You're My Little Secret 3 (8 page)

DOMINIC

“Man that
shit just don’t sound right to me,” I complained
as
David and I sat in our office. It’s been three days since
Kennedi and I went before the
judge,
and
I still have more questions than answers. I’m happy with the outcome, but I’m
still confused about a lot of things. Like how Kennedi was able to get her
hands on my business account bank statement. There’s no way that kind
information was accessible to her. That only meant one thing. Somebody is in my
business and giving up info that only employees could get their hands on.
Besides David, Scott and I, we have a total of twelve employees. None of them
gave me the impression of being a snake, but I wouldn’t put my life on it. I
thought about each and every man that works for
us,
and nobody stood out.

“Man,
somebody is on some foul shit. You know she couldn’t have gotten her hands on
nothing like that without help. Ain’t no other way to explain it. Her crazy ass
probably paid somebody for some info,” David said.

“I don’t
know, but it’s been on my mind for the past few days. I
don’t need any
snakes working with me or for me. Too many niggas
out here looking for work for me to play games with anybody up in here. I don’t
mind signing a pink
slip,
and I’m dead
ass serious about that,” I threatened.

“I feel
you, but you can fire nobody if you don’t know who it is. It shouldn’t be too
hard to find out though.”

“How can I
do that? It’s not like they gon’ be honest if I ask. Nobody is that stupid. At
least I hope not.”

“No, but
Kennedi is. You know she still got mad love for you. All you have to do is say
some shit that she wants to hear. Make her think it’s all good for a minute.
She’ll be telling you her bank account number and everything else,” David
replied.

“You must
be crazy. Brooklyn already beat her down. Ain’t no telling what she’ll do to
her if she finds that out. She’ll be trying to leave my ass for real this time.
I’m not trying to have another falling out with her. We just got back on track.
Nah bruh, I can’t even go there.”

“Nigga,
stop being so damn scary. Let me find out that Brooklyn is putting her hands on
you when nobody is around. You all shook up and paranoid and shit,” David said.

“I’m just
not trying to do nothing to piss her off. She’s been on some rowdy shit since
she’s been pregnant,” I confessed.

“Man,
Brooklyn is not going to find out. Now, I’m not telling you to go to the bitch’s
house or nothing like that. You need to take her out to eat or something. You know
wine and dine her. Then when you get the info, leave and stick her ass with the
bill,” David suggested.

“Dude you
really are stupid,” I laughed, but I was really thinking about what he was
saying. Kennedi still loves
me,
and I
know that for sure. She’ll tell me what I want to know if I tell her what she
wants to hear. I’m not an actor, so I hope I’m convincing enough to make her
believe me.

“Just call
her and ask her out on a date,” David snickered.

“Don’t
play with me man. If I do call her it damn sure won’t be for a date. I’m very
happy at home.”

“You
better be. My lil sis
do
n’t play that
shit with you. Call and put her on speakerphone. I want to hear when she gets
her hopes up high,” David chuckled.

“Man, I
don’t know, I got a bad feeling about this,” I admitted.

“Brookly
n’s
longest day at school is on Mondays right?”
David asked. I nodded my head letting him know that he was right.

“Alright,
so she won’t be able to call you if she’s in
class
and you won’t have to lie about where you are. Take Kennedi somewhere far out
where you don’t know anybody and talk to her,” he suggested.

“When you
say far out, how far are you talking? I don’t want to be around her ass that
long.”

“Well, not
far, but somewhere that you know Brooklyn or nobody we know will see you.”

“Man, New
Orleans is small as fuck. Ain’t too many places we can go.”

“Nigga do
you want the info or not?” David asked me.

“Yeah, I
want it. I need to find out who she’s been talking to so I can handle their ass.
I can’t stand snakes,” I fumed.

“Alright,
well call her,” David said eagerly. He pulled a chair up to my desk like he was
about to watch a good movie or something. This clown lives for
drama,
and I’ve been keeping him very
entertained lately. I picked up the phone and dialed Kennedi’s number before
pressing the speakerphone button.

“You must
have dialed the wrong number because I know you didn’t mean to call me,” she
snapped as soon as she picked up. I’m so happy that we aren’t face to
face,
or she wouldn’t have missed the scowl on
my face just from hearing her voice.

“Stop
acting like that. I’m just calling to check on you and my baby,” I replied. I’m
shocked that she answered and didn’t send me to voicemail. Usually, she would
always do that whenever her mother was around.

“We’re
fine and goodbye,” she said.

“Wait,” I
said trying to keep her from hanging up. “I wanted to know if I could take you
out so we can talk.”

“Now I
know you dialed the wrong number. This is
Kennedi,
not Brooklyn,” she snapped.

“So that’s
how
you
doing me now?”

“That’s
how you wanted
it,
so I guess I am,” I’ve
been ready to hang up, but David keeps encouraging me to keep talking.

“Well, maybe
I don’t want it like that anymore,” I replied with a frown. It’s killing me to
even fake it with her ass.

“So what
are you saying Dominic?”

 
“If you let me take you out we can talk about
it,” I suggested.

“Take me
out when and where?” She asked. David gave me the thumbs
up,
and I gave him my middle finger.

“I’m free
Monday and I’ll tell you the place as soon as I decide,” I answered.

“Okay, but
you better be saying something that I want to hear,” she warned.

“You’ll
love what I have to say, I promise. I’ll let you go, but I’ll text you the info
on where we can meet for lunch,” I promised right before disconnecting our
call.

“Now was
that hard?” David asked.

“Hell
yeah,
it was hard. I’m going home to my girl
and my son after that shit,” I said as I grabbed my keys and walked out. As bad
as I wanted to know what was up, I didn’t want to be around Kennedi at all.

“Brook,” I
yelled when I walked into our apartment about thirty minutes later. I knew she
had to be in the kitchen because I smelled the food as soon as I walked in.

 
“Yeah,” she replied.

 
“Daddy,” DJ yelled excitedly as he ran up to
me. I picked him up and went to see what Brooklyn was cooking.

“Get your
dirty hands off of my pots,” she fussed while pushing me away from the stove.

“Girl,
that stomach is popping out of nowhere,” I said taking notice of the bulge that
she carried around. I rubbed her belly and put DJ down so that he could do the
same. He basically wants to do everything that I do. I try to be careful whenever
he’s around.

“Go wash
y’all
hands so we can eat,” Brooklyn
instructed.

After we
ate and cleaned up the kitchen, I gave DJ a bath while Brooklyn took her
shower. Once I took my
shower,
I joined
both of them on the sofa to watch the Disney channel. Brooklyn was playing on
her phone while I watched SpongeBob with my son.

“I’m going
to get me and DJ some ice cream. You want some?” Brooklyn asked me. My son was
wide awake which means he must have taken a long nap today.

“No, I’m
good, but bring me some water,” I replied to her departing back. Soon after she
got
up,
I heard a buzzing noise alerting
me
to
an incoming text message. When I
picked up my
phone,
I didn’t see any
messages, but I still heard the buzzing. I looked at the spot where Brooklyn
sat and saw her phone lighting up. I picked it
up,
and my heart dropped when I read the messages. It had to be a nigga because he
was begging to see her. She didn’t have the number saved, but I still scrolled
through all of their messages.

“What the
fuck,” I said a little too loud.

“What the
fuck,” DJ repeated clearly. He’s just like a sponge and soaks up everything he
hears. He’s almost two and talking like he’s three already thanks to Brooklyn.

“Don’t say
that DJ. That’s a bad word,” I chastised even though he was repeating what I
said. I continued to look through the messages and got more and more heated
with each passing second. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was
Kevin, but I can’t believe that Brooklyn is even entertaining that clown. I
left DJ watching TV while I went to the kitchen and confronted Brooklyn.

“What kind
of fucking games are you playing?” I yelled as I grabbed her by the collar of
her night shirt.

“What are
you talking about?” She replied nervously.

“This is
what I’m talking about,” I replied while shoving the phone in her face. “I
never put my fucking hands on you, but you still talking to this nigga even after
he hit your stupid ass. You never even told me about that shit. And then you’re
trying to meet up with him too?”

“No,” she
cried.

“Well,
that’s not what your messages say. If that’s what you want let me know now and
I can go on about my business. I’m not doing this stupid shit with you Brooklyn,”
I swore. I would never leave her, but I had to make her think that I would.

“No, that’s
not what I want. I blocked all the numbers that he called from, but he kept
calling,” she said with tears pouring from her eyes.

“That’s
because you keep entertaining his ass. If you really didn’t want to talk you
would have changed your number or something. Don’t stand here and play dumb
with me.”

“Okay, I’ll
change my number.”

“Don’t do
it just because I told you to. Obviously you like talking to him. And since
y’all
texting each other and shit tell his
bitch ass it’s on whenever I see him,” I yelled. I walked back into the living
room and picked DJ up from the sofa. Brooklyn started panicking when she saw me
going to the front door.

“Where are
you going? I said I’m sorry,” she cried.

“Don’t say
anything else to me. I don’t even want to look at you right now,” I said right
before walking out on her. I heard her crying, but I’m too mad to even care.
She knew that I wasn’t going far without my car keys. Plus, DJ and I were still
in our pajamas. I only went downstairs to talk to Bryce for a while. I wasn’t
there a good twenty minutes before Brook sent me a text with her new phone
number. I’m happy that she changed it, but I shouldn’t have had to make her do
it. I know I have to talk her, but it’s not going to be tonight.

*****

Monday
came faster than I needed it to, but I’m ready to get it over with. Kennedi and
I are meeting at Oceana Grill in the French Quarters. It’s still kind of early and
many people are either at school or work with the exception of a few tourists.
This area usually doesn’t get crowded until night
time,
and I would be long gone by then. I came a few minutes early
just to try to get a table away from everybody else. I doubt I would see
anybody I knew, but I’m not taking any chances. When I walked into the
restaurant, I was shocked to see that Kennedi was already there. Then to make
matters worse, she’s already seated at a table that sat right in the middle of
the restaurant. Her face lit up when she saw
me,
and I had to remind myself to keep smiling.

“What’s up
Ma?” I asked when I walked up to the table. I sat down in a hurry before she
could even attempt to hug me.

“Hey boo,”
she smiled while looking into my eyes.

“Why didn’t
you get a seat by the window? I don’t like this spot,” I told her.

Within a
matter of
minutes,
she flagged down a
waiter who moved us near the window. I felt a little better since we were moved
out of the spotlight.

“So let’s
talk. What is it that you wanted to say to me?” She asked.

“Damn, can
we order something to eat first?” I laughed while trying to break the ice. She’s
looking at me like I’m a piece of
meat,
and I need a distraction. The same waiter who moved us came back to take our
orders. I ordered a shot of patron to help me get through being here. It’s probably
the first of many if I have to stay here for a while.

“So does
this lunch date mean that you’ve had a change of heart about us getting a
divorce?” She asked while sipping her sweet tea.