Chapter 21 #2
“What are you doing here?” Andre asked as he stood up and tried to push her away from the table, probably so they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves. But Honey wouldn’t budge.
“Where the hell is my son before I call the police on you?” Honey demanded frantically. She would tear this whole cookout apart if her son weren’t before her eyes very soon.
“Mom.”
Honey’s head whipped around at the sound of her son’s voice, and she saw him as he raced over to her from the small crowd of children who were playing together. Honey felt relieved when her son threw himself in her arms. She squeezed him tight, just glad to know he was okay.
“Okay, you see him now. I don’t know what you’re acting all crazy for, talking about calling the police. I’m his father,” Andre boasted, and Honey glared at him.
“Nik!” Kai exclaimed when he saw him too, and Honey had nearly forgotten he was there.
Kai threw himself at Nikos, and Nikos picked him up.
“How are you doing, kid?” Nikos asked as he ruffled Kai’s hair playfully, and Kai giggled.
“Who is this? Your new man?” Andre asked, frowning.
“Kai, go get your things and go with Nikos to the car.”
“But, Mom,” Kai whined.
“No buts,” Honey said firmly.
“Be a good kid and listen to your mother,” Nikos said. Kai pouted but got down and did as told.
“He’s having fun with his family, and you’re going to be bitter and take that away from him,” Andre complained.
“You picked him up without even telling me. Who does shit like that?”
“I’m his father.”
“Only when you want to be.”
They both glared at each other as Kai returned with his school bag.
“I’m not just going to let you and your white trash boyfriend take my son,” Andre said.
“Have you lost your mind, or have you forgotten who has full custody? Or are you too busy showing off for your friends? Huh?”
Andre scuffed, and Honey sighed, trying to gather herself together.
It was only Andre who could get her out of character like this.
Sometimes, she wondered how she had ever been in love with him at one point, and she cried for her young teenage self that had been super in love with an asshole like him.
“Tell your father bye, Kai.”
“Bye,” Kai said as he gave his father a hug, but Andre was too busy looking at the rest of his family, who were watching them, to hug his son back, which was just Andre in the nutshell.
Only worried about other people’s opinions of him but never worried about the right things, like actually taking care of his kid.
Kai went back with Nikos, and once they were out of hearing distance, Honey laid into him.
“This could be considered kidnapping,” Honey said as she trembled with anger. “Don’t you ever in your life pull something like this again.”
“You can’t keep my son from me.”
Honey scuffed. “Me keeping your child away from you? You couldn’t even keep Kai for a full weekend because you were too busy clubbing. Don’t pretend to care about your son now.”
Whispers shot across like lightning throughout the cookout, and sheepishly, Andre tried to wave it off as if it weren’t true before he tugged her further away under the shade of an elm tree where no one else was.
“I just wanted to spend time with my son,” Andre argued.
“Quit your bullshit. Andre, you only want to show off to your family and pretend like you’re a good father, but you don’t care about Kai at all. What is it? Do you have a girlfriend over there? Are you trying to lie to impress her?”
Andre rolled his eyes. “I don’t have a woman over there.”
“Then, what is it? Why would you even do something like this? Did you even think? How did you think I would react to something like this? My heart nearly dropped when I got the call.”
“But, if you would just let me see my son, I wouldn’t have to do something like this.”
“Andre, Kai is not a toy to pick up whenever you want to pick him up, and that’s exactly how you treat him. You come when you want to come, and you go when you want to go. You don’t care about his feelings at all.”
“That’s not true,” Andre said, shaking his head. “That’s not true at all.”
“When Kai asked you to go on the school field trip with him, and you told me that you were going, he waited out there for you, and you never came. Or the last time when you said you were going to pick him up from school and take him to the barbershop. My son was out there for hours without me even knowing because you never came to pick him up.”
Andre’s face soured, and he couldn’t even look her in the eye.
Honey sighed, exasperated, feeling like she was living in a loop that she couldn’t get out of.
It was always like this with Andre. He treated Kai like he was some toy that he wanted to show off, rather than Kai being a human being with feelings.
She had had this conversation with him countless times before, but they were still having it again. And she was tired of it.
“This is going to be my last warning,” Honey said as she glared at Andre. “If you do something like this again, I will not hesitate to call the police on you.”
She tried to turn and leave, but Andre grabbed her arm. She looked at him in disbelief, grimacing because his grip was tight on her arm.
“Get off of me,” she gritted out between clenched teeth.
“The only reason that you have full custody is because the government doesn’t know what your job is, but if I were to take you to court and they found out you are a stripper, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to get custody of Kai.”
Honey’s heart dropped as she stared at Andre in disbelief. She shook her head, not believing her own ears. Before she could say anything, a shadow was cast over her, and she glanced over her shoulder to see that Nikos was there.
“Go ahead to the car, Honey,” Nikos told her as he grabbed Andre’s arm.
“Get the hell off of me,” Andre barked, but Nikos only gripped Andre’s arm tighter, and pain shot across Andre’s face as he released her arm.
“Nikos, I can—”
“Just go to the car,” Nikos told her as he gave her a look, and usually, Honey didn’t care for people entering her business and intruding on her private matters. But after Andre’s last comment, she had been rattled to her core, and she no longer wanted to be in his presence.
She turned and left as Nikos had instructed and went back to Nikos’s car and got in.
“Where’s Nikos?” Kai asked.
“He’ll be back soon, honey,” Honey told her son as she tried to peer out the tinted windows.
From where the car was parked, she could see the silhouettes of their bodies, but they were still too far away for her to make out what they were doing. But she didn’t have to try to guess what was happening for long because Nikos came back to the car less than five minutes later.
“What happened?” Honey asked as Nikos got into the car. Nikos closed the door behind himself but didn’t respond to her question, which made her even more suspicious because this was the most serious she had ever seen Nikos.
“Mom?”
“Yes, Kai,” Honey said, settling in her seat when she realized she wouldn’t get a response from Nikos.
“I want to go back.”
Honey sighed. “Kai—”
“But I was having fun with my friends.”
“And I’m glad you had fun with your friends, but it’s time to go home.”
“I don’t want to,” Kai said softly, and there was sadness in his voice.
Honey withheld her sigh, feeling guilty and frustrated at the same time.
Andre did this on purpose, trying to make her seem like the bad guy, and she wanted Kai to have fun, but not like this.
There were so many things happening at once, so many emotions brewing inside of her, and she was still reeling from Andre’s threat.
She hated that she had to be the bad guy in this moment and ruin her son’s fun, but she didn’t know what else to do.
“You can still have fun,” Nikos said, and Honey and Kai both whipped their heads to look at him. “How about we go to an amusement park? You like amusement parks, right, Kai?”
“Yay!” Kai cheered while Honey stared at Nikos, baffled.
“What about the club?” Honey asked.
“It’s fine,” Nikos assured her before he picked up his phone and called someone. He mouthed to her to put in the address before he started speaking on the phone.
“Yeah. Yeah. Cancel Honey’s performance, and switch it out with someone else… pick anyone and give them extra pay…”
Honey wanted to continue to eavesdrop, but Kai started tapping her shoulder for her attention.
“Yes, honey.”
“Let’s go to Legoland,” Kai cheered. “I’ve always wanted to go.”
“Shh,” Honey slightly admonished. “Nikos’s on the phone, so you have to be quiet.”
“Sorry,” Kai whispered, and Honey smiled, happy to see her son was in good spirits again.
“Is there any other amusement park you want to go to? Legoland is too far,” Honey said, but to be honest, she was just as worried about the cost. It definitely was not the cheapest amusement park.
“How far is it?” Nikos asked as he got off the phone.
“It’s almost two hours away,” Honey said, and Kai pouted.
“That’s fine,” Nikos said as if a two-hour drive were nothing.
“Yay!”
“We should hurry up and get a move on then,” Nikos said, and Honey felt like she could barely keep up with the excited energy that was coming from both of them.
“But—”
“It’s on me,” Nikos said as if he had read her mind, and Honey was at a loss for words as Kai cheered while Nikos pulled off.
“Make sure you’re strapped in, kid,” Nikos told Kai, and Kai did as told.
Honey sat dumbfounded, not having really expected something like this from Nikos.
He never really seemed much like the thoughtful type to her, and he had helped her out before, but this was him really going out of his way.
But instead of questioning it, she was happy because her son was happy, and that was all that really mattered.