War.

by Shannon Dianne

  So now all bets are off.

  I’ll be going for blood.

  Now let me explain to you what’s going on in my camp. Mac is about to have his ginger. His only babygirl. Danielle is due in a matter of days. Last night Danielle was up all night with Braxton-Hicks. Today, Mac started his eight-week leave from the firm. He’s home with Danielle as we speak, doing what he can to make her happy. She’s in pain. He feels helpless. He doesn’t like for Danielle to be unhappy.

  This is a bad time to fuck with Mac.

  And if you fuck with me, you fuck with Mac. And if you fuck with Mac, you’re fucking with Danielle. So I’ll make an executive decision to speak on behalf of Malcolm and release an official statement. Please warn Marlon, Demetrius and Jon of this:

  Don’t fuck with Red.

  -Jacob Gabriel Blair

  THURSDAY

  FRIDAY

  SATURDAY

  MALCOLM

  Danielle: Shiiiit!

  Malcolm: Red, breathe, baby.

  Danielle: Oh God!

  Malcolm: Baby, just breathe…come on, breathe with me.

  Danielle: I need a fucking epidural!

  Dr. Zara Harlow: I’m sorry, Danny, but it’s too late for us to give you one. You’re going to have to push this one out au naturel. And here I thought you were tough.”

  Danielle: Aunt Zara, I can’t do it.

  Dr. Zara Harlow: The longer you fight it, the lower your baby’s heart rate is going to get. If it gets too low we’ll have to cut her out of you. Now, she’s stuck in your passage so this will get tricky. I really need you to push.

  Malcolm: Danielle, just push. Come on.

  Danielle: It’s not easy, Malcolm!

  Malcolm: Danielle, I get that. Okay? But the baby’s heart rate is dropping.

  Dr. Zara Harlow: It’s at 100. Nurse, get the surgery team ready. You hear that, Danny? You’re about to be cut open if you don’t push this little girl out. Or worse, she’s not gonna to make it.

  Danielle: Fuck!

  Malcolm: Danielle, fucking push!

  Danielle: Aargh!!

  Dr. Zara Harlow: There you go! There’s her head…Come on, Danny, push her out, she’s stuck.

  Malcolm: Danielle, please, please, push.

  Danielle: Aargh!

  Dr. Zara Harlow: A little more.

  Danielle: Aargh!

  Dr. Zara Harlow: Just a little bit more.

  Malcolm: Come on, baby. Come on. Come on. Almost there, baby. Come on.

  Dr. Zara Harlow: One more push, Danny. Let’s go!

  Danny: Aaaaaaargh!

  Dr. Zara Harlow: Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?

  MATT

  “What’s wrong, baby?”

  “I’m all good,” I tell Rena as she rubs a hand over my back.

  “Tired?”

  “Not really. Just…” I let the words drift off as I sit back in the chair in the hospital waiting room. I’m here with the Blairs and the friends of Blairs, waiting for the go ahead to see Danny. This is where we’ve all been camped out for about an hour while Danielle was in labor. And by the sounds of the baby cries we just heard, Danny has delivered.

  War is coming.

  We’re at Boston’s premiere hospital, the only one with enough security detail to handle the deliveries of High Alerts, the name given to certain newborns of the Boston population. The nurses, doctors and staff here are cleared by the US government, sign confidentiality agreements and risk fed time if they choose to renege on their agreements. Boston takes its High Alerts seriously. To be considered a High Alert you really only need to pass one criteria: the murder of one of your parents would be called an assassination. Malcolm’s kids qualify, and that includes Nicky. All the more reason for me to have a weak stomach right now. It’s a bad time for shit to pop off.

  “You’ve been really quiet these past few days,” Rena whispers in my ear. “What’s going on, Matt?”

  “Nothing, baby.” I run my hands over my face.

  “Have you been dreaming about being with another woman?”

  “Really, Rena? And I would sit here and admit that today?”

  “True. No point in asking if you’ve been cheating on me here.” She looks around the hospital waiting room. “I mean, not in a place that has the capacity to assist you in your fight for life.” She smiles and rubs my back again. I try my best to give her a smile but I know it’s coming out weak. I rub my hand over my head again. “Matt.”

  “Rena.” I turn to look at her. She looks at me.

  A silent moment passes between us where I wish my wife could read my mind. I wish she could see the pictures in my head. I wish she could see me reading that letter Jacob sent me. I wish she could see me calling Marlon and ‘suggesting’ that he keep his peace until Danny has her baby . And I wish she could have heard my earlier conversation with him about it …

  “Listen, you start shit while Danny’s about to deliver and not only will you have a problem with Jacob but you’ll have one with Malcolm. And it’s sure to run over to Danny. So I know you’re struggling right now and I’m not sure what you’ve got planned but I think you should wait.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” Marlon said to me. “I’m just…” He let out a deep breath. “I’m just struggling with this shit, Matt. I love Jasmine. I love her.”

  “I know you do.” I felt so fucking bad for Marlon, even I wanted to grab Jasmine by her damn shoulders and shake the shit out of her. Snap out of it! Marlon’s a good dude. He doesn’t fuck around, never has. He takes care of his woman, his girls, his home. He’s a damn good friend. What the hell is Jasmine’s problem?

  “Hold on,” Marlon said. “Let me get Jon on the line.” Seconds later, with the snaps of computer keys clicking and beeping sounds in the background, Jon was on the line.

  “Yeah,” he said, sounding distracted.

  “We need to hold off on Jacob,” Marlon said. “And I’m not sure if you plan on approaching Malcolm about the Nicky incident, but I think you should wait. Matt made a good point. Danny’s having the baby soon and I’m not trying to upset her.”

  “Or is it that you’re not trying to upset Malcolm?” Jon asked.

  “Honestly, Jon, I’m more afraid of Danny than I will ever be of Malcolm.” Marlon and I let out a laugh. Jon said nothing. He’s been married to Danny; if anyone knows that statement to be true, it’s him.

  “I’m going for custody of Nicky,” Jon said, out of nowhere. Marlon and I stopped laughing. No…please, no.

  “Jon…” Marlon said. Even he knew that Jon was in over his head.

  “Jon,” I said to him. “Listen, you’re my man. You’ve been my man for years. I think I owe it to you to tell you when you’re in danger.”

  “I agree,” Marlon said. “Don’t do it, Jon.”

  “Fuck that,” Jon said. “No way in hell my son is calling some white boy ‘daddy’. Fuck that shit.”

  And now, listening to that newborn cry… y…

  “Matt, you look sick,” Rena says to me. “Maybe you’re-”

  “I think you and I should get out of town.”

  She looks at me like I’m crazy. “Huh?” She finally says. I look around and see Jake sitting next to his father, whispering to him, his son Jaden asleep on his chest. I haven’t talked to Jacob since he sent that letter to my office. Since I leaned back in my chair, paged my admin and told her to bring me two Excedrins and black coffee. I know I’m being followed and I doubt Marlon and Jon know about it. It’s Demetrius. I’ve just got this feeling that he’s been trailing me, seeing where I’m going, wondering if I fuck with Jake. But that’s my fault. The night we had drinks at the dive, I was too obvious. I was so eager to shut down the Jake and Jazz affair that I overstepped my boundaries. I was saying shit like it was fact.

  But that’s because I knew what I was saying was fact.

  The day after that fight at Piranha’s, I met Jake at McCormick and Schmidt’s for drinks. He didn’t tell me if he slept with Jasm
ine, though he silently alluded to it. But he did tell me that she was out of his system. He told me that he dealt with a chick like Jasmine years ago, some chick from New York. Right after Ralphie was born. He slept with her three or four times over the course of a few months. He texted her back and forth; the conversation was always sexual. He assumed she knew her role: she wasn’t a mistress, since he didn’t take care of her. But she was a steady side chick, a sure bet whenever Jacob was in the mood to fuck.

  “I assumed,” Jake said, “that since her family has clout up there in New York, that it was safe. We both had a lot to lose. I was wrong. I had everything to lose, she had nothing…but me.”

  Soon she was renting a place in Boston to be around him. Then she was popping up at his office . A ccording to Jacob , “My admin, Sandi, was sneaking her in and out, making sure Mac and Nat didn’t see her. Eventually Sandi notified security and told them to deny her entrance into the building altogether.”

  Then she was popping up at Piranha’s, Jake’s chill spot, trying to fight the other women who were getting to close to him at the bar:

  “I had to cut that shit off,” he said.

  But this woman, whom Jake won’t name, wasn’t taking being cut off lightly. She found out where he lived and came to his condo while Winnie was in the shower and Ralphie was asleep.

  “Rusty’s ass,” Jake said. “She came to my building claiming that she was one of my sisters, his old ass told her that the resemblance was uncanny. He escorted her to my place.”

  He told me that he dragged her to Cadence’s condo and then called his father, begging for help. His father called this girl’s father. The girl’s father was scheduled to fly down to Boston and pick her up. Jake's father picked her up from Cadenc e 's plac e and drove her back to her own condo.

  The girl called Jake all night. Texted him until he nearly threw his phone into the Boston harbor. “All night. Just like Jasmine. Just...all night.” She said that she was coming back to his condo. She was coming to tell his wife about their affair. He packed up Winnie and Ralphie and took them to the Four Seasons, saying that he thought he saw a mouse and needed the condo exterminated. They’d be staying at the Four Seasons for at least a week. “I cut my phone off, put Ralphie in the bed with Winnie and me and finally got some sleep.”

  Soon, the girl’s family showed up…but she had committed suicide:

  “No warning,” Jake said. “I’ll never get over that.” I asked Jake if she left a note. He said she did but the contents of it were sealed. He always wondered if she mentioned him. She had problems before you, I assured him. He just shook his head and took a shot. “I can’t go through that shit again,” he said, “I'm over Jasmine.”

  “Matt,” Rena says. “What’s going on?” I turn to look at Rena again.

  “Have you talked Jasmine?” I whisper to her.

  “Of course, every day,” she whispers back.

  “Come closer.” She moves so that our faces are nearly touching.

  “Is she sleeping with Jake?” And Rena stops breathing. Shit! “Rena, tell me she’s not sleeping with Jake.”

  “Matt, you know I can’t tell you something that Jasmine told me in confidence.”

  “So that’s a yes.”

  “No, I’m not answering that question.”

  “Listen, Rena, I admire your loyalty, I really do, but shit is about to hit the fan.” Her eyes dart over to Jacob and then back to me. “Now, let me tell you what I know.”

  “Okay.”

  “I know that Jacob and Jasmine slept with each other before Christmas. Has she slept with him after that?”

  “If she has, she hasn’t told me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I swear.” She raises her hand in promise.

  “So, just one time?”

  “For all I know. Why? Did Marlon find out?”

  “He suspects she’s sleeping with him now.”

  “I don’t know about that, Matt. I don’t think she is. In fact, last night, when we went out for drinks, she talked about Jacob like a dog. Said she didn’t know what she was thinking and that she could’ve ruined her whole life because of him.”

  “Has she mentioned problems between her and Marlon?”

  “She’s mentioned that he’s seemed high-strung lately. Stressed out. But she says it because of business. She thinks he’s been really busy lately because he’s been staying out late this week, coming home smelling like bourbon. She thinks he’s been entertaining some clients.” I close my eyes and lower my head. “Why? What’s happening?”

  “For one, Jon is going for full custody of Nicky.”

  “You. Are. Fucking. Lying.”

  “No.” I look up at Rena.

  “Malcolm’s going to eat his ass alive!”

  “I already know.” I run a hand over my face. “This shit is a mess. And one more thing.”

  “What?” She moves in closer.

  “Demetrius Westlake is here.”

  “Big dick D!"

  “Really, Rena?”

  “No!” She slaps a hand over her mouth. “Why?”

  “He knows Marlon…from Philly.”

  “Hold up. Marlon and Demetrius know each other?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you know that?” I give her a look.

  “Why didn’t you tell me!”

  “Listen, Jake and Winnie were divorcing. Jake and I were becoming friends and Marlon was friends with Demetrius. He set the whole meeting up between Winnie and Demetrius at that club in Charleston after you told me where you were headed.”

  “Why did you tell him!”

  “I had no idea what the hell he was up to! Marlon called to see what I was up to, we got on the subject of where everybody was and I mentioned you were going to Charleston with Danny, Winnie and Jacob’s sisters.”

  “And Marlon sent Demetrius.”

  “Payback.”

  “Damn.”

  “But that was then and this is now. And let me tell you, Demetrius made it clear that he’s not about to do that shit again.”

  “So why is he here?”

  “To handle Marlon’s divorce.”

  Rena’s mouth drops open. “No, this is too much.”

  “From what I gather, he’s trying to have Demetrius catch Jasmine in the act of cheating and then see what his legal options are.”

  “You mean Marlon wants to stop Jasmine from cleaning out his bank account, and if she’s the one who was unfaithful, he’ll likely win full custody of the girls which cancels child support and he won’t have to pay Jasmine a settlement. Alimony, yes. But a flat out settlement, no.”

  “You got it.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know.”

  “And if he can’t catch her?”

  I shrug. “Plan B. Whatever that is.”

  “Oh this is a mess.”

  “And last night you were with Jasmine.”

  “Right.”

  “And she told you that she was over Jacob.”

  “Right. I met her for drinks at The Harbor Bar and she told me then.”

  “The Harbor Bar?”

  “Yeah. That new bar that just opened near the harbor.” I look at her confused. “The opening’s been the talk of town, Matt.”

  “I haven’t heard of it.”

  “Oh, yes you have. It sits right next to that hotdog stand. You know, the one that sells those hotdogs on a stick in weird ass flavors. Anyway, we had a drink, she told me she loved Marlon and hated Jacob. We talked about her new cookbook, life. And then we left. I caught a cab home and she walked.”

  “Walked?”

  “Yeah, I told her that she could hop in my cab but she said she needed the exercise. Remember we were right at the harbor, Jasmine lives around the corner. So I got into the cab and left. Jasmine went home. I mean, where else could she have gone?”

  JACOB

  “What happened?” my father asks as he leans into me. He’s been my confidant with the whole Jasmine si
tuation. Mac, Nat and Matt are too biased when it comes to Jasmine. They all want me to leave her and Marlon’s marriage alone, citing various reasons. Business and conflicts of interests being the two they’re most concerned about. So right now, when it comes to Jasmine, I have no one but my father to talk to. He knows everything; knows I slept with her three times recently; know she’s mad over my new tattoo; knows she came to my place trying to find me; knows that I’m done with her now, for good. I look around to make sure Winnie’s not within earshot and I catch Rena whispering to Marlon. I haven’t talked to him since he told me about Demetrius. I wonder if there’s anything new going on. “Jake,” my father says.

  “I saw Jasmine last night,” I whisper to him before looking around again. The hospital staff put about forty of us in a private waiting room. The noise of the room is almost deafening with people laughing and clapping and trying to talk over each other. It’s packed with Blairs, extended family, friends, kids running around playing tag and a handful of undercover cops. I’ll explain that last one later.

  “Surely you didn’t meet up with her somewhere.”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then how did you see her?”

  I look for Winnie again. She’s laughing with my oldest sister, Sarah. “Yesterday, Winnie and I went to the opening of this new bar at the harbor and Jasmine was there.”

  “Shit. Did Winnie see her?”

  “No.”

  “Well, what the hell happened?”

  Leaning in, I describe the scene for my father:

  “This band is rocking!” Winnie says as she takes a sip of her Rum and Coke. She bops her head to the reggae beat.

  “Damn sure are,” I say as I put my arm around her chair. She leans into my side and continues to sip from her red straw. There’s not another woman in the world that I can just chill with like I can Winnie. There’s not another woman in the world that I trust. There’s not another woman in the world who can just sit next to me, drink a Rum and Coke, rock out to a reggae band and just… chill. I lean over and give her a kiss on the temple. My parents have the kids tonight so we could come to the opening of this bar. You know what that means? Tonight, alone in the condo, with no kids. I’m about to start a riot up in that muthafucka. Winnie places a hand on my dick. I swear, I think sometimes she can read my mind.