Love Don't Live Here

by Charmanie Saquea

  “Girl quit all that complaining,” Raelynn said from the phone. “That baby is just stubborn just like his mama. You were the exact same way when your mom was in labor with you. We were up at that hospital for sixteen hours because you refused to come.”

  “What? Oh no, this baby better bring his butt out because I am not going to be going through this for no sixteen hours,” Nadia fussed.

  She had already requested an epidural, but the doctors informed her that it could possibly wear off by the time she was fully dilated since she was only at two centimeters. She immediately changed her mind after hearing that. She would rather wait until she was dilated some more.

  “You’ll be alright sweetie, I’m not going to be able to make it tomorrow, but I will be down sometime this week. Marisa talked me out of coming when you two got into that car accident, but you won’t be able to talk me out of this one,” Raelynn told Nadia.

  “Alright ma,” Nadia said through clenched teeth as she was hit by another contraction.

  “Nadia you’re not supposed to tense up, they said that makes the pain worse,” Marisa fussed.

  “What the hell am I supposed to do? Just sit here and take it like it doesn’t hurt?” She asked.

  “Oh, attitude. That’s why you’re the one in pain,” Marisa said as she stuck her tongue out.

  “That’s alright honey. Those who laugh first, laugh last.”

  Four hours later, at three o’clock in the morning a nurse came in to check Nadia. She had just got the epidural an hour ago. She looked around the room, and everyone else had fallen asleep, including Jaron, who was still holding onto her hand.

  “Okay Mommy, you are fully dilated.” The nurse told her.

  She woke everyone up to deliver the good news while her nurse left to go get Nadia’s doctor. Everyone left the room except Jaron and Marisa. Marisa refused to leave Nadia’s side. She had said it plenty of times before that they had been through everything together, and this wasn’t going to be any different.

  “Try not to faint Jaron,” Marisa joked.

  “I’ll try not to,” he laughed.

  “Okay, Ms. Freeman, on the count of three I want you to give me a big push and hold it while I count down,” Nadia’s doctor said. All she could do was nod her head. “Alright, one, two, three.”

  When Nadia heard him say three, she pushed with all her might. She screamed out in agony for the simple fact that she had never been in so much pain in all her life.

  “You’re doing good Nadia,” Marisa told her.

  “Okay, I see the head! Give me one more big push and it will be over.”

  “Oh God, I can’t,” she whined.

  “Yes you can, just think in a few minutes our son will be here and all this pain will be worth it when you’re holding him in your arms,” Jaron said as he rubbed her head.

  “Okay, one more push. Just one more.”

  “AHHHHH!” Nadia yelled as she pushed with everything she had in her.

  “We have a boy!” The doctor announced.

  Nadia felt joy rush through her body when she heard her baby’s cries. She watched as Jaron cut the umbilical cord and didn’t even realize she was crying until she felt the wetness on her face as Marisa wiped the tears away.

  “You did good baby. He has a head full of hair,” Marisa smiled.

  “I’ll go tell everyone they can come in,” Jaron told her as he left the room.

  “Where is he? I wanna see him,” Nadia said anxiously as she looked around.

  “Here he is,” the nurse said as she placed the baby on Nadia’s chest.

  She looked down at her son who was sitting looking at her wide-eyed. She never really knew what love was until she looked into his eyes. Jaron was right, all the pain she had just endured moments ago was well worth it.

  “He looks just like his dad,” Marisa said as she gave Nadia a look.

  Nadia looked down at her baby then back up at Marisa. She smiled slightly while nodding her head. He was an exact replica of his father. Oh boy, she thought as she lay back on the bed.

  -41-

  “Naw Nadia, don’t do this to me ma,” Jaron pleaded as he paced back and forth in her hospital room.

  “Jaron, I’m sorry. I really am, I didn’t know,” she said on the verge of tears.

  Nadia had spent hours holding her son in her arms after everyone left. Marisa was right, he did look just like his father. It was like another Mario all over again. She knew she couldn’t hide the fact that this was Mario’s son, and she was never one to deceive anyone, so she told Jaron straight up what happened.

  “Nah, I don’t believe this. We’re going to get a DNA test done, and I’m going to prove that’s my son. How the hell did you allow this to happen, Nadia? You led me to believe that this was my son,” Jaron said in disbelief.

  “I thought he was yours too Jaron. The doctor told me I was three months when I first found out. That’s how I automatically knew he was yours. Somewhere along the lines dates got mixed up or something. Believe me Jaron, I never meant to deceive or hurt you. That was never in my intentions,” Nadia said sincerely.

  She was just has shocked as him. She had no problem with him getting a DNA because she wanted to know for sure anyways. When she looked at her son, she knew immediately that he was Mario’s son, but she was in denial. When Marisa said he looked just like his dad and gave her that look, she knew there was no denying it.

  She didn’t even name him or allow Jaron to sign his birth certificate until she knew for sure. She had called Marisa and asked Jax to tell Mario that she wanted to talk to him, but she hadn’t heard back from him yet.

  “Jaron just get the test, and I won’t say anymore about the situation until we get the results back,” she assured him.

  Jaron just looked at her and nodded his head before he left the room. The room was so quiet that she had forgotten that Neeman and Nyzir were in the room until Neeman spoke up.

  “You’re not going to have my nephew out here nameless and shit,” Neeman told her.

  “You’re right, but I can’t even think straight right now. I don’t even know what to name him,” Nadia said as she looked at her little bundle of joy that Nyzir had refused to put down since he first laid eyes on him.

  “How about Neeman?” Neeman asked with a smile.

  “Oh hell no!” Nadia laughed.

  “I’m just bullshitting you,” he laughed with her. “How about...shit I don’t know.” Neeman chuckled.

  “Narai,” Nadia said.

  “Narai? How you come up with that?” Neeman asked.

  “It just hit me, Narai Mario Lewis,” She smiled. “Nyzir, can I hold my son now?”

  “No,” Nyzir snapped.

  Nadia couldn’t do anything, but laugh. Her son was only one day old, and she couldn’t even hold him. She wasn’t mad though because that just meant he was surrounded by love. She smiled as she thought about the fact that her mom and Nyzir would have been fighting over him.

  ___

  Three days later, Nadia and Narai were home. She sat on the couch with Jaron while holding her son as he stared off into space. He got the results from the DNA test back, and they confirmed what she already knew, Jaron was not Narai’s father. She felt so bad that she didn’t even know what to say. She didn’t even know if there was anything she could say that would make this situation better.

  “I don’t think you should tell him,” Jaron finally spoke.

  “Huh?” Nadia asked puzzled.

  “I don’t think you should tell Mario about Narai. I mean you haven’t spoken to him in how long? And he won’t even return your phone calls so what difference would it make?”

  Nadia just shook her head. “I can’t do that Jaron. True, I haven’t spoken to Mario in months, but I’m not going to hide the fact that we have a son together. Especially when I know how I hurt him when I got the abortion the first time I got pregnant. I didn’t want to hurt you, but I don’t want to hurt him anymore either.”

&nb
sp; Since Mario refused to answer his phone or come see her, she was going to make a pop-up visit at his barbershop today. She had gotten the info she needed from Jax because she was tired of playing this silly game with him.

  “So, what about me?” Jaron asked somberly.

  “You can still be in his life, how about you be the godfather? I would really appreciate it.” She smiled to lighten the mood.

  Jaron stared at her for a few before finally giving her a faint smile and shaking his head. “Godfather, huh?” He chuckled. “Yeah, I would be honored.”

  Nadia smiled and kissed him on his cheek. “Thank you, I have to make a run real quick. Tell Neeman and Nyzir I will be back since he thinks’s Narai is his son.”

  Nadia pulled up in front of Mario’s barbershop feeling nervous. She didn’t know how he was going to react to seeing her since he stormed out of her dorm room the last time she had seen him. As she was getting Narai out of the car, Jax was pulling up.

  “Oh shit, let me see,” Jax said as he ran over to her.

  Nadia chuckled as she turned Narai’s car seat so Jax could peek at him.

  “Damn, he looks just like that nigga. What the hell?” Jax asked amazed.

  “I know, I’m kind of jealous,” Nadia fake pouted.

  Narai started to whine, and Nadia shook her head. She followed behind Jax as he led her into the barbershop. She nodded her head in approval. She was proud of Jax and Mario for leaving the streets alone.

  Jax led her to the back where he and Mario’s offices were. He lightly knocked on one door before opening it. Mario looked up from some papers he was going over and was shocked to see Nadia standing there with a baby.

  “I have a special delivery,” Jax smirked before leaving and shutting the door behind him.

  “Why do I have to hunt you down just to get in touch with you Mario?” Nadia asked as she took Narai out of his carrier.

  Mario couldn’t even answer her because he was too fixated on the baby she was holding. One look at him and he already knew what was up. Nadia got up and walked over to where he was seated behind the desk.

  “Narai say hi to daddy.” Nadia cooed to her son as she placed him in Mario’s arms.

  “Nadia don’t bullshit me,” Mario said in awe.

  “Had you answered my calls and came to see me like I asked, you would have known. Now, you can be mad at me all you want to, but as long as you take care of him, we’ll be all good,” Nadia told him.

  “Wait,” Mario’s head snapped up. “How do I know for sure he’s mines?”

  Nadia bit her lip to keep from cursing him out. “Well, Jaron already got his results proving that he’s not the father. I know for a fact I’ve only been with two men in my life, but if your ego is telling you to get a test then do you.” She said with an attitude.

  “How you have an attitude when I’m just now finding out about you even being pregnant?” Mario asked.

  “Like I said before, you cut off communication with me, but I told Marisa not to say anything to Jax because I just knew for sure that he belonged to Jaron, but obviously I was wrong. So, what are you going to do Mr. Lewis? I would love for my son’s father to sign his birth certificate,” she said dryly.

  Mario got up and handed Nadia Narai before opening his office door. He didn’t even know what to say to her.

  “I’ll call you,” he said.

  Nadia was shocked and hurt. She just knew he would be jumping off the walls and bursting with excitement when he found out about Narai since he was so angry at her for getting that abortion last year. She looked at him to see if he was playing, but the look on his face let her know he wasn’t.

  She just sucked it up and put her big girl panties on before strapping her baby in his seat and walking out of his office. Jax sat in one of the barber chairs confused when he saw Nadia walking out looking as if she was about to cry. He walked back to Mario’s office to see what the hell was wrong.

  “What the hell happened?” Jax asked.

  “I fucked up,” Mario sighed. “I fucked up.”

  Epilogue

  Nadia was running around the house trying to gather all her books for her classes while trying to make sure she had Narai’s bag packed. She was only three weeks into her sophomore year of college, and it was going better than she thought it would considering the fact that she had a newborn.

  Her front door came open, and she sighed in relief. “Thank God, what took you so long? I have ten minutes to get to school, and Narai is in a whiny mood today.”

  “Well, had you two just spent the night like I asked, you could have been there on time and wouldn’t be rushing,” Mario told her as he picked his son up.

  That day Nadia walked out of his office when he found out about Narai, he knew he had to put his pride aside and be there for her. As soon as she left, he started looking for houses and property in Atlanta where he could open another barbershop.

  “Not a good idea Mr. Lewis, you don’t know how to keep your hands to yourself,” Nadia told him.

  “Says the person who likes to walk around the house in them little boy shorts you be wearing. You know exactly what you be doing.”

  Nadia smirked and hit him with a wink as she handed him Narai’s diaper bag. They still weren’t together as a couple, but they weren’t just co-parenting either. Nadia always knew that they had a bond that was difficult to describe. They were more like best friends now that they shared a son together.

  Whenever she had to study or had a lot of homework, Mario would come over and tend to Narai for her. He would even go as far as to cook for her, so she didn’t have to. When he moved down to Atlanta, Mario bought Nadia a house and told her she didn’t have to worry about anything. She and his son were always going to be straight.

  “Don’t forget Marisa and Jax are coming down next week,” Nadia said as she threw her backpack on her back. “Bye handsome, I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Mario smiled.

  “I was talking to my son.” Nadia laughed as she kissed Narai on his cheek before rushing to the door.

  “I don’t get no love?” Mario pouted.

  “You’re such a big baby. I’m already late Mario,” Nadia smiled.

  “Come on girl, being a few extra minutes late ain’t gonna hurt,” he told her.

  Nadia sighed and walked back over to where he was standing and kissed him on the cheek. “I love you too big head, bye, I have to go.”

  Mario stood in the doorway as he watched Nadia drive off. It didn’t matter to him that he and Nadia weren’t in a relationship. He knew deep down in his heart that one day they would eventually end up together. The chemistry was there between them and the love they had for each other was strong. He would wait for her to finally realize it because he knew it was coming soon.

  The End

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