Page 11 of Mahogany 2
I looked over at him, he looked over his shoulder at me, and I said, “Hell yeah. Fell asleep playin’ 2K.”
“Oh,” He flatly replied.
If there was anybody in the crib that knew there was real trouble in paradise it was his little ass. I doubted he believed me, but did I give a fuck? Hell naw. He wouldn’t check me about it. Regardless of how he felt, Gabriel knew what to do and what not to do.
“Do you want to see the picture I drew?—”
“Not right now, Spark baby. Where’s mommy?”
“Outside. She said?—”
“Okay. I love you. I’ll be… I’ll be right back.”
Again, my heart dropped. Outside? Outside for what? If she wanted some fresh air, she could have sat on the balcony in the room. The fuck was she doing outside? All of a sudden I didn’t want to rush anymore. I was shook. What if I walked out and found her sitting there, reading the results? What if she already read them and was sitting, thinking about how to kill me and get away with it? Or shit… what if she read them, got in the whip, and left without telling anybody, deciding to leave all of us? Anigga was going through the motions. I didn’t know what to expect.
With a deep breath, I shook my head, and headed for the front door, like fuck it. If it was that… if she had the results… what was I supposed to do? There wouldn’t be anything I could do. I would have to play with the hand I was dealt, like I had been doing.
A couple of seconds or so later, I was walking out of the house. As soon as I did, I found her sitting in her egg chair, with her legs pulled up and crossed, with a mug in her hand.
“Good morning, baby,” I said, closing the door behind me. “You up early on a Sunday.”
She looked over at me and said, “Good morning. Couldn’t sleep. Been up since six.”
Felt like a weight was lifted off of me. The fact that she was greeting me with anything other than a couple slugs and DNA results was good as hell.
“Damn, straight up? The Caymus didn’t put you down?”
“Nope, not this time.”
I was sure she couldn’t sleep last night because she’d been thinking about me. I wondered if it was divorce or reconciliation she’d been thinking about. By the way she greeted me, I’d say reconciliation. But by her tone and demeanor, I’d say, nah. Her speaking didn’t have shit to do with us being good. She was like that. Liked to start her mornings off on a positive note. If the fight before wasn’t too bad, I’d get a good morning. If not, she’d give me nothing. Last night wasn’t horrible. I was just inconsiderate. Not on purpose though—out of desperation. Regardless of what she thought or how she felt, I was determined to work towards changing it.
“We ain’t went out as a family in a nice lil minute. We should hit Dave and Busters or something later,” I said, scratching behind my ear, eyeing the mailbox, wondering if it’d beentouched. I needed to get to it ASAP. I didn’t know what type of envelope the mail would come in or anything. She could’ve had that shit sitting right in the pocket of her robe. I wasn’t sure. But I needed to make sure.
She swung her legs from underneath her bottom and shrugged. “Yeah. It has been a minute. Kids need to get out of the house. Let’s go around two.”
Asking about a family outing after the last few days we had might’ve seemed crazy, but it wasn’t. This was us. What we’d gone through was a lot. She did think I was cheating, and a nigga did just sleep in the man-cave, but she didn’t hate me and would do anything to make the kids happy. Now, if I would’ve been on some date shit, it would’ve been a stretch.
“Okay cool,” I said, watching as she stood up. Before she could walk by me to go into the house, I stopped her by wrapping my arm around her waist. As expected, she took a deep breath and tried to pry my arm from around her, but I didn’t bulge.
“I apologize about last night,” I said, with my eyes locked on hers, hoping she could see the sincerity behind them. “I know you think what you think but… listen I’m not even gon’ go there. I just want you to know that I’m in this shit ‘til the death of me and I hope you are too.”
She didn’t say anything. Just looked at me with soft eyes I appreciated. Before releasing her, I dropped a kiss on her forehead and told her I would help her with the girls after I grabbed the mail.
My heart raced, waiting for her to say she already grabbed it. When she didn’t another wave of relief washed over me. I even looked up to the sky, silently thanking God, as she walked into the house.
Jogging down the stairs, I walked to the end of the driveway to the mailbox. Once I opened it, I was sick to see the only piece of mail in that bitch was for me. Just imagine, bro. It wouldhave been over for my ass for sure. The envelope was discreet and didn’t say anything about DNA or diagnostic on it but still. Mahogany’s nosey ass would have opened it just because it was a weird piece of mail for me.
With a sigh, I looked down at it and then up at the house, debating on rather I’d open it now or wait. The longer I stood there, eyeing it, the faster my heart raced. My anxiety didn’t take long to build. At all. One little letter threatened to rip apart everything I’d worked so hard at keeping together and that fucked with me. A lot of times, I sat with the realization of what was happening and couldn’t believe it was my life. I was… I was fucked up off this one.
“Ay dad! Can you line me up before we go?”
I jumped at the sound of Gabe calling out to me from the porch. I looked up, stuffed the mail into my pocket and said, “Fa sho. Plug the clippers up.”
Reading the results would have to wait. I was in no rush anyway. But I for sure knew I couldn’t read them today. It’d started off too good. Didn’t want to ruin it with the truth.
3
CRESCENT
