by Pepper Pace
We were in the locker after another good game. Someone had mentioned getting some beers and Dean had said that we’d just sweated away like a thousand calories and he wanted to drink them right back up? We were in our thirties and pretty conscious that it now actually took work to stay in shape and to look good. Even Budda had dropped enough weight that he couldn’t be called pudgy anymore.
Jay was on his cell checking his messages and I was about to do the same, curious about how Nikki’s revelation had gone. But Jay beat me to it. He being Nikki’s cousin meant that his mother had already informed him of the baby news. Jay swung around to me with a huge grin on his face.
“You fucking dog!” He yelled happily. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me that you and Nikki were having a baby?!” He jumped on me, thumping me on the back. The other guys turned to me in disbelief.
“T-baby finally impregnated a sister?!” Pac joked.
“Dude, how are you going to keep a secret like that for five damn months?!” Jay laughed. “I didn’t even know that you two were together that long!” I don’t know why I did it, but my eyes swung to Dean.
He was watching the interaction quietly but then his hand froze as he was unlacing one of his shoes. His eyes met mine and his mouth dropped. He stood up slowly.
“Five months?” The other guys were slapping my back and congratulating me but I kept my eyes on Dean. “That’s pretty close, T.”
I saw him begin doing some calculations in his head. Then his expression cleared and he looked at me again. “Am I the father?”
The room got instantly quiet and I mean you could hear a pin drop. We aren’t the only guys in the locker but absolutely no one said a word.
“No, Dean.” I said angrily. “You aren’t.”
“Oh you are a fucking liar.” He said in dawning realization. “You were never a good liar! Your tell is showing right now!”
For a moment I thought he meant tail, and then I realized that I had blinked too many times. That was my tell. Shit.
Jay looked back and forth from one to the other of us. “No…” He was blown over. “No no no no no. Dean! You and Nikki?!”
“Before Nikki and I.” I said. “But that-”
“You were fucking my cousin?!” Jay was all up in Dean’s face. Jay and Dean are comparable in height so when they pushed off each other’s chests it was like two mountains colliding. “Dude, we had a deal. You don’t fuck anyone’s relative, or anybody we know! And you broke that promise, dude!”
His mouth flew open and he pointed to me. “T has been fucking your cousin! Why aren’t you telling this to him?!”
“Because T is a good man. He doesn’t fuck over people like you do! You knock my cousin up-”
My eyes practically rolled to the back of my head and I almost blacked out; that is how fast I got mad. “NOBODY KNOCKED UP NIKKI BUT ME! I AM THE FATHER OF THIS BABY!”
Dean pushed past all of us. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this!” I hurried out of the locker room after him.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?! No! Don’t even think about going to Nikki’s place!” We were pushing and shoving each other and then we were outside. He went to his truck and I jumped into my car. Then we raced to the apartment. I’m not completely sure how we didn’t wreck or take out a highway full of people, but he reached the apartment first, his truck partially up on the curb.
I pulled up behind him and he was already banging on the door to be let in. I grabbed him and pulled him away. “Back off, dude, or I will kick your ass!” He smacked my hand away and pushed me hard enough to cause me to stumble backwards.
“Fuck off, T! You knew all along!”
“There ain’t nothing to know!” Then Nikki opened the door, looking like she’d just awakened from a nap. And he asked her. And she didn’t tell him that it was mine. I thought that’s what we had agreed; this baby was mine, not anyone else’s regardless of whose sperm had impregnated her ovum. Dean didn’t have to be here when I was going to step up to the plate regardless!
“Come in. We need to talk about this.” I gave her an incredulous look. Why did we need to talk about this? But I didn’t say anything, unsure of what might leave my mouth. We went inside and I tried hard not to pace.
“Nikki? Could this be my baby?”
I saw her cross her arms in an almost defensive motion. “It could be.”
Dean just nodded. After a moment he took in a deep breath. “That night I broke through the condom…”
Nikki’s eyes flitted to mine and then she nodded. “Maybe.”
My breathing was coming in shallow spurts. I wanted to punch something, but why? This was before me. We should be able to discuss this in an adult manner…except that I wanted to rip Dean’s cock off and shove it up his ass!
“Why didn’t you tell me?! Were you ever going to tell me?!”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know until very recently myself. And considering that the last time I’d seen you, it was with you calling me a bitch, I wasn’t all that anxious to seek you out!”
Dean’s jaw clenched. “I’m sorry for that. I mean, you dumped me and I was just…being a child over it. But this is so much more important, Nikki. I mean…don’t you see that?”
She nodded. “Tony and I just found out ourselves a little less than a month ago. We’re trying to deal with it as well. And when the baby comes and if it turns out that you are the father, then yes, I would have let you know.” I looked at her, not realizing that this was the plan.
Dean relaxed a bit more. “Well I want to be there for you, Nikki, during this process-”
“That’s not necessary.” I said tightly. “She has a fiancée-”
“That doesn’t have a job.” My mouth parted.
“Dean!” Nikki snapped. “We are not struggling-”
“But a man works for his family.”
“And a man doesn’t come to a woman’s house drunk, beating on her door and calling her names! So fuck you, Dean!” I said angrily.
“No, fuck you, Tony! I apologized for that and I see that you didn’t even come back and tell her that I did! I mean, I know that she didn’t want to see me. But you could have told her!”
I scowled. “So now you know. We’ll keep in touch.” I went to the door and opened it for him.
He and Nikki exchanged looks and she nodded slightly for him to leave. I hated that small show of intimacy. He headed to the door, pausing before he was outside where I could slam it loudly after him.
“Nikki, I want you to know that I’m very sorry for how everything that went down. And despite how it appeared at the end, the brief time we spent with each other was good. I know I was an ass. But I hope you can accept my apology.” He glared at me. “If you need anything; money, whatever, call me.”
I held my breath and counted to ten. I got to seven before he was out of the door and it was slammed and locked behind him.
“T how did he find out-?”
“Why in the hell did you invite him in?!” She gave me a look that seemed to say, ‘I know you didn’t just yell at me…’
I returned a look that said, ‘Yes I did!’
“Why are you mad at me?” That simple question diffused me.
“I-I don’t know.”
“Well figure it out!” She stormed out of the room and back to the bedroom where she promptly slammed the door.
I did what she said, and I took a few minutes to figure it out. Then I tentatively opened the bedroom door where she was lying in bed on her side and staring at the wall.
“Hi baby.” I said.
She glanced at me. “Hi.” Her voice was shaky and it crushed me to know that she was so close to tears.
“I’m sorry.”
She sat up and looked at me. “Tony, how many times do I have to apologize to you? I’m sorry that this happened.” Tears gushed from her eyes. “I’m devastated that I’m doing this to you.” I went to the bed and pulled her into my arms.
“Baby, come here. I don’t want you to apologize. I don’t need that.” She buried her head in my chest. “Just don’t cry, okay?” I tilted her chin upward and wiped away her tears. We just stared at each other. I placed my fingertips onto her belly. I felt the baby in there moving and I smiled and then she did as well.
“You’re a wonderful man.” She whispered. She placed her fingertips on my eyes and I closed them. She traced the crease where my lids joined, following it lightly, and when her fingers moved to touch my nose I opened my eyes again. Her hands moved to my hair and she swept her fingers through the strands.
My finger’s moved to her breasts and I stroked her nipple feeling it pucker through the material of her bra. I cupped her breast in my hand, testing the increased weight and she groaned softly when my thumb circled the hardened flesh of her nipple.
I sighed and urged her back onto the bed. She laid back watching me with love and trust. I slipped off her shirt and unlatched her bra and then softly I kissed each brown peak. I covered her with my open mouth and carefully drew her breast into my mouth, careful not to tug too hard. She drew in a sharp breath and her back arched.
Sitting up I pushed down her pants and she helped me by kicking them off. I caressed her mound, spreading her wet hot flesh and then stroking her gently and repeatedly until her breath was heavy and strained. She pulled me down to kiss her and I did, stroking her as I did. Her hips rose to meet my touch and I looked at her and whispered,
“What do you want me to do?”
“Inside of me. I want you inside of me.” She turned to her side. We found that was the easiest way. I came out of my clothes, ready to enter her, which I did carefully, holding her in my arms, her back against me. I lightly pinched her nipples; first one then the other as I rocked gently within her.
She cried out her pleasure with each gentle thrust and I slipped my fingers between her crease and lightly pinched her clit. She grunted indelicately and began gyrating her hips rapidly, forcing me to increase my pace. But I was not going to be as hard as she wanted. That scared me though she assured me that I couldn’t hurt the baby who was nowhere near her vagina. Maybe she was right but I made sure to pull my pumping hips.
Soon, the sound of Nikki’s steady groans picked up in tempo and volume. I felt my balls tighten and rise and then I was cumming along with her. Trying to control my own orgasm only caused it to feel that much better and I gripped her hips roughly, holding her in place while I continued to pump into her. After a moment the last jolt of electricity slammed into me and I cried out cumming violently yet gently into her.
Afterwards, Nikki hummed contentedly and I showered her neck and shoulders with kisses. Before she fell asleep I whispered into her ear.
“Nikki?”
“Hmmm?”
“You and Dean…” she turned her head to look at me.
“What?”
“Did you…did you always use…um protection?” Because she hadn’t with me. She was on the pill with me. Maybe I shouldn’t ask, but it was the thing that I needed to know.
She sat up in bed and turned to me, her face calm. “Always.” I swallowed. “I always used protection with him. The condom broke once.” She touched my face. “T, I’ve made love to men without using protection before. But the thing is; I made love with them. I was never in love with Dean and we always used a condom.”
I nodded, ashamed that I’d even asked. But I felt better knowing.
NIKKI
Mrs. Durdak’s house had almost gone through a complete transformation in just two short months. I was doing the final walk through before the first open house. Tony swept into the living room wearing dirty jeans and an even dirtier t-shirt.
“Baby!” I exclaimed. “You are funky!”
“I know but you wanted the fountain working, right? I finally got it going and it looks great.”
“Oh wow!” I hurried out the door. Mrs. Dura was already standing there looking at it with pleasure. She clapped her hands when she saw me.
“It’s beautiful.” She did a slow spin. “Everything is beautiful.” And it was. The yard was impeccable as usual, and the house now matched it. There was new aluminum siding,
the roof had been repaired and the gutters replaced, there were new shutters and the porch had been repaired and painted and it now looked great.
I looked at Tony proudly. He had orchestrated much of the work himself and where he couldn’t do it himself, he had called in some favors and traded in some of the comps that he’d gotten from work in exchange for material. My cousin and their friends had helped out and instead of hanging out at the rec center once a week they spent time here getting things in order. Mrs. Dura was so happy to have the guys present. She called them boys and cooked for them and they loved being spoiled by her. Dean, of course didn’t show up. T mentioned that he was lying low and had declined any invitation in which they had to be in each other’s presence.
I kissed T even though he was funky and dirty. I was so proud of him. We’d all worked so hard. Mrs. Dura placed a kiss on both of our cheeks and then returned to the house.
“Okay, smelly man, go back home and get changed.” He swatted my ass and then hurried to the car. Several people were standing outside of the fence and I ambled over and opened it even though we still had another twenty or twenty-five minutes before it was actually scheduled to show.
It felt good to show the house. It was beautiful and received lots of ooohs and ahhs. It didn’t hurt that Mrs. Dura was a collector and several people recognized her antiques. I had told her not to get her hopes up too high on this first showing as the economy made it difficult for people to afford a major purchase, not to mention that it was much harder to qualify for a loan. Generally this first showing was for real estate agents to get an idea of what we had.
But at the end of the evening she had two offers on the large house; both from neighbors willing to finish up with any updates and repairs. Tears were in Mrs. Durdak’s eyes when I gave her the news. I worried that she had regrets and might want to back out of selling but that wasn’t it.
“How soon can I move? I can’t wait to get into my condo!” She had fallen in love with the very first place I’d shown her. I knew it would be a perfect match for her. She covered my hands.
“I want to do something special for you and your man. I know you two are trying to save money. And I feel so bad about you two not having jobs.”
“For the millionth time, that wasn’t your fault. Neither of us wanted to be there anymore.”
“Yes, I know but still…I want to do something nice for you. I want to hold the wedding here at the house…well that is; if you can do it before it sells.”
I gave her a surprised look, not realizing that she had heard our concerns about the how much to spend on a wedding. And she did have the perfect house for an outdoor wedding. And as things stood we didn’t have any place booked and had no hopes of getting anything nice if we wanted to be married before the baby’s birth. And of course, she was right, we wanted to save money and were just planning a very private affair.
I hugged her close. “I’ll speak to Tony about it. This house would be lovely for a wedding.”
Mrs. Dura smiled. She was doing that a lot lately. “It would be nice to send my house off with a bang.”
***
Not even two weeks later, she, my mother and Mrs. Y organized a beautiful wedding in the back yard of Mrs. Durdak’s home. It was a private affair but still had nearly 100 guests including family, friends as well as well wishers from our former job. Yes, people from the job have been contacting us telling us how much we were missed and how things have changed without Tony’s management. There was even talk of an investigation by the FDIC.
It’s no stretch that Tony and I decided on a wedding that was a fusion of African-American and Asian. The music of Nujabes drifted softly over the speakers; an artist that mixed traditional Asian music with hip-hop. I saw Mrs. Y holding a glass of champagne and dancing in a beautif
ul manner to the soft music. Mrs. Y brought tears to my eyes because she treated me like a daughter throughout the wedding preparations…as well as before—back when she had first discovered that the baby might not be Tony’s.
She showed up at the house early one morning and told me that it was time I learned to make hotpot. I was surprised to see her at the house. I had chickened out of the previous two Sunday dinners, feigning fatigue. So when I saw her at my doorstep I was more than a little nervous. But she didn’t even mention the parentage of the baby—not even in that sly way that she had of broaching an off limit topic.