Page 72 of Cause When You Love Someone
Like someone had pressed pause on life, everything went still until I found my breath.
“What did you say?” I quizzed.
“You heard me.”
“I did, but I’m trying to pretend I didn’t. I deserve a better pregnancy announcement than this ghetto shit.”
“You may have gotten it had you not pulled up with another woman.”
“I don’t give a shit about her,” I declared. “She hasn’t mattered in years.”
Taylor snickered, then swung her door open. “I didn’t mean to start any trouble.”
“Yes, you did,” Clarke spat out. “And next time, I’m not going to spare you, bitch.”
When Tracy sped away, Clarke marched toward the house. The agonizing thought of continuing our separation triggered me to call her name.
“So you’re having my baby, and you still don’t want me? You’re still giving your loyalty to the man you love?”
Her chin crashed into her chest. “You took that the wrong way.”
“Then why didn’t you correct yourself?”
“Because you still wouldn’t have understood where I was coming from. You still would have fought me for putting you first.” She blinked back tears that I wanted to catch just so nothing that came from her went to waste. “I love you, Ishmael.I can’t stand back and watch you crash out over me. We have a baby to raise together. That’s the only person we go to war for.”
Though I couldn’t agree with her, I pulled Clarke’s face into my chest and shut my eyes when the scent of her hair got trapped in my nose. “I missed you. I missed you so fucking much.”
“I’m sorry I hurt you, Ishmael. I have been sick without you, and I did it to myself,” she cried. “Next time, I’ll be ready to ride instead of standing in the way. I know you got me. I just want to prove I got you.”
With everything goingon in my life, adding school into the equation was risky, but still I walked into the university’s front office with my head held high.
Chaz was still in hiding, so I put my attention on shit that mattered.
“How are you, ma’am?”
A small, white woman sat behind the receptionist's counter. She peered up, then did a double take.
“Oh. My day is better now. How can I help you?”
Her obvious flirting hooked one side of my lips. “My name is Ishmael Harden. I have an appointment with an advisor at eleven.”
She tapped a few keys on her keyboard, then focused on me. “I have you down for a meeting with Advisor Peterson. I’ll let him know you’re here.”
“Appreciate you.”
I spun around and searched for a seat. The lobby was partly empty, so I sat in a seat closest to the door.
To kill time, I skimmed through a magazine, yet the sensation of someone staring at me pulled my eyes from the pages.
“Can I help you?” I asked the only other person in the lobby.
She dropped her phone into her lap and placed both hands near her mouth. “Are you Ishmael Harden?”
I instantly grew anxious, hearing a stranger say my name. “Do I know you?”
“Not personally, but I love C. Rose. I run one of her fan pages,” she explained. “We’re so glad you’re around and Chaz is out of the picture.”
The sound of the hideaway’s name made me shift in my seat. Since the night I rode down Chaz’s block, he had been missing. I hired people to stay around his hangouts when I wasn’t available, and he hadn’t shown face. I may have let the issue go had Clarke not been pregnant, but the idea of him walking around freely when she was uncomfortable didn’t sit right with me.
