Fervor

Chapter 1

M y eyes slowly peeled open when I realized my phone was ringing. I thought I was dreaming when the clock read two thirty in the morning. I didn’t know who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to call me at this time of morning, but I was about to put them up on game. Snatching my phone from the nightstand, I saw it was my sister, Keondra.

I quickly sat up in bed, silently praying nothing had happened. While I loved her husband, Vegas, I knew he had been involved in street shit nearly his entire life before he met Keke. Regardless of how he’d gotten out of the game, past bullshit could still find his address and threaten to disrupt his attempt at living peacefully with his family.

I answered the phone quickly. “Hello? Keke, everything okay?”

Although she was in Houston and I was in Tallahassee, she knew I would hop a plane quick as hell if it concerned her, our sister Sasha, or our mother. They were my life, especially my sisters. I was the oldest, and although I’d moved away, they were still my babies. I just had to get away from that street shit they had going on out there. I left for college and never looked back.

“Yes! Everything is good. Giselle went into labor!” she said, sounding winded.

I quickly got out of bed, going to my closet to look for something to wear. “Okay. I’m about to get dressed. Why you sound winded?”

“I’m running through the airport to catch a flight. Vegas long-legged ass done practically left me like that dude in the Olympics.”

I slightly rolled my eyes. She and Vegas were made for each other. They were both crazy. “Okay. Well, get off the phone. I’ll see y’all when you get to town. Text me her room number.”

“Okay. Love you.”

She ended the call before I could respond. I threw on a T-shirt and some jeans, along with my Sketchers, then fluffed out my natural hair. I’d never in life had a relaxer. My mother was great at taking care of our natural tresses and taught us how to be great at it as well. I got complimented on my hair all the time, along with my skin. It was dark as coal, and I was so self-conscious about it when I was a kid. Now, I kept it healthy and moisturized, flaunting it as much as possible.

People just stared at me all the time in awe, like I was African royalty. I made sure they had something amazing to watch at all times, no matter what time of day it was. After grabbing my purse, I got in my car to head to the hospital. Giselle was my employee, but more importantly, she was my friend. She was living her dream. She’d gone through a company called Arranged Hearts to be matched with a spouse. I was kind of skeptical about it when she told me, but seeing how she and Gentry seemed to be living a fairy tale made me a believer.

They had their moments, thanks to Giselle’s co-parent Clayton, but Gentry loved her so much already, he dealt with the bullshit. Not only was Giselle my friend, Vegas, Keondra’s husband, was her brother. For the longest, I didn’t think Clayton would be safe after all that shit he did. Giselle had told me he had been hospitalized a few months ago because of an accident, but I wanted to believe that Vegas had gotten to him after all.

Glancing at the clock on the dash, seeing it was three in the morning, I groaned. My first appointment was at eight thirty. I was going to be tired as hell. The patient was going to leave my office with plaque still on their teeth. Being a dentist had been a dream of mine since I was a kid. Seeing how scared kids were at the dentist office prompted me to want to provide a comfortable environment to soothe their fears.

However, I was no longer a children’s dentist. I only had adult patients. Some of them were worse than the kids though. There was one guy that came in for the first time nearly six months ago that had to get laughing gas to calm him down for a simple cleaning. I would have hated to see what he would have done had he needed a filling or sealant. The man probably would have had to be put to sleep.

When I got to the hospital, I saw Doctor King and her husband rushing inside. She was my psychiatrist and also Giselle and Vegas’s mother. I smiled slightly as I parked and hurriedly made my way inside Tallahassee Memorial. Giselle had already told me that I would be the baby’s godmother. I couldn’t wait to be around a little princess. I wanted kids, but my internal clock was ticking and ticking fast. I was already forty years old, getting close to forty-one. I didn’t even have a prospective mate to even create a family with.

Giselle at least had Clayton as a friend who’d agreed to create two beautiful lives with her. The only friends I had here were women. A couple of them I wouldn’t even consider friends. They were more like acquaintances. I lowered my head as I waited for the elevator, wondering when my turn would come. Maybe I could give Arranged Hearts a shot. It had worked for Giselle and Gentry, and here they were, a little over a year later, having their first child together.

When the doors opened, I rushed in, anxious to get to Giselle’s room. She had a relatively easy pregnancy, besides the typical morning sickness at the beginning. I made my way down the hallway once the elevator had stopped. As I did, I could hear talking and laughing. I could only smile because I recognized Princess Tiana’s laugh. She was Giselle and Clayton’s oldest child. Her name was Kizzie, but for the past couple of years, she’d been Princess Tiana.

I knocked on the door and waited for someone to invite me inside. When the door opened, Clayton was standing there. My eyebrows lifted, because he was the last person I expected to see here. “Hey, Clayton. How are you?”

“I-I’m good.”

I frowned slightly. He was never a stutterer. I nodded as he stepped aside. When he did, I noticed he had a slight limp as well. That “accident” fucked him up. Choosing not to dwell on him, I rushed to Giselle’s bedside. I kissed her forehead, then spoke to everyone else. Her parents were here, along with her brother and his wife. Gentry was in bed with her, holding her in his arms. One day…

When I met the man that would love me the way he loved her, I would be in heaven. Having a family was all I wanted. Being in Tallahassee, away from my family, was hard. I was lonely. I’d accomplished everything I’d set out to do career-wise. I had my own practice, a decent clientele, and plenty of money to take care of myself with. My house was nearly paid off, and I only had one more payment on my Mercedes.

Companionship was the only thing missing. Giselle had said that I was too picky. It wasn’t that. I just wanted a man that was established and didn’t look like he’d just stepped off the block. I didn’t want a hood nigga. I saw enough of that growing up. Frankly, the lifestyle scared me. After watching my sister be violated as a baby, my fear of men like that settled in my spirit. I was even somewhat fearful of my own father.

Seeing him smack my mama a couple of times didn’t help. I loved him, and I knew he loved me to pieces, but I hated the way he was. Him being gunned down like an animal, then Joshua, the man that had looked out for us after his death, had only solidified that terror inside of me. As an adult, I tried to understand why some of them were involved in that foolishness, but at the same time, I didn’t understand it. I surely couldn’t fall for one. It felt like my fear controlled me when it came to that.

I was just getting to the point where I was totally comfortable around Vegas. It was one of those moments where I had to fake it until I made it. Thankfully, I didn’t see them all the time since we lived so far apart. After Keke introduced Vegas to me and I realized who he was, I resumed my counseling sessions… with his mother. It was awkward expressing my fear of her son to her, but she told me she totally understood where I was coming from.

She had a legitimate fear for a long time as well after dealing with Vegas’s dad, Joshua. Those sessions had helped me a lot. I was able to embrace my brother-in-love as family. Whenever they came to town, they stayed with me. I learned to trust my sister, and that trust filtered over to him. Keke was very no-nonsense. While I doubted her judgment when she stayed with him after he messed up her arm, I could see just how much she loved him.

Knowing that what he did wasn’t intentional made it a little easier to forgive. Keke knew better than putting her hands on a man, especially a thug like Vegas. She was so hotheaded. It took me a little bit to see past that incident, but I eventually did. Establishing a family environment with not only him but his friend Jungle Patterson, freed me somewhat. I used to get nervous whenever I was even around a man I thought was a thug. That was done, thankfully.

I stepped to the side and hugged Doctor King then her husband. I’d gotten extremely familiar with the family, since Giselle and I had been friends for nearly three years. As I greeted her brother, she said, “Yunique, you didn’t have to come up here. You have appointments in the morning.”

“I have to be here for my one and only best friend. Now, of course, if my goddaughter hasn’t arrived by seven thirty, I’ll have to leave to get ready for my first appointment.”

“You would stay… oh shit!”

Gentry immediately rested his hand on Giselle’s belly and grabbed her hand with the other, then helped her breathe through it. There was so much love in his eyes. God, what I wouldn’t give to have a man that loved me like that. I glanced at Doctor King as my eyes watered. It was so beautiful to watch. Seeing a man love a woman the way he loved Giselle, the way Vegas loved Keke, and the way Jungle loved Chelsea, was foreign to me.

Vegas and Jungle often credited Mister Berotte with showing them how a man was supposed to treat a woman. I met him a couple of times, once when I visited Texas and once when he and his wife came to Tallahassee. It was my first time gracing Houston with my presence in years. I thought I would be triggered by going home, but I’d done okay mentally. The only time I had a little difficulty was when I went to my mother’s house.

The Berottes, who happened to be Giselle’s extended family, were a representation of what family was supposed to look like, and I admired the hell out of that. It was so far removed from what I grew up seeing. I’d been privy to a lot more than Keke had been. Because I was a little more than seven years older than her, I remembered a lot more about what went on in our house and what our father was like. Despite him being an ass with Mama most days, he was a good father.

Once G had relaxed, she looked right at me. “This little girl is definitely going to have my attitude. These contractions are practically taking me out the game.”

“How much have you dilated?”

“I was at a six the last time they checked me, which was nearly an hour ago.”

As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. The nurse walked in shortly after, saying she needed to check G. I stepped out of the room with her dad and Clayton. He was limping a lot more than what I originally noticed. I couldn’t wait until Keke and Vegas got here because I needed the scoop. I knew there had to be more to what happened to him than what Giselle knew or was telling me.

“Clayton, how have you been?” I asked as we walked down the hallway to the waiting area.

“I’ve been c-cool. The brain in-injury I suffered makes me stutter at times. Other than that and this limp, I’m okay.”

“Oh, wow. Giselle told me you had an accident a while back.”

He frowned slightly. That let me know there was more to it and that she probably knew.

“It wasn’t an accident. I got robbed.”

“Well, I guess that can be considered an accident. It was unexpected on your end.”

“Yeah, I guess. I-I was in the hospital for a week.”

“Damn. Did they ever find out who did it?”

“No.”

I nodded. Vegas. While I wanted to chuckle, I knew wasn’t shit funny. Changing the subject, I asked, “Where are the kids?”

“With my mama. I just wanted to check on baby girl. I mean, I know she’s in good hands, but w-we’re still friends, despite everything.”

I nodded again. I knew that much. Giselle was better than me. I would have nailed that nigga to the cross had he been putting me through all those damn changes. She almost lost Gentry because of how she responded to his bullshit. Fuck a friendship . My kids would have been fatherless after I would have finished with him. While I didn’t like street shit, it was still a part of who I was. It was why I was never teased. Kids were scared of me because they said I was mean. That was the first thing Vegas had said to me when he and Keke first visited to meet his mother for the first time; well, since he was two months old… Doctor King.

I glanced over at Doctor King’s husband, who was also Doctor King, and I swore I saw a smirk on his lips. He knew something too. Somebody was gonna have to clue me in. I couldn’t believe Keke didn’t tell me… or Giselle, for that matter. She knew more than she said for her to call it an accident. If he was robbed, she would have just said that.

“Yunique!”

I looked up and saw Doctor King calling me to the room. I practically ran in that direction. When I got to her, she said, “Giselle wants you, Jorielle, and me to be in the room with her and Gentry.”

My eyebrows lifted. I’d never seen a baby be born before. Plus, I didn’t know if I would be comfortable with it. However, I couldn’t disappoint my girl, so I nodded and walked into the room behind Doctor King. When G laid eyes on me, she smiled slightly. “It’s time, Yunique. I needed the most important women in my life in here with me.”

Before I could respond, the doctor and nurses came back inside, pushing a cart. I stood on the other side of the room, out of the way, with her sister-in-law Jorielle. She grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. “This is so exciting!” she said in an excited whisper.

I giggled and nodded. It was exciting indeed. Gentry and Doctor King were on each side of her, trying to keep her calm. I could see by the expressions on her face… she was just ready for it to be over. She’d rolled her eyes a couple of times. They put her feet up in the stirrups, and her eyes met mine. I gave her a slight smile, assuring her that she could do it. She knew she could too. It wasn’t like this was her first baby.

Jorielle grabbed my hand, and I turned my attention to her and smiled. “I can’t wait to see this little princess,” I said to her.

“Well, we won’t have to wait too much longer!”

I turned to the action and could see the top of the baby’s head. G’s face adorned a determined frown as Gentry kissed her forehead. His eyes were wide as the doctor told G to push. She growled as she bore down, pushing with all her might. When the baby’s head popped out, my lips parted. My God. After another couple of pushes, the baby was out, screaming at the top of her lungs. Princess Akia had made her arrival.

They laid her on Giselle’s chest. She kissed her head repeatedly as Gentry slid his finger down Akia’s back. The tears escaped him, and he quickly swiped them away. He leaned over and kissed G’s lips, allowing it to linger until I saw his tongue slide to hers. I closed my eyes briefly. I was gonna have to bite the bullet and call Arranged Hearts. I wanted this so badly it clouded my vision to everything else. All I could focus on was having my own family, and I would take the first step in a few hours, calling Arranged Hearts to set up my first conference.