Chapter 10
So, can we just forget any of this ever happened?” Lauren asked. Nyair walked her to her car. They had been silent the entire way. Neither wanted to say the wrong thing, so they opted not to speak.
“What we forgetting exactly? You’ll have to remind me,” Nyair said.
She smiled. She was so embarrassed. “How the fuck did I seduce a pastor?” She scoffed as they made it to her car.
“Seduce?” Ny laughed. “Seduce is a stretch. If you gon’ feel guilty being a Jezebel, we might as well take it a little further, so you at least have a reason.”
She burst into laughter. “What’s a little further?”
He leaned into her and whispered in her ear. “I’d have to taste more than your lips for it to count as seduction.”
She held her breath.
“You do that?” She asked, eyebrows hiked.
“Extremely well,” he whispered. Her face reddened, and she hid it in his shoulder while gripping his jacket.
He found amusement in her apprehension.
“Its not funny, Nyair!” She said, hitting him softly.
They didn’t even care that they were standing in the cold. Lauren would deal with frost bitten toes just to live in this moment a little longer because she knew once it passed, it wouldn’t be recaptured.
“You have a good night, Lo. You ever feel like using my number, you don’t hesitate. You hear me?” Nyair asked.
She nodded.
He took a step back, and suddenly, she could breathe again.
The tap of a car horn interrupted them, and when Lauren glanced across the street, her stomach hollowed.
“Mom! Coach Ny!”
DJ ran across the street as Demi slowly climbed from his Cadillac.
Guilt. Pure guilt seized her and Ny took one more step back.
“Hey, baby! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be with your dad all weekend. I’m supposed to pick you up from school Monday.”
Demi trudged his way across the snow, hands stuffed in his coat pockets, face bent from the harsh wind biting it.
Demi read the room instantly. “You a few blocks from the church house, ain’t you, Coach? You playing with the devil?”
Nyair scoffed. “I’m good in every hood, my man. The Power upstairs and what’s on my hip keep me covered.”
Demi pushed his tongue into his cheek, and Lauren knew he was losing patience. There was too much ego on this one-way street.
“Coach, what are you doing here?” DJ said.
“Yeah, Coach, what are you doing here?” Demi repeated.
Nyair scoffed as he and Demi stared each other down. Lauren wanted to die. Her ex and her…her what? She didn’t even know what to call Nyair. He was her nothing. Today was nothing. It meant nothing.
“He just stopped by to hear the plans for your banquet.” Lauren had to pipe up because Nyair was too busy performing in a pissing contest to acknowledge the question.
“Umm… I’ll call you,” Lauren stammered. “About the banquet.”
Demi knew her well enough to detect her nervousness.
“Email you. She gon’ email you, Coach,” Demi added.
Nyair’s focus went to Lauren. She was pleading with him with just her eyes.
Please let this go, she thought.
“Goodnight, beloved,” Nyair said. He held out a fist to DJ. “Take care of your queen, DJ. She’s…”
“Irreplaceable,” DJ finished. Nyair taught all his players to respect their mothers, to view them as queens. It wasn’t the first time Demi or Lauren had heard him refer to her in that way, but it hit differently today.
“Absolutely,” Nyair confirmed. “Y’all enjoy the evening.”
Lauren almost didn’t want him to go.
“You care to explain that?” Demi asked, but he wasn’t asking; he was demanding answers. He just happened to disguise his dominance in a question.
“No,” Lauren answered simply before switching her focus to DJ. She hit the unlock button on her key fob and opened the back door to her car. “Climb in, baby.”
“I’ma follow you to the house. I got to talk to you about something,” Demi stated.
“Yeah, okay,” she said.
Demi opened her door and she climbed inside. He knocked on the top of the car before walking to his own. She adjusted her rearview mirror and the look on her son’s face set off every alarm in her body.
“What’s wrong, kiddo? Didn’t you have a good time with Daddy?”
DJ shrugged. “He’s lame now, Mom. I don’t want to go there anymore.”
“Wait, what?” Lauren asked. “What happened to make you say this, baby? Your dad loves you.”
She felt herself growing angrier by the second, defensive, as only a mother would. Something had happened. Something bad had to occur if her son felt this kind of disdain for Demi.
DJ shrugged again. “I just want to go home.”
It took everything in Lauren not to pick up her phone and call Demi to demand answers. The fact that he was following her was the only thing that made her keep her cool. “Okay, baby.”
As soon as they pulled into the driveway DJ hopped out, punched in the garage code, and ran inside. Lauren slammed her car door and turned to Demi as he climbed out of his car.
“What the hell is going on with you two? Why is my son upset, and why did you bring him back early?”
Demi winced as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“He… umm,” Demi started. “The boy got a lot of shit on his chest. He blew up at an important event. He embarrassed a lot of people.”
“What the fuck you mean he embarrassed a lot of people? Nigga, my son just sat in my backseat with his eyes all bucked and watering like he had the worst night of his life. You better start fucking talking, Demi!”
“Man,” Demi muttered. “He got on the mic and blurted the bullshit he hear you talking about Charlie. How she stole your husband. How she’s a side chick. How I abandoned my wife and son. That shit sound familiar?”
“Oh, he stated facts then?” Lauren shot back. “She did steal my husband! You left us!”
“A bitch can’t steal a nigga, Lo! I ain’t want to fucking be here!
I ain’t leave my fucking son. I left you!
” Demi barked. “And you need to watch how you talk about me to my son! Around this bitch, dirtying up my name, making him hate Charlie. Charlie ain’t do shit to you.
She ain’t even know about your ass. That’s how detached I was from this marriage.
She thought I was fucking single! If you want to blame somebody, blame me! ”
“Fuck you, Demi! That bitch didn’t want to know!
Don’t defend your whore to me, and don’t you ever punish my son for telling the truth!
I will flip your entire life upside down over him.
What did you say to my child?” She asked.
“I haven’t talked to him about it yet. He’s been giving me the silent treatment since last night,” Demi said.
“Charlie kinda lost it. The Press was there and…”
“She did what now? She lost it? On my son?” Lauren was on ten. “And you let her?”
“Lo, I didn’t let her. It was the heat of the moment and…”
“She’s not welcome around DJ anymore,” Lauren said. “So don’t ask.”
“Say, man.” Demi was losing control of his life. He loved Charlie, but he loved his son more, and whether he wanted to admit it or not, he still loved Lauren. He was caught between a rock and a hard place because he knew Lauren’s anger was justified.
“Don’t play that card with me, Lo. You can take my money, my reputation, whatever you want, but don’t put DJ on the pass line. You know where it’s going to push us. I don’t want to handle you like that,” Demi said.
“Go ahead, Demi, go low, because that bitch hurt my son again and I’ma take it to hell on both of y’all! You choose this young-ass toddler bitch and she don’t know how to handle a child. I don’t care what he did; she better handle him with care. He’s the child…”
“She don’t have kids, Lo. She didn’t mean no harm…”
“That’s right, I forgot. You chose a child,” Lauren spat in disgust.
Demi could see this wasn’t getting anywhere. It would be nothing but yelling and fighting tonight. He needed to let Lauren cool down.
“Can I say bye to my son?” Demi asked.
“You need to say sorry to your son,” Lauren said, shaking her head. She turned and walked into the house, and Demi reluctantly followed her.
Demi knew she was pissed when she tossed down her purse and went straight to the kitchen, slamming cabinets.
He was catching smoke from every angle of his life.
Charlie had been cold since the night before.
DJ was giving him the silent treatment, and now Lo was on his ass.
He was man enough to admit that his choices had led him here.
The women would calm down, but his son…well, his son, he couldn’t live with that resentment.
He knocked on DJ’s door then pushed it open.
DJ sat in front of his TV with his gamer headphones on. Demi pulled them off and sat on the bed.
“Let’s talk,” he said.
“I ain’t got nothing to say,” DJ responded. Demi could hear his broken feelings behind his stubborn countenance.
“Why would you say that shit, man?” Demi asked. “You knew it was wrong, didn’t you?”
DJ shrugged; his back was still to his father.
“Turn around when I’m talking to you, DJ. You look a man in his eye. Remember I taught you that? And you stand on the choices you make. You made a choice when you took the mic, so tell me what it was about.”
“I hate Charlie,” DJ said. “She’s the reason why you live somewhere else. You’re never coming home because of her. All you care about is her now.”
Demi lowered his head and rubbed all over the back of his neck. Stressed. Demitrius Sky was stressed.
“Sometimes men and women who love one another grow in different directions, son. Charlie isn’t the reason your mama and me grew apart.
It just happens. But what doesn’t happen is a man growing apart from his son.
You’re my boy, DJ. I love you. Just because your mama and me aren’t married anymore doesn’t mean I love you less.
I will always love you. It doesn’t matter if Charlie or anybody else come into my life. ”
DJ’s eyes were welling with pain and Demi’s heart felt that shit.
“You can cry. I’d rather you cry and get that shit out and talk to me like a man than do that shit you did last night.
I know you going through a lot, but that’s not how you handle it.
You handle it like a gentleman, and you talk to me.
You hear me? You’re not in trouble, but let that be the last time you disrespect an adult like that. ”
“See, you love Charlie more than you love me. You’re taking her side.”
“Never, DJ,” Demi reassured. “But just because you mad don’t mean your balls grew, li’l nigga. You don’t buck on me. Am I clear?”
DJ nodded and stubbornly wiped his tears away.
“I’ma be around more. I’ma come visit you here until things cool down and you feel like you want to give Charlie another shot. She tries really hard to find something you two can connect over. One day, I hope that happens. It doesn’t have to be today. But when you’re ready. Okay?”
DJ wasn’t feeling it, and Demi knew it.
“Can I go back to my game? My friends are online,” DJ stated.
“Yeah man, go ahead,” Demi answered. “I luh you, boy.”
“I luh you too,” DJ grumbled.
When Demi walked out, his heart was heavy, and his head was pounding. Lauren didn’t even look his way.
“I apologize, Lo,” Demi said.
She spun on him, suddenly revealing the wine glass in her hand. Yup, she was pissed, pissed. She had filled it to the brim, and she was the queen of pouring no more than five ounces, leaving room for aeration. Tonight she was overindulging.
“Do you even know what you’re apologizing for at this point? All this pain. Was she worth it? Was your teenage girlfriend worth the implosion of your wife and son’s normalcy?”
The wine wasn’t the only bitter thing. Demi could taste her notes with every word that poured from her mouth.
“Leave it alone, Lo,” he said.
She was taken aback because he wasn’t even decent enough to appease her with regret. Her feelings were destroyed.
“See yourself out and make sure you show up for your son this weekend. I’m not his only parent, and your bitch isn’t invited.”