14. Pretty
ONE WEEK LATER
I was bored out of my mind, and Drew was away for a game. I was reading a book and sipping a glass of wine, but I wanted to get out of the house. I had gone stir crazy the last few days. It felt like I’d been locked inside since he left, and I had cabin fever.
My parents were in Bogotá for their wedding anniversary, Chloe was doing another modeling shoot out in California, and my brothers were doing whatever it was they did when they weren’t working. I should have gone to California with Chloe when she invited me.
I glanced at my phone for the third time before I picked it up. I dialed Lauren and waited for her to answer.
“Pretty.” She answered on the fourth ring.
“Hey. I was calling to see if you wanted to go out for drinks and catch a movie or something. You sound busy. Are you busy?”
“Mm. Nooo. Not really.”
“I’m bored, and Drew won’t be back home until tomorrow morning. I really need to get out of this house tonight. It feels like time is dragging.”
“Can’t you . . . paint? Mm read? Ohhh, dance.”
“Girl, are you okay?”
“Ye-yeah!”
“Anyway, I’ve been reading, and I’ve got way too much energy to stay still. And who in the hell would I be dancing with?”
“Luis.”
“Luis? Why would I want to dance with your pool boy?”
“Ohhh shit!”
“Lauren? Sis, are you okay?”
“Mm—ahhh—eeeh!”
“Lauren?” I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it before I placed it back again. “Sis, what’s wrong? Do I need to call nine-one-one?”
“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!”
“Give me that ass! Spread it, mami!” The gruff voice in the background was definitely Luis’s voice.
“Heffa! I know you’re not having sex while you’re on the phone with me!” I fussed.
“Ohh, harder, Luis! Go deeper!”
“Ohh, it’s so soft, mami.”
I ended the call and tossed my phone to the sofa across the room. I couldn’t believe that heffa answered the phone while she was having sex. Worse still, I couldn’t believe that she was screwing her pool boy. When I asked her if something was going on between them, she swore there wasn’t.
Lauren, who was two years older than me, was thirty-one. Luis was only twenty-two and in his junior year of college. I shook my head, trying to erase the sounds that had filtered through the phone to my virgin ears.
I reclined on the couch, returned to my book, and drank a couple more glasses of wine. I had read four more chapters and was dozing off when the ringing of the doorbell pulled me out of my stupor. I frowned and got up to answer the door.
My heart raced in my chest when I opened the door and found Tanika standing on the other side.
In her arms was a toddler girl with light bright skin like Cassius and Tanika, sandy brown curls like Cassius, and a slight overbite like Tanika.
If the paternity test, the text messages, and our phone call hadn’t confirmed it, seeing that child in the flesh definitely did.
“Why are you here?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“You blocked my calls,” she replied smartly.
“We have nothing to say to each other, Tanika. If you thought bringing your baby here would get me to open up to you, then your ass is crazier than I thought.”
“Please. I just need to talk to you.”
“I can’t, Tanika. There’s nothing I have to say to you. You made your decision. Now sink in that shit like quicksand.”
“You’re hurt, and I get that, but you don’t have to be mean and crude.”
“Me? Mean and crude?” I scoffed, widening my eyes and pressing a hand against my chest.
“I need to have a serious discussion with you.”
“You’re not Barbara, and my name damn sure ain’t Shirley. You can go ’head on with that serious discussion shit.”
“I tried to give you time to let it soak in and get over the shock. That’s the only reason I didn’t pop up right away, but I’m here because I have something to say.”
“Tanika, of all the trifling things you’ve done in the past, I never would’ve guessed that you would have slept with my husband.
Now you show up on my doorstep, and you want to have a conversation about it.
You honestly have lost your damned mind.
I may not have come from the hood, and I may try to carry myself like a lady at all times, but I will whup that ass! ”
“You’re gonna fight me with my child in my arms, Pretty?”
I went silent because she knew I wouldn’t. As angry as I was, I felt bad for cursing in front of the child.
“You know that Cassius wouldn’t have abandoned his child. He wouldn’t have wanted her to be without anything. He would have taken great care of her if he were here.”
“Your point being?”
“He’s not here. You mentioned insurance—a life insurance policy. I’m sure he would have wanted that money to go to his daughter. H-h-he just didn’t have a chance to change his beneficiary.”
I laughed. “Girl, please. For as long as it took you to make and bake that baby, he had time. It wasn’t his intention.”
“Please, Pretty. We’re struggling, and life hasn’t been easy for us.”
“Tell that to someone who cares. Sell that Rolex on your arm, those gold bangles you and your baby are wearing, and that Chanel bag. I’m sure you’ll get something off them.”
“Really, Pretty?”
“Tanika, you’re finally getting the karma that you deserve. Walk your trifling self down those stairs, hop in that Audi, and roll on home. Maybe on your way, you’ll find some fool who cares or a victim willing to fall for your tricks. I’m done.”
She shifted the baby to her other hip. “You’re serious right now? You’re not going to give his baby one red cent? What kind of wife are you?”
I laughed. “I always knew your ass was crazy, but I didn’t know you were dumb too. Take that baby and that DNA test to his parents and tell that sob story to them. They might actually give a damn.”
I slammed the door in her face, locked it, and headed back to the living room. I picked up the bottle of wine, stared at it, and then headed to the kitchen and poured it down the drain.
I dropped onto the couch and stared at the fireplace for a while. No tears came. There was only anger. That bitch had the audacity to roll up on me and ask for money.
I sat staring into space for several minutes before the doorbell rang again. I was ready to curse her out this time, because how dare she come back to my house. I stomped to the door, flung it open, and opened my mouth but the words froze.
“Hey, beautiful. You don’t look happy to see me.”
Tears rolled down my face, and my nostrils flared. Drew stepped inside and closed the door behind me.
“Talk to me, Pretty. You’re worrying me. I came back a day early to surprise you, but you look like you’ve got murder on your mind.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him close. He wrapped his arms around me and rested his forehead against mine. “Tell me . . . what can I do to make the pain go away?”
I didn’t utter a word. My fingers tugged at his T-shirt, fumbled with his belt, and immediately unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans.
“You sure?” he asked.
My lips covered his because I had no words to speak. My tongue licked along the seam of his mouth until he parted his lips for me. Our kiss was seductive, heated, and demanding. I jumped up and wrapped my legs around him.
Drew asked no questions, and I gave no explanations. He carried me to the couch and sat down with me straddling him. He removed my tank top and latched his cool lips onto my hot nipple. His tongue worked my nipple into a stiff peak before he moved to the other one and did the same.
His erection was hot and hard when I removed his length from his sweatpants. With my denim mini skirt shoved up around my waist and my panties pushed aside, he drove into me.
“Gahdamn, girl. You’re so tight and juicy.” He grunted through clenched teeth as he rocked up inside of me.
I covered his mouth again because I didn’t want to talk—about anything. I bounced up and down on his hard shaft, enjoying the way he made me feel. He pulled back from the kiss and covered my breasts with his large, warm palms.
Every hurt, every pain, every betrayal, and every memory, I took it out on his body as I rode his dick hard and fast. Our kisses were sloppy and wild, and his hands all over my body were like white hot lightning.
When I finally released, it was with his mouth covering my breast, his finger circling my clit, and his dick buried deep inside of me.
My wildness was a turn-on for him and me, because I didn’t just cum; I squirted all around that man.
Drew pushed up from the couch and fucked me hard against the wall until he shed his own release.
“You wanna tell me what that was all about?” he asked while I was still pinned against the wall.
I told him everything, and he fucked me long and hard again.