The maternity garments that I find online looks like grandma stuff to me. Shit, I might not be getting none, but I still want to be and feel sexy while pregnant, despite how big I feel. I call Morgan to the house, so we can birth the idea of designing our own lingerie line for pregnant women.
“Hey girl,” Morgan greets me, walking into my kitchen. She has samples with her as we sit at the table trying to come up with comfortable, affordable designs.
“What’s up, Organ?” Nyce greets, entering the kitchen and calling her by the nickname she hates.
“Yimmy,” she smiles, hugging her brother. When Nyce told me the story of when they were little, Morgan couldn’t pronounce her J’s and would call him Yimmy and in return, he would call her Organ. Till this day I find it absolutely adorable and love how close they are.
“What are you doing here?” He asks her.
“Helping Aneesah develop a lingerie line for pregnant women.”
“Huh?” He asks, holding up a piece of the material. I get up and walk to the hallway bathroom leaving them alone to talk. As I’m walking back to the kitchen, I eavesdrop on their conversation.
“She won’t even sit in the same room with me,” he whines. It is taking everything in me not to laugh at his ass
“Can you blame her? Look what you did,” Morgan states.
“What did I do?”
“Come on. You are not that dumb. She probably feels like you’ve been toying with her feelings for the past…damn how long has it been?”
“Seventeen years,” he mumbles.
“That’s a long fuckin’ time to be toying with somebody, James.”
“Yeah but it wasn’t like we both ain’t have some shit going on in between.”
“Yeah but each time was your fault. The first time you left her because you didn’t want the attention. The second time you left because you thought you were doing the right thing and the third time you left her because…why did you leave?”
“The third time was all her. She fucked us up,” he snaps.
“Well you’re the one who up and got married on her. You sleep with her telling her God knows what, and then you leave her out in the cold, pregnant and alone. You see what I’m getting at? It’s you, you, you. You left her because of this and you left her because of that. How is she ever going to trust you when you are so quick to leave?”
“I did not abandon her. It wasn’t like that Morgan. I didn’t know she was pregnant, so be fair. I wanted to be with her the last time and if Tori hadn’t threatened to take all my damn money, we would be together. I did not just fuck her and leave. That is not how it went down and I’m tired of y’all treating me like I’m some fuck niggah. I am not the bad guy here.”
“You are the bad guy, James. You are forever going to be the bad guy that broke her heart. We’re women. We don’t forget every broken promise or how many times a man has hurt us. She has forgiven and looked past every one of your damn flaws. She has given you chance after chance. You finally have run out of chances brother. Personally, I wouldn’t have never talked to your ass again after you done up and got married. She’s a better woman than I am.”
“She is not without flaws. I’ve dealt with a lot of shit from her too and she knows I love her.”
“Do you? Do you honestly love her?”
“That’s a fuckin’ stupid ass question.”
“Is it? You seem to only love her as long as she is playing by your rules. You love her but as soon as she fucks up or does something that doesn’t fit into your life the way you want it to, you bounce.”
“That is not true. I gave up six years of my life for her. I’m giving up my fucking pride for her. Fuck, I am about to lose my fucking club and Grandma’s house for her.”
“You mean the club that y’all bought together before you pushed her out?”
“A’ight, I overreacted with that shit, but you have no idea what she did to me or what I went through during that time. She was so fucked up…,” Nyce stops talking when I enter the kitchen, cutting my eyes at him. He throws his hands up in the air before storming out.
“Why you givin’ him a hard time, Aneesah?” Morgan giggles.
“Because he deserves it,” I reply.
After Morgan leaves, I decide to take a dip in the pool. I throw on an orange bikini with a skirt bottom and walk outside. The water feels great against my skin and the babies seem to love it as well.
“You two better not be fighting in there,” I laugh, climbing up the stairs, exiting the pool. I lie down in a lawn chair to air dry.
“How’s the water?” Nyce asks looking down at me.
“Fine,” I answer jumping up to go inside.
With one foot on the stairs to go up into my room, the doorbell chimes.
“Tudy,” Knuck sings giving me a hug when I open the door. “You’re getting big Ma,” he chuckles placing his hands on my stomach.
“Get the fuck off her, man,” Nyce snaps. Knuck and I laugh thinking he’s joking.
“I ain’t fuckin’ laughing. Get the fuck off her,” he repeats.
“What the fuck is your problem, bruh?” Knuck barks letting go.
“She won’t let me touch my own fuckin’ kids and I be damned if I am going to sit here and let some other niggah do it,” Nyce states cutting his eyes at me.
“See you later Knuck.” I kiss Knuck’s cheek and run up the stairs.
I shower and throw on some tights and a t-shirt. I can hear Nyce and Knuck outside as the odor of weed seeps in my open patio doors into my bedroom. I walk out onto my bedroom terrace, taking a seat and slouching in the chair as I listen to them chatter below.
“What you gonna do man?” Knuck asks.
“Fuck. I’m about to kill that bitch.”
“Nah homie, don’t do that. You may hate her now, but that shit will eat at you later.”
“What the fuck am I supposed to do? The bitch is trying to take everything from me including my club. You know that club means everything to me, the legacy that I want to pass down to my kids and she trying to take my grandmama’s house? What the fuck, yo?” Nyce snaps.
“And you don’t want to work it out?” Knuck chuckles, being a smart ass.
“Niggah, I can’t believe you just asked me some shit like that. I didn’t want her to begin with. I fucked up, man.”
“I mean, cheaper to keep her.”
“I can’t leave now. I’ll never be able to make it right with Aneesah’s ass if I leave.”
“Niggah, she ain’t payin’ yo ass no mind anyhow.”
“She is. It’s just a matter of time. She’ll take me back. I just need one more chance and this time I won’t fuck up. I just have to patiently ride whatever fuck shit she’s on until she finds her way back to me.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“She will,” he says confidently. “I just gotta lay down the pipe and give her a dose of act right.”
I chuckle a little and shake my head while these two fools are cracking up, laughing.
“Well, you know I’m rootin’ for y’all,” Knuck states.
“Thanks homie.”
“But back to Tori’s ass.”
“Niggah, I’m gonna fuckin’ kill her ass. I ain’t got no fuckin’ choice. The money I don’t even care about and she knows it but to come after my club, my businesses and my grandmother’s house? Nah B.”
“You can’t kill her, Nyce,” Knuck chuckles before coughing. Probably choking on the weed.
“Yo, you and Pree got a prenup?”
“An ironclad one,” Knuck laughs.
“What?”
“Not her idea. When I went to go ask her punk ass dad to marry her, niggah didn’t even say yes. He just looked at me like he wanted to beat my ass, opened his file cabinet and handed me papers to sign,” he chuckles. I can hear Nyce laughing too.
“I don’t know what the fuck you laughing for. He got a file for Aneesah’s ass too and you already know her shit is way more extensive than Pree’s
. He probably gonna have your ass donate your left nut if your ass cheat or some shit.”
“Niggah, shut-up,” they laugh.
“I’m gonna get my girl back, she belongs to me. I love that girl. I’ll get her back. Watch and learn homie, watch and learn.”
I walk back inside my room to call Tron.
“Oh. You finally talking to me now?” He answers.
“No but I need a favor.”
“How the fuck you callin’ in favors but you ain’t talkin’ to me?”
“Do me this favor and we’ll squash it?”
“Can I hit?”
“Fuck you, Tarron.”
He laughs.
“Niggah had to try. What’s up? What’s the favor?”
“I need a copy of your confidentiality agreement that you have with Tori and I need them photos and video you took. Don’t worry. I’m not going to leak anything, I just need to scare her.”
“Aww man,” he sucks his teeth. “Yo, I hate your dude more and more by the minute.”
“Come on Tarron. Please? I know I’m asking a lot, but you are also partly to blame for telling her about the babies. I promise. Nothing will leak. I will protect you.”
He lets out heavy breath.
“Man, I feel like a fuckin’ snitch and I’m doing something for a bitch that don’t even give a shit about me,” he huffs.
“Why I gotta be a bitch though?”
“Cuz you broke my heart, dude.”
“You broke mine.”
“You started it.”
“Are we really gonna go back and forth about whom did what to whom? I fucked up. I’m not excusing that BUT you up and fucked Heather and had her in my shit. It doesn’t get any lower than that.”
“Well, at least I didn’t make out with her for the world to see while I was in a relationship with you.”
“I’m sorry, Tarron.”
Silence.
“Check ya phone, man. I’ll email you the agreement in a minute,” he says hanging up.
I run back out onto the terrace to make sure that Nyce and Knuck are in the same spot. They are-weed smoke still making smoke clouds. I walk into Nyce’s room searching through his shit until I find his divorce papers and skim through them. The last agreement I find in which Tori still refuses to sign is she will get $13 million dollars and keeps the house and car. I look through her countersuit asking for $25 million dollars, ownership of the house, a 50/50 split with Nyce’s club and other businesses and inheriting one of his properties out of the six he owns. It just so happens that the one property she wants, happens to be his grandmother’s house. This shit is personal for her.
I run back to my room, throw on a coral pink maxi dress, stuff Nyce’s agreement papers where she is to get $13 million in my purse and head out the door.
I find myself out in Cherry Hill, NJ and pull up to the simple two-story house that Nyce and Tori shared. Yeah…yeah…yeah, during my stalker phase of our breakup, I found out where they lived.
I sit in my car not quite wanting to see this bitch’s face but here I am. Gathering my thoughts, I jump out the car and knock on her front door. I look around the simple neighborhood wondering if Nyce thinks I need to live a flashy lifestyle. Although this house is beautiful, it is still basic compared to the mega mansion he bought for us. If he thinks that money drives me, he has me all wrong. When I was in love with him, I would have lived in a shoebox if he asked me to.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” She snaps, yanking the door open. She looks at my belly and tears immediately rush to her eyes. She’s hurt, feeling defeated as she stares at me with hate. I know the feeling. To be hurt by someone you love for them to up and discard you like you never meant anything to them.
“I just need a moment of your time,” I say, barely above a whisper. I don’t want to be here no more than she wants me here.
“Fuck you bitch,” she says in her British accent as I hold in my laughter. Her voice is so soft, so proper that I can’t even take her seriously.
“Tori, you’re mad at me but you touched something that didn’t belong to you in the first place,” I explain. She looks at me with her mesmerizing light-brown eyes; through eyes of a woman hurt and scorned.
“I just thought if I tried to be everything he wanted, did what he asked me to, he would see that I was worth it and love me,” she confesses as tears slide down her face. “It wasn’t until a month or so into our marriage that I knew that I would never be what he wanted because all he wanted was you even though he never said the words. I hate you,” she cries. My heart is actually breaking for her.
“He never let me in, never talked to me, barely laughed or smiled at me. I was married to a stranger and yet I loved him. I wanted him, so I did the only thing I could think of to keep him; trap him by threatening to take his money and businesses.”
“And you know that won’t work?”
“It is going to work. I want him to hurt, to feel my pain.”
“You said that you don’t know who you married, do you even know that man’s background?” I question. “He will hurt you Tori or pay somebody else to.”
“See. You know shit about him that I never will. Like, why does he get sad on February 12th?” Becky’s birthday “Or why does he hang onto that broken watch that sits on his desk at the club?” A gift from Toni before she was murdered. “If what his rap sheet states is true, that he is some notorious killer and he chooses to kill me, so be it and I will haunt him for the rest of his life.”
I let out a breath.
“You have to stop,” I tell her, wondering if I was just as bad when he broke my heart in the past? Who the fuck am I kidding? I was shot the fuck out and damn near lost my mind, I internally laugh.
“Fuck you and fuck everything you are. I hate you and hope that your baby doesn’t see the light of day,” she screams, snapping me back to reality.
“Alright, game is over you little bitch. I was trying to be nice and if you say something about my kids again, belly and all I will fuck you up. What kind of woman…,” I angrily state, stepping in her face but as my babies begin to move, reminding me that I am carrying precious cargo, I calm myself and my nerves.
“You are evil, pure evil,” I tell her. “Sign the papers,” I yell, shoving them at her.
“Fuck you. I…”
“You got one more time to be disrespectful towards me. Sign these fuckin’ papers or I will do you like you did me.” I hold up my phone for her to see a picture of her sucking Tron’s dick. She looks mortified.
“I signed…” she starts to say.
“An agreement that protects him and only him,” I snap. “So sign these fuckin’ papers. NOW, because I know you don’t have the skin to be dragged all over social media. Be smart and think about all your colleagues and students at Rowan University. You’re such a great role model,” I smirk. “Oh, and know that after I drop these babies, I will be back here to fuck you up.” She stares at me with a blank expression on her face.
“You have five seconds before I load the first picture up on Facebook. 5…4…3…”
“Please don’t,” she utters, grabbing the papers and pen. “Here,” she snaps, shoving the papers back at me after she signs them. I look over the papers to make sure that signatures and dates are in all the appropriate places.
“Oh, and Tori,” I call her name. She turns around and looks at me before I deck that bitch in her mouth for all the shit she talks. She drops; doesn’t even move when I jab her with my foot.
“Shit,” I laugh before spitting on her to return the favor and try to run my fat ass back to my car.
“Okay, mommy’s sorry that I lost my shit. Don’t let anyone pull you out of your element and make you come out of character,” I tell the twins already knowing that between Nyce and my attitude, they are already doomed to having a temper.
I meet Charlie at the post office and have him certify mail Nyce’s divorce decree for me. I don’t want Nyce to know that I had anything
to do with this.
When I finally make it back home, I change my clothes and lounge around taking a late nap.
It’s the wee hours of the morning and I can’t sleep. I am in my room sitting at the piano trying to write when my stomach growls and I get an intense craving for cereal.
“Y’all are making me fat—ter,” I giggle, looking up at the clock. It’s after 2:30 in the morning. I run downstairs into the kitchen and stand in front of the pantry. I hear Nyce’s motorcycle pull up. I rush over to the kitchen island, sit down and wipe my eyes.
“You okay?” He asks when he walks in.
“Yes,” I reply, voice cracking.
“Then why are you crying?”
“I’m not,” I sniffle.
“What’s wrong, Aneesah?” He asks, placing his helmet on the counter.
“I want some cereal,” I cry and laugh at the same time knowing how ridiculous I sound. He walks over to the pantry and opens it.
“This thing is full of cereal,” he says.
“But I want some Honey Nut Chex and some Cocoa Pebbles, and I want to mix them together and I don’t want to be a celebrity anymore because I can’t go to the store by myself and get some,” I whine as big crocodile tears slide down my face.
“Are you serious right now?” He looks at me in disbelief.
“You don’t understand,” I sniff.
“Yoooo,” he says taking a step back. “Get yo’ crying ass in the car.”
I throw on a pair of flip flops and walk out back, climbing inside of Nyce’s Impala. He gets in and stares at me.
“What?” I snap. He doesn’t respond. He just turns the engine on and starts to drive.
“Buy a bowl and some milk and a spoon,” I yell out the window as he walks inside the store. I patiently wait for him to return, eager to get my hands on my cereal. Five minutes later, he returns to the car with bags in his hands. I excitedly dig into the bag, removing the plastic bowl and pouring Chex and Cocoa Pebbles in. I pour the milk, grab the plastic spoon and moan when the first bite hits my taste buds.
“Thank you,” I mumble with my mouth full of cereal. He just stares at me, not saying a word.
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