They started to scatter at that point Even Big Momma gave up and headed for the door. A few people put a hand on my shoulder and tried to comfort me as they walked by, but I wasn’t going for it. I just pointed them toward the door.
“You gonna be ah’ ight, Jasmine?” Stephanie was the last one to leave.
“What the fuck you think?” I was nearly hysterical by this point, but Stephanie wasn’t giving up. She kept talking.
“After all the mistakes I made with Travis, Jasmine, I don’t know what to think anymore. I just hope you leave him.”
“You knew, didn’t you? You knew he was fucking around on me?”
She looked down at the ground. “I wasn’t sure what he was doing, but I didn’t like what I saw when I came by your house. It wasn’t right having that bitch around while you’re at work.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Stephanie?”
“Would you have believed me?”
I hesitated because she was right—I probably wouldn’t have.
“You still should have told me, Steph.”
“I couldn’t tell you. Not without any evidence. He would have lied, and you would have believed him. And the only one who would have gotten hurt would be me. I would have lost a sister I’m just now getting to know.”
I looked at her sadly as she continue.
“You need to get away from him as fast as possible, Jasmine.”
“You think I don’t know that? I can’t help it if I still love the fool.”
I must have sounded as helpless as I felt, ’cause Stephanie didn’t stick around with any more words of wisdom. I guess I couldn’t blame her. I had just finished kicking everyone out, and they were all probably waiting outside to hear what I said to her. She could only stay but so long before Big Momma got pissed.
“Look, I gotta go. Momma and them are waiting in the van. I love you.” She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight.
“I love you, too, Stephanie.” She went outside and headed for her car. All the others had gone, but there was Big Momma in the front seat of the van, watching us closely. I could only imagine what she was thinking right about now.
“Stephanie!” I yelled, and she turned around. “Who is she?”
“Who?”
“The girl in the video.”
“Shit, I thought you knew.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t see her face.”
“Well, maybe that’s a good thing. ’Cause trust me, you don’t wanna know.”
I had to take her word for that, because she wasn’t offering any more details. If I could stand it, I’d have to watch the tape again from the beginning. I couldn’t hurt any worse than I already did, and at least then I’d know who Derrick thought it was worth losing me for.
Stephanie called out one more time as she started the car. “Jasmine! Call Dylan. I saw him in the mall and he was asking about you. He’s the kinda guy you wanna get with. He kinda reminds me of Travis.” I could hear Big Momma agreeing from the passenger seat.
I thought about what she said as I watched her drive away. She was right. Maybe I would call Dylan.
36
Dylan
I’d just pulled in front of my store, and like so many other times in the past few months, I found myself daydreaming about Jasmine. It seemed like forever since I’d seen her, and even though I’d gotten my ass kicked by Derrick and his boys because of her, I missed the hell outta that woman. I closed my eyes, and an image of her beautiful face took over my thoughts. Well, at least it did until Joe started banging on the passenger-side window of my car like a madman. That fool scared me so bad I almost peed on myself.
“Hey, man! Open the door. I need to talk to you,” his voice boomed, even through the glass.
When I finally regained my composure, I gave him the finger. He stood with his arms crossed and laughed at me. He always did enjoy fuckin’ with me.
“Goddamn it, Joe! What the hell’d you do that for? You tryin’ to give me a heart attack or something?”
“Sorry, man. I couldn’t resist.” He reached for the latch. “Open up. I got something important I gotta tell you.” I hit the unlock button. He opened the door and slid in. It took a few seconds for him to adjust the seat to accommodate his large six-foot-five frame, but when he was settled, he turned to me with a dead-serious expression.
“Drive.”
“Drive? I ain’t going nowhere.” I took my keys out of the ignition. “I gotta open the store.”
“Look, you can open the store when we get back. This is important. Now, come on.” He gestured at the ignition.
“What’s going on, Joe? Where we going?” I placed the keys back in the ignition and started the car.
“Southside Regional,” he said flatly.
“Southside Regional ...
Medical Center?
” He nodded as I pulled into the street. “Why we going there? You sick?”
“You asked me to find Monica, didn’t you?”
“Yeah”
“Well, I found her. She’s at Southside Regional.”
“Is she all right?” I asked in a worried whisper.
“Yeah, she’s fine. But rumor has it you mighta became a daddy last night.” My eyes lit up.
“Monica had the baby?” I tried to sound nonchalant, but a wave of excitement passed through me. I know she told me the baby wasn’t mine, but I still wanted a blood test. No matter what she screamed at me from that jail cell, my heart leaped at the thought of possibly being a father. I’d invested too much of my emotions in this whole situation and lost Jasmine in the process. I had to see this through. I had to find out if the baby was mine.
“Dylanl Dylan, you ah’ight, man?” Joe roused me from my shocked state.
“I’ll be ah’ight, man. I just didn’t think this day would come so soon. She wasn’t supposed to have the baby for a few weeks;” I told him. I really didn’t feel like getting into the million other things I was thinking at the moment, such as, was I really the baby’s father? And, more important, was the baby born healthy?
We rode in silence the rest of the way as I sorted through the array of feelings that were coming at me in waves. I was so nervous by the time we got to the hospital, I thought my knees were gonna give out. It’s a good thing I had Joe with me, because it probably would have taken me an hour to find the maternity ward.
“Excuse me, beautiful. We’re looking for Monica Cooper’s room.” Joe smiled flirtatiously at the woman behind the desk as we stepped off the elevator onto the sixth floor.
“I’m sorry, sir. Visiting hours don’t start till noon.”
Joe pointed at me. “What about him? He’s the baby’s daddy.”
“Oh, that’s a little different. Let me see what I can do. What’s her name again?”
“Monica Cooper,” Joe replied.
The woman looked down at a chart, and I got even more nervous. What if there was a note alerting her that Monica didn’t wanna see me or have me see the baby?
“Cooper, Cooper. Monica Cooper. Here it is.” She looked up at me. “Looks like she had a C-section last night. What’s your name, sir?”
“Dylan Taylor,” I told her nervously.
She picked up the phone, dialing some numbers. “Hi, Monica. This is Carol, from the nurses’ station. There’s a gentleman out here by the name of Dylan Taylor.” She listened for a few seconds. “All right, I’ll send him down.”
“You’re gonna have to wait here with me.” She smiled at Joe. “But
you
can go see Monica. She’s right down the hall on your left. Room six twenty-three. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” I told her halfheartedly as I turned to Joe. “I’ll be right back.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be here when you get back.” He glanced at the woman’s name tag. “Won’t I, Carol?” Joe grinned and the woman blushed. I just shook my head as I walked down the hallway. That Joe sure had a way with women.
So while he stayed at the desk and flirted, I headed down the hall, more scared than I’d been in a long time. Joe had no idea how much I really wanted him to go with me. I didn’t know what I was about to walk into. Would Monica scream on me again as soon as she saw me, or would she welcome me and let me hold the baby? And of course, there was still the question of how I would feel about this child, who may or may not be mine.
When I first walked into the room, I was relieved. It was a big room with four beds in it. Only one other bed was occupied on this morning. The curtain was drawn around it, so I didn’t see the couple, but I could hear the murmurs of proud new parents cooing at their infant. This was good news for me. I figured that with strangers in the room, Monica would at least have to try and act civil. When I saw her in the bed in the back, I was pleasantly surprised to see that she was more than civil. She was smiling at me.
Monica was propped up in her bed, holding the baby. And believe it or not, she looked pretty good. I was expecting her to look all skinny and cracked out, but she didn’t. She almost looked like her old self. I mean, she was obviously tired from giving birth, but that was it. If you didn’t know her, you wouldn’t guess she was a drug user.
“Hi, Dylan,” she said quietly as I crossed the room to her bed.
I was so mesmerized by the sight of the baby in her arms that I didn’t even answer her. I’m sure this must have offended her, ’cause as I got closer to look at the baby, she kinda hunched over like she didn’t want me to see the bundle in her arms.
“I just had a fucking C-section and you can’t even say hi?” Her voice was a little harsher, but she was trying to keep it down so as not to disturb the other couple in the room. So maybe she was still mad about our last encounter, but at least she wasn’t screeching at me the way she was in the jail.
“I’m sorry. Hi, Monica, how you feeling?” I replied quickly, making sure to keep any trace of attitude out of my tone. I didn’t wanna fight with her. I had more important things to do. And she obviously knew what I was there for, ’cause once I acknowledged her, she gave me what I wanted: a view of the baby.
“I’m all right, I suppose.” She sat up and loosened the blanket from around the baby. I swear, my heart felt lighter in my chest when she exposed the small, brown face. I know it’s not scientific, but that baby’s dark pigment meant the world to me. Oh, I knew there was still the possibility that the baby could be Jordan’s, but now the odds were considerably in my favor. I smiled softly at the beautiful child.
“Is it a boy or a girl?” I mumbled.
“A boy. His name is Davon.”
“A boy ... a boy. I always wanted a son.” I was choked up. “Can I hold him?”
“Okay. Just be careful.”
I pulled a chair next to the bed and sat down, arms outstretched. Monica placed Davon gently in my arms and I cradled his tiny body close to mine. My heart was pounding till it felt like it would burst. He had to be the most gorgeous baby I’d ever seen. It was love at first sight. I didn’t wanna ever let him go. Sadly, as I gazed at this beautiful child, reality set in.
“Is he healthy? I mean, he doesn’t have that shit in him, does he?”
“I don’t think so,” Monica answered honestly. “I mean, I haven’t been getting high lately, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“You haven’t been getting high?” I made sure she heard my disbelief. “You broke outta rehab four times to get high. And now you expect me to believe you just stopped using? Please, Monica. Do I look stupid?”
She actually looked insulted! But I didn’t care. Somebody had to be straight with her. There was no reason to avoid the issue now. In fact, with Davon here, it seemed even more important to face it.
“I just did thirty days in the Petersburg jail for having drugs during that raid. How the hell did you expect me to get high?” she tried to explain. But I wasn’t about to let her off so easy.
“You can get drugs in jail. You think I don’t know that?”
“Yeah, you can get high if you got money. I didn’t even have money for cigarettes, so I damn sure wasn’t getting high.”
I let the issue drop for now. That was her story, and it looked like she was stickin’ to it. I made a mental note to ask the doctor later if the baby was checked for drugs in his system.
“Well, let’s hope the other eight months you were getting high doesn’t affect him....” I kissed the baby, suddenly sorry for the life he would have to lead with Monica as his mother. “So, you’re probably gonna get high the second you get outta here, aren’t you? I bet you wish you could get a hit right now.” She looked away, answering my question without saying a word. “You’re pathetic, Monica. You know that?”
“Look, I didn’t ask you to come here and lecture me, Dylan. So just gimme my baby and get the hell outta here.” She pointed at the door.
“You want me to leave?”
“You don’t understand English? Yes, I want you to leave.” She raised her voice and looked at me like I was stupid.
“Keep it down, Monica,” I warned her. I felt bad for the other couple, who had suddenly become silent. Our drama was definitely intruding on their happy little family moment.