Page 9 of Wasn't Supposed To Be Yours
Our business was put out on the front street because of him being popular, and in the car industry that he was in. Once I was shot, it hit the news, and all the messy blog pages in Miami were talking about it. I felt like I had to walk around with this scarlet letter on me, letting the whole world know that I was involved with a married man.
I was woman enough to admit that what I did was wrong. I’ve never sat here and pretended that I was a saint because I wasn’t. Sitting throughout the sermon, and hearing Pastor Corey speak about how I was still worthy of peace, and purpose, that brought tears to my eyes because I’ve fully accepted that I was going to be single for the rest of my life, and I was going to be punished for what I’d done. Pastor Corey gave me insight and put me in a position where I could stop punishing myself. It was a message that I needed to hear, and my mom knew it too, which is why when I found myself crying a few times throughout the service, she was right there, rubbing my back, letting me know that she was here for me.
Service ended, and that’s when Liberty decided to wake up. The second her eyes opened, she immediately started crying, and that’s when I took her from my mom, grabbed her diaper bag, and I walked out of the church with her. She was calm now, as I walked with her, finding the women’s restroom, and once I walked in, it was just the two of us inside.
I found the biggest restroom, and I walked in, hanging her diaper bag on the hook that was placed on the back of the door, and I looked over at my niece. She still held a sleepiness to her, as she glared up at me.
“Hi, my Tee- Tee girl,” I cooed to her, and she smiled.
I sanitized the changing station that was in the restroom, and I laid her on it, so that I could change her diaper. You would have thought that I had children of my own judging by the way I quickly got her out of this diaper, wiped her down, and put her into a new one. Having three nieces, and being an auntie for over twenty years, it turned me into this pro that I was.
Once everything was done, I cleaned up behind myself, kept Liberty on my hip, so that I could wash my hands, and I grabbed her diaper bag, and we were walking out of the restroom.
By this time, church had let out, and a lot of the members were standing out in the lobby, and they were talking amongst each other. So many people stopped me, so that they could swoon over Liberty, but I made sure that I didn’t allow them to touch her because I knew that Free would lose her shit if she found out that I was letting a bunch of people touch her daughter. Free didn’t play that shit at all when it came to Liberty, but I couldn’t say that I blamed her because we lived in such a crazy world, and you would never knew what people’s intentions were.
I was trying to be slick, and make it out of the church doors, so that my mom wouldn’t do those introductions that I knew she was trying to do, but the second I made it over to the door, I heard…
“Dionne. Come here,” it was the sound of my mom’s voice. I kept on walking, pretending that I didn’t hear her.
“Come here, Dionne! You hear me calling you, girl!” she said it even louder this time.
See, my mom was ghetto as hell, and she didn’t give a damn that we were in church. She would continue to call after me until I made my way over. I looked over at my niece, and like she could comprehend what was going on, her ass started laughing. Ilaughed too, kissed her on her cheek, and I walked over to where my mom was, and she was standing there with pastor Corey.
By this point, I was no longer wearing the sunglasses on my face. Sitting in church had woken me up, and the hangover was slowly going away. I made sure of that when I was in the restroom. I looked fine, so I didn’t mind walking over there, seeing what my mom wanted, without worrying about my appearance.
When I approached them, I wasn’t surprised by the way the pastor was looking at me. I knew I was a very beautiful woman. I’ve been hearing that compliment my entire life. He couldn’t even hide the way he was standing there with his mouth damn near touching the floor.
I stood right in front of him, and my mom, and he was a very tall dude, which was a plus because I was tall, and it wasn’t often that I could meet a man that towered over me. There was confidence in him, as he stood before me in a nice, navy-blue suit. His eyes were so beautiful. Now that I was closer to him, I could see that there were specs of freckles on his face. With the smile that he was giving me, you could even see the dimple that he had in his left cheek. He would make a woman out there happy one day. I’m sure of it.
“Pastor Corey, this is my oldest daughter Dionne that I was telling you about. She’s been in Milan, so that’s the only reason why she hasn’t been coming to service. This isn’t her baby that she’s holding. This is my other daughter’s baby that she’s carrying. Dionne doesn’t have any kids,” my mom did the introductions, and I wanted to thump her ass upside her head because it felt like she was trying to sell my ass off to him.
Even Pastor Corey knew that that’s what she was trying to do because he laughed, while shaking his head.
“How you doing, Dionne? I’m Corey. Your mom told me a lot about you. Milan, huh? What were you doing in Milan for a month?” he wanted to know.
My eyes left his, and they went for my mom, who was standing there with this goofy ass smile on her face. She really thought that this was getting ready to be a thing, when it really wasn’t. She was just as delusional as my sisters for thinking that me and Tank would be a thing.
“Vacation, but I also handled a little bit of business out there as well,” I let him know, and he nodded.
“I like that. Life is too short. We have to take time to enjoy ourselves and see this beautiful world that’s out there waiting for us. What you think about the sermon? Preaching is still new to me, so I like to hear whatever feedback. Even if it’s bad,” he responded.
Hearing him mention that preaching was new to him made me wonder why pastor Dukes didn’t give the position to one of his sons. Don’t get me wrong, Corey did a good job this morning, but I’ve been coming to this church since I was a little girl, so I knew that pastor Dukes sons had been trained to become pastors since they were little boys. They had ways about them though. Those sons of his have messed around with just about every woman in the church, a couple of them have even gotten in trouble with the law along the years, which is why earlier I said that they lacked the maturity to run a church. Even with that though, their daddy had them trained since they were little boys. Pastor Dukes would even let them preach some Sundays. It had to be something deeper. My mom was so messy, so I’m sure she knew. If she didn’t, I’m sure she probably had her own theory.
“I enjoyed it. I felt like you were speaking directly to me. I’m not perfect, I made some mistakes along the way, and a mistake that I recently made, I feel like I’ve been punishing myself for it. Your sermon came right on time. I needed to hear that there’ssomething beautiful out there waiting for me. I guess I can give you your credit and say that your filling in your godfather’s footsteps pretty well. I love pastor Dukes. I’ve been listening to him preach since I was a little girl,” I shared with him, and the whole time that I was speaking to him, he was smiling, and his eyes kept gazing up, and down at me.
It’s almost like he was undressing me with his eyes. It didn’t matter that this man was a pastor because his eyes still worked. He couldn’t control himself from the beauty that was right in front of him.
“I appreciate that, Dionne. That really means a lot to me, coming from someone that’s witnessed my godfather preach for over thirty years here. I know that he used to preach the house down, so with that, I know your standards are high when it comes to sermons, and their delivery. I am glad that my message reached you though, and you were able to receive it. With that, I hope that you give me the opportunity to allow another message to reach you. Will you be here next Sunday?” he was smooth with the way he asked it. I was still holding onto my niece, but I glanced over, looking at my mom, and she had this proud look on her face, like she simply enjoyed what was taking place.
“Yes. I’ll be here next Sunday,” I replied, and he nodded his head.
“Great. I look forward to seeing you. Take care sis. Dionne, and sis. Antoinette. That sure is one pretty little baby,” he finished, taking his eyes off us, so that he could look over at Liberty.
She was babbling, making a bunch of noise, and I knew that that was her way of trying to tell us to wrap this conversation up because she was ready to go.
We said our goodbyes, and we walked out of the church together. There were still so many people in the lobby area, as well as in the parking lot, so everything that I wanted to say tomy mom, I was waiting until we got a moment where it was just us. That moment finally came when we reached her car, and she pulled out her keys, so that she could unlock the doors.
My mom pushed a nice black, BMW X6M. Free purchased the car for her a couple of months ago for her birthday. My mom loved this car to death, and the red interior was so beautiful. Liberty’s car seat was in the back, so I reached in, so that I could put her inside, and then I was going to strap her up.
