5. Sundae #3
“No, I didn’t. Ironically, I told my father.
He listened to me, let me cry, and asked me what I wanted to do.
When I told him that I wanted an abortion, he didn’t judge me.
I scheduled the procedure on a Thursday that my sister would be out of town for the weekend.
My father told my mother that he was going on a fishing trip.
He took me to my appointment and took care of me over the weekend. ”
He didn’t say anything initially. His eyes were soft. “What happened after that weekend?”
I huffed. “We never told my mom or sister. To this day they don’t know. I went into a functional depression. One day, my daddy showed up at my house with my babies. It’s been love ever since.” He asked what happened to the dude and I laughed. “My daddy fucked him up and that was that.”
We both just laid there for a moment in silence. “Damn, all of that was deep. Glad we got that out of the way,” Citrell finally said.
I wasn’t sure why that was so damn funny to me, but my laughter came out hard as hell. “It was heavy, wasn’t it? I’m happy you told me, but wait. You said that Callira’s mother recently chose a man over her child. What’s that about?”
He told me what happened. He also told me the origin story of him and Miss Iesha. “My baby girl is better off without her.” He held me a little tighter. “And look at me, making better decisions about the woman that I want to be with.”
My heart was filled with anger toward his stupid baby’s mother and hurt for Callira. I kissed his lips. “Yeah, you picked a winner this time.”
I wasn’t sure how it happened, but the next thing I knew, Citrell’s dick was back in me. That exhaustion I had earlier slipped from me, and I found my second wind. The way this man fucked me shouldn’t be studied because that would mean I’d have to kill a heifer for studying my man.
A Short Time Later . . .
Today was Callira’s first full day in the center without her grandme.
It had been a month since she had been coming for two days a week with her grandme.
She came in at one in the afternoon and stayed until we closed at six.
Rella stayed the entire time the first few times, then she would shed off time after that either at the beginning or the end.
Today, the plan was to drop Callira off and come back at five forty-five to pick her up.
Since Callira had been here, we had implemented a karaoke day, which was one of the days that she came.
For the last two hours, provided everyone had done all of their work, we did karaoke.
My baby, Citrell, donated a very nice karaoke setup for us that included a stage.
The students loved it. What was more amazing was Citrell working to start a family karaoke night at Wicked Strings with a more family-friendly selection from six in the evening until nine on Thursdays.
“You ready?” my sister asked.
Am I? “Yes, I’m ready. It shouldn’t be that much of a transition, I hope. Rella was only here for an hour last time. I feel like I keep her pretty occupied. Plus Princess being her new best friend helps a lot.”
The other little girl that has down syndrome connected with her immediately over their Cabbage Patch Kids collection.
That was amazing to me because I didn’t know that they still produced them, but they do.
They had some that cost almost three hundred dollars because they were handstitched.
The next day after they became friends, they both brought in their favorite doll.
My sister sat on my couch against the wall in my office. “Yeah, you’re ready. That little girl loves you. I can’t wait until you and Citrell tell her that y’all are in a relationship.”
I smiled at the thought of when that day would come.
Citrell and I had discussed it already. Our relationship had progressed quickly, but beautifully.
His mother and my parents knew about the relationship.
We were planning a family barbeque after Callira was told.
One thing I loved about my man was how he supported me and my business.
It had been a crazy time for Brilliant Minds.
Since the newscast aired, we had to hire two additional teachers as well as teachers’ assistants to accommodate the growth in our enrollment.
I cried when I saw that we had fifteen new students in the time span of two weeks.
One of the teachers that we hired was a special needs teacher since my class had doubled.
“I’m excited about going back to Wicked Strings tonight. Do you know what you’re going to sing?” I asked Wynsdae. I did a little jiggle in my seat.
Marco and Citrell told us over dinner the other night that patrons had requested that we come back and do more of a show than karaoke. That was crazy to me, but we were excited to do a small set in the middle of karaoke.
“Yeah, I know what I’m going to sing. I love the songs that you plan to do too. We might end up doing the songs together and just switching leads depending on the vibe.” She had a good point. We were good at detecting the vibe to see where we needed to go next.
My sister and I sat in my office until it was time to go to the front to receive Callira.
About fifteen minutes later, she arrived with all the energy in the world.
“Sundae! Wynsdae! Look, my daddy bought me a new doll.” She held it up but didn’t give us a chance to really see it before she dismissed herself. “Princess, look!”
“Chile, that little girl has been on one hundred since her daddy gave her that doll yesterday,” Rella commented with a chuckle.
She stood there for a moment with love glowing all over her for her granddaughter.
“Let me get out of here. Her daddy is coming to pick her up today. My man is taking me to an early dinner.”
Wynsdae clapped her thumb and middle finger together. “I know that’s right! You better let that man take you out.”
When Rella mimicked her thumb, middle finger clap, I sucked my teeth. “Oh Lord! Get out of here, Mrs. Rella.” This lady was so young at heart.
She gave me and Wynsdae a hug, then walked out of the door. I walked over to Callira and Princess as they gushed over her new doll. “I’m going to tell my daddy to get you one too, so we can have matching dolls.”
I giggled because I knew that he would lowly fuss but buy that doll. His baby girl got anything she wanted. “Are you ladies ready to go over your sight words?” I asked when I stood next to where they were on the floor.
They both gawked at me like I was out of line for interrupting their little moment. Princess lifted her finger. “Can we have ten more minutes?”
“Sure you can if you can tell me what time it will be in ten minutes,” I requested with an arched brow. We had been working on time for a couple of weeks.
Both of their heads snapped toward the clock. They used their little fingers to count the lines on the clock. “It will be one twenty-two,” Callira answered. She smiled because she knew her little smart self was right.
“That is right. I will be back at one twenty-two, ladies.” I left them to their antics while I checked on the other students and teachers.
I watched the clock closely, and exactly at one twenty-two, I was back with my ladies.
They didn’t fuss and helped me get what we needed to start our sight words for today.
Mrs. Rella sent me her weekly curriculum plan for the week, so we could align what I taught Callira.
The great part about it was that all of my special needs students in my class were either homeschooled under the same plan or they were taught here with us.
We operated as a tutoring service and a school for some. We only had five full-time students.
For the rest of the time, my class of four worked on an array of different things and had snacks until it was time for the parents to pick them up. When Citrell arrived, only three students outside of Callira were waiting to be picked up.
“Daddy!” Callira yelled out when her father entered the building. She grabbed Princess’s hand and pulled her over to him. “Daddy, you have to buy Princess a doll too because she’s my best friend. We need to have best friend dolls.”
His eyes lifted from her to me, and I let my eyes roam to the ceiling.
This has nothing to do with me. “Okay, baby girl. I will get her one.” He hugged both of them when they lunged into his arms. Just as they finished their hug, Princess’s father came in.
Citrell turned so they could dap each other. “What’s up, man?”
“Ain’t too much. Aye, good looking out on that plumbing work,” Jordan said. “My wife told me if I so much as thought about dealing with it and not calling a professional that she would kick my ass.” They both laughed.
“Mr. Jordan, my daddy is going to get Princess a best friend doll like mine,” Callira said. She held her doll up. “She’s pretty like me and her.”
He smiled. “That’s very nice of him. Princess, did you thank him?”
She thanked him before he told her to go get her things. She rushed to get them, then they left. Citrell finally walked over to me. He glanced Callira’s way to see that she was in her own world before he quickly kissed my lips.
I giggled. “Your sneaky ass. You better stop before she catches you being fresh,” I teased.
“Well, we can go ahead and tell her this weekend so I can stop sneaking. Let’s take her to her favorite restaurant Sunday,” he suggested.
I gazed at him for a moment while I thought about it.
I didn’t have any real objections to it.
I’d rather we tell her sooner than later, so we’d know how to adjust if we needed to.
Yeah, Callira loved me in this environment, but that meant nothing in the context of me being in a relationship with her father.
I guess we’d find out Sunday. “That sounds like a plan.”