“How did you manage that? Didn’t that cost you an arm and a leg?”
Shauntae turned back around to look at her girls for help, like they could hear Gary’s part of the conversation or something. “Huh?”
“My goodness, a last-minute flight from California must have cost you more than a thousand dollars. Please tell me you didn’t spend that much money.”
“Of course not. I . . . I . . .” Shauntae started letting out deep breaths into the phone. “Oh . . . ow . . . baby, I . . . oh . . .”
“Shauntae, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“It’s my stomach. It’s cramping. I think I did too much today. Walking through the airport, and then being in the air all those hours. I don’t feel right.”
“Should I send an ambulance?”
“No!” Shauntae made herself calm down. “I mean, it’s those regular little cramps you get when you’re pregnant. I’ll be fine when I can rest and relax.” She thought for a minute and realized this was supposed to be her first time being pregnant. “I mean, that’s what they said in those classes I started taking while I was in California.”
“Okay, I’m on my way, baby. Sit in baggage claim and put your feet up. I’m not far from the airport. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes or less.”
Shauntae hung up and lay her head down on the table. All that deep breathing had made her dizzy. Or maybe she was realizing that she hadn’t even seen Gary yet and she had already messed up and had to play sick.
She felt Candy pat her on the back. “Come on, girl. You can do this.”
But when Shauntae picked her head up off the table, she could see the truth in both of her girls’ eyes. She couldn’t do this. And it was only a matter of time before Gary sent her packing. Just like Devon did.
Five
After Gary called to say he was two minutes from the airport, Sherice and Candy helped Shauntae out to the curb with her bags and left real fast before he got there. Shauntae felt a rush when his champagne-colored Lexus pulled up beside her. Gary jumped out of the car and took two big steps toward her. Her heart rushed again when he scooped her up in his arms and spun her around, then kissed her cheeks and her lips with soft, sweet kisses.
What really got her was when he bent down and spoke to her belly. “My little baby is home,” he said, then kissed it. When he stood to hug her again, Shauntae let herself be swallowed up in his arms. She didn’t remember him being so tall or his arms being so thick and strong, or him smelling so nice and his hug feeling so good.
She wished for a second that the whole thing was real. That she really loved him. That she didn’t have to trick him into loving her. That she was happy about having another baby. She held on to him real tight, hoping that maybe some magic dust would fall on her and her wishes would come true.
“You all right, baby?” Gary asked.
Shauntae nodded into his chest.
“You missed me, huh?”
Shauntae nodded again. If she could stay in his arms and not have to talk right, think right, and act right, maybe everything would be okay. Maybe if they had some really good sex that night she could make him forget any mistakes she was about to make. She would do it every day if she had to. Maybe that would be enough to make him love her and ignore all the bad stuff about her.
“Come on, baby. Let’s get you off your feet.” Gary opened her car door, settled her in the front seat, and then put her bags in the trunk.
Candy had loaned her the suitcases. They were much nicer than the bags she had, but not Gucci like Sherice’s suitcases one of her sponsors had bought her. They didn’t want her to look like she had too much money. Sherice was convinced that Gary didn’t want a woman who could take care of herself, but that he was a man who needed to be needed by a woman.
He got into the car and fastened his seat belt. He glanced over at her. “Baby, your seat belt?”
“Oh.” Shauntae hated seat belts and never used them. As she fastened herself in, she made a mental note to always put on a seat belt when she was in the car with Gary. “There we go.”
He smiled at her and leaned over and kissed her. She was a little extra over the top with the kiss, hoping to get him all stirred up. Maybe they could have sex as soon as they got to his house and she wouldn’t have to talk that much. When she pulled back from the kiss, she smiled and said, “Mmmmmm . . .”
When she opened her eyes, he was frowning.
“Baby, have you been drinking?”
“Huh?” Shauntae had forgotten to eat the mint that Candy had slipped her. Why was he asking though? She and Gary had shared a drink the first time they met in the bar and then had some expensive wine when they had gone out to dinner at a fancy restaurant. What was the big deal? Had he gotten holier since she left and now drinking was a sin?
He shook his head. “Of course you haven’t been drinking. You would never drink while you’re pregnant.”
“Of course not.” Shauntae took a gulping swallow. “I forgot to take my prenatal vitamins this morning, so I took them while I was waiting for you. I have to take the syrup because I can’t swallow the pills. It smells like alcohol.”
This was gonna be harder than she thought. She had to be Miss Holy and Perfect all day and she couldn’t even drink? Maybe it was for the best, though. Sherice drank and smoked all through her last pregnancy and everybody knew her son, Li’l Ray Ray, wasn’t right in the head.
“Sorry for asking, honey. I know you would never do anything to hurt our baby.”
“No, I would never do anything to hurt our baby.” Shauntae couldn’t believe she had barely got in the car and had already messed up. Was there a movie that would teach her the right way to be pregnant?
A police car pulled up beside them and flashed its lights to make them move. Even though she knew it was just airport patrol, the flashing lights made Shauntae nervous. She covered the side of her face with her hand.
Gary put the car in gear. “Where to?”
Shauntae frowned. “Huh?”
“Where’s your place, baby? I’ve never been there, remember?”
“My place?” Shauntae asked as Gary pulled away from the curb.
“Yeah.” Gary laughed. “Have you forgotten where you live?”
“Um, uh rah . . . baby?”
“Yes, dear?”
“I gave up my apartment while I was gone. I didn’t think I was coming back until I found out I was pregnant. I gave all my stuff away and planned to start over in California.”
“Oh . . .” Gary’s silence made her even more nervous.
“I thought I was going home with you.” The way he had been begging her to come home had made her think she would be staying at his house.
Gary frowned. “You thought we would live together before we get married?”
“I thought . . .” Shauntae was glad his eyes were on the road and not on her face because she knew she looked confused. “I thought . . .”
It must have been the three days on the bus, the almost fight with her girls, the rush from him hugging and kissing her, riding in the front seat of a Lexus with a man who looked and smelled like money, and her durned hormones from this durned baby. Shauntae started to cry. For real and not because Sherice had told her to.
Now it was Gary’s turn to look confused. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
“You kept telling me you couldn’t wait for me to come home. I thought you wanted me.” She sucked in a deep sniffle. “I thought you wanted me.”
Gary put one of his large hands on her knee. “Of course I want you, baby. I didn’t say anything about not wanting you. I want you. I love you. We’re going to get married and be a family.” He rubbed up and down her arm.
“Then why cain’t . . .” Shauntae calmed herself down so her talking wouldn’t go bad. “Why can’t I go home with you?”
“Baby, we’re not married. Like I’ve been saying, we have to do this thing right before God. I’m happy about our baby, but you know this isn’t God’s way. Can you
stay with one of your girlfriends until we get married?”
Shauntae thought hard before she answered. If she said no, he would think there was something wrong with her because she didn’t have no friends. If she said yes, he’d expect to drop her off at Sherice’s or Candy’s house and that would mess up everything.
“I can . . . but . . . most of my friends are married, so I would have to give them time to get ready.” A quick thought came to her mind. “And plus, my friends don’t like it when I stay over their houses. You know with their husbands there . . . I think they might be a little jealous.”
A broad grin spread on Gary’s face. “I can understand that. My baby is fine. I can see why they wouldn’t want you around their man.”
Shauntae let out a little breath of relief. She had gotten something right.
“Okay, baby. You can stay at my house until we get you situated somewhere. In the guest room, though.”
“Guest room?”
“Don’t worry. It’s a nice room. Not being able to have sex with your fine self right down the hall will be hard, but we’ll make it until we get married.”
“No sex?” Shauntae tried to keep herself calm. No sex? How could she keep him distracted from her messing up if they couldn’t have sex?
“We have to make sure we do things right before God until the wedding.”
“Wedding?” Did he say wedding? The whole “no sex” thing was pushed out of Shauntae’s mind by thoughts of a wedding. Was she going to have a real wedding? Like with a white dress and everything?
“Of course. You didn’t think we were going to the justice of the peace, did you?”
That’s exactly what she had thought. She never dreamed she would actually have a wedding. This was too good to be true.
“What kind of wedding do you want to have?” Gary asked. “It might be difficult to get the venue we want on short such notice, but I’ll see if I can pull some strings. Nothing but the best for my baby. We’ll need something big, because I’m sure you want a huge wedding with all our family and friends.”
Shauntae shook away the fantasy of walking down the aisle in a gorgeous white dress to imagine what it would be like if any of her family and friends came to a wedding with his family and friends.
“I’m sure you’d love to be featured on the society page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,” Gary said.
“The newspaper?” Shauntae tried to keep a calm expression on her face. If Cassandra and Devon read the Sunday paper and saw her face plastered there in a high-society wedding, she’d get arrested the very next day. “I don’t want no big wedding or to be in no newspaper. Just something small. In fact, I would have been happy with the justice of the peace.”
“Baby, I want the best for you. The best for us. Why would you want to . . .” Gary paused. “I know what it is. You don’t want to be pregnant in a wedding dress? Baby, you don’t have to be embarrassed. This isn’t God’s way, but you have nothing to be ashamed of. Like you always say, God knows our hearts.”
“I know, but . . .”
“But what? I’ve never met a woman who didn’t want a big, fancy wedding.”
Shauntae shook her head. “I would be happy if me and you went off somewhere special and got married. Maybe to an island or something.”
“You sure we’d have time to plan that? You can only fly for a few more months, right?”
Shauntae shook herself out of her thoughts of a wedding on the beach in Jamaica. “Oh, yeah. You’re right.” She had forgot all about the baby in her belly, again. “For real, though, we can go to the justice of the peace. I’m not like most women when it comes to weddings. I just want to be married to you.”
“Okay, love. I just want to be married to you too. And this way we can get married sooner. The sooner the better.”
“Yeah, the sooner the better.”
For real though, it needed to be as soon as possible. Shauntae wasn’t sure how long it would be before Gary realized she wasn’t good enough to marry him.
Six
Shauntae gasped when they pulled up in the driveway of Gary’s house. She had only seen it once late at night—the night she had gotten pregnant. She didn’t remember it being so big and pretty. It was all rich and fancy looking.
Shauntae had to get this thing right. This could be her home for the rest of her life. She’d have as many babies as he wanted, as long as she could stay in his house and ride in his Lexus.
He pulled into the garage and came around to her side of the car. When he opened the door and she stood, he leaned in to kiss her. “Welcome home, baby.” He opened the door to the house. “Make yourself comfortable while I get your bags.”
Shauntae walked through the huge kitchen into the breakfast room. If she were Candy, she would have stopped to admire the fancy kitchen cabinets and the island in the middle of the floor. There was a wood thing over it with expensive-looking pots hanging from it. Shauntae wondered if Gary would be expecting her to cook.
Gary came back downstairs after taking her bags up. “Ready for a tour?”
As they walked through the house, Shauntae wondered if she could ever feel at home there. Everything was so expensive and fancy. His office looked more like a library because of all the books he had. She wondered if he had read them all or if they were just for decoration.
He had a fancy living room that looked like there should have been plastic on the furniture. It had a big piano that he said his daughters used to practice on. The dining room had a big, long table and some fancy high-backed chairs.
The family room had the biggest TV Shauntae had ever seen, with surround sound and everything. She knew she would be hanging out in there most of the time. It was the only place that looked like she could be comfortable.
Gary had a liquor cabinet filled with fancy wine bottles and other expensive drinks. Shauntae couldn’t wait for Sherice and Candy to come over. They would have to be careful to only drink a little bit from each bottle so he wouldn’t notice anything was missing.
When they got upstairs, he led her down the hall. “Here’s your room, baby.”
The guest room was painted light blue and there was a queen-sized bed with a fancy blue and gray comforter. There were about twenty pillows on the bed that Shauntae would have to take off every night and put back on every morning because they were just decoration. The room had its own bathroom, which was also decorated in blue and gray. It was kinda boring, but for real, it was nicer than any place Shauntae had ever lived.
Down the hall, there were two bedrooms next to each other that shared a bathroom. One was decorated in bright pink and the other in light purple, both with all kinds of girl stuff.
“My daughters’ rooms,” Gary said, with a funny look on his face.
Shauntae could tell he was missing his children. For a second, she was happy that he would be getting part custody of them soon. Only for a second. It was gon’ be a headache having two girls around Brianna’s age living in the same house.
When they got to the master bedroom, Shauntae had to stop herself from screaming out loud. She didn’t know a bedroom could be that big. It had two sections, one with a big ol’ king-sized bed and another with a couch and a big-screen television and a fireplace.
When they went into the bathroom, Shauntae almost fainted when she saw the Jacuzzi tub. But the best part was the two big closets. Each one was almost the size of a small bedroom. His was full of suits, shirts, ties, and some casual clothes, and the other one was empty, waiting to be filled with all the expensive clothes he would buy her.
“So you like the house?”
“I love it, baby. I ain’t never been in no house like this. I cain’t wait ’til we get married.”
Gary’s eyebrows went up.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Shauntae asked.
Gary shook his head and smiled.
Shauntae realized she had gotten so excited that she had let her proper talking go out the window. Focus, Shauntae. Do you see this ho
use?
She followed Gary back down to the kitchen.
“You hungry?” he asked. “I picked up some sushi last night.”
Shauntae made a disgusted face.
“You don’t like sushi?”
“Uh, of course I like sushi, usually, but . . .” She rubbed a hand over her belly. “Ever since the baby, my appetite has changed. The thought of it makes me ill.” Shauntae said each word very carefully.
“I have some leftovers in the fridge. Roasted duck, asparagus, and couscous.”
Shauntae frowned again. She wasn’t trying to eat nobody’s duck or no vegetable that looked like a tree. And what in the world was couscous?
Gary laughed at the frown on her face. “Okay, what would you like?”
Shauntae thought for a minute. She couldn’t ask for no hot wings or pizza or Chinese food or any of the things she was used to eating. “I’m not sure. This baby has my taste buds messed up.”
“Take a look in the refrigerator and see if anything catches your eye,” Gary said. “If I had known you would be staying here, I would have stocked up on your favorites. Except, I don’t even know what your favorites are. Guess I have a lot to learn about you.”
Shauntae forced a laugh. “Yeah, we have a lot to learn about each other.”
She needed to figure out what her favorites should be. He couldn’t find out that she lived on frozen pizza, fish sticks, chicken wings, Cap’n Crunch, Pop-Tarts, and ramen noodles.
She pulled open the refrigerator. He came to stand behind her. “Sit down and rest, honey. I’ll tell you what’s in here.”
Shauntae perched herself on one of the breakfast room chairs.
“I have hummus, baba ghanoush, and pita chips.” He turned to see the frown on her face. “I have a nice Brie that you can eat with some water crackers and white grapes.”
She shook her head.
“Arugula salad with goat cheese, pecans, and strawberries?”
She frowned and shook her head again. Didn’t he have no normal food?
Becoming Mrs. Right Page 4
