“Is he okay?” Dream questioned after realizing it was taking them too long to bring her baby back.
Melo didn’t have the answers for her so he decided to change the subject.
“You did so good, Dream. Thank you so much.” He kissed her forehead but could still see the worrisome look on her face.
“Doctor, what’s wrong? I want to see my baby.”
“Ms. Coleman, his weight is 6lbs even, which is good for a baby born two months early. He is seventeen inches long, a good height. I’m concerned about his respiratory system. Because of my concerns, I want him on oxygen right away. Once you are cleaned up and transported, we will take you to the nursery where you will be able to see and hold him.”
Dream’s heart skipped a few beats just hearing that the baby may have issues breathing. She blamed herself even though part of her knew that it wasn’t her fault. However, as his mother, Dream felt that she was supposed to protect him and he hadn’t be in the world an hour yet and already she had failed him.
Carmelo was escorted to the nursery where Dream later joined him after being transported to her room and cleaned.
“Look at mommy,” Carmelo cooed to his son.
The nurse wheeled Dream beside the chair Carmelo was sitting in and she reached her arms out for her baby.
“Hi, CJ. I’m sorry you have to be on this machine, baby boy. It’s to help you get nice and strong. Mommy and daddy love you very much.”
“Look at all that hair on his head. He’s perfect, Dream. Thank you,” Carmelo said.
Dream stared down at her prince and took in his features. He was Carmelo’s son to the T. They say it takes a while for babies to really get their features but Dream definitely saw Carmelo all through CJ.
“Yea, he is,” she agreed with him.
For the remainder of the evening, Dream and Carmelo stayed by CJ’s side. Even after they were told nursery visiting hours were up, they pleaded for an extra hour. They didn’t want to part from their king but eventually they had to. The hardest part for Dream was knowing that she would be going home without her baby. They knew from jump that they would be keeping him a little longer just to monitor his breathing and lung development. Dream and Melo had to take that with a grain of salt because they both knew things could have been worse. They were indeed blessed.
Chapter Twelve
Dream hadn’t been herself since she’d had CJ. She would leave the house early in the morning and wouldn’t come back until late at night. She would go see CJ and spend the rest of her time at her boutique. Whenever she was home, she had an attitude and kept herself exiled in the bedroom. On top of that, she wouldn’t even let Carmelo touch her. Their sex life had been nonexistent. It was like Carmelo had a complete stranger living in his house. If it wasn’t for Summer, he probably wouldn’t even have had a decent meal every day.
“Dad,” Summer said as she peeked her head in his office.
“What’s up, Sum? You ready?”
“Actually, I was wondering if I could drive myself to school today,” she said as she bit her lip.
When she came home from the hospital after been shot, Carmelo had taken her keys and didn’t allow her to go anywhere without him or Trip. Summer knew it was all for her safety but it was starting to get on her nerves. She understood that the same way she felt when he was in the hospital was the exact same way he felt about her.
“No, Sum.”
“Please? Just for today? I promise to go straight to school then come straight home. Well, after I go see CJ.” She smiled.
Carmelo sighed and rubbed his temples. It had always been hard for him to tell Summer no, but he didn’t want nothing happening to her. He looked up into her eyes and knew it was over for him, especially with that puppy dog look she had on her face.
He reached into his drawer and grabbed her keys. “Call me before you go to the hospital. I’m not playing with you, Summer Love.”
“Yes!” she yelled as she ran over to him and kissed his cheek, hugging him tightly.
“Get out of here before you be late. Spoiled brat,” he laughed.
“I love you, too!” Summer yelled a she ran out of his office and out of the house.
Carmelo just shook his head. Between Summer and Dream, they were going to drive him crazy. Just thinking of Dream made him reach for his phone and call her. She had left extra early this morning so he didn’t get a chance to see her. When her phone went straight to voicemail, he left her a message.
“Yo, call me back.”
Fuck it, Carmelo thought as he got up. He was going to just do a pop up visit.
<><><><>
Dream had just left from the back of the boutique when she heard her door chime, letting her know she had a customer. She looked up and had to stop right in her tracks. Damn, she thought as she looked at one of the sexiest men she had seen since Carmelo walked up to her table a while ago.
Seeing him walk towards her, she snapped out of her thoughts.
“Hello, I’m Dream. How can I assist you today?” she smiled, jumping back into money making mode.
“Dream, huh?” Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome asked as he licked his lips. “Well, Dream, I’m looking for something for my goddaughter. We have a father-daughter dance coming up and she said she needs to be the cutest one in the building.”
“Sure, I have to run to the back and get my catalog. So I know which one to get, how old is she?” Dream asked.
“She’s eleven,” he answered.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
Dream walked to her office cursing herself for not bringing the catalogs out this morning like she usually did. She had just stood up from bending over and reaching into her bottom drawer when she looked to see him standing in the doorway watching her. He caught her off guard and scared her a little, causing her to jump and drop the books.
“Oh shit,” she said, grabbing her chest.
“My bad, Ma,” he said, helping her. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s fine,” Dream chuckled. She covered her mouth when she let a snort creep out.
“Aww, she snorts,” he laughed.
“That is so embarrassing.” She shook her head. “Well, since you’re back here, just have a seat and look through the catalogs and see if you can find anything she might like. If you don’t find anything, I can always make a custom one for her.”
Dream played with her hair as she as she watched him look through the catalogs. She didn’t know why she was so nervous to be around this man. Maybe because I have a man already, she thought to herself. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice him staring at her.
“Why are you so nervous?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“Nothing. I think I’ll just go with a custom design,” he said.
“Okay,” Dream said as she reached for one of her business cards. “Have a talk with her, figure out how she wants it, what color and all that stuff, and then give me a call so I can get started on it as soon as possible.”
Dream didn’t even realize she was talking so fast. He examined the card and realized that her cellphone was listed on there. Bingo.
“I will definitely be calling.” He smiled.
As Dream opened the door to her office, she was hit with a surprise. Standing there in front of her was Carmelo. Oh shit, once again she was scared. Due to her jumping back, she almost lost her balance and Mr. Handsome grabbed her by her waist to stop her from falling.
“H-Hey, Melo. What are you doing here?” Dream asked nervously.
Carmelo’s eyes traveled down to this nigga’s hands that had yet to leave Dream’s waist and he looked at Dream with a look she couldn’t even decipher.
“Tell this nigga he got a half a second to remove his hands before I shoot the bitches off,” he said with ice dripping from his voice.
Dream knew he was serious and when she saw him reaching behind his back, she panicked. She stepped out of his grasp and turned to Mr. Han
dsome.
“Okay, thanks again for coming in. Don’t forget to let me know how she wants the dress,” she said nervously.
“Yea, I’ll be calling real soon,” he said as he walked past Carmelo with a smirk.
Carmelo’s glare never left Dream. She tried to walk away but he pushed her back into her office. “Back the fuck up,” he said as he locked the door.
“That was so damn rude, Carmelo. That was a customer,” Dream said.
“Do I look like I give a fuck?” he spat.
“Well, you should.” She rolled her eyes.
“Since when do you bring customers to the back, with the door shut?” Carmelo yelled.
Dream plopped down in her hair, ignoring his yelling. “Why are you here, Melo?”
Carmelo looked at Dream like she had lost her damn mind. She returned his stare, never wavering.
“Yo, Dream your little ass has been on some other shit lately. For your sake, you better snap back to yourself before you end up getting hurt. Don’t believe me? Try me,” he said before turning around to leave.
He was officially done playing these games. Dream must have forgotten who the fuck he was. The incidents with her and Summer made him chill out for a little while, but he saw now that he was going to have to go back to that ruthless nigga he was before she came into the picture.
Chapter Thirteen
Dream sat on the couch with all her bags packed as she waited for Summer and Carmelo to get home. The decision she was about to make wasn’t easy for her but it was very necessary for her to keep her peace of mind. She was slowly starting to change and she didn’t like who she was becoming. She knew she was wrong for feeling as if Carmelo was responsible for everything that had happened to her.
She was becoming bitter and her attitude towards him was becoming too much. She was falling out of love with him more and more each day. Their relationship had been so beautiful, loving and fun in the beginning, and now everything was just dead to her. They didn’t even seem like a couple anymore, they just seemed as if they were roommates living in the same house.
She took a deep breath and rubbed her temples when she heard the front door open and Summer’s laughter ring out throughout the house.
“Hey, Ma…” Summer’s voice trailed off when she noticed the bags sitting next to Dream. She looked back at Carmelo for answers but his facial expression matched hers.
“What’s all this?” Carmelo asked.
“Melo, I—”
“Spare me the bullshit, Dream, and just keep it real,” he cut her off.
“Okay, I can’t do this anymore. I need to take a break and get my mind right. Our relationship has changed, I’ve changed, and I don’t think I can do this anymore,” Dream explained.
“So you’re leaving me?” he asked.
“Leaving us,” Summer corrected him. “What about my brother?”
“Sum, you know I would never keep CJ from you two. This is just something I have to do,” Dream told her.
Carmelo shook his head. He wasn’t surprised though; he figured Dream would pull some shit like this. She had been acting funny for a while now and he knew it would ultimately lead to this.
“I’m not going to beg you. I really don’t want you to stay somewhere you don’t want to be,” he said before walking away and heading for the stairs. “Summer, let’s go.”
“Sum—”
Dream didn’t even get to finish her sentence before Summer took off for the stairs with tears streaming down her face. This is not how she expected this to go. She knew Summer wouldn’t take it too well but Carmelo was the one who shocked her.
He was acting as if he didn’t care and she knew it was all a front. Quietly, she grabbed her bags and carried them out to her car. Melo stood in the window in the bedroom he used to share with Dream as he watched her. He would be lying if he said it didn’t hurt to watch her leave, but what could he do? His pride wouldn’t allow him to beg or even ask her to stay.
If she wanted to leave, who was he to hold her back? As long as she didn’t try to keep his son from him, he was going to let her go. He thought he had found the one when he found Dream but he was obviously wrong. If it was easy for her to just up and leave me, then how much did she really love me?
Summer came into the room and stood next to her dad as she watched the only mother she had besides her nana walk right out of her life. This is exactly what she feared happening. She was able to stop her the last time she tried to leave but now was a totally different story. Summer just didn’t understand how things went from good to all bad at the snap of a finger.
“You think she’ll be back?”
I hope so, he thought. “I don’t know, Sum. I honestly don’t know.”
After leaving the home she once shared with Carmelo and Summer, Dream needed to clear her mind and she really wanted to see her son, so that’s where she headed. Despite what Carmelo may have thought, it wasn’t easy for her to leave him or Summer. She didn’t want to but she knew she had to. The longer she would have stayed, the more resentment she would have felt towards him and things were bound to get ugly.
She thought that he would be a little more understanding of her situation but he didn’t even really give her a chance to explain. She really expected for them to be able to sit down and talk like two adults but that obviously wasn’t the case.
As she looked for place to park once she reached the hospital, she pushed all thoughts of Carmelo and their situation to the back of her head. She came to see her son and spend time with him so that’s exactly what she was going to do.
When she reached the NICU, she went through the necessary process before she could go in to see CJ. When she went in, she went straight to his incubator and took him out before sitting down with him in her arms. He stirred a little before he realized that he was in his mother’s arms and he settled down.
“Hey, Ms. Coleman, I was just about to call you,” CJ’s assigned doctor said as she walked into the room.
“What’s wrong?” Dream asked.
“Oh, no, Ma’am. Nothing is wrong. I was actually calling you because your little man there is strong enough to get out of here. You can take him home today, actually.”
“Wait, are you sure? He can come home, as in right now?” Dream asked for clarification.
“Yes Ma’am. I have his discharge papers right here,” the doctor said as she held up the papers.
“Oh my gosh!” Dream squealed. “Thank you so much, let me run out to my car and get his car seat,” she said excitedly.
Dream was so happy that she couldn't contain it even if she wanted to. She hated the fact that the only time she got to see her soon was when she came to the hospital. She wanted her baby home with her every day and night and now she was finally getting what she had prayed for.
<><><><>
Dream had been pouring all her time into taking care of CJ and working on the dress for Chauncey’s goddaughter. Since she was wheelchair bound, Dream wanted to make sure she loved her dress and felt like the princess she truly was. It had been three weeks, almost a month since Dream had moved out of Carmelo’s house and out of his life.
Since that day, she hadn’t seen or heard from him. She thought that they would be able to keep at least some type of communication for Summer and CJ’s sakes, but it obviously wasn’t going to work that way. She even went as far as to try to call Summer but her calls never went through.
She figured that Carmelo forced Summer to block her calls or he did it himself. He could be so stubborn sometimes and Dream hated it. The fact that pissed her off even more was the fact that CJ has been home from the hospital for three weeks now and Carmelo had yet to see him. She could take him ignoring her and giving her the cold shoulder, but she would be damned if he took his anger and frustrations out on her son.
She heard CJ crying on the baby monitor so she rushed up the stairs to his room. When she reached his room, she changed his diaper before going downstairs to give him a bottle. She
knew now that he was awake, she wasn’t going to get any work done so she walked into the den to watch TV while CJ sucked on his bottle like he hadn’t eaten in years.
As soon as she sat down, her phone started ringing. CJ’s little nosey self turned his head in the direction of the ringing and Dream shook her head.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Well, hello. So you are alive and well?” Mama Love asked.
“Yes, Ma, I’m alive,” Dream chuckled.
“Good, then I won’t feel bad when I beat you down for not calling me or bringing my grandson to see me, huh?”
Since CJ had been home, Dream had been so busy and preoccupied that she couldn’t even think straight. She should have known Sheila Love wasn’t going to allow her to go too long without calling or coming by to see her.
“As soon as CJ is done eating, I’ll be there,” Dream assured her.
“Mhm, you better be,” Mama Love said before she hung up the phone.
“We better get to your Granny’s house before she kills me,” Dream told CJ.
<><><><>
When Dream pulled up to Mama Love’s house, she shook her head at the fact that Carmelo’s truck was in the driveway. She was having a good day so far and she wasn’t going to allow him to mess that up for her.
As she took CJ’s car seat out the car, she sighed before she headed for the stairs that led to the house. Before she could even knock, the door was swung open.
“It’s about time, girl. Now get my baby in here and let me see him.”
Dream did as she was told and walked in the house, ignoring Carmelo who was sitting on the couch.
“He’s been changed and fed so he should be good for a few. I’ll be back, I gotta go,” Dream said as she tried to make her exit.
“Take another step and we’re going to have a problem, Miss Dream,” Mama Love threatened.
If it was one thing Dream knew, it was not to play with Sheila Love. When she told you to do something, you better do it. Dream folded her arms over her chest as she slowly turned around, feeling like a little kid.
“Sit, now.”
A Gangster's Dream 3 Page 6
