Marco (The Men of Indecent Exposure #1) (5 page)

Marco

On my way backstage, I grabbed a towel to wipe away a stray dot of whipped cream from my chest.

“Missed a spot,” Logan grumbled, pointing at another on my collarbone when he passed.

“Thanks, man.”

He responded with another low grunt and then continued on toward the stage when Ivy started introducing him. He dropped down to the floor to get a few pushups in like he always did to get pumped up, slapped his chest once, and then pushed the black, velvet curtain aside. The ladies went wild and I laughed, listening to him get them even more amped up.

“You done for the night?” Justin asked the second I stepped foot inside the changing room.

I did a double-take when I caught a glimpse of him in the mirror, sporting some kind of cheesy, fake tattoo. “Looks good, right?” he asked, grinning like a kid.

I secured the towel around my waist and went over to him, eyeing the thing on his chest.

“Looks like you got it out a cereal box, man,” was my honest response. He laughed and I went on, extending an offer I’d given countless times before. “Why don’t you come to the shop and let me hook you up with a real one? Something simple, maybe something written in Haitian Creole to represent? Won’t cost you a thing,” I added.

He cocked his head to the side and touched the outline of his latest artwork—if you could even call it that. When he shook his head, I knew what he was about to say. “I don’t know. I’m still on the fence.”

I laughed. “You’re not on the fence, you’re scared. At least admit it.”

He left the fake ink alone and ran a brush over his fade, eyeing his freshly cut lineup. “It’s not about being scared,” he started. “It’s my mom. You know how she is.”

I was cracking up before he even finished and so was he.

“You think it’s a game, but let my mom find out I let you, or anybody else, defile this body…” he paused to shake his head. “It wouldn’t be pretty for either one of us.”

This guy was twenty-four years old, had lived on his own since he was eighteen, but was still scared of his damn momma.

Ridiculous.

“Justin… dude… let me remind you that you take your clothes off for a living. I’m pretty sure that trumps getting tatted. Just sayin’.”

He ignored me and went back to brushing his hair. When I got my jeans on, I took a seat on the bench and checked my phone—nine missed calls and six text messages, all from different women. For now, I ignored them. I hadn’t felt much like talking and hanging out lately because my mind was on other things, like Brynn and her baby. We hadn’t talked in a week and I knew she was probably expecting to hear from me by now, but I honestly didn’t know what to say.

A kid.
Me
having a kid. That didn’t even sound right.

When I took a deep breath and shoved my cell back in my bag, Justin looked over. “What you over there huffing and puffing about?”

I didn’t know how to answer that. Instead of trying, I just shook my head, letting him know I wasn’t in the mood to discuss it. But in true Justin-fashion, he pried anyway.

“Girl trouble?” he asked jokingly. “I keep telling you; if you’re having a hard time meeting women, I can loan you one of mine.”

I gave him the finger in the mirror’s reflection.

“Family trouble? Something going on with your sisters?” he asked.

“Surprisingly, no. They’re all good for right now. It’s nothing like that this time.”

“So you admit that something
is
wrong, though.” He gave a slick grin when I walked into his trap.

“Put it this way, nothing I wanna talk about.”

He grabbed the bottle of colorless olive oil from the bag with his last name,
Baptiste,
printed on it in bold, white letters, and then came to sit beside me.

“You know I’m not gonna stop asking, so you may as well just say whatever it is.” While waiting for my answer, he proceeded to slather on the clear liquid, being careful when he got to the ridiculousness stamped in the center of his chest.

I absolutely
did
know he wouldn’t let up, but I wasn’t ready for the guys to know about my situation just yet. If something was confirmed, I wouldn’t be as secretive, but for now all I had to go on was Brynn’s word.

Justin paused from what he was doing and stared me down. “Your feelings hurt because I won’t let you do the tattoo?” he asked patronizingly, wearing a serious expression despite the fact that I knew he was just screwing around.

I’d get tired of him asking before
he’d
get tired of asking, so I was bound to lose. Of all the guys, I was closest to Carlos, Logan, and Justin, and I didn’t have any friends outside this place. For all intents and purposes,
Indecent Exposure
was like a second home to me and these guys were all my brothers. I could have just as easily called one of my three sisters, but they all had enough on their plates. I’d tell them once I knew for sure.

Bottom line: I needed to talk to someone, so it may as well be Justin.

My phone went off again and I ignored it. “A chick called the other day. Apparently, she’s pregnant. And apparently, she thinks the kid is mine,” I admitted, leaning my head back against the wall.

“Whoa… hold up. You got a lil Marco on the way?”

Looking around, I made sure we were alone. “Say it a little louder, man. I’m sure Big Dan didn’t hear you on the door,” I shot back, speaking far quieter than he had. “And that’s not what I said. For now it’s just speculation, but… yeah… there’s a possibility that it…” I paused, taking a breath. This was all a lot to take in.

“It’s cool. I get it. No need to explain,” he cut in. “Is the girl coming after you for money or something?”

I shook my head. “Nah, doesn’t seem like it.” I pictured that look on Brynn’s face when she tried to tell me she didn’t care if I stuck around or not.

“Wow… you’re cool, though?”

That felt like a trick question. “I guess, considering.”

“What about her? She freaking out, too?”

I cleared my throat and stared at the floor. Seeing as how I hadn’t so much as
talked
to Brynn in a week, I couldn’t answer that.

Justin gave me a look. “You’re avoiding her,” he concluded. My lack of a response answered his question.

He was quiet and I knew he had an opinion about that even though he hadn’t said it out loud. If I had to guess, he was thinking what a dick I was being and that I should have at least called and checked on Brynn. I knew these things, too, but hadn’t been able to bring myself to do it.

Justin let me off the hook and changed the subject. “You sure it’s even yours?”

I shook my head again. “All I know for now is that we did hook up at some point, but I don’t know who else she’s been with.”

Yeah, Brynn tried to say it was just me, but that was kinda hard to believe. I mean, not to put her down or anything, but who’s to say she wasn’t with other guys around that time, too. That’s just the reality of the situation.

“Then that’s the first thing you need to figure out,” Justin cut in.

I agreed; however, it wasn’t that clear cut. “Yeah, but I don’t know if I can pretend to be involved, pretend to be on board with this thing for the next seven months until she goes into labor.” The thought of not knowing for that long made me uneasy.

Justin lowered his head and laughed to himself. “We’re not living in the stone-age anymore, man. They can do DNA tests while she’s still carrying. Don’t you ever watch
Discovery Channel
?
TLC?
”

I hadn’t realized that was possible.

“Listen, Marco. Just talk to her,” he urged. “Start there. Find out if she’s cool with doing the test now, but until then, just take things one day at a time. But definitely call her,” he repeated, making sure to stress that part.

I heard Justin loud and clear, but what he advised was easier said than done; calling Brynn, facing my fears. This situation had affected me in ways few other things in life had. In fact, aside from some things I went through as a kid, I couldn’t think of anything more stressful. I wanted to be a good man, wanted to do the right thing, but… I just wasn’t sure I was ready for this.
Any
of it, really.

Still, Justin’s advice hadn’t fallen on deaf ears and I’d take it into consideration.

Brynn

It got harder and harder to get out of bed every day, especially with the morning-sickness. After several mad-dashes for the toilet these past few weeks, I seriously contemplated just putting an air mattress in the bathroom and calling it a day. Actually, the nausea was the symptom that made me consider the possibility of being pregnant in the first place—the missed period and fluctuating scale were of the norm for me. The fatigue and lightheadedness was new, though. Both started two weeks to the date after finding out I was expecting and I made a mental note to bring this up during my next appointment.

Wiping my mouth with a wad of tissue, I flushed and stood to my feet again. This was disgusting. Not just the vomiting, but even the way I felt. It was like my body was going haywire all of a sudden now that this pregnancy had been confirmed. My nose was constantly stuffy thanks to my allergies being super-charged by this ordeal and my nipples burned like someone had slathered them with
Crisco
and set them on fire.

Generally speaking, I felt like crap.

Two weeks had passed since meeting Marco to discuss our situation. He hadn’t tried to reach out even once, so I was pretty sure he probably
wouldn’t
at this point. Part of that was my fault, though. In an effort to not make him feel so pressured, I was pretty sure I made it seem like I was indifferent to his involvement, which couldn’t have been further from the truth. Still, his stance was clear. If he wanted to be present, he would’ve called by now.

There was no time to stand around feeling sorry for myself. School was starting in less than two hours and I still had to shower, do my hair, and get there. The hot water helped some. I kept my chest turned toward it and some of the burning subsided. This wasn’t what I expected, but according to all the websites I visited, these things were all pretty common.

And apparently, it’d get worse before it got better, so at least I had
that
to look forward to.

When I stepped out of the shower, I couldn’t fight the urge to crawl beneath the blanket just one last time, so I gave in. It felt like I could just sleep all day. On top of everything else, I was beginning to feel the weight of depression coming down. It didn’t help that Naseem had been distant. I hadn’t heard from him other than the text he sent days ago asking how I felt. Even that was only because he accidentally sent me a message meant for someone else and ignoring me after he apologized would’ve been awkward.

I couldn’t blame him for being distant, but I won’t lie and say I didn’t miss hearing from him. I already felt so lonely with all I was going through. However, Naseem had every right to exit our friendship if that was what he decided.

I gave myself five minutes to rest in my bed and then I got up to finish getting ready. I removed my scarf and only needed to run a comb through my hair, letting it fall to my shoulders. I slipped into my clothes and then spritzed a little perfume on my wrists. Sure enough, not right away, but within a matter of seconds, my stomach turned once the scent got to me and I rushed to the bathroom again, hovering over the toilet.

I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take.

Cleaning myself up again, I finally got around to doing my makeup. At this rate I was gonna have to start getting up about an hour earlier just to get out the door on time.

Even the drive to the school was touch and go. Twice I had to pull over, thinking this kid I was carrying would get the best of me yet again. However, both times I stopped were false alarms, nothing but dry heaving.

Slowly, I made my way through the halls to the teacher’s lounge, desperate to get something fizzy in my stomach to settle it. My dollar was taken into the vending machine and then the can tumbled down with a thud. I snatched it up quickly and headed for the door.

More than halfway to my classroom, I was reminded of something Mona mentioned the last time we spoke. There was still the not-so-small technicality regarding the morality clause I may or may not have signed when I got hired. Time had made the memory foggy. There were so many forms to read and sign; there was definitely a chance that the clause Mona signed as a stipulation of employment years ago was still in place when I came on the scene.

If that was the case, I’d have to add a job search to my list of things to worry about.

“Morning,” Tamika greeted me when I stepped into her office. With our annex being so small, there was no need for a separate administrative building—there was just the main office and this one. All employee records were kept in-house.

I tried to smile back, but I was pretty sure it came across as more of a snarl as my stomach churned yet again. Judging by the look on Tamika’s face, my assessment was spot-on; I was snarling.

“Is everything okay?” she asked. “You don’t look so good.”

I nodded and tried smiling again. “Yup, I’m good. Just didn’t get a great night’s sleep.”

That response satisfied her. “Well, at least you don’t have a field trip today like the third grade teachers do,” she responded with a light laugh. “So be grateful.”

And I was. There was no way I could handle that right now, keeping an eye on all my kids in a wide-open setting. Nope. Not today. Today I needed easy.

“There something I can help you with?” she asked, sounding chipper as always.

I stepped closer to the counter that separated her desk from the reception area of the office. When I did, I gripped the edge of the surface, talking myself out of upchucking right there on the carpet.

Control yourself, Brynn. You have to keep it together.

Swallowing hard, I gathered my thoughts. “Well, I have a couple things to do before the kids get in, but first,” I started, “I thought I’d stop in and ask if you’d mind making me a copy of my employment contract? There’s just something I wanted to look over.”

Tamika cast a curious stare my way, clearly wondering what the concern was, but she didn’t ask questions. “Sure,” she said sweetly, standing from her seat to head for the file room. With her gone, I didn’t have to pretend like I was okay. My stomach swam and I sipped my
Coke
, hoping to settle it.

Within minutes, Tamika returned with what I requested and handed the papers over. “Here you go.”

I accepted the small stack and replied with a forced, “Thank you,” before leaving.

The second I reached my desk, I took a breath and shoved the papers inside the drawer, thinking I’d give myself a few hours to process everything before my fate was decided. In the time I had left, I stapled the math packets I needed to hand out and when the bell rang, I was glad for the fresh air outside where I waited to get my students who’d ridden the bus. Once I got everyone to the classroom and settled, they worked on their journal entries in silence. My favorite little helper, Izzy, always finished before the others and liked to help me pass out assignments. I happily handed over that task and, with her help, I pushed through our morning routine.

By lunch, I was worn out. With my students gone to the cafeteria, I figured this was as good a time as any to give reading the contract another try. I started flipping through the info, hoping and praying I didn’t find that clause. If I did, my future at St. Ann’s hung in the balance and my situation was about to become a whole lot more complicated.

My heart was pounding. Without giving it a second thought, I dialed Mona for support before going any further.

“Hello?” she answered on the first ring, and it was at that exact moment that I realized what a big day this was for her.

My hand went to my forehead. “I’m so sorry for bugging you. Today’s your first day. It completely slipped my mind.”

She’d landed a great job as Vice Principal at a middle school within weeks of arriving in Atlanta.

“Girl, it’s fine. I’m in my office eating lunch. You’re definitely not bugging me.”

I smiled and relaxed a little. “I’m so proud of you. Ced, too! You guys are really doing it big out there.”

Mona let out a breath on the other end. “Yeah, maybe… but we miss you. Feels kinda strange being here with you all the way in Houston.”

My heart felt heavy at her words. I missed them, too—like they wouldn’t believe. They were the only family I had and now they were hundreds of miles away. I felt that distance so much more with what I was going through.

“I know you’ll be in town for your birthday in a few months, but I’m coming to visit you all out there as soon as I can,” I promised.

“Your room is already ready whenever you get here. I’m even looking into having a crib put in there so the little munchkin will have a place to sleep.”

We were both quiet after that and I eyed the papers in my hand.

“Wow…  I still can’t believe you’re having a baby.”

A solemn chuckle left my mouth. “That makes two of us.”

“You feeling okay? Is something wrong? You don’t sound like yourself.”

It wasn’t a shock that Mona detected my mood being off. Still, though, I was hesitant to share my thoughts. The last thing I wanted to do was sully
her
good mood, her first day on the new job, with my drama.

“Brynn?” she said sternly when I didn’t respond, reminding me of my mother.

I smiled a little. “I’m fine. I just… I have my contract in my hands and can’t bring myself to go through it. What if—” I paused when the weight of it all became heavier. “What if I lose my job over this? I won’t be able to support
myself
, let alone a baby.”

This was all so crazy to me; how one day things were easy and now, not a single aspect of my life remained uncomplicated.

“You do know you’re welcome to come
here
, don’t you? With me and Ced? With my new position, I’m positive I could find you something within the school district. And hell, it’s not like we don’t have enough room in this big house your brother insisted on buying.”

Her offer warmed my heart, but hopefully I wouldn’t have to consider relocating.

“Thanks. I appreciate you, Mona.”

“You’re welcome, and I meant every word,” she added. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, I knew she did. “Once you do read it, once you know where you stand,” she clarified, “I’m here if you need to talk, so just call.”

“You already know I will.”

We ended our call and I snacked on an orange and some crackers while getting up the nerve to flip to the next page of my paperwork. I’d never known of anyone in my particular career dilemma, so I decided to pull out my phone to search
Google
for similar instances, but I never got around to typing in the question because my cell began to vibrate in my hand.

The name ‘
Marco’
flashed across the screen and my pulse quickened. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever hear from him again.

I hesitated to answer, but finally did on the last ring, doing my best to sound upbeat and positive. Not hearing from him had left a bad taste in my mouth, but I didn’t want to let that show through my tone. I was trying to be open minded.

“Hello?”

Loud music and constant buzzing in the background made it hard to hear when he responded with a casual, “Hey,” through his accent. There was also a touch of an urban intonation to it that left me wondering where he’d grown up. Second Ward, maybe?

I turned up the volume on my phone and tried not to be nervous having him on the line.

“How uh… how’re you feeling?” he asked, his voice coming through the phone deep, naturally raspy.

Normally, I’d lie and tell whoever asked the question that I was feeling fine, but not him. He needed to know none of this was easy. “Terrible, actually,” I answered. “And you?”

He seemed to be moving further and further away from the commotion, making it easier to hear him. “Not too bad. Just working,” he answered.

Working. Before now, I didn’t even know for sure if he had a job. Now I found myself wondering what he did for a living.

“Cool,” I said back, expending some of my nervous energy by twisting and untwisting the plastic baggie my orange had been in.

“So, I apologize ahead of time; I don’t have long to talk right now, but I just didn’t want to leave you hanging.”