We pulled into my driveway and I got out the car and walked over to my truck. I leaned in and placed my things on the seat and turned back around as Chris was walking up on me. He leaned into me, wrapping me into his warm embrace. It was kind of cold outside and I wasn’t dressed warm enough at all. I reached up and put my arms around his neck and stared into his eyes.
“I like you, Jaeda. Quit playing wit a nigga,” Chris said as he kissed my lips. His lips felt so good and I couldn’t resist kissing him back.
“I’m far from playing with you,” I said in between kisses.
“Then be my girl then, my baby, my boo, my number one,” Chris said while placing soft kisses along my collarbone.
I pushed back after one last kiss and allowed my hands to glide down his well-defined chest as I stared at him. “I had a great time, Christian. I’ll call you tomorrow or something.”
He chuckled as I climbed into my truck and started the engine and turned my heat on high. “It’s all good, baby. Goodnight. At least let me know when you get back to the house.”
I nodded as he walked off and hopped back into his car that was still running.
“S
o what time are you going to be here? China needs help finishing up the sides and shit,” Gio said into the phone as I walked around the kitchen in my house and grabbed the breast milk out of the refrigerator and placed them inside of the diaper bag.
It was the Fourth of July and Gio and China were hosting a barbecue at their new home for the holiday. They had just recently given birth to their daughter Charlie and moved into their new home. I was happy for them and couldn’t wait until their wedding.
“I am packing the diaper bag now and I should be leaving in about ten minutes. Does she need me to pick up anything on my way over?” I asked.
“Nah, just bring your slow ass on.”
I laughed and hung up the phone.
I walked into the living room and saw Baby Tone sitting up in his playpen looking like he wanted to break out. He was super active and wouldn’t ever sit still. He had rolling over and rocking on his knees down pat. Even if I was holding him he tried to push off of something and stand. Jahlisa was laying on the floor coloring in her coloring book as a movie played on the television that neither one of them were paying any attention to.
“What y’all little stinkers in here doing?” I asked as I picked up Baby Tone out of his playpen.
“Nothing. Tee-Tee, look at my picture,” Jahlisa said as she held up the picture of Strawberry Shortcake that she was coloring. Jahlisa was now two and she was all over the place. She talked very well and was full of energy. I loved the time I got to spend with her but boy, was it challenging when I was taking care of my 4 month old and her active ass at the same time. But I wouldn’t trade the moments in for anything in the world. I blew kisses on Baby Tone’s fat cheeks as he giggled and grabbed my cheeks, trying to place sloppy kisses on my eyes and cheeks. I was glad I didn’t put any make up on today because he would have for sure messed it up. “Okay, let’s go, guys. It’s time to go to Uncle Gio’s house. J, pick up your things and put them in your backpack,” I said while grabbing their things and waiting for her so that we could leave.
We arrived at Gio’s house about 45 minutes later. I walked into the house and it was quiet but I could hear voices coming in from the backyard. “Hey, I didn’t even hear you walk in,” China said as I walked into the kitchen. She kissed Baby Tone’s cheeks and then leaned in for a hug. Jahlisa had already run off to the backyard. That kid was nowhere near shy and it was amazing how much personality she had.
“Hey, honey. Where’s Charlie?” I asked, looking around for the baby.
“Girl, Lexis ass came in here supposed to been helping me in the kitchen. Her ass done kidnapped the baby and ain’t showed her face since.”
I laughed because that sounded just like Lexis to con her way out of any domestic duties. I went and grabbed Baby Tone’s bouncer that was in the hall closet and placed him inside before pulling it into the kitchen where he could still see me as I helped prepare the sides.
“So, Miss Jaeda, where is your boo? He’s not on your arm today?” China asked and I shook my head.
“I almost didn’t invite him. He just been smothering the hell out of me; but he’s coming later,” I responded as I began cutting up fruit to place on the fruit platter.
“What you mean by smothering? Ya’ll is in a relationship now right?” she asked.
“Yeah, I guess. We’re together but still taking it slow.”
She shook her head. “Ain’t no taking it slow. Once you’re in a relationship, the only thing you can prevent from this point is babies. Feelings and everything else come at any time. So what is smothering? Shit, you and Tone stayed up under each other.” China looked at me as she began to add mayonnaise into the bowl of potatoes for the potato salad.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, China. He kind of just always is there/ he gets these moments where he is jealous and says dumb shit that has me like, ‘What? Really?’” I grabbed the bags of grapes and placed them in the sink as I washed them off and placed them on the platter.
“Is he tripping off Tone or what?” asked China while mixing the potato salad and then placing it in the freezer to chill.
“That too, but just everything. We could be out and if a nigga looks a little too long, he’s trippin’ like, ‘Oh, you know that nigga or something?’” I shook my head as I leaned against the countertop facing China and Lexis walked in with no baby in sight. “It’s irritating because I’m used to my nigga being confident. I know hella people, niggas and bitches, so it’s hard when he gets to flexxin’ about bullshit,” I said, taking a bite from a slice of mango.
“Who we talking about, Chris retarded ass?” Lexis asked and I nodded my head. Lexis was team Chris a few months ago but recently she had been insisting that maybe I shouldn’t place all my eggs in one basket.
“So how you feel about Chris, Lex? I’ve only met him a couple of times so I’m not really sure how he rubs me,” China asked Lexis.
“I don’t know. At first, he seemed hella sweet and I felt like he was good for my bitch but now I just don’t know. He seem like he controlling and not to mention how he seems like he’s envious of the attention Jae shows Baby Tone.” I shook my head because I knew that Lex was about to bring up the incident that occurred a couple weeks ago.
A couple of weeks ago, I was having a chill night at home with Lexis, Jizz and Baby Tone. I had told Chris that he could stop through earlier that day but he really had never said whether he would or not. Tone’s mother had stopped by for a couple of hours earlier that day and after spending time, she had asked if she could start getting Baby Tone on some weekends and keep him overnight. I told her that at the moment I wasn’t comfortable with that, but maybe later on down the line it would be okay. I had nothing against Ms. Tracy but at the end of the day, I didn’t really know her that well. it had only been a couple of weeks since we had met and I just wasn’t comfortable letting my baby away from me overnight if it wasn’t with Gio or Lexis. Chris had texted and told me he was on the way so I got up and unlocked the door for him and went back into the living room, sitting back on the floor where we were all sitting around playing with Baby Tone.
We had continued our conversation on the situation with Ms. Tracy when Chris walked in and took a seat on the couch. He dapped up Jizz and spoke to Lex as he kissed me on the cheek. I noticed he didn’t say much to Baby Tone and I decided I would talk to him about that later, once we were alone. I didn’t expect for Chris to try and be my son’s father or even take on a role as his stepfather, but I did expect them to have some kind of bond or something considering that he was the man in my life.
I broke down to Chris my conversation with Ms. Tracy and I looked at him as he scrunched up his face. Chris felt like I was being selfish and that I was overreacting by not giving her solo time with my son. I explained that it was my child and I didn’t have to let anybody be around him that I didn’t want but one thing led to another and we ended up in a full blown argument with Chris trying to say that I babied Tone too much and that I was going to turn him into a sissy by being so overprotective. I wasn’t trying to hear shit Chris had to say because it was my child and he was not his daddy.
In the midst of our arguing, I told Chris that his opinion didn’t matter at all because he was nobody to my son and acted like he didn’t even like him. Chris ended up saying that he didn’t have to like my child because he was in a relationship with me and wasn’t going to play stepdaddy to the next man’s child. I was shocked. Jizz had tried to get us to both calm down but after that statement, I was hella offended. I couldn’t understand how he could say he wanted to be with me one day and then say these things the next day. My son was a part of me and also was a major part of my life. Shit, Chris had watched my baby come into this world so I was shocked as hell at the things he said. That night, Chris had stormed out and we had gone over a week without speaking. He had finally reached out a few days ago.
When I had gotten home from school the other day, I came home to flowers on my doorstep with a card and a bottle of champagne. I opened the card and it read a simple “I’m sorry.” I called Chris later on that night and he swore up and down that he didn’t mean any of the things he’d said and he was just speaking reckless out of anger. I wasn’t too sure because his actions were questionable and the words that he’d spoken that night had made me feel that some truth lay there. I decided that night that I would put a little distance between Chris and I and see where it went. If he wanted to be a part of my life, he would make an honest effort to show me exactly what I needed to see, and if not then so be it. I didn’t want anybody around me or my son that didn’t truly want to be here.
“Damn, that’s some crazy shit, Jaeda. Please be careful. The way the world is today, you just have to watch people because they will never fail to show you the real,” China said.
I nodded my head.
The sides were now complete so we all grabbed the food bowls and headed out the back door to set them on the serving table. Once I sat the platters I was holding down, I looked around the backyard and spotted Greg walking around with Baby Tone in his arms. Jahlisa was playing in a cooler filled with sodas and baby Charlie was in the arms of Brayden. If I didn’t know any better, I would say these niggas had kids already the way they were so attentive and loving.
I walked over to the cooler and grabbed a juice out for Jahlisa and gave it to her while walking her over to the kiddy pool that was set up. I then headed over towards B and reached for Charlie. She was the cutest little thing and at three months, she had a full head of hair, fat, rosy cheeks and the chunkiest little legs. She was such a good baby that it was so hard not to fall in love with her.
I tried to sneak off with the baby but once Baby Tone spotted me, he instantly started to throw a fit. He was super territorial and didn’t want anybody too close to me, especially not another baby. I pulled up a chair and took a seat next to Greg as I adjusted Charlie in my arms and then placed Baby Tone in my lap on the opposite side of Charlie. I talked to both babies, trying not to use much baby talk. When I was spending time with Ms. Tracy, she told me to stop using baby talk with him because it would limit his vocabulary.
“You see the baby?” I asked Baby Tone. “Give Charlie kisses. Now give mommy kisses,” I said as he slobbered on both of us. I laughed and placed him on the ground between my legs. His ass was almost 5 months but he swore he was a big boy because he was already trying to crawl and pulling up on things around the house.
I sat there just watching everybody for a while as I rocked Charlie in my arms. Lexis came over and grabbed Baby Tone and was off to splash him and Jahlisa at the kiddy pool.
I looked at the backdoor as Gio walked towards it to greet two guys who had just arrived. I had never seen them before but the one that Gio had hugged was sexy as hell. He wasn’t too tall but he wasn’t short, either. He was caramel complexioned and he had a solid build to him with a little bit of a baller belly, but nothing too extreme. These niggas had come through and they were looking like money. The gold chain around his neck alone looked like somebody’s mortgage.
I crossed my legs and squeezed my thighs together as my kitty started to cream and twitch. I hadn’t had sex in over a year so I was more than due for some extracurricular activities. Shit, as much time as Chris and I spent together, my pussy hadn’t even gone this crazy around him. There was definitely something special about Mr. Gold Chain but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out what it was.
“Bitch, who is them niggas that just walked out here. They look like some work!” Lexis said loudly in my ear, failing at her attempt to whisper.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Man, I don’t even know but they are most definitely them niggas whoever they are,” I said as I stood up so that I could go lay the kids down. “Lex, can you go grab Antonio and Jahlisa so I can lay all of them down for a nap?”
I was ready to mingle and the kids would be cranky as hell if I didn’t put them down now. I walked across the backyard and locked eyes with Mr. Gold Chain as I passed and walked through the glass sliding door. “Damn, that nigga was hella sexy,” I thought to myself. China was in the kitchen filling up a couple of coolers with sodas, beers and wine coolers.
“I’m about to lay the kids down for naps and when I come back, let’s turn this shit up,” I said as I walked to the kids’ room that was downstairs. After putting all three babies down, I put on a movie and turned the volume down low then closed the door slightly. The kids would be sleep for at least two hours.
Lexis and I headed back in the kitchen and helped China restock the coolers. There were about thirty people in the backyard so the party was definitely cranking up. I looked at my phone and I didn’t have any new notifications besides a few Facebook and Instagram likes. I guess Chris changed his mind about coming through. I wasn’t too much worried though because I wasn’t really feeling like having him all up under me, especially with Mr. Gold Chains here now. I planned on having a conversation with him before the night ended.