by Bianca
Surprising me, he hopped up on my lap, and I started drawing a simple two-bedroom house. It only took me fifteen minutes, and when I was done, he looked so surprised.
“Keep this with you, and use this as a sketch, so one day, you’ll be able to build an even better house,” I told him, and he hopped off my lap to show his mom.
“This is nice. Do you draw for a living?” his mom asked.
Soon as she asked me, one of our commercials started airing on TV. I pointed to the TV, and she looked embarrassed.
“Oh, don’t worry. A lot of people don’t know me, but they know my brother, Travis. I’m Trevor. I’ll tell you what. Bring Tyson by Ground-Up sometimes. I’m always there.”
She burst into tears, and I handed her my handkerchief out of my pocket, and she wiped her face. “Thank you, Mr. Trevor. It’s been so hard since his dad left us and he needs people like you in his life. I’m on this phone trying to fill out applications and times are just hard right now, and it’s so hard to pay attention to him sometimes, but he does love to draw. He barely goes outside. So, thank you for this,” she sniffed. “My name is Tiara by the way,” she held her hand out to shake mine.
“Tiara, both of you come by—”
“Did your little girlfriend push my friend down the stairs, Trevor!?” Kriss screamed and lunged at me.
She got two good licks on me before Rick grabbed her. I felt blood filling my mouth and running down my nose. It took Rick and Tank to hold her back, while Travis handed me his handkerchief.
“I’m so glad that she doesn’t want to have your baby. I’m glad that she’s getting rid of it. You maniac. All she was doing was coming to tell you that she was pregnant and you or your girlfriend had to push her! She’s gonna whoop your ass when she gets out of that bed,” Kriss yelled, while she kept trying to lunge at me.
“Mrs. Travis Spencer the third, I want you to calm down, now!” Travis ordered Kriss, and she started calming down. “Tony, Rick, take my wife outside so she can calm down, thank you.”
Once they carried Kriss outside the hospital, Travis sat down next to me.
“That girl packs a punch,” I said and chuckled.
I looked at Tiara and Tyson, and she was staring in disbelief. Not to make it awkward, I introduced them to Travis and told Tyson to show Travis his drawing, and as I suspected, he loved it. The little kid was gifted. I told him about the plan to bring him to Ground-Up, and he strongly agreed.
“So, what happened?” Spence asked me.
“Mane, she walked in on Jasmine and me… ya know, and she ran out of my office. I tried to stop her, but she missed a step, tumbled down the rest of the stairs and hit her head against the wall. Jasmine nor I pushed her. Spence, you know I would never put my hand on a woman. I didn’t even know she was pregnant until I looked through her bag and saw the ultrasounds. I wondered if she was there to tell me that she was carrying my baby.”
“Okay,” he said.
“That’s it? You’re not going to scold me?”
“No, I’m not. You’re grown, but you need to get a handle on your life, Trevor. This is not a good look, and you know it. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Moments later, Kriss, Rick, Tony, and Russ came in with Alton and Chanelle on their heels. He was holding her hand, looking like he was so concerned. They didn’t come near us, and I guess Kriss didn’t want to come near us because she would probably hit me again, and I didn’t want to be hit by her again.
An hour later, the doctor came to the waiting room door and said, “Family of Lawrynn Barksdale.”
We all stood and walked towards the doctor. Everyone gathered around the doctor and waited for him to start speaking. I couldn’t help but to smack my teeth and shake my head when Alton looked like he had tears in his eyes. Chanelle looked like she was worried, but more so about the way Alton was looking like he was about to cry over a woman that wasn’t his wife. She actually looked she was ready to cut their open marriage short.
“Hi, everyone, I am Dr. Glassman. I just wanted to update you on Ms. Barksdale. She is fine. She’s going to have a knot on the back of her head, and she had a grade-one ankle sprain. She just needs to take it easy for a couple of weeks until her ankle heals, and—”
“The baby? What about the baby? Is the baby okay?” I asked.
“The baby—” Dr. Glassman started.
“What baby?” Alton asked, cutting the doctor off. “Lawrynn is pregnant?”
“Yes, and it’s our child that she’s carrying,” I hissed at him.
“Your child? That could very well be my child. Don’t even front,” Alton snapped.
“Well, it’s mine. Why you think she was there in my office?” I asked him.
“To tell you to leave her the hell alone. Ain’t you getting married? That’s what you need to be focused on,” Alton sniped.
“Ain’t you already married?” I sniped back.
“Guys!” Spence growled. “Let the doctor talk, please.”
“I was going to say that the baby is fine, BUT I don’t think it’s best that you two be around her. Her blood pressure was slightly elevated, and she doesn’t need the extra stress right now.”
“Dr. Glassman, is she safe to leave right now? No offense to you, I want my personal doctor looking after her in the comforts of my home. I’m not leaving her here overnight,” I said.
“That’s understandable, Mr. Spencer, but Ms. Barksdale is my patient, and it’s totally up to her. If she wants to leave my care, I’ll draw up her paperwork and let your doctor care for her,” he said.
“Now who’s going back? She’s awake. Just a little groggy,” Dr. Glassman asked.
“Me and Russ,” Kriss said and bumped by everybody, and they followed Dr. Glassman to the back.
“Chanelle, can you give us a few minutes, please?” Spence asked her.
I knew that he was getting ready to lay into us for acting like this in a public setting, but I didn’t care. When Chanelle walked away, Spence looked from me to Alton.
“You guys are cousins! Both of you are out of your minds getting into a spat like this in a public setting. There are eyes everywhere. Both of you could be the father of this child, and regardless of the test results, you two are going to bump fists and act like this never happened. Am I understood? Alton, you are married. Trevor, you are getting married. Both of you need to act like you were raised to act and not like you were raised in a goddamn barn. Do both of you understand?” Spence hissed.
We both kind of nodded our heads at each other, but we ain’t bump fists.
“Now, go over to your respective corners, and chill until my wife and Russ come from visiting with Lawrynn,” he spoke.
Twenty minutes later, Kriss and Russ came out, and she rolled her eyes at me. “I don’t know why, but she wanna see you, Trevor.”
She told me the room number, and I left out of the waiting room to go see her. The closer I got to her room, the faster my heart started to beat. I’m not sure what she was going to tell me, but I don’t even know if I was ready to hear it or not. Knocking lightly on the door, I pushed it open, and she was laying in the bed with her eyes half opened. I walked over to her and scooted the chair up and took a seat. I started rubbing my hands through her hair out of her face, and she moved her head slightly.
“You smell like her,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said and moved my hand out of her hair.
“Kriss told me that she beat your ass, and it looks like it,” she said and chuckled.
“Oh yeah, that girl can hit. I used to think that you were the rowdy one. Kriss got you beat. She rushed me and started swinging like a mad woman. Got me good, twice.”
We shared a laugh before we got silent. The eerie moment of silence wasn’t sitting well with me, so I looked up at the TV to see that one of my favorite TV shows was on.
“You like In the Heat of the Night?” I asked her.
“Heck yes. Bubba is my favorite,” she whispered
.
“Mine too,” I said.
There was that awkward silence again.
“I’m not going to keep the baby, Trevor. You don’t have to worry about this ruining your upcoming nuptials with Jasmine. You don’t even have to tell her that I was pregnant. I’m not for the drama and after today, I just…”
“What you mean, what happened today?” I asked.
“Jasmine came to my office and returned my thongs that you took off me, and we got into a little spat. Doing that for the next eighteen years is not something I’m willingly going to sign up for. I’m still early in my pregnancy, and there is this pill that the doctor can give me and—”
I stood up and cut her off from talking. Walking over to the window and looking at the sun starting to set, I said, “You know something, Lawrynn? I was going to tell you the same thing. I was going to tell you that we are not ready to be parents. I was going—”
“Then fine, it’s—”
I whipped my head around towards her and said, “I’m not finished speaking. When I finish speaking then you’ll be able to speak. Am I understood?” She pursed her lips together, but I wanted an answer. “I asked you a question, Lawrynn.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I understand, Trevor.”
I turned around and started back looking out the window. I cleared my throat before I started speaking.
“The whole way here I kept thinking that I wasn’t ready to be a father. I kept thinking about the wedding that’s supposed to be coming up between Jasmine and me. There was so much going through my mind, but the minute the medics rushed you through those double doors, and the nurse assured me that the mother of my child would be fine, something hit me. As I was waiting in the waiting room, a young kid, Tyson is his name, was sitting next to his mom drawing. He reminded me so much of myself, and it made me feel good. It was almost as if I was looking at a Trevor Jr. I drew him a sketch of a house and my heart got kind of tight because I couldn’t wait to be doing that with a son of my own. All of that changed my mind, Lawrynn, I want this child.”
I turned around and looked at her, and she had a shocked look on her face.
“Trevor, we don’t know each other. We only know each other because my best friend is married to your brother. We both could end up being piss poor parents,” she argued.
“We are going to have two weeks to get to know everything about each other,” I said and smiled.
“What does that mean?”
“That means you’re going to tell the doctor that you are going to be released into my care and into the care of our private doctor. You’re going to recover at my home and—”
“I will not be cooped up in a house with that bird you call a fiancée. I’m sorry, I just won’t.”
“Let me handle that. Also, you need to handle things with Alton out there. We almost got into a fight talking about he was the father of our baby. There is no possibility that he could be the father, right? Wait, how am I the father? We only used condoms.”
“It had to have been during our little rump fest at the wedding because other than that, both you and Alton used condoms.”
“Damn, that’s wild. I’m… no, we, are never getting drunk like that again. That shit was crazy, wasn’t it? We woke up on some Hangover type shit,” I said, and we both laughed.
“The way I fell out of the bed and covered myself up. Nah, when we were both talking at the same time. I think about that often and burst into a fit of giggles. That’s going to be a good story to tell our child, Trevor,” she said and touched her stomach.
“So, you’re going to keep it? Our baby, I mean.”
She nodded her head, and that made me smile. I was scared to be a father, but we were going to get through this… together.
Three hours later.
Me and Lawrynn were sitting in the back of my truck while Enrique was driving us toward my home. It took a lot of convincing for her to get checked out into the care of our private doctor. She was adamant about not being in the same house as Jasmine, but I assured her that my house was big enough for her never to see Jasmine. I made sure to be in the room when Lawrynn told Alton that the baby she was carrying belonged to me and the hurt in his eyes made my spirit dance. I had placed a call to Letty, my housekeeper, to prepare the downstairs guestroom for Lawrynn. Our doctor was going to come over and check on her in the morning because the doctor only gave her enough meds to get her through the night.
“Are you hungry?” I asked her. “Well, of course you are, you’re pregnant. I’ll have the chef to whip you up whatever you want. He can give you a snack until the food is done,” I told her.
“Trevor, a sandwich is just fine for right now. I just want to get in a comfortable bed and go to sleep.”
“Okay. Just don’t hesitate to ask me for anything. Anything you want, you can get.”
She laughed. “Trevor, okay. The only thing I need is my laptop and stuff from out of my car, so I can be able to work from home… your house. I have important clients, remember?”
“That’s right. I’ll bring it home with me tomorrow,” I told her.
When we finally made it through my gates, I watched her for a reaction, and she looked at me and smiled.
“What’s with you men and these big houses? I get that you have a lot of money, but y’all be having ten thousand square feet worth of house for two people. You don’t be scared that you may have someone living in some section of your house?”
“No ma’am, I’m not. If you think my and Spence’s house is huge, you should see my parents’ home. You’ll see it one day. Probably soon.”
Once Enrique pulled up behind Jasmine’s car, I hopped out and grabbed her wheelchair. The doctor was adamant about her staying off her ankle for at least five days. I went around to the other side of the truck and helped her out of the truck and into the chair. I rolled her up to the doorstep and as soon as I stuck my key in the door, the door came open, and Jasmine was standing there in my robe with a lace panty and bra set under it.
When she saw Lawrynn, she hurriedly closed the robe and looked at me and then looked back at her.
“What is she doing here?” Jasmine hissed.
“We have to talk, Jasmine. Go upstairs to the room, and I’ll meet you up there in about fifteen minutes, once I get Lawrynn settled in.”
“Settled?” she queried.
“Settled. Situated. Need another synonym?” Lawrynn said.
Jasmine huffed and turned to walk up the stairs. It took me and Letty thirty minutes to get Lawrynn settled. I walked upstairs and took a deep breath before I pushed open the door to my bedroom. Jasmine was sitting in the middle of the bed, crying. I sat on the bed and rubbed her ankle to try and soothe her.
“Why did you bring her here? You felt that sorry for her? It’s not your fault that she fell and bumped her big ass head, Trevor. I don’t want her here. This is my space. My home. Our home.”
“I brought her here for another reason, Jasmine. Um, Lawrynn is pregnant with my child. The night of Kriss and Spence’s wedding, we kind of had a drunken thing that neither one of us remember, and yeah…”
“You said that nothing was going on between y’all. So, y’all have had sex three times? She wasn’t lying?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“It could be Alton’s. She could be using us for our money, Trevor,” Jasmine hissed.
“Us? Our? We are not married yet, and it’s not Alton’s baby. It’s mine. I brought her here because the doctor said that she needed bed rest for a week or so, and we have more than enough room here.”
“She’s not even showing, Trevor. She could be lying about being pregnant. Why didn’t she stay with Kriss and Spence or that Russ guy? Nursing her back to health is not your damn job, Trevor.”
“Careful, Jasmine. You are about to tread on a line that’s going to get your feelings hurt.”
“I don’t want her here, Trev. She’s barely pregnant. Baby is just a peanut and doesn’t even have
a heartbeat, yet. She’s just using you.”
“You’re not going to ask me to choose, are you? You are not about to do that, are you Jasmine? I feel like you’re not going to ask me to do that because whether Lawrynn stays here tonight or two years from now, that baby is not going anywhere. If you’re asking me to choose now, you’ll ask me to choose later, and I’m going to always choose my child, Jasmine. Now, do with that what you will, I’m going to go shower,” I said and got up, leaving her sitting on the bed looking at me crazy.
I was in and out of the shower in thirty minutes, and when I stepped out of the bathroom, Jasmine was gone, and the ring that she bought herself was sitting on the nightstand. I shrugged because if she couldn’t handle Lawrynn being a few weeks pregnant, then she definitely wasn’t going to be able to handle the baby being here.
Her loss.
One week later.
Over the week, Trevor had been taking good care of me. He even took off from work for a week to sit up in the room with me to talk, watch some of our favorite shows, and eat. A lot of eating. The chef made me whatever I wanted to eat, and I couldn’t get enough of it. It felt good not to have to do anything and be able to work from the comforts of the bed. The doctor told me that I couldn’t be on my ankle, so Trevor helped me use the bathroom, and he even helped me shower without being a creep. I couldn’t believe that Trevor even had a nice bone in his body. We had been getting to know each other and surprisingly, we had a lot of things in common, more than I would like to admit if I'm honest. We liked some of the same shows, the same food, the same music, and even some of the same vacation spots.
The Spencer’s doctor had been coming and checking on me daily and sometimes twice a day. The baby was healthy, and today the doctor was going to do another ultrasound, hoping to hear a heartbeat or something. Kriss and Russ had been coming by every day to check on me as well. They both said that they wanted to make sure that Trevor and I hadn’t killed each other. Surprisingly, we hadn’t even argued about anything. Well, we did discuss when he overheard my conversation with Alton, and he got pissed. The most we did was crack jokes on each other, and that was it. He hadn’t even been trying to have sex with me, nor had he talked about it. He wasn’t even sleeping in the same bed as me. He was sleeping in his bed, and at first, I thought it was because Jasmine was coming over at night, but he said that she left the night I came. He didn’t say whether they were together or not, but they couldn’t have been, judging from how much time he had been spending with me, with the only time him being away from me was when he was sleeping.
