“It was great. I spent most of the time in the office, so I didn’t get to see too much.” A waiter was coming down the aisle with our drinks. “We better get in our seats. It was nice to see you again.”
As soon as I flopped down on the chair, I could see the wheels in Leon’s head turning. Damn that skinny ho. By the time our waiter had left to check on our order, Leon swung around on his seat, not at all happy. “Why didn’t you tell me you had contractions and Jrue had to take you in?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t want to worry you. If I had told you, you would have been on the next plane back to the States. It was just false labor. Nothing to worry about.”
I couldn’t believe how disturbed he looked at not being there. “I don’t care how big or small the pains are. From now on you need to call me. That’s my child you’re carrying and I don’t want anything happening to either of you.”
I nodded, although I wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying. I was too busy watching Jrue and his wife as they ordered their food.
All through the movie I couldn’t stop looking at the two of them. Every time she leaned in close and whispered in his ear I wanted to scratch her eyes out. I had really been looking forward to Batman and had heard the action scenes were fantastic, yet I couldn’t focus on anything but the couple in front of me.
I tried not to think about the two of them being together and instead focused on an upcoming event. The entire department was attending a Career Programs mini conference in Virginia Beach next month at the Embassy Suites. We all had rooms there, but I planned on being with Jrue alone for two nights. Leon and I owned a condo on the beach that we rented out. I had contacted the management company months ago and reserved those two days. That way we’d have somewhere private we could go and be alone without anyone finding out. Zakiya was already suspicious that Jrue was messing around on his wife. Until he was ready to leave her and finally be with me, I didn’t need anything standing in the way of me being with my man.
Halfway through the movie, I excused myself and went to the bathroom. One annoying thing about being pregnant was that I always had to pee. I was coming out of the bathroom stall when I spotted Charlotte standing in front of the sink.
“How are you enjoying the movie so far?” she asked as I moved to the sink beside her and lathered my hands.
“Plenty of action,” I said, although I had been too busy watching her and Jrue to really notice.
She reached for the paper towels, handed me one, then grabbed another for herself. The whole time I watched her watching me.
“What?” I finally asked. I hated when women stare. Just say what’s on your mind.
“I’m sorry if I keep looking at you. It’s just I am so envious of pregnant women.” She sighed and had this sad look. “Just between you and me . . . Jrue and I have been trying for years, but I can’t seem to get pregnant.” She sounded like she was glad to have finally gotten that off her chest.
“I’m sure it will happen in time.” Like with someone other than my future husband.
“That’s what I’ve been told, but I caught my husband standing in the baby section at Macy’s the other day. And I know despite everything he’s said about it being okay, deep down he really wants a child of his own.”
My plan was working. I struggled to keep a grin from my face. “Really? How sad,” I said. I truly am a good actress.
“Anyway, I finally decided it’s time for me to go and see a fertility doctor. If in vitro fertilization is the only option, then so be it.”
Hell no. The last thing I needed was for this heifer to finally get pregnant when I was so close to getting what I wanted. If Charlotte ever gave birth to a child, there was no way Jrue would ever leave her. And Ms. Netta was not having that. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. I hope it all works out for the two of you.” Yeah right. My daughter didn’t need any siblings who weren’t born from my coochie. I planned on texting him as soon as I got home and give him an ultimatum. If he decided to fertilize a baby in a dish, then it was over and Leon and I were going to raise his daughter. I was sure that was all the push he needed to finally make his decision. I’d be damned if I went through months of throwing up and stretch marks for some other woman to step in and steal my shine.
23
Nikki
After Donovan and that whole drunk driving fiasco, he was so devastated by what he had done that he admitted himself into a mental hospital. The unit was now jumping through hoops trying to assist me, but at this point I didn’t need their help. It took three days before a doctor finally diagnosed my husband with PTSD. I couldn’t tell you how relieved I was. Not because I had been right all along about my husband having the disorder, but because he was finally getting the help that he so desperately needed and deserved.
For the first few days he wasn’t allowed to have any visitors; then I was invited to attend his treatment sessions. A lot of his bitterness and rage surfaced during the session, but after two weeks I could tell that progress was finally being made.
I was at the bookstore setting up for a book signing. We had a new author Ashlie Kelly coming in to sign copies of her first novel, Right Through Me. It was an amazing story written by such a young woman. I had arranged chairs for a reading and question and answer session followed by the book signing. We’d been publicizing the event for weeks.
I was hooking up the mic when I heard the main phone ring. I looked at the line of customers at the counter. It was two-for-one, and those days were always busy at the store.
“Karen, stay at the register and I’ll answer the phone in my office.” I hurried to the back of the store and grabbed the phone on the third ring.
“Book Ends . . . May I help you?”
“Well, hello, Nikki.”
I froze because there was no way in hell I was on the phone with that psycho, yet I knew that voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. “Kenyon?”
“Yes, baby, it’s me.”
I looked around to make sure no one was listening, then whispered, “What the hell are you doing calling me?”
“I earned a phone call and the only person I wanted to call was you.”
“But I have a restraining order against your behind. Which means you’re not supposed to be calling me.”
“Baby, I just wanted a chance to let you know I’ve been thinking about you?”
“Why?” Lord, why now?
I hadn’t heard from that fool since he’d been arrested for kidnapping and attempted murder. I remember all those weeks of trying to keep Donovan from finding out. Thank goodness he was just getting back from Iraq and was spending a great deal of time at the unit in processing. I had made sure my lawyer kept my identity a secret because I was afraid of my husband finding out the truth about my affair that had ended up being with a straight-up stalker. In the few months that we had been dating, Kenyon had become so obsessed with me that he refused to accept that my husband and I were trying to save our marriage. As far as he was concerned, the only woman in the world for him was me.
Eventually, he was arrested and found mentally incompetent to stand trial, and was sentenced to five years in a mental facility; in exchange, he was supposed to have absolutely no contact with me. By doing so now he was violating the terms of his sentence.
“Baby, I’ve tried to stop loving you, but I just can’t.”
“Well, I wish you would.” I had enough problems without him calling me. Just the thought of me making love to this psycho made my skin crawl. I remembered thinking he was someone special and that maybe we had a chance. I guess that’s what happens when you start dating when your heart had been broken by someone else. You think there is more going on because you so desperately want it to be.
“Kenyon . . . Do me a favor. If you really love me, you won’t ever call me again.”
“But I—”
“No buts, just don’t ever call me again.”
He was saying something when I hung up the phone. I hate
d to be rude, but you had to be with someone like Kenyon. He was like a freaking leech. If I showed even the slightest bit of weakness, he would suck me dry.
Thank goodness I had sense enough years ago to change my home and cell phone numbers. Nevertheless, I picked up the phone again and contacted my lawyer. I needed to make sure that nut never called the bookstore again.
24
Trinette
On Saturday I lay around napping most of the day. Jrue had gone to Baltimore with Charlotte’s skinny ass for the weekend to visit her family, which left my fat, pregnant behind with nothing to do except watch movies and read a book.
I got up from the couch in my sitting room and padded across the plush carpeting into the bathroom. Lately, all the hell I do is pee, then pee again. This baby is getting so big she is always pushing on my bladder.
“Little girl, I wish you’d move over,” I hissed and even tried to push her over off my left side, but her stubborn little ass wouldn’t budge.
She is going to be just like her mother.
I had to smile at the thought of there being a mini me.
As I washed my hands I stared at myself in the mirror. Damn, I was huge.
I turned from side to side. I was wearing panties and a T-shirt that stretched across my big, inflated belly. Just the sight made me want to cry. I don’t care what anybody says, there is nothing attractive about being pregnant.
“You’re a pig,” I mumbled, then little missy started kicking me in the ribs. I pressed a hand to my belly and stepped into the bedroom just as Leon was coming through the door.
“What’s wrong?” His eyes got large with worry.
I groaned. “She’s lying on my side. I don’t know if she’s kicking my ribs or what. All I know is it hurts.”
“Here . . . let me help you.” He rushed over and raised my swollen ankles onto the bed. “Do you need me to take you to the hospital?”
“No.” I wished he’d just go back downstairs.
“I’m serious. If you’re hurting, I want to make sure I’m there this time to take you in to see your physician.”
Oh hell! Leon was starting to get on my nerves. Ever since Charlotte blurted out that Jrue had taken me to my OB appointment, he’d been going on and on about not being there when his pregnant wife needed him. For the last week he’d been calling me every hour, insisting that I do nothing, and while at home, smothering me. Now since I was feeling like shit, he was going to be asking every five seconds if I was okay. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.
“No, Leon. I just need to lay here a while.”
I missed sleeping on my stomach. Since she had started growing I couldn’t even find a comfortable spot. I lay on the opposite side the baby was pressed up against hoping that she would take the hint and roll her little ass over.
“Do you mind if I lay here for a few minutes and hold you?”
I was screaming inside, hell no! As big as I was getting, the last thing I wanted was to be touched, but I just closed my eyes. Leon reached inside the nightstand and rattled around in one of the drawers for a few seconds, then climbed onto the bed and rolled beside me.
I heard a humming sound. My eyelids flew open and I rolled onto my back. In Leon’s hand was my vibrator.
“What the hell? Leon, the last thing on my mind is sex.” Just like a man. If they find you in the bed, their dick gets hard and they are ready to get busy.
He shook his head and chuckled. “I’m not thinking about sex.”
“Then why are you playing with my vibrator?” And how the hell had he known it was tucked away in a box of tissues inside my nightstand. I took a second to think what else was in there that I wouldn’t want him to find.
“I had an idea. I think if we pressed this against your stomach, the vibration will make Little Bit move over.”
Little Bit was the nickname he’d picked out for my daughter. “I’m so desperate I’m willing to try just about anything,” I said with a tired laugh.
“Then roll back over.”
I did as he said and he laid the device against my stomach and turned it up on high. And sure enough in a matter of minutes that little girl woke up and moved, relieving the pain in my side.
“Oh, my God. She moved!”
Leon laughed. “I had a feeling that might work.”
“I’m just glad it did. I wasn’t sure how much more of that I could take.”
He turned off the vibrator and set it to the side and lay back on the bed. “Come here,” he said, and I was glad to roll into the cradle of his arm. I closed my eyes and listened to his deep breathing.
“Have you been thinking about any baby names?”
How was I going to tell him that Jrue and I had already picked out a name for his daughter? “I haven’t given it much thought,” I lied.
“I was thinking that maybe we should name our daughter after my mother.”
Leona. Hell no.
I tilted my head and turned up my nose. “Seriously? That’s a name for an old lady. Girls nowadays need cute names like Serenity, Symphony, and Sage.”
He frowned. “She needs a name that has class and represents strength. Think about when she finally hits the job market. We don’t want her to be stereotyped.”
One thing my daughter will never be is stereotyped. I guarantee she is going to be a diva just like her mother. “I think we need to find a name we both like.” Like Symphony. I rolled away from him, found a comfortable spot, and shut my eyes, suddenly feeling sleepy. I was no longer getting the rest I needed and the bags under my eyes were proof of that. And Netta wasn’t having that.
“Let me ask you a question . . . was Jrue in the examination room when you found out the sex of our child.”
My eyelids snapped open. Shit. Where the hell did he hear that? “Hell no. What in the world made you think that?” I didn’t dare look over at him.
“I was just asking. He was there with you at your appointment, but you never said if he was in the room with you or not.”
“Good Lord, of course not. He waited in the lobby until my examination was over.”
I felt his body sag with relief as he rolled over and wrapped an arm across my body. “I was just asking.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Why don’t we come up with a list of baby names and put them in a hat and pull from them?” I said, changing the subject.
“That sounds like a plan.” He sounded pleased by my suggestion.
Maybe taking Jrue to see my physician had been a mistake.
25
Nikki
Donovan had been home for almost two weeks now and he was better than ever. He was on medication for depression and still needed to see a therapist every week, but at least he was now talking about what he had gone through emotionally during his deployment. And that was a plus. Now we were taking things one day at a time.
I hadn’t been to the shop since Lorenzo’s murder. Mainly because just driving down Page Street gave me the creeps, but since Donovan was back to scheduling clients at the shop, I figured I needed to quit being a punk and go have lunch with my husband.
I stepped into the shop, greeted the crew, and sashayed back to my husband’s office with the mail in one hand and a pepperoni pizza in the other. I had decided to surprise him and hadn’t bothered calling, which would explain why when I pushed open the door, some chick was leaning across his desk.
What the fuck?
Her face was only inches from my husband’s and whatever they were discussing was intense. The second they heard someone coming through the door, she drew back and turned my way. I recognized her instantly. It was that chick from Donovan’s unit. Sanders.
I wished I could say underneath that military uniform was a shapeless, manly body, but I would be lying. She was wearing black leggings, thigh-high red boots, and a long tunic sweater cinched by a wide belt that emphasized her tiny waist, and I couldn’t even deny that she had ass and titties for days. I felt self-conscious in comparison and found mysel
f wishing I had worn something other than my favorite purple sweat suit.
“Am I interrupting something?” I asked, staring both of them down. It was one thing to see her visiting him while he was in the hospital undergoing treatment. It’s another to find her ass spread across his desk. “Excuse me . . . I asked a question.”
Donovan slowly rose from his chair and shook his head. “This is Malinda Sanders. She’s in my unit.”
“I know who she is,” I replied with attitude. “What I want to know is why she is in your office.”
Her eyes traveled from mine to his while Donovan chuckled like I was the one being ridiculous. “Nikki, chill. Her son’s out front getting his hair cut by my man.”
That may be true, but that frown on Malinda’s lips hinted at something personal just between the two of them and I didn’t like that shit one bit.
“Mrs. Truth . . . good seeing you again.”
I wish I could say the same.
“I better get back out there.” She glanced uncomfortably at Donovan, then nodded her head and started walking toward the door. “Truth, I’ll see you at drill this weekend.” The whole time she avoided eye contact.
I waited until I heard her voice out on the floor before I pierced my husband with a hard stare. “What’s up with that?”
His brow rose and he had the nerve to try and look confused. “What’s up with what?”
“That chick . . . bent all over your desk. That’s what.” I snarled and tossed the mail on the desk.
He reached for the stack still avoiding eye contact. “Nothing.”
“It sure the hell didn’t look like nothing.” My head was moving with straight attitude. “It looked to me like she was ready to slob you up.”
He had the nerve to laugh like I was a joke or something. “Nah, babe. She was just stopping in, saying hello.”
Yeah right. I had been around long enough to know when something was going on. And if there wasn’t anything going on, Malinda definitely wished there was. “Look like y’all were saying a lot more than just hello. Matter of fact, she looked like she was upset about something. I wonder what the fuck that could be?” I had never considered myself a jealous woman until now. Probably got a lot to do with the fact that Donovan had been accusing me of messing around on him for months.
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