Never Again, No More 2

by Untamed

  “Is that right?” he asked, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and leaning in for another kiss.

  “Mm-hmm,” I said as my mouth found his. We kissed passionately.

  “D-scuh-ting,” Ryan Jr. said, entering the kitchen.

  Ryan and I laughed, and Ryan turned to his Mini-Me and started play boxing. “Shut up, boy. Just wait until you get a girlfriend.”

  “Yuck, Ryan has a girlfriend?” Ray came in and asked.

  “No, your dad was just saying wait until he does,” I corrected.

  Ryan Jr. shook his head. “No way. Girls are crazy!”

  “Yep, they are. Keep it that way,” I agreed. “Now, all of you get out and do your thing before dinner is ready.”

  “All right. Who’s ready for some football?” Ryan asked. The boys yelped in excitement, so Ryan grabbed his parka, and they all bounded out the back door.

  I rushed to the oven to pull out the lasagna so it could cool down, and I was just about to put my breadsticks in the oven when I heard crying on the baby monitor. “It figures I wouldn’t get a break for too long.”

  I washed my hands and rushed to the nursery. “Hey, Mama’s baby,” I cooed as I picked up my month-old little girl, Lexi McKenzie Westmore. Her middle name was dedicated to the memory of her older sister, Charity.

  “Oh, you’ve made a stinky in your diaper,” I said in my baby-talk voice. I cleaned her up, brought her in the kitchen, and sat her in the bouncer. Then I put one of her bottles in the warmer and put the breadsticks in the oven. I peered out the window and laughed as the boys ran and jumped on their daddy.

  The pride I felt for my family made my heart swell. Ryan made a huge effort to keep us together after Charity’s death, and with a lot of prayer, our marriage, and the love for our children, we’d done it. Not a day went by that I didn’t think of Charity, but I made my peace with it more and more every day.

  A month after the funeral, Ryan and I got married in a small private ceremony with only our parents and closest friends in attendance, and two weeks later, we were living in our new multimillion-dollar home on Murray Hill in Scarsdale, New York. I thought the move helped us out with the grieving process. It gave us a sense of normalcy when we didn’t have to be met with all the tragedy we left behind.

  Now that the season was over, Ryan vowed to devote every waking moment to the kids and me, and once school was out, we were going to take our honeymoon: a two-week vacation to the south of France, and I couldn’t wait. Ryan and I had come full circle. It may have taken us years to find each other, but we had, and oh, how sweet it had been. The way that man loved me down was beyond any of my wildest dreams. I could’ve never imagined that after all I’d endured at his hands, he’d end up being the caretaker of my heart. And take care of my heart, he did. My heart, my mind, my soul—and my hot box was damn sure not hurting either. Indeed, everything I’d ever wanted and needed from Ryan he provided for me on a daily basis. Yes, I loved Ryan with my whole heart, and my life was blissful.

  Just as I’d finished burping Lexi, I heard the doorbell. I laid her in her bassinette and ran to pull out my bread before I bounded to the front door.

  “Note to self: extend the maid service through the weekends,” I joked with myself on the way to the door.

  “Who is it?” I asked when I didn’t see anyone through the peephole.

  “Lincoln.”

  My palms began sweating, and my heart plunged to my toes. I hadn’t seen or heard from Lincoln since Charity’s funeral. What the hell was he doing here in New York? How did he find out where we lived? And why would he be here even if he had a good reason to be in New York? My life was good. My marriage of five months was good. Why was he invading our lives again with his bullshit?

  “Charice, I know that’s you,” Lincoln said, breaking my thoughts. “Please open the door.”

  Reluctantly, I pulled the door open. “What do you want?” I asked with my arms crossed.

  “Hello to you too. It’s nice to see you,” Lincoln greeted.

  “Lincoln, I do not have time for this. I have to finish dinner for my husband and my boys. Now how did you find us, and what do you want?”

  “Nice,” he said sarcastically. “How is your husband anyway?”

  “He’s great. You want me to get him so he can tell you for himself?” I asked with an attitude.

  “There’s no need.” I heard Ryan say behind me. His footsteps quickened. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked angrily. I stepped aside, and he stood face-to-face with Lincoln.

  “You people sure don’t believe in inviting people inside,” he said, brushing off the snow that had collected on his trench coat. “Now is that any way to treat a former best friend and fiancé?”

  “Cut the crap, Lincoln. What the fuck do you want?”

  “Such hostility to an old friend.” Lincoln smirked. “Oh well, since it seems I’m not going to get an invite inside, I’ll be brief. I just thought I’d drop by to check on you all.”

  “Thanks. We’re great. Now you can leave,” Ryan huffed.

  “You know, you should really be nicer to me if you expect me to block for you on the field, bruh,” Lincoln said. He lifted a toothpick and put it in his mouth. His black leather gloves and black leather hat glistened with drops from the melting snow.

  Ryan furrowed his brow. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Free agency is a wonderful thing, baby, and it looks like the Giants are willing to make a killer trade for me. Didn’t you check my stats? My blocks and tackles were the highest in the league this year. Our QB was the least sacked the entire season. Had it not been for the injuries, I’m certain we would’ve made it that last game to beat you fellas to the Super Bowl. That’s neither here nor there now. Why try to beat the best when you can just join them?” Lincoln gloated with a sneaky smirk on his face.

  “Bullshit. They won’t trade Parker—” Ryan was saying.

  “It’s a done deal. My salary just went up, my contracts are signed, and I’m house hunting. There’s a for-sale sign about three houses down, and I’m meeting my real estate agent there in a few. We could be neighbors,” Lincoln gloated.

  “Get the fuck away from my house,” Ryan yelled angrily. “If I catch you near here again, I swear to God—”

  “Is that any way to talk to your teammate and neighbor, neighbor?” Lincoln laughed, cutting him off.

  “What do you want?” Ryan asked through clenched jaws. I could see the anger welling up in him.

  Lincoln’s sarcasm faded, and his expression turned serious. “To let you know that I’ll be in touch.” He looked at me then. “Charice, it was really good to see you again. I look forward to catching up in the near future.”

  “I’m gonna whip your ass.” Ryan moved toward Lincoln, but I grabbed his arm.

  “I would not do that if I were you. If you hit me in my jaw, it might just come unhinged right now,” Lincoln said with a wink.

  I looked at Ryan. “What is going on with you two?”

  “Nothing,” Ryan said quickly.

  “Have a nice Sunday, and enjoy your dinner. Oh, and you looking real good, ma,” he said. He had a lustful look in his eyes as he shook his head and winked at me. Then he turned, got in his SUV, and drove away.

  When Ryan closed the door and turned around, my hands were on my hips. “Do you want to tell me what that was all about?” I asked him angrily.

  “No, because I don’t know. He’s just being stupid,” Ryan said plainly and walked off.

  “Ryan, something is going on, and I deserve to know what it is,” I pouted as I followed him into the family room.

  He ignored me and picked up his cell phone. “I can’t deal with this now. I have to make a call.”

  Stomping in a fit, I demanded, “I want answers.”

  “Charice, please go and check on the baby,” he said with aggravation. “You want answers, but we all have things we need to talk about when it comes to Lincoln, right?” he chall
enged.

  Shame and hurt filled me as I bowed my head, too ashamed to speak.

  “Shit, baby. Listen, I’m sorry—”

  “Go to hell,” I said angrily and turned to go get the baby, who had begun crying. I picked her up and rocked her. “It’s okay,” I soothed her.

  I didn’t know what the hell was going on between Lincoln and Ryan, but having Lincoln close by was not a good thing. He needed to be as far away from us as possible.

  I placed Lexi back in her bassinette. “I swear you look just like your daddy. Let’s just hope he doesn’t ever come back to this house to find that out. It’s bad enough he just got traded to the Giants,” I said to myself, and I shook my head.

  Lucinda

  You Are Cordially Invited to Attend

  The Union of

  Ms. Lucinda Bree Rojas to

  Mr. Aldris Raymond Sharper

  on Saturday, June eighth at 5:00 pm

  Bethel AME Church

  Atlanta, GA

  The corners of my mouth turned upward, and I couldn’t hide the blush that was radiating off me as I looked over my wedding invitations, which I’d just received in the mail. I simply could not believe that I was marrying Aldris. For the most part, everything in my life was perfect. I had my associate’s degree and was going back for my bachelor’s. Nadia loved Aldris, and more importantly, Aldris loved Nadia as his own daughter. To her, he was her daddy, and to him, she was his little niña. I was still doing well at my job, and Aldris had received a promotion. Between our two salaries, we were definitely straight in the finance department. I was best friends with my future sisters-in-law, and Ms. Lily and I were as close as ever, especially after I showed her a couple of little cute dance moves to put on her new beau, Mr. Franklin.

  Aldris and his brothers weren’t too thrilled about their mother having a boyfriend, but like I told Aldris, his mom needed a companion, especially now that all of her sons had their own lives. She was in her fifties, for Christ’s sake, not her nineties, and she had plenty of life left to live and share with someone. My wish was that I could get somebody for my own mama. She was lonely, and she wanted to be back on the dating scene again. She needed someone in her life to offset the drama from my daddy. In fact, Raul and my daddy were still taking us through turmoil about child support payments, so even though I was happy, I still had drama.

  Besides that, life as I knew it was great. I was on a euphoric high as I sat down on the sofa, holding my box of invitations with a big smile on my face, and I swore I was never coming down.

  “Hey, gorgeous, what are you cheesing about?” Aldris said as he walked into our new house for his lunch break.

  Once he made his way over to the sofa, I looked up and kissed him. “Hey, handsome. Our invitations came today. See?” I answered, giving him the box.

  “Oh, these are nice. I like that,” he said, admiring the invites as I opened up the rest of the mail. “What else do we have?”

  “Can you pay my bills?” I paraphrased the hook from the Destiny’s Child song. “My telephone bill, my light bill, and then maybe we can chill,” I finished as I handed them to Aldris.

  “Shit, I pay all of your bills and my bills anyway. I can handle it,” he joked.

  “I know you can, papi, and you always do,” I said seductively.

  “Oh, is that right?” he said, bending down and kissing me on my neck. “I’m thinking food ain’t what I want for my lunch break.” He brushed his lips against mine and sucked me into a breathtaking kiss.

  Our intimate kiss was abruptly ended when my eyes caught some of the wording from the letter in my hand. Three words to be exact: “child support reduction.” “What?” I said angrily.

  “Huh?” Aldris pulled back, trying to figure out what the issue was.

  “Not you, baby.” I patted him to get up so I could read. “Wait. This letter.” I stood and paced the floor as I examined the paper in my hand.

  What I read next nearly knocked me off my feet. Raul applied for child support reduction because of two more kids. The first child listed as a dependent of his was Rosemary Rojas, and the second child was Emilio Rojas, Jr. My damn stepsister and my new infant half brother. This bastard claimed he was the father of two of my dad’s wife’s kids. Now the irony in this was that as far as my dad was concerned, I felt he deserved it, if it was true, but I was pissed as hell for Nadia.

  “This MF has some king-sized balls to make those kinds of allegations. He’s lying to get a reduction. That’s it!” I yelled, handing Aldris the notice.

  Aldris peered up in shock after reading the letter. “Actually, he may not be. Remember when you were living in the apartment and he made that threat about a reduction? Then he made that comment about your dad. Do you think this is what he meant?”

  Suddenly, I remembered when he claimed to have two more kids but not by Shanaya or Boop. This fool had been slippin’ and slidin’ with Maria. Now how is that for my dad not wanting to get tangled up with Raul? Ha! They say karma is a bitch, and she is bitch slapping the hell out of Emilio Rojas right now.

  “I wonder if my dad knows about this,” I thought aloud.

  “More than likely,” Aldris said. “That’s some shit, man. Nadia’s step-aunt and half uncle could really be her half sister and half brother. Daaaaamn.”

  Suddenly, a big ball of laughter welled up inside of me, and I cracked up until I cried. My dad—and I use that term loosely—didn’t want to provide for us and didn’t want to protect me against Raul because Maria claimed to be looking out for his benefit when she was throwing Raul her pussy to the left and right. I never liked her. All of this glamorous life that he provided for Maria, and she wasn’t nothing but a $2 ho just like I tried to tell his ass. That’s exactly what he gets. I hoped Raul was the daddy.

  After we finished chuckling about that situation, Aldris got up to make a plate of the spaghetti I’d cooked, while I finished opening the remaining mail. With the next letter, the grin fell straight from my face. Just because I was high on life, here it came trying to kick me down again. Slowly, I got up and made my way into the kitchen.

  “What’s that?” Aldris asked, grabbing a soda from the fridge.

  “It’s another letter from the State.”

  “Oh yeah? What about?” he asked, sitting at the breakfast table with his food.

  “It’s for you. You’re being sued for a paternity test and pending child support from Jennifer Brooks for a six-year-old named Jessica Lily Brooks,” I told him as I set the paper down in front of him.

  If Aldris had been of light complexion, all of the color would’ve drained from his face. His mouth dropped open, and the soda that he was holding slipped from his hand, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor. Yep, that woman named karma was a bitch, and she was bitch slapping everyone in her path.

  Pooch

  Ain’t this a bitch? Here I was in federal lockup, looking at 101 years of prison time with no possibility of parole. My nice-ass six-bedroom, six-bath crib with my plush-ass king-sized bed and plasma TV had been traded in for a one-cell, bottom-bunk cot, with a nerd-ass cellmate, one shitting toilet, sink, and a gray-ass brick wall for entertainment. My fly-ass gear was traded for this orange-ass DOC jumpsuit, and my five-star meals were traded for two hot plates of certified slop. And where was my bottom bitch in all of this? Missing in muthafuckin’ action. Now you’d think I’d be worried about getting out this muthafucka, but I was so fuckin’ mad that I didn’t have time to concentrate on my appeals. My one mission in life was to find that bitch.

  Word was when them muthafuckin’ Feds raided my shit and froze my accounts, her ass was already ghost. Ain’t nobody seen this bitch in Atlanta since, and she done disconnected her fuckin’ cell phone. Even her moms and them done got missing, and her girls claim they ain’t heard from her. Shit, they probably hadn’t. I’ll tell you who else ain’t been seen from what my girl Chocolate Flava told me. Terrence. Now, what are the fuckin’ odds that as soon as I went down for som
e federal bullshit, my girl, our kids, her siblings, her mama, and her baby daddy all disappear? Them muthafuckas ain’t air or water, so they didn’t evaporate. If I were a betting man, I’d have said that my girl lied to me when she said wasn’t shit going on between her and that fuck nigga. Yeah, while she was acting like we were working on us and shit, she was really being his . . . li’l mama.

  I couldn’t believe my nose was so fuckin’ wide open for this broad that I couldn’t see what was right in front of me from the jump. She’d been creepin’ with that nigga the whole time and biding her time until she could leave me. I swore to God as soon as I could find this bitch, she was as good as got. Got my fuckin’ babies and gone with this nigga. I was murkin’ for both of them niggas for real yo.

  “Five minutes,” my bullshit CO said to me as I sat down in the chair behind the glass. I wanted to roll my eyes at this broad sitting in front of me, but right now, she was my only connection to the outside world. So I had to put on my pimp hat and make it do what it do.

  “What’s up, baby?” I said sexily into the phone.

  “Hey, baby. How you holding up?” Chocolate Flava asked.

  “I’m fuckin’ locked up,” I shot back at her. “Whatchu think?”

  “Attorney Stein and I are working on your appeal. I’m doing the best I can,” she said sweetly.

  Noticing the hurt flash in her eyes, I exhaled and tried to calm my aggression down. “I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated in here, man. I don’t mean to take it out on you.” Switching gears to make my apology genuine, I decided to bring a little smile to her face. “I got your letter last week. That shit was real sweet, and I got off real good on that fuckin’ picture.”

  She grinned devilishly, and all was well. “I thought you would. Was you gon’ write me back?”

  “Yeah,” I lied. “I missed mail call yesterday, but you know I appreciate everything you been doing for me.”