Street Symphony: A Tainted Love Story

by Treasure Malian

  “Bet.”

  “That came out wrong,” Sym realized how her tone came across. Normally, it didn’t matter, but part of her knew she was giving Mitch a hard time for no reason at all.

  “Whatever, man.”

  “Let me ask you a question.” When Mitch didn’t offer her response, she continued, “Do you keep in touch with me because you still think McKenzie is your daughter?”

  Mitch thought about lying to her but because of how she always came at him, he decided that he wasn’t going to spare her feelings.

  “Basically. I know you her moms and shit, and I’m trying to respect the fact that you said she’s not my seed but… Nah, real shit I want you to do a DNA test.”

  Mitch never thought he’d voice that to Symphony; although he thought about it every day since he laid eyes on McKenzie. His thing was, he grew up without a father, and if he ever had children, he would do everything in his power to make sure his child didn’t have to.

  “But what? Finish saying what you were saying,” Sym insisted.

  “When you gave birth to baby girl…”

  “Please, stop calling her that. Please.”

  “When you gave birth to BABY GIRL…”

  Sym balled her fist up and struggled to keep her composure.

  “How did you feel the moment you laid eyes on her?”

  “I felt, a bond that was unexplainable. A connection out of this world. But let’s keep in mind, I nurtured her in my womb for nine months. That connection was supposed to be there.”

  “Nah, I feel like if you used a surrogate or some shit like that, you would have felt the same way,” Mitch added.

  “You’re saying all that to say what?”

  “I felt that. The unexplainable bond, the connection out of this world… the minute I saw her. Chicks ain’t the only one who get mother’s intuition; dads get it too.”

  Sym was quiet. She couldn’t blame him for feeling the way he felt. At the end of the day, the timeline added up, but she knew who her child’s father was, and it was not him.

  “A DNA test, huh?”

  He nodded. “If you’re so sure she ain’t mine, getting the test wouldn’t matter. The sooner you do that the sooner I’ll be out of your life if she isn’t mine.”

  “Who said I wanted you out of my life?” She allowed those words to slip. Although she meant them, she didn’t have intention on saying them.

  “Your actions,” Mitch stated while looking up at the monitor to see his number flashing on the screen. “Our food ready, I’ll be back.”

  He excused himself leaving Symphony alone with her thoughts. She stared at Mitch as he bopped to the counter. Everything about him attracted her to him, she just really didn’t want to travel down that rabbit hole again. After the loss of Derrick, Sym, found herself at the lowest of lows, and it took a lot of pain and suffering to bring herself back up; she just couldn’t bare to face that again. In regards to this DNA test he spoke of, she wasn’t with it. She didn’t care if he felt it would prove a point, she didn’t have shit to prove to anybody. The only thing that mattered was that McKenzie was taken care of and that she was.

  “Oh, this does look good,” Sym gawked over her plate after Mitch returned to the table and slid it in front of her.

  She watched as he bowed his head and prayed over his meal and smiled. She had never eaten in the presence of a man that prayed. That was a sad fact, but it was true. Mitch was full of surprises.

  “Amen, it tastes even better,” he uttered before scoffing down his food.

  Between stuffing their faces, they stole glances at each other. The attraction was undeniable, but they both decided to act as if they didn’t feel gravity pulling them closer for their own reason. Mitch was in the middle of downing what was left of his Margarita when his phone, vibrated alerting him that he had a message.

  I want to see you, Mr. Mitch, :*

  It was from Keisha. He really didn’t have plans on kicking it with her like that but decided to use the opportunity to give Sym a dose of her own medicine.

  Where we linking?

  He texted Keisha back before putting his phone on the table and finishing his drink.

  “The food is paid for. I gotta get up out of here; I ’ll hit you later?”

  Mitch rose from his seat, leaned over, kissed Sym’s cheek, before walking away leaving her stuck.

  Chapter Eleven

  A week had gone by, and Symphony and Mitch managed to go on as if the other didn’t exist. Mitch busied himself by putting in more hours at his store, kicking it with his boys, and spending time with Keisha. Dealing with her wasn’t a part of the plan but he was a nigga with needs and for the time being, she satisfied them. Symphony too had a lot on her plate that kept her mind clear and free of thoughts of Mitch. Because she, Nadja, and Kory were so good at what they did, they almost always had work. Sometimes they even found themselves working two cases at a time like right now. Carter came through with some information on Kyle, but it wasn’t enough being that they knew his disappearance wasn’t due to the FBI relocating him. Sym, had him digging deeper while she and the girls worked on another case that came through.

  The distraction was welcomed until one-day Symphony found herself on a verge of breaking down. Normally, she had moments where she would shout and cry when no one was around. However, this time, was different. She found herself about to have a Brittany Spears in ’07 type of meltdown. It was then she knew she needed a change of scenery, even if it was just for a day. She decided to go to Philly to see her parents. It was that or shave her head bald. Of course, she chose the lesser of the two evils.

  “I know you didn’t come out here to sleep the entire time,” Simone stated while busting into Symphony’s bedroom.

  Sym pulled herself up in the bed and sucked her teeth.

  “Where is McKenzie?” She questioned expecting to see her daughter on her mother’s hip; Where she had basically been attached for the past three days they had been there.

  “She’s in the living room with your father. I wish his ass would get up and find something to do. I’m tired of seeing his face. Can’t wait for his vacation to be over.”

  Symphony completely ignored her mother’s complaints about her father. It was nothing knew. She’d been hearing it all of her twenty-seven years on earth.

  “Ma, I told you I came out here to get a break from work. That is why I’ve been resting. You said you would allow me the time and space to rest. Is this you doing that?”

  Simone walked further into the room and made herself comfortable at the foot of Symphony’s bed. She looked around the room and smiled as a sense of nostalgia came over her. She missed having her daughters under her roof, for many reasons. Of course, at the top of the list was them giving her a valid reason to ignore their father.

  “I know that, Sym. I just missed you; that ’s all.”

  “I missed you too,” Sym admitted. No matter how dysfunctional her relationship with her mom was, the love was there. Sym just knew things were much better with them living apart.

  “Anyway, I did have a good reason for busting in here. I wanted to talk to you about the other people who want to see McKenzie.”

  “Ma, no. If you going to push that, I’ll leave. I told you before I even got here that I brought her to see you and dad. That’s it. Please don’t press this,” Sym begged her mother to drop it, and surprisingly Simone obliged.

  “Fine. I’m going to get my grandbaby from that man; I guess you can just continue to lounge around here doing nothing.”

  Symphony collapsed back onto the bed and pulled the sheet up to her neck. “Thank you,” she mumbled after hearing her mother close the door behind her.

  __

  “Damn, Keisha,” Mitch exhaled while stuffing his dick back into his boxer briefs and fixing his jeans.

  The disappointment was written on her face, but Mitch ignored it. It was a face he got used to seeing. Keisha was expecting more from him, but he wasn’t with it. Sh
e sucked his dick because she thought that was the way to his heart and would make him want to fuck her. He wasn’t feeling her like that. He was only bothered because she was a cool distraction and the head was decent. She wasn’t getting anything from him in return. If she decided she didn’t want to fuck with him anymore because of that, it was cool with him.

  Keisha rolled her eyes before sitting back up in the passenger seat.

  “At least, we could go to your house for once,” she exclaimed.

  Mitch nodded his head but didn’t say a word. If Keisha thought, he was going to take her back to his crib; she had everything about him fucked up. He didn’t know the bitch from Eve, so he wasn’t going to have her parading around his crib. One could say he didn’t know Symphony either, but of course, to Mitch, she was the exception. Times he kicked it with Keisha; he found himself thinking about her. He beat himself up for being attracted to a bullheaded, nonchalant; I don’t give a fuck, type of chick like Sym. While those qualities would work against any other female, he couldn’t hide the fact that they worked for her. Not to mention there was McKenzie. His gut was telling him not to walk away, yet. He had given Sym enough space and decided that day would be the day he broke the non-communication between them. He had to shake Keisha first.

  “Where you want me to drop you off?”

  “Really, Mitch?” she twisted her body around to face him.

  “Yea, really. I told you I gotta get to my store, to check on shit. So, where you want me to take you?” He asked again.

  She reached above her to grab hold of the seatbelt. After stretching it across her body, she clicked it down. “I don’t mind going with you to handle business at your store.”

  “Nah, I’ma just take you home.”

  She sucked her teeth and pressed her head against the headrest. The ride to her crib with, just Power 105.1 playing the latest tunes, she didn’t offer any conversation, and neither did he.

  “Aight, later,” Mitch said as he came to a stop in front of her building.

  Keisha climbed out of the car and turned to say something but Mitch was already taking off down the block. He came up to a red light and pulled out his phone to call Symphony. Once it started ringing, he connected it to his cars blue tooth and tossed the phone on the passenger seat.

  “He calls,” Sym answered trying to mask the fact that she was happy to hear from him.

  “Yea, I been tied up. What’s good with you?”

  “Tied up, huh? And nothing really. McKenzie and I are in Philly visiting…” she allowed her sentence to face.

  “Oh, word? When ya’ll coming back?”

  “I don’t really know. I had some days I never used, so I took them. I guess we’ll be back when they run out, or if I have a reason to.” She was subtly coaching Mitch to tell her he wanted to see her. Mitch was on game and wasn’t going to give in so easy, but there was a part of him that wanted to see her just as bad.

  “Oh, I mean, I guess seeing me ain’t a good enough reason to come home.”

  “I mean the last time we spoke; you told me you were only around because you felt Kenz was yours. We established she wasn’t so…”

  “When did we get that established? And yea. I also remember the last time we spoke, you saying that you didn’t want me out of your life? So, when you coming home?” he asked again, expecting a totally different answer.

  “I guess today.”

  “Sounds better. Drive safe and hit my phone as soon as you touch down.”

  “Okay,” Sym smiled while ending the call.

  This is the part she hated about relationships. The comprising, the pleasing the other person, it just wasn’t her thing. She pulled herself up in the bed and tossed the covers back. She had to mentally prepare herself for the speech her mother was bound to give her when she told her she was leaving.

  __

  “You been fucking with this nigga for how long and you don’t even know where he lives?” Rory bellowed after hearing that Keisha had absolutely no news for him.

  “He’s not making it easy, Rory. Especially with me not giving him nothing in return.” She wouldn’t dare fix her lips to tell her boyfriend that she was sucking Mitch’s dick.

  “What you mean you not giving him nothing in return? Fuck the nigga if you have to Keish. What part of, I gotta get at these niggas before they get at me are you not understanding?”

  Keisha was still stuck on the fact that he was willing to offer up her body for information. Everything that fell from his lips after that went in one ear and out the other. She knew that Rory had a selfish side to him, but she had never seen it when it came to her until that moment. Now he chose to show one of the worse ways to be selfish. He was basically willing to pimp her out. That wasn’t the worse part of it either. The worse part was that Keisha was down. Unfortunately, Mitch was not.

  “The niggas Niem and Nino don’t seem to miss a beat. Them niggas been on some moving in silence type shit. I’m hearing about the moves they making, but I’m not seeing these niggas nowhere. I was counting on you to come through Keish. I’ma have to explore some other avenues to get at this niggas,” he huffed.

  “I’m going to get the information, Rory. Just give me more time, okay?”

  “Time is something I don’t have. However, keep up with the nigga and I’ll put some things into motion on my end.”

  “Yea. Okay,” she muttered feeling defeated.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Where we going?” Sym questioned from the passenger seat of Mitch’s car.

  She had been home for two days before she finally decided to give him a call. She didn’t want to seem so eager to see him. Although he had a lot to say about her waiting two days to call him, he still accepted her call and ended up picking her and McKenzie up for a day out.

  “Can you chill? Just relax.” He looked up in the rearview, “Right Kenz, tell your mother to chill.”

  McKenzie paid him no attention at all. All her attention was focused out of the window at the cars and buildings they drove past. Mitch glanced down beside him and noticed Sym had her hand resting near him. He adjusted his position on the steering wheel and lowered his right hand until it was touching her. She slowly intertwined his fingers with hers and tightened the hold he had.

  Sym looked over at him with her tear threatening to escape. This was her thing with Derrick. It was a thing she never thought she’d allow herself to do with another man, but here she was, and it felt right.

  In the distance, Symphony spotted a bunch of amusement rides.

  “An amusement park?” She beamed like a big kid.

  “Yea, but calm down. We going straight to the kiddie park for McKenzie, it’s not about you today,” Mitch smiled, causing Sym to return his smile with one of her own.

  After driving around, circling blocks for what seemed like forever, Mitch had finally found parking. Sym insisted that they parked in a lot but like Mitch warned her, they were at capacity. That’s thanks to the amusement park and the aquarium being in the same vicinity.

  “What’s this park called?” Sym asked while pushing Kenzie’s stroller alongside Mitch.

  He noticed something was wrong with the way they were walking and stepped around until making it so that she was walking on the inside of the street and he was closer to the curb. She smiled at his manners. It was refreshing to see a guy his age, still had some values that people their grandparents age valued.

  “This Coney Island. Don’t tell me you never heard of Coney Island?”

  “Yea, I’ve heard of it, just never been here.”

  “Oh, ight I was about to say, I know your ass from Philly but did you live under a rock there. Patrick Star ass,” he joked.

  “Shut up. You act like you know Philly spots,” she tested him.

  “I mean, I don’t know everywhere that be lit but I know the important shit, like Love Park, and the stairs Rocky ran up.”

  “Byeeeee,” Sym sang out.

  They continued to crack jokes
as they made their way to the park. Once inside, they grabbed a funnel cake because Sym was acting as she was going to die if she didn’t have one.

  “You smashing on that funnel cake,” Mitch pointed out.

  Symphony had given him control of the stroller so she could focus solely on her cake.

  “Listen, before I moved here, I went to Six Flags frequently just for the funnel cake. Like I bought a season pass and all that.”

  Mitch bust out laughing. “We should definitely make that a thing this summer. Me and my niggas, you and your girls?”

  Sym paused eating her funnel cake. “You always invite my girls and me somewhere. Who are these girls you speak of? I’ve only mentioned my sister.”

  “Yea, but you a chick. All chicks have girls. I’m just assuming you ain’t no wack ass cat lady with no friends.”

  “I hate cats for the record. They creep the shit out of me. But yea, that’s true. I guess all females do have girls. My circle is small, though.”

  “That’s the best type of circle to have,” Mitch stated matter-of-factly. “My shit pencil point, thin.”

  “Mhm,” Sym moaned while devouring what was left of her funnel cake. She wasn’t one of those too cute to smash in front of a dude chicks. And Mitch appreciated that.

  “This shit looks cool. You think baby girl, will like it?”

  Sym rolled her eyes and blocked out the fact that he insists on calling McKenzie baby girl.

  “Yea, she likes anything that’s bright,” she laughed.

  Mitch pulled the stroller over to the side and unstrapped McKenzie, before taking her out.

  “Where am I supposed to leave her stroller? This ain’t no cheap ass bye-bye stroller.”

  “You leaving it right here, with you. This a us thing, right Kenz. Mommy not invited.” He laughed at Sym’s expression before walking away and heading to get on line for the ride.

  Sym waved to them from where she stood. This moment that would have made for a great photo. If they were really a family, and if she was one of those Social Media types. They weren’t and she didn’t have Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat or nothing else anyone could follow or at her on.