Page 52 of Just Listen
I narrowed my gaze. “What about me told you that I would go for some shit like this?”
Her lashes fluttered. “Come again?”
I exhaled, trying to remain calm. “Did you see some type of hoe in me? Because I’m struggling to make sense of this. I’ve been nothing but respectful to you. Never got out of line. So, why would you think that giving birth to my baby and not contacting me was the thing to do?”
She inhaled. “Look, don’t take it personally, because it wasn’t about you, as a man. She was obviously unplanned, and that was a thing within itself. Fucked up anything I thought I had going on with the next man. And then I realized that the girl who’d been calling me regularly for relationship advice was your girl. Paisley is cool. I like her. I also know that she loves you. So, once I realized that y’all were together, I knew that regardless of my choices, I wasn’t including you. Because I could never see myself as the entity standing between you and your girl. With a baby on my hip. That’s too much, and I got way too much pride to ever force my way into anybody’s life.”
“I hear you, but that still don’t make it right. As crazy as the timing was, I deserved to know,” I argued.
She nodded. “You did. My bad.”
I couldn’t determine it there was any sincerity in that apology, but I couldn’t even dwell on that, because there somuch other shit swirling around in my mind. “You said her name was Khari, right?”
“Yeah.”
I tilted my head. “Did you figure out my government na—”
“I know your name, Khamere.”
I gave her a confused look, and she continued.
“Paisley. She never used Malice. That’s why I didn’t know that she was talking about you, at first. And then once I realized that you were the dude that she was always venting about, I put two and two together.”
“Damn.” I stroked my goatee, while in deep thought. “That’s wild.”
“I know, right?” She lightly smirked.
I couldn’t help looking her up and down, as I had to admit that I wasn’t mad about this revelation. I just didn’t care for her keeping it from me. But shit, it could’ve been a lot worse.
“Okay. Well, look, I don’t mean no disrespect, but I’d like to get a DNA test.”
I saw anger flash across her eyes. “For what? I’m not asking for anything. I already told you that the baby is handled.”
“What that gotta do with anything?” I scowled. “If she’s mine, then I intend to be there. Fully.”
She hesitated. “I guess you wasn’t listening to me. I’m not trying to go through the motions, because my baby is an outside child—”
“Outside?” I snarled, not liking the sound of that. “Don’t even say no shit like that. I was very much single man, at thetime. So, there’s nothing outside about her. And you let me worry about Paisley and the relationship. That aint got nothing to do with me being a father. So, again, can we do the test?”
She exhaled. “Yeah. We can do that.”
“Okay.” I studied her closely. “Is your number still the same?”
She nodded.
“Alright. Well, hopefully we can go do that tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? You do realize that it’s Friday, right? Plus, I’m not even gone front like I’m not about to go to my cousin’s party tonight, and act a damn fool. So, the last thing I’m trying to do is get up and handle something like that the next day. Besides, those labs probably aren’t even open on the weekends.”
“There’s some labs that are available twenty-four seven,” her mama interjected, as she was tapping away on her phone.
Jaylah bucked her eyes. “Mama, really?”
“What?” Her mama opened her arms. “I just checked, cause it sounds like you stalling, and this needs to be handled, ASAP. The man says that he wants to be involved, and I wanna see what he’s made of.”
“I guess.” Jaylah rolled her eyes. “Tomorrow it is, then.”
I nodded. “That’ll work. But I’m not done with this conversation. So, when I call you…pick up.”
