BITTER, page 13
“Have another one then. Bray needs a playmate.”
“Bray has a room full of toys to play with. I don’t have time for no more kids,” she replied, shaking her head.
“Are you and Bray’s dad still together? What’s his name? Breezy?”
“Drizzy,” she corrected. “And no ma’am.” The look on her face was one of disgust, but I peeped the small smirk she had.
“Mmm hmm.” I gave her the side eye and she flipped me the bird. “You know you love your baby zaddy.”
“Love? What’s that?” Valencia moved ZaZa to her other hip. “I don’t have time to play with Drizzy when it comes to love. We have a son together and that’s my main focus. As long as he plays his part for Bray, I’m good.”
I tapped ZaZa softly to get her to stop pulling and twisting Valencia’s lips. “Leave her alone. She can do whatever she wants. Yes she can, yes she can.” Valencia rubbed her nose against ZaZa’s a few times before she looked at me. “You and her daddy still together?”
I nodded my head. “Yes ma’am.”
“He’s the same one you used to always tell me about right?”
“Yep, that’s him,” I sighed. “My headache. Lord knows he works my nerves but that’s my baby.”
She held up her right fist. “Black love. I’m here for it.” Valencia’s cellphone started to ring, prompting an eye roll. “This either Bray or Drizzy rushing me, I bet.” She put ZaZa back in the basket and declined the call. She reached out to me for another hug. “It was so good seeing you. How often are you out this way? Last I heard you were staying with Aunt Mel.”
We gave each other a “look” then bursted into laughter. “That’s another story for another day. That woman there is a trip,” I shook my head and took out my phone. “Give me your number.”
After we exchanged numbers, we hugged again and promised to keep in touch. As Vee was walking off, pushing an empty basket I laughed and called out to her. “Vee!”
She looked over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows. “What? I got something on my butt?” she asked swatting her pants.
“You remember that spaghetti my mama used to make, like every week?”
Valencia gagged playfully. “Eww, it used to be so damn dry. I hated that damn spaghetti.”
“What sauce did she use?”
“Ragu.”
“Okay thanks!” She nodded her head and hurried away. I went to the shelf and pulled the Prego sauce. Thanks to my mother, I hated Ragu with a passion. I picked up a few more items before making my way to the front of the store to checkout.
I heard siren after siren go by and wondered what the hell was going on. In Houston, you just never knew. I’d seen cops throw on their siren just to run a red light. After we heard more sirens, everyone was looking toward the double doors, trying to be nosey.
A gentleman standing behind me shook his head. “I hope everything is alright. I saw a bad wreck right down the street yesterday. I think someone died if I’m not mistaken.”
“Wow,” was all I could say as I handed the cashier my money. “That’s so sad.”
“Yeah, it was terrible. Two little bitty cars but they were all mangled up. Some fella in this nice yellow sports car was out there trying to pull one of the girls out. I think maybe it was his girlfriend or something, I don’t know, but he was really trying to get her out. Start fighting with the cops cus they wasn’t moving fast enough.” The man shook his head. “I sure hope she made it.”
I was still focused on the gentleman’s description of the car. My car. “What did the man look like? Did you see him? I think he may be a friend of mine?”
His eyes widened and he looked impressed. “Really? That man was a hero out there yesterday. My wife said the news wanted to interview him, but he declined.”
“Did anyone catch his name?”
“Nawww,” he replied slowly. “Let me see if I can remember what he look like. I’m getting old,” he chuckled.
It was no coincidence that the description of the man and the car matched Flip. I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t tell me something like this. If he was out saving lives, that’s something worth bragging about; not how many points he scored on a video game.
The cashier cleared her throat and sighed loudly. She was lazily holding my change with a scowl on her face.
“Sorry!” I took the money and stuffed it in my purse, still trying to make sense of why Flip hadn’t told me about what happened. When we talked last night, he said he was in court damn near all day waiting on the lawyer only for them to reset the date.
“I didn’t leave court til damn near 4 o’clock.”
“Sorry to bother you sir, but do you remember what time the accident happened?”
“I say round 1 or 2 cus Steve Harvey had just went off before I walked out the barbershop.”
Flip should have still been in court at that time. The information that I received didn’t make any sense to me but there was nothing that a stranger could gain from lying to me, so I was confused. As I pushed the grocery basket toward Flip’s car, my mind went into overdrive trying to understand what Flip was lying to me about and why. I had questions that needed to be answered ASAP, but first I needed to figure out how to approach the situation in a way that didn’t seem problematic.
I didn’t need him shutting down; his ass had some explaining to do. The court that he told me he was going to was in Downtown Houston, so what the hell was he doing on the SW during the hours he swore he was only sitting around and waiting?
LONI
When I opened my eyes again, I felt someone behind me gently brushing my hair. I cleared my throat and tried to swallow, but my throat was much too dry. I let out a small grunt.
Kali’s face appeared next to mine. “Thirsty?”
I nodded my head. She grabbed the cup off my tray and brought the straw to my lips. I drank until my thirst was quenched and let out a belch. Kali giggled and sat next to me. “How you feeling?”
“Good.” I didn’t sound like myself at all. My voice was deep and raspy, but Kali didn’t seem to notice. She looked like she was just excited that I was talking at all.
She leaned in and hugged me for a long time. She held me tightly as she prayed quietly. When she finally pulled away, tears were in her eyes. “You scared the shit out of me.”
A nurse entered the room before I could answer. She greeted me with a smile then proceeded to do her job. She checked the machines, checked my vitals, asked a few questions, and then left after adjusting the bed so that I was sitting up.
I noticed a hat sitting on the couch on the right side of the room. “Whose is that?”
Kali followed my eyes and smirked when she looked at the hat. “Bryce’s.” She studied my face for a few seconds, trying to gage my reaction. “You remember Bryce?”
How could I ever forget Bryce? I nodded my head, which caused Kali to smile. “He’s been here every day with you. He’s actually the one who pretty much rescued you from the accident. Do you remember the accident?”
I heard Kali’s question, but I couldn’t speak. It seemed like my mouth had instantly gotten as dry as the desert. Butterflies danced in the pit of my belly as I watched Bryce open the room door. He looked surprise to see me looking him in the eye, but his joy seeped through almost immediately.
Kali looked over her shoulder and saw Bryce. She turned back to me and patted my hand. “I’ll be back.”
Bryce waited until Kali exited the room before walking towards me. Each of his steps were slow and almost uncertain, but he didn’t stop his stride. Slowly but surely, he made his way to my side. He sat where Kali once was and just stared at me.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay,” I said quietly. I didn’t want him to hear how horrible my voice sounded. As silly as it sounded, I wished I was able to freshen up before he got so close to me. There were a lot of things that were unclear to me, but I had no doubt about the feelings I had for Bryce. I just couldn’t quite recall if he shared the same feelings for me.
Bryce’s eyes looked like they were full of sorrow. He took a deep breath and took one of my hands into his own. “Things between us have been crazy, I know. It’s like, we haven’t been seeing eye to eye and it’s probably all my fault, but I just want to say I’m sorry.” He shook his head in despair. “It’s like, I saw the shit happen. Right before my eyes, I saw your life nearly be taken. It fucked me up. All the shit I said to you before, I feel bad man. That’s how I ended up behind you. I was going to follow you home so I could talk to you and try to make shit right. You feel me?”
Bryce could tell by the look on my face that I was completely lost. I had no idea what he was referring to. I don’t even know where I was coming from or headed when the accident happened. It seemed like everything leading up to that moment had been completely erased from my memory and I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.
A knock at the door caused Bryce and I to tear our eyes away from each other. The lack of privacy in the hospital was quickly becoming annoying. The nurse from earlier came back into the room, with a doctor on her heels.
“Hi, Miss Spivey, we just came to check on the baby really quickly.”
My heart stopped when I remembered that I was pregnant. I started to panic because no one had mentioned the baby since I woke up. Or my son. No one said anything about my son. “The baby? Baby J? What’s going on with my babies? Where is he?”
Bryce, still holding my hand, squeezed it gently. “Baby J is with your sister.”
“And your baby is okay,” the nurse intervened. “We’ve been making sure you have plenty of fluids and nutrients. This baby is a tough one.”
After they checked the baby’s heartbeat, they told me everything would be fine. They told me that I would be able to go home tomorrow. Besides being sore, they thought I should be fine and pain-free. They told me that my memory of certain things would be fuzzy, but it wasn’t a huge cause for concerns. They said it wasn’t unusual for people to completely block out traumatic events.
After the nurses left, Bryce and I were alone again. I hated that he let my hand go, but I loved the fact that he was still by my side. It meant a lot to me.
“I’ll try to come by when to help you out once you make it home, okay?” he said.
“Thank you, Bryce.”
He looked me in the eye and nodded his head. “Regardless of everything, I’ll always be there for you. Remember that.”
He leaned down and softly kissed my forehead. “Rest up,” he said before standing up to leave. I wanted to ask him to stay, but I didn’t know what type of space we were in before everything happened. I tried to remember, but it only made my head hurt, so I adjusted the bed so that I was laying down and closed my eyes.
Sleep was the only thing that made sense to me at that time.
ZURI
The MYA station on Pandora was giving me life as I prepared dinner for Flip and myself. ZaZa had already eaten a corndog and taken a bath, so she was peacefully resting in her playpen, watching cartoons. Flip had called and said he would be home shortly so I had the table ready and was only waiting on the garlic bread to finish toasting.
When he walked in, the table was prepared and I was sitting, waiting. He greeted me with a smile and kiss before taking his seat. He looked at the food and licked his lips.
“You’ve been throwing down lately,” he complimented, rubbing his hands. I appreciated his words, but I noticed that his voice or his face didn’t seem eager. I watched as he said a silent prayer and grabbed his fork. He looked at me before diving in. “Why you looking at me like that?”
“Just waiting to see how you like it. I know it’s your favorite.”
He took a bite of the food and nodded his head. “It’s the bomb, babe. You know you never disappoint me when it comes down to cooking. Except that one time that you tried to give me that extra burnt ass fried chicken.”
I hung my head in shame and giggled. “Well, you said you wanted blackened chicken.”
Flip laughed too and everything felt normal again. “You right. I should have been more specific.” Flip tried to take another bite of food, but he couldn’t stop laughing. I enjoyed seeing him in that state, so I laughed too and watched the way his eyes lit up. It seemed like it had been a while since we laughed together.
“You was so sad about that,” he recalled, shaking his head slowly. It seemed like he missed the good days just as much as I did.
“I felt horrible. I remembered you saying you liked your chicken crispy, so it made sense at the time,” I shrugged. “I can’t believe you actually bit that burnt ass chicken.”
“I didn’t want you to feel worse than you did. You tried to do something nice for me, so I wanted to show you I appreciated it.” He smiled at me. “I was glad when you told me to throw it away, though.”
Flip’s cellphone rang, interrupting our brief trip down memory lane. He looked at the screen, then silenced the call. His demeanor changed instantly. His smile was gone and his shoulders seemed to be stiff and rigid. He wasn’t relaxed anymore.
“Who was that?” I asked, finally touching my own food.
“My lawyer,” he answered. “Now the nigga want to call me. I didn’t hear for him at all yesterday; I called him at least twenty times and he ain’t answer. Had me waste a whole day in that damn courtroom. Luckily, the judge reset the date and didn’t try to fuck over me.”
The mere mention of court caused me to think about the man in the grocery store and what he told me. I wanted to ask Flip about it, but the agitation etched on his face stopped me. I looked over at the playpen and noticed that ZaZa had fallen asleep.
“I knew she had to be sleep; she was way too quiet.”
Flip followed my eyes and noticed ZaZa for the first time. “Damn, I didn’t even notice she was right there. She hasn’t been snoring lately.”
I nodded my head. “Ms. Inez has been giving her breathing treatments. I called her doctor and asked for one, but she said it was almost six hundred dollars without a prescription. She said they don’t diagnose asthma until the child is over two.”
“She ain’t got asthma, she just fat as hell,” Flip joked, laughing.
“She sure is. She ate two corndogs for dinner.”
“You let her eat two corndogs, Zuri?” Flip asked. His facial expression didn’t change, but his voice didn’t seem as light and playful as it was before. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
“She has to eat, Flip, calm down. Brookie let her eat two huge slices of pizza,” I retorted. “You saw the Facebook post; you liked it.”
Flip shook his head and finished the remainder of his food before belching and stretching his arms out. “Thank you for the food. It was good as hell. I would eat some more, but I think I might have to take a shit.”
I frowned my face in disgust. “Eww.”
Flip let out a loud, annoying fart and nodded his head. “Oh yeah, I’m about to tear that bathroom up. I’m probably going to be hungry again.”
I shook my head and pinched my nose. “You fuckin’ stank, Flip. Eww.”
“I know you ain’t talking. You’re known to clear out a room or two,” he shot back.
I stood up and grabbed the plates off the table. “Pregnancy farts don’t count. I couldn’t help it.”
He patted his stomach. “I can’t help it either. You know I got them bad guts.” Flip backed away from the table and rose to his feet. “I’ll be back to help you; I’m about to shoot this deuce real quick.”
I rolled my eyes and headed to the sink. I didn’t feel like doing the dishes, so I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned table and stove. I looked at the floor and decided that sweeping could wait. I walked into the living room and carefully pulled ZaZa out of her playpen. I patted her back and bounced lightly as we headed to the room. I prayed that she didn’t wake up because all I wanted to was bust a nut and go to sleep. I didn’t have the energy to do anything else.
When I laid ZaZa in her bed, she made a few noises, but she remained sleep. I praised the Lord before laying across my bed. When Flip walked in, he was rubbing his stomach.
“Man, I could go for another plate or two. My stomach feel empty than a bitch.”
“You’re going to have to make it yourself. I’m done for the night. All I want to do is get some dick and go to sleep.”
Flip looked at me with wide eyes and I burst into laughter. He wasn’t used to me being that straight-forward. “I can help you with that. Let me jump in the shower real quick. You coming?”
“I showered before you got here; but I can get in with you if you want.”
“It’s cool, I’mma be quick,” he responded as he walked over to his drawer and grabbed a fresh pair of boxers. “Don’t fall asleep, man.”
“I’m not,” I stressed, hoping I wasn’t lying. I was prone to fall asleep within minutes, so after Flip closed the door to the shower, I pulled myself out of the bed so that I didn’t get to comfortable.
I picked up the trail of clothes Flip left on the floor and put them in the dirty clothes hamper. As I was walking past the closet, I noticed Flip’s phone lighting up on the dresser. He must have sat it down when he grabbed his boxers, I thought. I quickly grabbed his phone out of curiosity. The contents were hidden on the lock-screen, so I entered his passcode and got an error message.
Convinced that I was moving too fast, I typed the code again, and got the same error message. Confused, I tried an alternate code only for my access to still be denied. I put the phone back down on the dresser so I wouldn’t lock it, but I felt extremely uneasy. Why the hell did he change his passcode? I was able to get into the phone a few days prior, so what caused the sudden change?
Between Flip’s weird behavior, sketchy whereabouts, and his changed passcode, my desire for sex had dwindled. Those raging fires burning inside of me had been extinguished and nothing but ashes were left. I had way too many questions and something needed to be answered.
