Chapter 8 #2
The meeting had gone better than Brazil expected, and he was finally able to breathe a little easier.
Since he got the request for the paternity test he’d been stressed.
He and Giavanna exchanged information, and they agreed that he could come meet his daughter in a few hours.
Him suddenly having a child was wild. In fact, he was still in disbelief.
Brazil had a lot of questions, and he hoped Giavanna could answer them.
He was grateful that she didn’t give gold digger trying to come up off the situation vibes.
Of course, he didn’t mind taking care of his child’s needs, but he would take full custody of her and figure shit out along the way before he paid a stranger thousands of dollars a month to keep his child.
He’d rather pay his mother to be his nanny.
Though he appreciated the help, and he wanted his child to know her other family, at some point, he would get his daughter full-time.
He still had some time before he went to Giavanna’s house, so he was going to stop and get the things he needed for Unique when she came to his home.
Every two minutes or so, Brazil was shaking his head.
He wasn’t sure if Giavanna knew why Kera kept her pregnancy from him, but he wanted answers.
None of his siblings had kids. Brazil was clueless as fuck when it came to what a child needed. Of course, she would need a crib. He also knew she’d need a swing. Bottles, diapers, wipes. Was she too young for toys? “Yeah, she’s probably too young for toys,” he muttered to himself.
He didn’t know the first thing about shopping for a newborn, but the lawyer did say she’d been born weighing only four pounds.
He was sure getting her the smallest size would do, but he didn’t know how long she’d be in that size or how many outfits he should buy in the smallest size.
He needed a book titled Buying Baby Shit for Dummies.
As Brazil walked into the store, he dialed his mother.
He tried doing it on his own, but it would probably be cheaper if she walked him through it versus him guessing and wasting money on things she couldn’t use or didn’t need.
“I’m really somebody’s daddy out here,” he listened to the line trill. “Fuck.”
Impressed was an understatement when Symphony stepped outside and saw a driver waiting at the rear passenger door of a Rolls Royce Phantom.
She looked over at Block with raised brows.
He was wearing a pair of black jeans, a black Polo sweater, and wheat colored Timberland boots.
His outfit wasn’t exactly classy, but he looked really good.
He told her they were going to dinner at a nice restaurant, and she was wearing a crème and tan skirt that flared out at the bottom like a tennis skirt with a matching cropped sweater.
She dressed the look up with black stockings and heels.
Her hair hung in loose curls, and the makeup she wore was so subtle it barely looked like she had any on.
Her perfume smelled expensive, and it mingled nicely with his cologne.
Symphony got in the car first followed by Block.
“A driver? Impressive. May I ask what it is you do for a living, or is that too intrusive?” Symphony was an adult.
Asking a man what he did for a living was regular conversation to her.
It wasn’t a question anyone should be intimidated by, but for some reason, she got the feeling she was doing something wrong by asking him what his profession was. Or maybe she was afraid of the answer.
He looked directly into her eyes. “A little of this. A little of that. Is that a problem for you?”
Symphony became so lost in his eyes, that she almost forgot to answer him. Shit, was that a problem for her? A sudden revelation came to her, and her breath caught in her throat. “Do you know my sister, or is that just your cousin?”
“Nah, I don’t know your sister. Me and my cousin aren’t on the same type of time.”
Street smart was never something she’d used to describe herself, but Symphony was smart and could catch the gist of what he was saying. They didn’t sell the same thing. She gave a curt nod and elected not to answer his question. They rode in silence for a bit before he spoke.
“You want some champagne?” when he lifted the arm rest and removed a bottle from a bucket of ice inside the compartment, Symphony knew he was something serious.
“Sure.”
She was riding through the city sipping champagne in a Rolls Royce Phantom.
Damn. She was a doctor and had never experienced that kind of luxury.
Especially not from a man. Symphony worked hard, so she didn’t hesitate to spoil herself and treat herself well, but there were things she’d never done like rode in a half a million-dollar car while sipping champagne.
“How old are you?” Block inquired.
“I’m thirty-four. You?”
“Thirty-two. No kids?”
Symphony sighed. “No. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Who knows?”
“Do you want them?”
“Yes. I want at least one. In no world would I ever want to be a single mother, but I for sure couldn’t handle being one as a doctor.
And that doesn’t even mean not with my significant other.
We both can’t be extremely busy and always at work leaving our child to be raised by someone else.
I’d stay home for the first year, but I didn’t bust my ass in medical school to end up quitting to stay at home after only a few years as an actual doctor. ”
“I feel you on that.”
“What about you? Do you want kids?”
“Shittttt,” he drawled. “I don’t even know.
Between Mario and my other brothers, I’ve been feeling like a father for years now.
My other brothers are way older than Mario, but our pops is in prison.
I kind of stepped up when he went away and took on the role of more than a brother.
The older ones didn’t stress me out too bad, but Mario is a different breed. ”
Symphony kept her comments about Mario to herself. Honestly, she knew she shouldn’t judge a kid. He was old enough to know right from wrong, but kids would be kids. She knew her nephew wasn’t perfect either.
“How long has your father been away?”
“He went away when Mario was three. Been down for elven years, and he finally comes home next year.”
“Wow.”
Symphony was young when her father had been taken from her, but she had a lot of memories of him. Often, she found herself wondering what life would have been like if he was still alive. She would never know so dwelling on it was pointless.
“How long have you been single?” she tossed the question out there while finishing off her champagne.
“Since I was like twenty-three,” he stated, and her eyes widened. “What? What’s wrong with that?” he chuckled.
“You haven’t had a girlfriend in almost ten years? Oh hell no. That’s a red flag.”
Symphony was serious, but the comment made Block laugh. “Why is that a red flag? Because I didn’t want to be in a relationship?”
“Yes, because what do you do? Just consistently sleep with various women with no commitment?”
“I think I should be offended by the way you’re stereotyping me. What if I’m celibate?”
“Nigga, please.”
The fact that he rarely ever smiled or laughed unless he was with his brothers, and she’d made him laugh so much in so little time stood out to him.
“That’s cold,” he shook his head. “I just deal with people that are on the same page as me. Not everyone wants to be in a relationship,” he shrugged passively.
“That’s true.”
They arrived at the restaurant, and Block told the driver he could remain in the car.
He exited and walked around to open the door for Symphony.
Clearly, she couldn’t judge him by their first encounter because everything about him on their date screamed charming, gentleman like, and protective.
Symphony could tell he was the type that went above and beyond for the people he cared about and that alone had her panties moist. She had her shit together, so of course, she wasn’t going to date a broke man.
But Block’s thoughtfulness and his personality won him more points with her than the Rolls Royce.
Inside the restaurant, she ordered a lemon drop and lobster bisque for starters.
The champagne had given her a warm fuzzy feeling, but Symphony wasn’t a light weight.
Her freshman year in college, she drank like a grown man.
She had since slowed down, but it was rare that she got buzzed off one glass of anything.
She felt completely sober and didn’t think a lemon drop would hurt.
“What made you want to become a doctor?”
“I used to always want to play doctor as a kid. I went from having stuffed animals as patients to making my sister be my patient, but I felt that was pretty normal. A lot of kids say they want to be doctors but the older I got, I tried to think of things I would be interested in doing, and doctor was the only answer that ever seemed right. Even when people told me how hard it would be and how smart I had to be, that didn’t deter me. ”
“That’s what’s up. We need more doctors that look like you.”
“What did you want to be when you were growing up?”
“A drug dealer.” Block answered her with a straight face.
She could tell that he was serious as a heart attack.
“Even before I realized my father was a drug dealer, he just had this swag about him. The way he talked. The way he walked. My pops was the true definition of a boss ass nigga. He stayed fly, took care of home, and kept big wads of cash on him. And he was smart. There wasn’t a problem that he couldn’t solve.
I wanted to be everything that nigga was. ”
“I can get that. Right, wrong, or indifferent, our parents are our first role models.”
“Your pops around?”
“No. When I was nine his mistress followed him home one night and murdered him in cold blood on our front lawn.”
“Dead ass?”
“Dead ass. And his ass was dead.”
“Bro,” Block was used to crazy comments from his brothers, but Symphony had a sense of humor that he could fuck with.
“It was then that I knew that cheating wasn’t worth it.”
“Hell nah, it’s not.”
From the time they sat down at the table until they were back in the car, there was never a lull in conversation.
Block may have been a drug dealer, but he was smart.
He had also proven that he could be romantic and considerate.
The more she drank, the more aroused Symphony became, and it was on the tip of her tongue to make him aware that she wanted to give it up on the first night, but she refrained.
Symphony didn’t feel the need to play the good girl role.
It wasn’t like she thought he’d be her husband one day.
They were adults, and he’d already made how he got down clear.
But when the driver pulled up at her home, Symphony knew she would be going inside alone to sleep off the alcohol she’d consumed. Block walked her to the door.
“This was fun,” she stated as they peered into one another’s eyes. When he licked his lips, her yoni ached.
“Yeah, it was. We have to do it again. Maybe something less formal next time like bowling or a picnic or some shit.”
Symphony’s brows rose. “A picnic or some shit? Wowwwww. Never judge a book by its’ cover.”
“Yo you are insane, shorty. You gon’ stop all that judging me and making assumptions.” He inched closer to her, and Symphony’s body temperature rose. “I’m that nigga. But I can show you better than I can tell you.” He winked at her before turning to leave.
Symphony unlocked the door and crossed the threshold of her home. Hot showers were her favorite but tonight, she needed a cold one for sure.