Baby Momma Drama (37 page)
Authors: Carl Weber
“Yeah, right. Do you really expect me to believe that crap?” I shook my head, chewing my bottom lip.
“It’s the truth. That’s why I bought the lobster tails and steak this morning. I was gonna make you a candlelight dinner; then right after dessert I was gonna propose.”
“You fucking liar. I don’t believe a word you’re saying. And I don’t appreciate you trying to play with my emotions like this.” I walked over to the door and opened it. “Get out, Derrick. Get the fuck out my house and don’t come back. I’ll have your shit sent to your mother’s.”
He walked to the door and stopped in front of me.
“You want me to leave? Okay, I’ll leave. But if I’m lying, why do I have this in my pocket?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small jewelry box. My jaw dropped.
“Look. I can understand if you don’t want this. But I been waiting to do this all day.” He opened the box, and I almost fainted when I saw the size of the rock. It had to be at least three carats.
“Jasmine, will you marry me?”
There was a part of me that wanted to scream, “Yes! Yes! I’ll marry you.” But after everything that happened today with Wendy, there was no way I could say that. Sure, the ring and everything was real romantic, but things weren’t right between us. I was so tired of this triangle between me and him and his baby’s momma, and until he put a stop to Wendy’s shit, I couldn’t marry him.
“I’m sorry, Derrick, but I can’t. I can’t do it. I love you. I’m not gonna deny that. But I can’t marry you. Not the way things are.”
“Then I’ll change the way things are. I swear.”
“How? How you gonna do that? You gonna keep Wendy away from my house?”
“Yeah,” he nodded.
I’d heard his promises so many times, I wasn’t sure if I could really believe him. I glanced at the beautiful ring, then handed the box back to him.
“I’m gonna give you one last chance, Derrick. But I’m not gonna take your ring. At least not until I see some changes in the way I’m treated.”
He frowned as he took the box, but then he stroked my cheek and smiled at me. “Don’t worry, baby. You gonna be wearing that ring in no time. Things are gonna change. You’ll see.”
32
Stephanie
I’d been tossing and turning for two hours, thinking about Travis and how lonely I was without him, so I was not happy when the phone started ringing and woke me up just after I finally got to sleep. Damn Malek! He’d been calling nonstop the last few days trying to blackmail me into sleeping with him. I must’ve told him no a thousand times, but he wasn’t giving up. He was probably hoping that Travis would answer the phone so that he could blow up my spot again. God, I couldn’t wait till Derrick and his friends took care of his ass.
“Hello?”
“Steph?”
I recognized Travis’s voice right away and sat up in the bed. He’d been avoiding me for quite a while, stopping by the day care center to see the kids or coming to the house only when he knew I wasn’t gonna be at home. I mean, I can’t lie and say he wasn’t handling his business. He was paying the bills and leaving me money on the kitchen table. But he was definitely avoiding me, and it was getting frustrating.
“Travis, is that you, baby?”
“Yeah, it’s me. How are the kids?”
“They’re good. T. J. sat up today for the first time, and Maleka keeps asking me when you’re coming home. She misses you, Travis. And so do I.”
“Well, tell her I miss her, too.”
“Travis, where are you?” I was trying to hide the desperation in my voice. “I’ve been calling all over for you. The people at the base said you took leave. Are you all right?”
“I’m okay. I’m staying with a friend for a while. I had to get away and clear my head. Figure out what the hell I’m gonna do.”
“And did you figure it out?” I held my breath. I probably shouldn’t have asked that question, but I needed to know.
“Some of it. But I still have a lot of thinking to do.”
“Stop thinking so much and come home, Travis.” I begged. “I’ll do whatever it takes. I just want us to be a family again. I don’t want you at some friend’s house. I want you to come home.”
“I can’t do that, Steph,” he said flatly.
“What do you mean you can’t do that? Are you trying to tell me you’re not coming home? I don’t like the way that sounds, Travis.”
“Neither do I, Stephanie, but keep in mind, I’m not the one at fault. I’m the victim here. Remember?” I frowned when he said that. It was obvious he was still mad and probably would be for a while. I was going to have to play this carefully and be as humble as possible.
“What are you trying to say, Travis?”
“I think we need some time apart. Maybe we should date other people or something.”
“No, Travis. We’ve spent enough time apart. And I don’t wanna see other people. I want you to come home. Please, baby. Just come on home. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“How you gonna make it up to me, Stephanie? In the bedroom, under the sheets? What’re you gonna do, meet me at the door in a teddy?” Damn, he knew me better than I thought.
“Yeah, maybe for starters,” I told him. “What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s only temporary. That’s what’s wrong with it. Once we leave the bedroom, everything goes back to the way it was.
Fucked up.
” I’m not gonna lie—that hurt. That hurt a lot.
Fucked up.
” I’m not gonna lie—that hurt. That hurt a lot.
“Travis, you don’t mean that, baby. I know you’re upset and hurt about the condoms and about Malek calling the house. But you don’t mean that.”
“Yeah, I do, Stephanie. I mean, you don’t appreciate me. I’ve given you everything a woman could ask for and you still kept disrespecting me.”
“Travis, I never meant to disrespect you. Or hurt you.”
“Well, you did,” he snapped angrily. “Look, I gotta go. I’ll give you a call later.”
“Wait. Don’t go.”
“What do you want, Stephanie?”
“Do you think you can stop by for dinner some time? The kids would love to see you, and I think we need to talk some more.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. Not yet, anyway.”
“Why not? It’s just dinner. It’s not like we’re going to sleep with each other. You can leave right after dessert.”
He hesitated for a minute, but to my surprise, he agreed.
“All right. I’ll do it for the kids. How about tomorrow night?”
“That’s fine with me,” I replied. “The kids are gonna be so happy.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow around seven.”
“Tomorrow around seven,” I echoed. I hung up with a huge smile on my face. I was finally going to get back with Travis. Oh, he didn’t know it yet, but when I promised that he could leave right after dessert, I forgot to mention that I was dessert.
“Mommy? Mommy?” Maleka was standing next to my bed, shaking me awake, which was no easy thing to do. I’d gotten out of bed after my call with Travis. I must’ve been up half the night, cooking and cleaning, getting things ready for my dinner with Travis. I wanted everything to be perfect when I seduced him. I wanted to make sure he had no doubts about coming home.
“What, Maleka? What is it, baby?”
I
sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
I
sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
“Somebody keeps knocking at the front door.” I sat there for a second and listened. She was right. Somebody was at the door. I got out of bed and looked out the window. There was a police car in my driveway. I was scared. Police never showed up in the middle of the night unless they had bad news.
“Maleka, go back to bed, baby. It’s only five o’clock in the morning.” I escorted her back to her room, then headed down the stairs nervously to answer the door.
“Who is it?”
“Chesterfield Police, ma’am. Are you Stephanie Johnson?”
“Yes, I’m Stephanie Johnson. Is everything all right, officer?” I opened the door and gasped at the sight in front of my eyes. “Oh, my God!”
“What’s up, Shorty?” Malek managed to croak, though his mouth was so messed up I don’t know how he could speak.
He was leaning against the two officers, ’cause he didn’t look like he had the strength to stand on his own. His face and clothes were a bloody mess. It looked like he was in a lot of pain. Shoot, he was so messed up, if he hadn’t called me Shorty I might not have recognized him. The officers helped Malek inside, and somehow we got him into the kitchen. He sat at the table and put his head down on it. I stood and spoke with the police.
“What happened to him?” I whispered the question but I knew the answer. Derrick and his friends sent their message, like I asked. Only problem was, I told him to scare Malek. From the looks of it, they tried to kill him.
“He says he got jumped. We found him about two blocks from here in his car. Says he was trying to make it over to your house but he ran out of gas.”
My heart started racing like an Indy 500 car. If Malek named Derrick and his crew, I was in some deep shit
“He got jumped? Who did this to him?” I asked with mock concern.
“He said it was too dark to see his assailants, ma’am.” I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Is he okay? He looks like he should be at the hospital.”
“The paramedics cleaned up his wounds, but he’s still in pretty bad shape. They recommended he go to the emergency room and have some X rays. They think he might have a couple of broken ribs.”
“So why’d you bring him here? Why didn’t you take him to the hospital?”
“He refused to go to the hospital, ma’am. He said he wanted to come here.”
“What do you mean, he refused?” I glared at the officer.
“Can’t you make him go?”
“No, ma’am, we can’t. Not if he doesn’t want to. But you’re right He should go to the hospital. There could be some internal damage.”
Just the sound of that made me shudder. What if they had fucked him up so bad he was bleeding internally? I did not want to be responsible for his death just because he was too stupid to go to the hospital. I looked over at Malek’s motionless body resting on my table and shook my head. If it wasn’t one damn thing, it was another.
“Well, why’d you bring him here?” I folded my arms across my chest and turned back to the cop. “Why didn’t you just take him home to his momma’s house?”
“He didn’t mention his mother. He just asked us to take him to his girlfriend’s house.”
“Girlfriend! I ain’t his girlfriend. I’m just his baby’s mother,” I protested, but it was useless. These cops didn’t give a shit who I was to Malek, as long as they knew they could leave him here.
“Ma’am, we were only responding to what he told us. We can take him home if you’d prefer.” It was clear from his expression that the cop did not want to have to do that.
Of course, I would’ve preferred to have Malek out of my house right then. Shit, I’d spent an hour scrubbing that kitchen floor so it would be sparkling for Travis’s visit, and here was Malek leaving bloody footprints all over it. But I also knew I had some responsibility in this whole thing. Malek wouldn’t be in this condition right now if it weren’t for me. Yeah, I wanted his ass to leave me alone, but I didn’t mean for it to be like this. He was my daughter’s father, after all.
“Ma’am?” The officer was getting impatient. Probably close to the end of his shift, or something.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “You can leave him here.”
“Okay, then, Miss Johnson. I’m going to leave you the number to the station house. You be sure to call us if he remembers anything about the people who attacked him.”
He handed me a card, went and spoke a few words to Malek, and then they were gone. I looked down at the number he had given me and prayed we wouldn’t be needing it. The police said Malek didn’t know who had jumped him. That was good news. I might be in deep shit if they found out it was Derrick and his boys. Not only would Derrick probably give me up as the one who ordered the attack, but my sister would never forgive me if her man violated his parole on my account. I had to be as nice as possible to Malek to make sure this whole incident stayed between us.
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