Bread (BLP MC #5)

Alexander “Bread” Conners II

Alexander sat in the coffee shop with curiosity resting on the front of his brain. This was the first time that his daughter, Eloise’s mother, Melanie, asked to speak with him and her husband to be present. He had no beef with Lawrence at all, but he rarely interacted with him.

Alexander and Melanie were college, long-term fuck friends when they were at Hampton University.

It was never their intention for a drunken homecoming night to end in a pregnancy.

They went back and forth about whether to have the baby because they both had plans.

At the end of the discussions, they landed on the decision to keep their child.

Alexander’s dream was to be a successful investment banker.

Two years before Melanie’s pregnancy announcement, he had just landed an investment analyst position at one of the top international Black-owned brokerage firms, Washington-Smith Brokerage Firm.

As he studied for his CFA Level I exam, his plate was full as hell.

He was also lined up for a promotion to an associate, which was something to talk about because the promotion was based on his performance, not time at the company.

Two years after Eloise was born, Melanie met her husband, Lawrence.

He was a cool dude who worked a respectable, blue-collar plant job.

Alexander had no quarrels with him. Lawrence treated his daughter right, and he treated her mother right.

That was important because if Melanie was happy, then he knew that Eloise would be happy.

A year after Melanie and Lawrence met, they were married, then a year later, they had their first son. Since then, they had three more boys.

Twenty minutes after Alexander got there, Melanie and Lawrence arrived.

Their nerves sat on their shoulders, but this was a conversation that they needed to have.

It was just after one in the afternoon, which was a perfect time to meet.

The children were in school, and their youngest, who was one year old, was with Lawrence’s mother.

Alexander stood to receive them. He extended his hand to Lawrence. “What’s up, y’all? How’s everything?”

His hand was accepted. “Nothing too much, man. Life’s doing its thing, but that’s life.”

That sentence gave Alexander a foreshadow of what the conversation could be about.

He gave Melanie a simple head nod. Their past caused him to not be physical with her in any way, shape, or form.

Neither were proud of it, but they had dipped into each other after her marriage vows to the point that she asked him to do a paternity test on her oldest son, Lawrence Junior, to ensure that it was her husband’s son.

Thank God it was. From that point, Alexander made it his business not to touch her in any way, even if it was a handshake.

“Melanie, how are you?” he asked her.

Her smile was genuine. She quickly admired how attractive and well put together her daughter’s father was.

She did the damn thing when she accidentally became pregnant with his child.

A part of her wished that they could have worked out as a couple, but the way that they started their fuck buddy friendship made that implausible. “You know I’m always alright.”

They all sat down. Melanie got her coffee when she came into the shop, and Lawrence grabbed a bottle of water.

Alexander wasn’t really one for small talk.

If they wanted to talk to him, then the subject had to deal with his daughter.

There didn’t need to be small talk when it came to his daughter. “So, what’s up?”

Melanie hated to be here, but her back was against the wall. Lawrence and she had gone over different options, and short of her on a pole, which wasn’t a choice, this was the only choice. There was no place for pride in this conversation.

“Um, Lawrence and I wanted to talk to you because we’ve hit a hard place unfortunately. He was laid off a little bit ago. We are having a real hard time making ends meet from his unemployment, my paycheck, and your child support,” she said.

Alexander’s head tilted with a nod. “I’m sorry to hear that, man. I hope you find something soon.”

He could imagine how hard it was for them. The system wasn’t set up for families with the father in the home. If Melanie wasn’t married, she’d be able to get government aid easily. Since she was married, the social worker looked at her like she had two heads.

Melanie worked as a manager at a big box store which was not what she expected to do when she went to college.

She took a gap year before college, so she was a senior in college, where Alexander had already graduated, when she became pregnant.

She dropped out instead of completing her studies. That put her at a grave disadvantage.

Lawrence made it clear when they first got together that he wanted a big family. Neither of them thought about the financial stability needed for that. They continued to pile on children. That was their right.

Alexander took great financial care of his daughter. Melanie and he had an agreement outside of the court for a monthly payment of $4,000. That amount was more than she would have received if they went through the court, which they originally did.

Lawrence smiled slightly. “Thanks, man. I hope I do too.”

Alexander looked to Melanie to continue. She cleared her throat. “I was wondering if you would mind increasing your child support until we get on our feet?”

Alexander’s eyes squinted a little because what? “Melanie, with all due respect, I already give you four thousand dollars, which is well above what the state required. If you don’t recall, the state only required me to give you sixteen hundred dollars.”

She sighed. “I understand that, Alexander. The thing is that without his income, we are barely making it. Our house is at risk of being foreclosed on. We can’t afford aftercare for our boys or day care anymore. Eloise comes home and watches them until I get home.”

His eyebrow tiptoed up his forehead toward his hairline. “I’m confused. Did you not say that you were unemployed? Why would Eloise need to watch the children if you are not working? I get if you had a late afternoon interview, which is rare, but my daughter gets out of school at three fifteen.”

They had no answer because logic would say that he should be able to.

The fact was that Lawrence chose to use this time as a vacation of sort.

He’d worked hard since he met Melanie. He didn’t blame her, and he loved her, but he needed a fucking break.

It was always bills, kids, and her for the last thirteen years.

Melanie waved her hands. “None of that is the point. All I’m asking for is an extra two thousand a month.”

Alexander shook his head, then said, “Absolutely not. Look, it is not my responsibility to take care of your household when you have a whole husband. My dude, you know I have no beef with you at all, but get on the good foot and do what you need to do to take care of your house. Now, what I can do is take primary physical custody of my daughter. This is not me trying to take our daughter away from you on some grimy shit. In the best interest of her, it’s best if she stays with me.

“Eloise is not y’all babysitter, and y’all kids are not her responsibility. You must have told her not to tell me about this shit on some what goes on in our house stays in our house. I would have addressed this sooner.”

That was exactly what it was. Eloise wanted to tell her father many times, but she didn’t want to upset her mother.

She knew her mother was already stressed.

Instead, Eloise made excuses to be at her father or paternal grandparents’ house more often.

Alexander noticed but didn’t speak on it because he loved the extra time with his daughter.

It went from her at his house every other weekend to every weekend.

Melanie was taken aback by his attitude. She was used to his laid-back, more agreeable personality. She figured that he wouldn’t agree to the $2,000, but she thought that he would at least negotiate down. At no time did she think that he would offer to take custody of their daughter.

Her head shook vigorously. “No, that is not an option. I just need a little more money to take care of my family.”

He leaned forward on the table, and his focus shifted to Lawrence.

“It’s your move, homie. I told y’all my only option.

Your wife has made it clear that she needs more money to take care of her family.

I am not a part of y’all’s family, so that is not my responsibility. Eloise is my responsibility.”

Pissed! That was what Lawrence was. This whole situation was a disgrace to his manhood, and he knew it.

The $4,000 that Alexander gave to Melanie was more than was required.

It was clown shit that he allowed his wife to come in here and ask for more.

He knew what came out of his mouth next would not be a popular opinion. At least for his wife it wouldn’t be.

“Melanie, I think at this point it might be best if Eloise stays with her father. That would help us out a lot. She just started high school, and there are a lot of things that she wants to do. It’s not fair that she has to miss out on those things because we can’t afford them,” Lawrence said somberly.

His wife’s head snapped in his direction. He must have bumped his head. There was no way that he just said that. There just couldn’t have been any way. “What the hell, Lawrence? Alexander can cover the extracurricular stuff that she wants to do.”

“On top of the four thousand dollars, Melanie? Come on, sweetheart. That’s not fair either. He already does well over and above.” Lawrence needed to take something off their plate. This seemed like the most logical thing.