with me, and then you get her Thursday evening through Sunday night." Nalani explained to Sinclair while he attentively listened.

"When she starts school? Nalani we not gone be separate for that long." His eyebrows furrowed, given that Skye started Pre-K in September, and the current date was May 1st.

"Sinclair y-,"

"Nah Marie I'm not trying to hear that. I'ma do better, aight? I know you tired of hearing that, and you probably don't believe me, so I'ma show you. I'm trying. We don't gotta do all this shit Lani." He held her hands, and she met his gaze, her expression softening.

The two of them were currently discussing separation arrangements, and so far they'd only really settled on Nalani keeping the house, and a co-parenting schedule. Though somehow they kept getting off topic.

"We're not good together Sin.." She spoke, trialing off as she waited for a response.

"Yes we are. Listen, I lost sight of my priorities, I know that. I didn't really realize until you laid all that shit out to me, and that's the first step for us to be better, you know? Communication. You can't even lie and say you be telling me how you feel-and you got your reasons for that."

"But now that I know what I've been doing wrong, I can work on fixing that. I just want you to believe in me, just a little. Why you not fighting for us Nalani?" His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and a few seconds passed by, then he let her hands go.

"You fuckin' with somebody else? Already?" His voice rasped as he sat up in his seat, reading her nervous body language.

"I'm tired of 'fighting' for the same shit. It's not working Sinclair. I deserve better. You have your fun all the time, while I'm home with our daughter-being loyal to you. So yes. I'm fucking with somebody else, and I like him. So." She said while not holding eye contact for too long, his gaze too strong for her.

The dining room went silent, nothing but the cartoons coming from Skye's room able to be heard-who was currently taking a nap.

Sinclair ran his hand down his face, trying to process what she'd just revealed. He definitely couldn't take what he dished out. Nalani was the love of his life, and he knew he didn't show it the way he should have, but there was no changing his love for her, regardless of his actions.

The fact that she was seeing someone else really had him feeling some type of way. Out of the six years he'd been with her, he couldn't even recall her blinking at another man. He was definitely losing her, and there was no hiding how upset he was about it.

"Who is it?" He broke the silence with his question, and she looked up from her hands. They knew literally all of the same people, and everyone knew they were together.

"Sinclair I-,"

"Who is it?" He repeated, his muscled arm resting on their glass dining table, and she watched his shoulders flex.

"I'm not telling you. I don't want you to hurt him. He's sweet to me Sin." She mumbled, her eyes trailing to meet his.

"You can't be upset that someone is finally paying attention to me the way that I've been begging you to do for so long. I still love you, that'll never ever change. You're my best friend Azarias, and the father of my baby. Nobody can replace you, you know that."

"The time isn't right for us though. I just want you to let me go." She pulled the round diamond engagement ring from her left hand, sliding it over to him.

Sinclair stared at the ring on the table, remembering how long it took him to have it made for her. He wanted it to be perfect, the same ring she'd always talked about since they began dating their sophomore year of high school.

He spent close to ten thousand on the ring, but it was nothing compared to the amount of emotion he invested into it-back when his head was on straight.

Nalani watched him wipe his face, and she pulled him in for a hug, crying as well. This was hard for both of them, even though Nalani wanted to be nonchalant about it so bad. He was all that she knew, and it wasn't easy letting him go.

This was the man that she was supposed to marry and grow old with. A part of her still hoped for that, and she didn't try to fight it. She was still holding on to what they were supposed to be, even knowing how bad that was for her.

"Please don't cry." She mumbled, looking up towards the ceiling to stop her tears from falling. Her emotions were all over the place.

"I'm so fucking sorry man. I love you so much." The pitch of his deep voice changed, a sad vocal crack seeping through it.

"I love you too. We're still friends Sin. I'm still your babymama." She chuckled, pulling back to hold his face, and a small smile spread across his lips because both of them knew how much she hated that label.

"You fucking me up Marie." He ran his hand down his face to dry his tears, sucking his teeth at how emotional she made him. She rubbed his right hand that she held instead of responding, both of them looking down at their clasped palms.

Small footsteps could be heard in the hallway, and both of their heads turned as their three year old made her way into the dining room.

Nalani smiled as she immediately climbed into her daddy's lap, making herself comfortable while she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"You ain't even been sleep an hour yet. Why is you up?" Sinclair tickled her stomach, and she giggled, grabbing his hand.

"I'm not tiredddd." She dragged out, and Nalani's smile slowly faded as she watched the two of them jokingly go back and forth.

All Skye knew was the two of them being together, the semi-fake facade they put on to portray the healthy two parent household. She had no idea how she would explain the sudden change to her daughter.

"I wanna tell you something. That's aight baby?" Sinclair spoke to Skye, and Nalani snapped from the small trance she was in.

"Is it a secret?" She asked, a look of interest on her face.

"Yeah baby. Only me, you, and mommy knows." He chuckled, shifting the way that she sat so that she faced Nalani as well.

"Okay." She played with the knocker bow on her hair, waiting to hear the secret. Sinclair looked up at Nalani, unsure of how to start.

"Daddy has to leave for a little bit. He's going to go find him a new house, so that you can have two rooms." Nalani told her, adding the last part to take her mind off of the main part.

"Really? Why?" She turned her head to look at her mom, curiosity in her voice.

"Well, instead of being together now, me and daddy are going to be best friends. So we have to have two houses now." She explained as best as she could without telling too much, but still being as transparent as possible.

"But I'ma still see you-every day if you want. You'll be with yo mama for three and a half days, and then with me for three and a half days." Sinclair added, and Skye nodded to show she understood.

"What about Sunday funday's?" She referred to their family day where they did activities every Sunday while looking between the two, and Sinclair looked at Nalani.

"We'll still do Sunday funday's puddin'." Nalani told her, and she nodded again.

"Okay. Why do you have to go?" She asked her dad, who chewed his cheeked while thinking of a response.

"Remember when Asia was being mean to you, and we made her go home? But when she said sorry and started being nice again, we let her come back over? That's what's happening. I was being a little mean to mommy, so now I have to go to my own house until I can be nice again."

A small smile spread across Nalani's lips at how well he was explaining it to her. It was bittersweet that he was actually leaving.

Skye was surprisingly taking it well. She asked a few more questions to which they provided answers for, making sure she had a well enough understanding of what was going on.

Sinclair ended up leaving about an hour later, leaving just Nalani and Skye to themselves, and Skye wasted no time to resume her previous nap. Nalani, on the other hand, occupied herself with Kyzion on FaceTime.

"Why are you frowning Kazi?" She asked, seeing his expression once the call connected.

"I was sleeping." He mumbled, a rasp to his voice as he rubbed his eye, and a smile graced her face.

"Aw, I'm sorry. Should I call later? I didn't mean to wake you up." She chuckled, watching him stare at her through the camera.

"You look pretty." He told her, completely disregarding everything that she said, too focused on her face that still held a smile.

"Even with my bonnet on and my lashes falling out?" She asked, referring to her extensions that desperately needed a fill.

"Yes." His hazel brown eyes lowering as he kept them on her, still a bit drowsy.

"Thank you. You okay?" She rose an eyebrow at the change of his tone, and he nodded his head.

"I read a book this morning. I have a question. Did you give me a handjob yesterday?" He asked, and she face palmed herself, thankful that she had her AirPods in.

"Yes Kyzion." She snickered to herself, removing her hand to shake her head at him.

"Oh, okay. Did I cum, or nut?" He asked a second question, and she held back on laughing, not able to believe they were actually having this conversation.

"They're basically the same thing. You can say either. But my daughter is next to me, so can we talk about something else until later?" She chuckled, and his eyebrows rose in surprise.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know. Did she hear me?" His eyebrows then furrowed with concern, and she smiled.

"No. She's asleep." She pulled her camera back to show him Skye, who was cuddled up to her mother's side, her thumb in her mouth.

"Both y'all look tired. What y'all do today?"

"Nothing much, it's just her nap time. I officially broke up with Sinclair today. We just explained it to her since we'll be living separately now." She revealed to him, shrugging her shoulders.

"I didn't know you lived with him. Sometimes I even forget that y'all share Skye." He told her, and she smiled in the camera.

"Yeah, we lived together in a house. I was engaged Kyzion. Did you know that?" She chuckled, turning to lay on her stomach.

"No..wow. When did he propose?"

"Two years ago, on Skye's second birthday. As soon as I said yes, shit went downhill." She made a yikes face, reminiscing.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You feeling okay today?" He asked while sitting up in his bed, figuring he should freshen up from his nap.

"Yes, thank you. What about you? How was your nap?" She chuckled more so at herself for how proper she was talking. His mannerisms were unintentionally rubbing off of her.

"It was fine. It wasn't really a nap, I think I passed out earlier 'cause I don't remember falling asleep." He told her as he sat his phone up on his bathroom counter, and then he stretched his body out.

Nalani didn't answer, too focused on his body that was on display since he was only wearing a black pair of fitted Calvin Klein boxers.

His ab area wasn't too chiseled since he carried a bit of weight on him, but he was still small. His shoulders had tattoos on them, trailing towards his tattooed arms that were well defined-as if he worked out or something.

His neck length dreads had a mini ponytail in the front, and the rest were messily scattered over his head. He was very handsome, without even trying.

"Why you ignoring me?" He mumbled, his tone softening as he tried to figure out if he did something wrong.

"I wasn't, I was looking at you. My bad, what you say?" Her eyebrows furrowed, seeing that he was now back in his room. She wondered how long was she zoned out for.

"Shit, you passed out? How long ago? Why didn't anyone realize?" She asked, recalling what he'd said right before she lost her train of thought.

"I don't know. Maybe two hours ago. It's just me at home. Elisa's at her girlfriend house, and Ama and Jon went out for lunch." He told her, shrugging his shoulders.

"When you pass out, is there anything that helps? Or you just have to let it happen?" She questioned, just for future reference. The one time she'd saw it really had her concerned.

"Yeah. My physician prescribed me some new pills like two weeks ago-droxidopa. My body getting used to them, that's why I been passing out lately. It doesn't happen too often, maybe like twice a month."

"Aw. I feel bad Kazi." She frowned. Nalani wouldn't know what to do if she was in his shoes.

"You don't have to. I'm fine. It doesn't hurt anything, it's just annoying." He chuckled, turning the light to his room off, and then he climbed back in his bed.

"You carry it really well. I mean, like, it doesn't seem like it bothers you a lot." She tried to format without coming off as offensive.

"You get used to it after 22 years. It wasn't always easy though, especially in high school. I didn't get bullied or nothin', but people looked at me weird a lot. I don't think I'm too different from anyone else,
I'm just autistic. I still function like regular, I just have like-a shorter attention span."

"I think you're perfect." She shrugged lightly while looking at him through the camera, and a shy smile spread across his face.

"You're so handsome. Are you blushing?" A smile graced her face as well, and then she laughed once he took himself out of view.

"Stop Nalani. You not funny." He chuckled while rolling his eyes-more so at himself. He loved the butterflies in his stomach that was caused by her. He'd never felt it before.

"Yes I am. Not you mad 'cause you blushing." She teased, and he put his face back in the camera to show her his flat expression. She laughed again, and he wasted no time letting another smile form.

"Shut up Nalani."

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