Chapter 7
Christian
“You’re kidding me, right?”
Angel laughed at my expression and shook the pajamas at me with one hand. “Come on, Chris. It’s just for the fun of it. Look at Belle and me. Aren’t we cute?” she asked, bouncing Belle up and down on her hip.
“Cute as hell. I can’t lie,” I replied in a low voice. “But I won’t look the same as y’all.”
She bit her bottom lip and stared at me from underneath those long, seductive lashes.
Her little ass was always flirting with me, and she made me want to take things to another level, no matter how many times I promised myself I wouldn’t.
“I wouldn’t want you to look like us, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll be any less appealing. ”
“You trying to take advantage of me, Angel?” I teased.
“You never know. Let’s see how you look in a pair of Grinch pajamas.” She shoved the pajamas at me again, and I took them. “You can change in the hall bathroom or my bedroom.”
I took the pajamas and shook my head as I went. Angel danced around the living room with Belle in her arms, and she sang Wham!’s “Last Christmas.” If a nigga wasn’t in the mood for Christmas, he would easily get there hearing her beautiful voice sing Christmas melodies all the time.
I flicked on the light in the bathroom, opting not to head into her bedroom. Being in her personal space would only bring up intimate feelings inside of me. This wasn’t the time for that.
“Nigga, what the fuck are you doing?” I asked my reflection. “This is your boy’s ex. We don’t roll like that. You’re up in here having movie marathons with her and her baby, and wearing matching pajamas like it’s family night, and she’s your girl and that’s your baby.”
My conscience condemned me, but my heart was appealing to a higher court. I had tried to get with her at the mall, but that was a fiasco. I should have accepted it as the warning that it was to stop pushing up on her, but I couldn’t seem to stay away or ignore the feelings I had for her.
I removed my clothes, carefully folded them, and then unfolded the Grinch pajamas.
“Aww, hell naw!” I shouted. They were black onesie pajamas with tiny versions of the Grinch and presents all over them.
But on the rear of the pajamas, right near the lower back, there was a larger version of the Grinch, and in his fingers was a banner that read “Merry Whatever.” The only problem with that banner was that it was actually a drop seat.
“Aww, you’re so cute,” Angel declared when I stepped out of the bathroom. “Isn’t he, Belle?”
The chubby baby waved her arms happily in the air, babbled something, and let out a long string of drool. “See, even Belle agrees.”
I rolled my eyes at Angel. “You thought you were cute and funny buying these, I bet.”
She giggled. “I did think it would be cute. I wondered what you looked like in those pajamas with the flap opened all those years ago.”
“Well keep wondering, because nobody’s getting a peek at my ass.”
She laughed, and I followed her back to the living room. Angel had the food and snacks laid out on the table already. I had ordered the pizza before my arrival, so she didn’t have to pay for it.
“I think your ass is probably very cute.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“No, you’re not going to bah-humbug me tonight,” she teased, sitting beside me.
“Wearing these pajamas might have me bah-humbugging you all through the new year.”
She giggled again and grabbed the TV remote. “Since you’re being such a good sport about it all, I’ll let you choose the first movie.”
I flicked through her selection on Netflix, Hulu, and Disney before I settled on Home Alone. Belle wiggled a little and whimpered, so I grabbed her from Angel and played with her during the first fifteen minutes of the movie.
“You’re so good with her. Have you ever wanted a family of your own?”
“I mean, yeah. Who doesn’t?” I asked bitterly, thinking about my ex.
“Some people don’t.”
“Well, I haven’t found the right woman.”
“You’ve definitely tested out your share,” she teased, elbowing me with a wink as she popped some holiday bark into her mouth.
“I’m not even gonna dignify that comment with a response,” I replied and grabbed some of the white chocolate with peppermint and M&M sprinkles and bit off a piece.
“Does she look like him?”
“Who?”
“Her daddy.”
Angel’s eyes dropped, and she sighed. “Chris, the truth is, her daddy didn’t die.
I lied, and I’m sorry. I didn’t want you pressuring me for details.
I hadn’t seen you in about four years, and I was too embarrassed to get into the details because I didn’t want to seem desperate, and I didn’t want you running back telling Jeremiah. ”
“I don’t talk to him about you. Is her dad still in her life?”
“No. I, uhm, went to a reproductive clinic when I decided it was time to have a family. I didn’t seem to be getting the husband, so I figured I could at least get the kid.”
“That’s what’s up. I love that you were confident and bold enough to follow your heart.”
“Yeah, well . . .” She seemed uncomfortable. I squeezed her hand reassuringly before we turned our attention to the movie and jumped into back-and-forth commentary on how a person could forget a whole child at home.
“I want to watch The Best Man Holiday,” Angel stated as the movie ended.
“A’ight. I shouldn’t let you have a choice though. Got me up here in these damn onesie pajamas. I’m a grown ass man in some onesies.”
Angel laughed so hard that she spat her cranberry and Sprite mixer out of her mouth. “Oh my God, did you really have to go there?” she asked, hopping up to grab some napkins.
My eyes went to her ass. The pajamas cupped her ass cheeks nicely and highlighted just how firm her booty was. Belle started babbling and pulled my attention to her wide, drooling grin.
She was so precious and beautiful. Her little smiles always made me smile, no matter what I was going through.
When Angel sat back down beside us, she smiled brightly at me, and it amazed me how much she and Belle smiled alike.
“I have one more suggestion.”
“What’s that?”
“I usually share every part of my holiday with my followers.”
“I know.”
“Then we should take pictures in our pajamas and post them.”
“Not doing it. Can’t even. Hell no!”
“Chriiisss.”
“No, Angel.”
“But you and Belle look so cute like that.”
“Awbwwahawdadada!” Belle exclaimed excitedly upon hearing her name.
“No, Belle. Don’t do me like that.”
Her little round eyes grew wider and seemed to gleam as she stared at me. She placed her fist in her mouth and blew on it, producing a bunch of drool. Then she babbled again. “Babababadabadabamaah.”
“Shit,” I muttered, dropping my head.
“Is that a yes?” Angel asked.
“Y’all can’t be double-teaming me, Angel.”
She giggled and hopped up. “Come on. Let’s get in front of the TV so that they can see what we’re watching.”
“You’re really all in on this, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
I finally stood up and walked to the TV with Belle in my arms. Angel positioned us the way that she wanted us to sit.
“Scoot a little closer,” she suggested, her voice barely above a whisper, after positioning her camera on the tripod to take our pictures.
I moved a little closer at the same time that Angel leaned further into me.
The curve of her soft, but firm, warm breast brushed against my arm, and I flinched a little.
She turned to look at me, and my eyes dropped to her plump lips and then back up into her eyes.
The click of the shutter seemed to snap Angel out of the moment we were in, but not me.
Angel’s chest heaved as she inhaled deeply. “Uhm, smile for the camera,” she muttered.
The second picture was snapped before I had a chance to turn away from staring at her.
Belle started wiggling and crying, and I realized that she was smooshed between us.
We readjusted once more as the next picture was taken.
By the time the fourth picture was captured, we finally had our bearings.
We smiled as the camera took a few more pictures before Angel declared we were finished.
“I need to see those before you post them.”
“Of course. But don’t tell me that you don’t like them all, so I can’t post them.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
Angel grabbed her camera and came to sit beside me, where I had returned to the couch.
She showed me the pictures, and we both agreed not to post the first one.
It somehow felt too intimate. On the second one, she was staring into the camera like a deer in headlights, and I was staring at her like I was going to eat her up.
We settled on three pictures out of all the ones that had been taken. The entire time she was trying to come up with the perfect caption, I was trying to navigate the inevitable fallout in my mind.
I knew that eventually Jeremiah and Erica would see these photos.
There was less of a chance that Erica would see them than Jeremiah.
Since she and I broke up, we hadn’t stopped following each other, but because I knew that she carefully curated her posts, she probably didn’t see mine as much as I saw hers.
Jeremiah, on the other hand, often interacted with my posts.
I had no idea how he would respond to me being in such an intimate setting with his ex.
A part of me didn’t give a shit, because he hadn’t treated her right while he had her.
But the other part of me did care because Jeremiah and I had been best friends since middle school.
We trusted each other, and I didn’t want him to think that I’d been waiting for him to move out of the way so that I could move in on his ex.
“Are you okay?” Angel asked.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“If you don’t want me to post these, I won’t,” she stated softly.
“I’m good, Angel. I promise.”
“Okay.” She busied herself with her phone again before we settled in to watch the movie.
Angel and Belle fell asleep halfway through the third movie, This Christmas. Angel had fallen asleep against my shoulder.
I moved my arm because it was falling asleep, and she snuggled into my chest. I wrapped my arm around her and stared at her beautiful, peaceful face.
Angel moved until her head rested on my lap. I moved the hair back away from her lips and fought with myself not to caress them. I didn’t want to be a creep, but I couldn’t help but think that this was what I wanted.
Why was I fighting what I asked for? I wanted a family with Erica, and she didn’t.
Sometimes God gave us exactly what we asked for, just maybe not the way that we thought He should.
So who’s to say that Belle and Angel aren’t the family that I’ve always desired?
Maybe that was why Jeremiah had to go away, so that I could have her and Belle.
Maybe she was never meant to be Jeremiah’s.
Angel was always so welcoming whenever I visited them.
She always prepared a drink for me and invited me to stay for dinner.
She kept a clean house, a refrigerator filled with Jeremiah’s favorite snacks, took excellent care of herself, and had her man’s back no matter what.
That nigga had to be crazy to pass all that up.
So what his new girl, Ella, was the daughter of the CEO of the company Jeremiah worked for?
She always knew about Angel, but she would rather creep with him until he broke it off with Angel.
That wasn’t the type of woman I would want, no matter how much money she came with or what type of promotion she could get me.
I was honestly content with my life, but I could be happy with what I had around me.