14. Alisha #3
There was a pause. “Who?”
I rolled my eyes. “Who do you think?”
I handed Brittany the phone. “DADDY!”
Deuce’s voice came through loud enough for me to hear. “There’s my baby!”
Brittany started grinning so hard her whole face changed. “Daddy, where have you been?”
That question wiped the smile off my face. I got up and walked toward the kitchen to give them a little privacy, but I could still hear Brittany talking.
“I miss you, when are you coming home? Guess what?” Brittany didn’t wait for him to answer. “I made a picture at school and mine got put in the hallway, and Grandma burned the toast.”
From the kitchen, I yelled, “Tell him it was black!”
My mama shouted from the other room. “Alisha, shut up!”
Brittany busted out laughing, I heard Deuce laughing through the phone too. For a few minutes, the house felt normal, and I missed normal. Eventually, Brittany came into the kitchen holding the phone. “Daddy wanna talk to you.”
Of course he did. I grabbed the phone. “Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Letting me talk to my baby.”
“She’s your daughter, you don’t have to thank me.”
“I ain’t know if you were ever gonna let me talk to her.”
I leaned against the counter. “I was mad.”
“Was?”
“Don’t get excited.” I snapped.
“Aight, damn.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m still mad.”
“I figured.”
There was a brief silence. “She sounds good.”
“She is.” I responded.
“Does she look good?”
“Deuce.”
“What?”
“That’s a stupid question.”
“I can’t see her, Lisha.”
“Yeah.” My voice softened. “She looks good.”
“Hair done?”
“Of course.”
“Is she still missing that front tooth?”
I smiled. “Yep.”
“Damn.” He got quiet. “She's probably getting big.”
“She is.”
Then he asked, “How is everybody else doing?”
“Everybody’s fine.”
“Your mama?”
“Good.”
“Grandma?”
“Still Grandma.”
He chuckled.
“And Shante?”
“Big as a damn house.”
“Is she ready?” He asked.
“She better be them babies got about a month left.” I opened the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. “I told her she better enjoy sleeping while she can because once her and Malik bring them twins home, it’s over.” It was a weird silence. “Deuce?”
“Yeah.”
“You heard me?”
“I heard you.”
“Malik probably more excited than she is.”
“Probably.” He sarcastically replied.
I frowned because Deuce sounded weird. But hell, he was sitting in the county, everything probably sounded weird in there.
“I bought them two more outfits the other day.”
“Lisha you ain’t gotta keep buying them babies shit.”
I laughed. “Why you counting my money?”
“I ain’t.”
“Then mind your business.”
“I’m just saying.”
“Well, stop saying.” I smiled. “That’s my niece and nephew and I can spoil them if I want to.” The line went completely silent. “Deuce?”
“I’m here.”
“Why do you keep getting quiet?” I asked
“Just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Shit.”
I rolled my eyes. “Very informative.”
He exhaled. “Lisha…”
“What?” There was a long pause long enough that I stopped what I was doing. “What, Deuce?” For a second, I thought he was about to tell me something.
“Nothing.”
I sucked my teeth. “Then why the hell you say my name?”
“I just wanted to hear you answer.”
I closed my eyes.
“Boy, goodbye.”
He laughed. “I miss that.”
“Miss what?”
“You.”
My smile disappeared. “Deuce.”
“I know don’t start.”
“No, don’t act like shit sweet.”
“I ain’t say it was just letting you know how I feel.”
I looked toward the living room and Brittany was sitting beside my mama watching TV again.
“I miss my family.”
I swallowed. “You should’ve protected it when you had it.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
The automated voice warned us the call was ending soon.
“Tell Brittany I love her.”
“You already told her about fifty times.”
“Tell her again.”
“I will.”
“And Lisha be careful.”
My mood changed immediately. “Don’t start that shit.”
“I’m not just watch yourself.”
I knew exactly what he meant. “I am.”
“Aight.”
The call disconnected and I lowered the phone and I stood there staring at it. Then Brittany yelled from the living room. “Mommy! Did Daddy say he love me again?”
I smiled. “Yep.”
She grinned. “I knew it.”
I walked back into the living room and sat beside her. I knew letting Brittany talk to Deuce was the right thing. But that call had reminded me of something I didn’t want to deal with. I still knew that man and I knew when Deuce was holding something back and he was.
The next afternoon, I decided to stop by Shante’s apartment.
I had tried calling her earlier, but she didn’t answer.
Normally, I would’ve waited for her to call me back, but with her being a month away from having twins, I checked on her more than usual.
Plus, I had picked us up some food. I figured we could eat, talk shit, and maybe watch something until I had to head back to my mama’s.
When I knocked on the door, it took Shante forever to answer. By the time she cracked it open, I was already irritated. “Why are you opening the door like you don’t know me?”
“I was laying down.”
She looked tired, but there was something else about her. She kept herself planted directly in the doorway instead of moving aside like she normally would. I lifted the bag of food. “I brought something to eat.”
“You could’ve called.”
“I did.”
Her face changed. “Oh.”
I tried stepping forward, and she still didn’t move, now I knew something was up. “Shante, move.”
“Girl, I’m tired. I was about to go back to sleep.”
I stared at her, I had known this woman too damn long.
Shante wasn’t slick when she was hiding something.
She started doing little shit that didn’t make sense, like right now, standing in her doorway trying to keep me outside when normally I walked into her apartment without knocking half the time. I pushed past her. “Move, girl.”
“Alisha…”
I stopped, the bag of food damn near slipped out of my hand. Her apartment was empty. It looked like somebody had backed a U-Haul up and said take everything. I slowly turned around and Shante wouldn’t look at me. “What the fuck happened in here?”
She closed the door behind me. “It’s a long story.”
I set the food on the kitchen counter and walked farther inside.
The more I looked around, the worse it got.
The baby stuff was still there and her clothes were still there.
But damn near everything else was gone. I peeked inside the kitchen and it was bare.
I opened one cabinet before Shante told me to stop going through her shit. I looked over my shoulder. “What shit?”
She rolled her eyes. I wasn’t trying to be funny either but I had questions. Then it hit me I hadn’t seen one thing in that apartment that looked like Malik still lived there. “Where is Malik at?”
Shante went quiet, whatever happened in this apartment had something to do with him.
She eventually admitted they had broken up.
I couldn’t believe it because just recently, I’d been sitting at my nail station asking her about Malik, and she’d made it seem like everything was good between them.
She even talked about him being excited for the babies.
Now I was standing in an apartment he had damn near cleaned out.