Page 91 of Search My Soul
“Aww, I’ll have to go see her one of these days.”
“Why wait? I mean, my family is having a cookout for my little cousin who got drafted into the NFL. He’s moving to Seattle in a few weeks, so they wanted to throw him a going away party. I’m sure she would love to see you.” I peered at him with hooded eyes. He seemed genuine, but Darion had that kind of aura about him. Most people thought he was a sweet, innocent church boy, but I knew better than that.
“Is she making her famous lemon poundcake?” My mouth watered at the idea of tasting that delicious slice of heaven. Mrs. Jordan knew her way around the kitchen, but her desserts were in another league of their own.
“You know it. She never misses an opportunity to bring one to a family function.”
“Hmm, then I might have to see what I can do. I’m a sucker for something sweet. Especially now,” I responded, rubbing my belly. I still couldn’t believe I was pregnant. It wasn’t on my bingo cards for the year at all. In fact, I never saw myselfbecoming a mother. I always envisioned myself being the rich auntie.
“Yeah, I bet. Congratulations by the way.” The way he stared through me made me uncomfortable.
“Why are you looking at me that way?”
“I don’t know. You seem so different, but the same. If that makes sense.” We both laughed, but I nodded in understanding. His presence felt so familiar to me, even though so much time had passed, so I understood what he meant.
“Oh my goodness. This ice cream tastes like Heaven.” I moaned as the flavors danced on my tongue. It was something about having your cravings satisfied that triggered a special dose of serotonin to be released. I think it was safe to say my son agreed because he was doing all kinds of twists and flips inside of my belly.
I never thought I would want to be a mother, but every day I grew more and more attached to the tiny human growing inside of my body. Regardless of the current status of my relationship with his father, our little bean was conceived from love. Even though this was uncomfortable, Soul checked on us daily and made sure I had everything I needed. He missed a couple of appointments in the beginning, but he had finally started showing up. The awkwardness between us was something I hadn’t quite adjusted to, but I appreciated the effort.
“I need you to chill out with all of that moaning and shit. At the end of the day, I’m still a man,” Darion voiced. I almost forgot he was here because I was so focused on the ice cream.We’d become pretty close over the last few months, and I really appreciated our friendship. Outside of Puma and Normandee, I didn’t have many female friends. Even growing up, I connected to the boys in the neighborhood more than the girls. The girls hated me for it because they thought I was trying to step on their shoes.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been thinking about this ice cream for a week. I know it’s gonna tear my stomach up later, but I don’t even care.”
“I feel you. Gram asked me to grab her some apple donuts from the apple orchard spot we used to go to as kids. Man, I’ve never tasted anything so good in my life. I ended up having to grab a separate bag of them for myself.”
“Fat ass.” I teased, while I proceeded to lick the bowl clean. I wasn’t even sure I would have the energy to do much else after I finished demolishing all of that food and ice cream.
“I’ll be that. Hell, I’m trying to enjoy my freedom while I can because it’ll be time for me to get back in the gym soon enough.”
“I think it’s really cool that you followed your dreams and made it to the NBA. Even though I used to hope and pray you tore an ACL or something.” Darion laughed as he set his food on the table.
“Damn, that’s crazy. I guess I deserved that. I’m sorry about that. I know we’ve talked about it multiple times since I’ve been home, but I really am sorry. I was young and stupid as hell back then. You didn’t deserve to be treated that way, and I’m glad we were able to move forward.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. I never realized how much an apology would mean until I got it.
When I saw him at the beach that night, the anger and disappointment came rushing back. When Puma collided with Darion, I wanted to crawl under a rock.
“My bad, mamas. Are you okay?” He observed her to make sure she hadn’t been injured. I scoffed, ready to get as far away from him as possible.
“I’m okay. I wasn’t watching where I was going. I’m sorry about that.” I glared at my best friend because she was being too nice to my archenemy, and I wasn’t feeling it at all.
“I didn’t catch your name, beautiful.” My eyes rolled because he was being extra if you asked me.
“You never asked. My name is Puma, and this is my girl?—”
“Neeya.” The excitement in his voice pissed me off. What the hell was he so excited about?
“Don’t let my name roll off that dirty ass tongue of yours.” My arms were crossed to let him know I meant business.
“Come on, Nee-nee. Whatever happened between us was in the past. I’m a changed man now.”
“Boy, fuck you. I told you if you ever saw me again, to ignore me the same way your momma ignored those specialists when they told her to enroll you in Special Ed. Hell isn’t even far enough for you to go, but you need to get away from me.”
“You’re mad, and you have a right to be. I treated you like shit when we were younger, and I’ll never be able to forgive myself for the way I hurt you. Can we please go somewhere and talk? I promise I’m not on any funny business.”
“You have two minutes, which is more than your thin-ass mustache deserves.”
“I deserve that one, but I promise I won’t waste your time.” I followed him to a spot not too far from where we were standing. I really didn’t want to be around him, but at the same time, I wanted to hear what he had to say.
“I’m sorry, Neeya. What I did was unforgivable, but I need you to know I’ve regretted it ever since. You were someone I cared for deeply, and it hurts me to know that I caused you pain.”
