Page 31 of Baby Me
“In what?”
“In whatever revenge scheme you’re cooking up against those three. I understand because there is no cell in my body that doesn’t want to bury them all myself, but you can’t do anything right now.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Who do you think would be the prime suspect if something were to happen to them?” She asked as her thumb pointed back to herself. “This girl. Not you. Not the club. Me. I cannot lose my daughter again. It’s bad enough they’ve told me to be prepared for the possibility of losing my daughter forever anyway. I would never forgive you if her last moments on this earth had to be spent amongst strangers wondering why her momma forgot about her.”
“Fuck.” The word blew free of me on a whisper. “You have my word that I will not make things harder on the two of you. We’ll focus on getting our girl healthy again. Then, we’ll bring her home, and after enough time has passed, they’ll get what’s coming to them. I swear they won’t get away with what they’ve done.”
“My lawyer is already working on making them pay.”
“Losing some money isn’t enough of a punishment.”
Vina shook her head. “He’s going after all their credentials too.”
“Good. Once that is over, I’ll go after whatever is left.” She nodded her agreement that time and we both sat in silence a while and watched our daughter sleep.
“I was scared,” I admitted as we sat there surrounded by the hushed noises in the hallways.
“When you found out about Coral?”
“That too, but I’m talking about when I left you alone in my bed.” She gasped and turned to look at me before quickly diverting her eyes back to our daughter.
“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about that,” Vina suggested.
“No, I think it’s long past time we talked about it. Had I done that instead of letting other shit get in my head, you never would have gone through everything alone. So, we’re going to do this before any more time is wasted.”
I held onto Davina as I explained the year-long crush I harbored on her, the months I spent getting to know my high school ex-girlfriend again. The pivotal moment between June and me back then that sent me into a bit of a tailspin and questioning my own judgement. Then, I worked my way to the night we spent together.
“I’d been wanting you for so long, fantasizing about being with you.”
“Tripp,” she huffed in a desperate plea to get me to shut up about our time together.
“No, you need to hear this as much as I need to say it. I wanted you. Fuck, that never went away.”
“You’ve been dating someone else, that lady.”
I nodded my head and continued to explain my history with June over the past two years and how we had never been intimate. I also explained why I walked away from Vina after our night together.
“I get that you didn’t want to have star come home and be blindsided. Plus, I was never enough considering I was a club girl.”
“No, that didn’t have anything to do with it.” She gave me a sidelong glance that all but called me out on my bullshit. “Okay, it had a little to do with it, but only because of my son. I didn’t know if the two of you had ever hooked up before. You were around before he started dating Scout, so there was no way to be sure without asking.”
“I had not been with him before you. He, um, after… I couldn’t really tell him no.”
“I understand that.”
“It was just the one time. I hated it because Scout was my friend and it felt like I was betraying both you and her.”
“You could have refused him.”
She nodded her head. “I could have, but I needed a little more time before I had enough money to leave.”
“You were planning to leave even before you found out you were pregnant?”
“Yes,” she answered hesitantly. “Our conversation, the one we had that night, you made a good point. I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I think I was the oldest club girl at the time, so it made sense that my time with the club would be coming to an end sooner than later.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Jesus, woman, your age doesn’t mean shit. You’re fucking drop dead gorgeous, you have a bangin’ body, and it’s all packaging for the sweetness you have inside that draws every motherfucker with a swinging dick your way.”