Page 32 of F*ckin' With Me
“That bitch and her husband are fucking liars! Our baby was pregnant with our grandchild, and she had a miscarriage.” Mrs. Brand wrapped her arms around herself. “What kind of husband and father are you . . .”
Her words trailed off when her husband reached behind his back and pulled out papers. He handed the papers to her then took a sip from his glass. She asked him what it was as she began to skim over it. “Those are the text messages between your daughter and her little friend group as well as you and our daughter. Mr. Everland handed them to me when they were leaving as we came in.”Damn, I wish I could have eyes on that paper.
“Ro-Robert, I . . .” She couldn’t speak, so I knew whatever was on those damn papers told on her ass to the point she couldn’t deny it. Yeah, her ass was caught.
“It hurt the fuck out of me to read through those text messages and know that my wife was this vindictive bitch that raised my daughter to be her replica. That’s my fault, though, because instead of being home, I spent my time away so I didn’t have to be near you. Thank God He covered one of our daughters.” The hurt in Mr. Brand’s voice was painful.
I shook my head before I leaned toward Rashad. “Damn, I feel bad watching the demise of their marriage. This ain’t our business.”
The butler appeared next to us like a damn ghost to hand us our drinks. Rashad waited until the butler left to speak. “I can agree that this is not my business as well as disagree that this is not your business. I have no real connection with these people, but now you do. You want to be with Simonette for real, right?” His eyebrow hitched with his question.
My jaw tightened. “Fuck yeah, I want to be with her for real. I am with her for real, nigga.”
He threw his free hand up in surrender. “My bad, big dog. What I’m saying is that when, not if, but when, all this shit goes to hell between your woman’s parents, she’s gonna need you. You sitting here and being nosy will have you prepared to take care of her.”
“Nigga, did you just come up with an elegant way to manipulate me into thinking us sitting here being nosy was a good idea?” My head tilted to the side. “Is that really what you did?”
Rashad put the rim of his glass to his lips after he lifted his shoulders. Once he took his sip, he said, “I wouldn’t call it manipulation. One of two things can be true at the same time. You need to take care of your girl, and I want to continue to be nosy.”
The cries from Mrs. Brand zoned us back into the show. I wasn’t sure if she could see us, but the fact that she had yet to scream at us made me think that she couldn’t. “Robert, please don’t do this. It’s our daughter’s wedding weekend. You invited everyone who was still here to come to the reception. They are going to expect us to be there together.”
I made a mental note to make sure I went to that damn reception to get my baby some food. Simonette’s greedy ass might curse me out if I didn’t, and she heard there was food that I knew about. I smiled at the thought of her little ass cursing me out. When she told her mama and sister fuck you was the first time I heard her curse.
“Simone, stop the bullshit. No one is expecting shit after what happened at that damn ceremony. While you’re over here trying to save something that is unsavable, you need to be with your daughter. Help her figure out what’s next since you’re her compass. I’m sure you have your next candidate for her to trap lined up. I will check on her later tonight,” Mr. Brand told her.
She stood there like she was in the middle of a mannequin challenge. The back of Rashad’s hand hit my chest a few times. “Ah, shit. You see that switch in her eyes? Her ass is about to crash out.”
You could always tell when a person was about to flip the hell out. Well, that was if you were an observant person. Some people never looked past themselves to notice other people. Something told me that Lanette and Mrs. Brand were those kinds of people, but I digressed.
“Fuck you, Robert! What? I’m wrong for wanting my daughter to be taken care of? That’s not trapping.” The papers that she had in her hands were now on the ground, and the hand that once held them was balled at her side.
Robert laughed. “Feigning a pregnancy is very much trapping. Hell, at least when you trapped me, you were actually pregnant. The bonus was that she was mine.”
I didn’t need to see Rashad’s eyes to know they were popped out like my own. “Not Mama Brand being a trapping whore,” I mumbled. It was almost too much. Where was that Perry nigga when you needed him?
“Now you’re just trying to be hurtful, and I won’t stand for it. I am going to check on my daughter, whose heart was broken today. Again, fuck you!” Her middle fingers went up in front of his face.
She pushed him before she charged off. He didn’t move, but she did push. Mr. Brand was a solid ass nigga, but his daughters took after their mother’s more petite body frame.
“You got a live one on you there, Mr. Brand!” Rashad rarely gave a damn. People liked to think that I had less fucks than him, but that was a misrepresentation of both of us. My lack of fucks just tended to be louder.
Mr. Brand laughed as he took the walk from his patio to where we sat. “Y’all are nosy as hell, but I appreciate it though.Seeing y’all kept me cooler than I wanted to be.” He sat in the seat that was open next to me. “Daylen, I love both of my daughters. God knows I do.” His eyes met mine, then he said, “Son, you got the best of the two. I hate to have to admit that out loud.
“Simonette always had such a calming spirit. When she was a baby, she rarely cried. There were nights that I would wake up in the middle of the night to check on her, and she’d be in her crib, entertaining herself.” His eyes glazed over. “Her little face would light up when she saw me, and it still does to this day. I’ll never get tired of that. Treat my baby good.”
The desires of his heart for his daughter were loud, and I was all ears. “I got you, Pops Brand. Can I ask you a question and you be real with me?” Once he gave me the okay to ask, I thought about exactly how I wanted to word my question respectfully.Fuck it!“Are you and the missus going to keep doing this unhappy merry-go-round or call it a loss? I’m only asking so I know what to anticipate for my baby’s emotional stability.”
The butler interrupted our conversation to ask if any of us needed refills. Mr. Brand bottomed his drink, then asked for a refill. I wasn’t sure how our butler knew what he was drinking, but he had it on hand to fill him back up. Once we were all filled up, Mr. Brand took a sip before he answered my question. “Son, the papers have already been filed. I was trying to get through this weekend and have her served when I got home.”
“Damn, man. You’re ready to give her half of all your shit?” Rashad’s face held contempt.
Mr. Brand chortled. “Nigga, I know you don’t think that I was stupid enough to not get a damn prenup signed? Stop playing with me now. Simone will get what she agreed to receive for the length of our marriage. She’ll get a lump sum, her car, and her house.”
I didn’t know what to say because there wasn’t shit to really say. I wasn’t sure how Simonette would be affected by her parents divorcing. What I did know was that I would be prepared for anything.
A Little Later That Evening . . .
When I called Simonette to let her know I was coming back to the room, she told me that she needed me to stay away for a few more hours. I wasn’t sure what the fuck they had going on, but what I did know was that she and my sister were up to something. I still had a lot to learn about Simonette, so I wasn’t sure what herup to somethinglooked like. The problem was that she was with my mischievous sister.
