“Hey, Noelle. You wanna go to lunch?” I looked up to find Whitney standing in the doorway looking fabulous in a peach seersucker dress that showed off her small round stomach.
“Yeah, in just a minute.” I typed a quick e-mail to Grant, letting him know I was cooking meatloaf for dinner. That was his favorite. I knew if anything could get him home early, that would.
Whitney stepped into my office and reached for a new nolye hair relaxer called Attitudes a sales representative had sent to me to try in my store. “How’s it going with the baby? Did you get a chance to speak to Scott?”
“Sierra’s fine. She’s a good baby. I couldn’t ask for a better granddaughter. She’s sleeping through the night and is eating good. I even found a wonderful home daycare that you might wanna use when your baby’s born. If she has any openings.” I glanced over at the computer screen checking to see if Grant had e-mailed me back yet and was disappointed when I saw he hadn’t.
“Definitely give me your babysitter’s number. So . . . did you talk to Scott?”
Damn, she sure doesn’t know how to let anything go. “Yes, I’ve talked to him. Scott denies the baby is his, but what else is new? Most men refuse to admit they screw up. He claims if some female had a baby, she damn sure didn’t tell him anything about it. I told him to bring his ass home next weekend so we can figure out who Sierra belongs to.”
Whitney gave me a funny look. “Noelle . . . I know you don’t wanna hear this, but . . . maybe she isn’t his.”
I cut my eyes at her. “Whitney, puhleeze! She looks just like him.”
“I didn’t say she doesn’t look like him. Just because she looks like him doesn’t mean she’s his.”
I sat back in my seat stunned. I couldn’t believe she was trying to go there again. “Who else is she gonna belong to?” I asked, daring her to say it again.
She gave me a nervous look, then glanced down at the floor. “What’s Grant say about the baby?”
“He doesn’t want another baby in the house,” I said calmly.
“I’m mean . . . did you ask him if the baby . . . could be his?”
“Hell no!” I glared across the desk at what was supposed to have been my best friend. How could she even think such a thing about my husband? I took that moment to glance over at my screen and my pulse jumped. I had a message from Grant! I reached for my mouse and opened it.
“Why not? I mean there has to be a reason why he doesn’t want her there.”
I ignored Whitney’s question long enough to read his message:
The boys and I are going bowling after work.
Since when did my husband start liking bowling? I felt like grabbing my keys and heading straight over to the high school and give him a piece of my mind. Unfortunately, the last time I barged in his office, I found him whispering in the corner of his room with a beautiful woman. It wasn’t until I cussed them both out that I found out she was the new school counselor. There was no way I was about to make a fool of myself two weeks in a row. Tears flooded my eyes. I just couldn’t imagine my husband not wanting to spend time with me.
“What’s wrong?” Whitney closed my office door, then came around and took a seat beside my desk. “You look like you just found out your best friend passed away, and I know that’s not the case because I’m standing right here. Come on . . . tell me what’s running through your mind?”
I covered my face with my hands, trying to hold back my anger and frustration. My marriage was falling apart and I wanted to scream and cry at the same time.
“Everything. Grant’s been acting so strange. It started before Sierra arrived, but since she got here, it has gotten worse. He won’t hold her or play with her. It’s like he doesn’t want to have anything to do with her.”
“Maybe he’s scared.”
I gave her a weird look. “You think so?” I asked,
“It’s a possibility. Your daughter was stillborn and every little girl you have tried to adopt, someone has come and snatched away. Maybe he’s scared of falling in love with Sierra and then her mother coming back to get her.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I said, eager to accept the explanation and avoid the possibility that Sierra might be Grant’s. It was possible. After I lost Rachel, I had been so devastated. It was then that Grant agreed to be a foster parent with the hopes of finding another daughter of our own. But each and every time we had one we adored, her unfit mother would call herself getting her life together and DCFS would give her the child back. Don’t get me wrong; I believe in keeping families together, but none of them homes came even close to what Grant and I could offer. Now that I think back on it, I could have sworn he had been more devastated over Rachel’s death than I was.
I shook my head. As much as I wanted to believe that was the reason, I couldn’t. Grant had been acting strange long before Sierra had come into our lives.
“No, I think it’s more going on than just that. He’s never home, hanging out with his boys all the time. He even started working out again. I think . . . I think Grant is having an affair.” Whitney tried to look away but not before I had a chance to see the look in her eyes. “You’re thinking the same thing. Aren’t you?”
Her eyes finally met mine; then she shrugged. “I hate to say this, but that’s how Landon was acting before I found out he was seeing someone else.” I hated the look of pity in her eyes. Whitney had been with Landon for four years before she discovered he was cheating on her with a female he worked with. It took her almost a year to get over him.
“What should I do?”
“Noelle, I know you ain’t asking me that. Aren’t you the one who put a stripper pole in her bedroom so your husband didn’t have a reason to go to those topless bars with his boys anymore?” she said with a smirk.
“Yes, I guess that was me.” I hadn’t used that pole in months.
“Make your husband pay attention to you. I know you still got a trunkful of those skanky costumes you used to love to buy.”
I wiped the tears from my eyes and smiled. “You know I do.”
“Good, then dust off the cobwebs on one; or better yet, instead of lunch, let’s go down to that new adult store on State Street.”
Maybe she was right. I hadn’t done anything sexy and spontaneous since Sierra arrived at the house. Most evenings by the time Grant got home, I was already smelling like throw up and baby powder. There was nothing sexy about that.
“In fact, I’ll be more than happy to watch Sierra for you for a couple of hours so the two of you could have some time alone together,” she offered.
That’s why I loved Whitney, she always had my back. I didn’t have many women I could call a true friend except for her. “Thanks, Whitney.” I reached for my purse and rose. “Let’s go!”
Tonight I was going to fix whatever was wrong with my marriage.
“Where the hell you been all night?”
Grant didn’t even look in my direction as he spoke. “A few of us went out to dinner and drinks after we got done bowling.”
“Some of you like who?” He better not say that new guidance counselor Ms. Peachtree. She was cute. I’d give her that, but I’ve seen the way she looked at my husband, and I had no problem snatching those kinky twists from her head if I had to.
“Just a few of us. Damn! Why the twenty questions?”
“Because you should have called to let me know you weren’t coming home so I wouldn’t have bothered cooking.” There was no way in hell I was letting him know I had sat there until ten o’clock dressed in a waitress’s outfit ready to take his order. He could have had whatever he wanted on the menu, preferably me. By ten-thirty I had changed clothes and was heading to Hyde Park to pick up Sierra when I decided to drive past Ms. Peachtree’s house. The reason how I knew where she lived was because last Thursday, I waited in the parking lot for her to leave the school and followed her home. It was a good thing I hadn’t found Grant’s car parked out there tonight, but that wasn’t saying much. Her mini Cooper
wasn’t there either. I glanced over to the clock on the wall. It was now a quarter to twelve.
“Cooked? I’m surprised. You haven’t cooked once since Sierra came into this house,” he replied with a rude snort.
I folded my arms and raised my eyebrows. “It’s hard juggling an infant and preparing a meal. If you would help me sometime with the baby, maybe cooking for you wouldn’t be a problem.”
“I already told you I didn’t want a baby in the house, yet you went behind my back and did it anyway.”
The look on his face told me he had reached his boiling point. Too bad. So had I.
“As far as I’m concerned, she is your grandchild. And as soon as I figure out who her mother is, then we can get her to take care of her responsibilities.” I tried once more to explain my actions.
“What if she doesn’t want the baby? Then what? Who’s going to raise Sierra?”
I hesitated, because I knew Grant wasn’t going to like my answer. “Well . . . I guess we will, at least until Scott graduates from college and gets a job so he can provide for his daughter himself.”
“It sounds to me like you got it all figured out and you didn’t even bother to ask me what I thought about the situation.”
His angry tone put me on the defense. “I already know what you think. You don’t want another baby in the house; but I’m sorry, I can’t turn my back on my granddaughter.”
“We don’t even know if that child is Scott’s!” he snapped.
“If she isn’t, then I’ve definitely been fooled. I think you’re too blind to notice she has the same hazel eyes as you and Scott, and even that small, pudgy nose. If she doesn’t belong to Scott, then the only other person who could be her father is you.”
He gave me a look that said, Don’t even go there. “Until we find out if she’s Scott’s, let DCFS take the child. Seriously, Noelle . . . I hate to see you get attached to this baby only to get your heart broken again.”
I shook my head. “I can’t do that. If she is, and I know she is, my grandchild, I would never be able to forgive myself for putting her in foster care.”
He reached for a beer in the refrigerator, then moved to the family room and took a seat on the couch. For the longest time he sat there staring at the television screen, saying nothing.
I stood in the doorway with my arms crossed. “Are you planning to ignore me all night?”
“No, I plan on drinking this beer; then I’m going to go jogging, shower, and get ready for bed.”
I don’t know how we had gotten to this point. I’ll admit ever since the baby came, Grant has only tried making love to me once. He was seconds away from going down on me when Sierra started crying from the other room, letting me know her diaper was wet. I don’t think I’d ever seen Grant’s dick get soft so quickly. I’ll admit a baby can affect a man’s libido; however, I don’t care what he said, there was more going on than him not wanting a baby in the house.
Pushing away from the door, I went upstairs and checked on Sierra, who was sleeping like an angel in the bed. She was so precious. There was no way I could just turn my back on her no matter what my husband said. She was the innocent victim here. I went back down to the living room and the second I moved around the corner Grant slammed his flip phone shut.
“Who you talking to?” I asked.
“No one,” he mumbled. “I was just checking my messages.”
“Uh-huh.” At this point, I didn’t believe anything he said.
He rose and went to put the can in the trash. “I’m going to get dressed and go jog for a little while.”
He pecked my cheek, then moved into the bedroom. Five minutes later he came out in sweats and a T-shirt and his MP3 player at his waist. I watched out the window as he jogged up the street, and as soon as he was out of sight, I hurried into the bedroom and rummaged through the clothes he had just taken off. I dug through every pocket looking for receipts or anything else that said where he had been all evening. When I didn’t find anything, I reached for my key to his car and went out into the garage and started digging. I checked under the seat, between the seats, and the glove box. I was about to give up when I spotted a balled-up napkin on the floor mat. I smooth it out. Angelina’s. That was the name of the new restaurant people have been buzzing about over on the north side. He said they went to dinner. But tell me why they traveled to eat at an establishment that was more than forty-five minutes away from the school, especially when there were several good restaurants in the area?
I slammed the car door shut and went inside. Sierra started crying and I went up and changed her diaper and gave her another bottle. By the time Grant returned, she had been burped and was going back to sleep. I went into our bedroom and shut the door so we wouldn’t disturb her.
“So where did you go to dinner tonight?” I asked trying to remain as calm as I could.
“Applebee’s.” That was a damn lie. I could see it in his expression, because the fool couldn’t even look me in the eyes.
“Oh really. What did you have?”
As he slipped off his running shoes, I saw him looking at me nervously out the corner of his eye. “I had the rib basket. Why?”
“I’m just curious. I heard there is a really nice restaurant on the north side called Angelina’s. You ever been there before?”
Grant’s golden gaze grew wide. “Ummm, let me think about that one a moment.”
“Yeah, you think long and hard.” I then held up the napkin so he could see I already knew where he had been for dinner.
“Okay, we went there tonight. So what?” he said, and shrugged like it was no big deal. If he was lying about dinner, what else was he being deceitful about?
“Why you lie?”
He pulled the sweaty T-shirt over his head, then sighed. “Because I didn’t feel like explaining why I went to check out a new hot spot without you. You always act like your feelings are hurt if I try to do anything and don’t include you.”
“Probably because we rarely do anything together anymore.”
I saw anger flash across his face. “That’s your fault. I planned a vacation and you canceled it. Remember?”
For a moment, we both fell silent. Grant was right. I had postponed our vacation because I didn’t want to leave Sierra alone, but there was no way he was going to make it my fault. We were having problems long before she came to live with us.
Before I could try to make things right, Grant moved into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. I don’t know what was wrong with our relationship, but I needed to find a way to fix things fast before it was too late.
15
Chauncey
“Why you like me?”
Candace turned up her nose and frowned. “What kind of question is that?”
“One that I hope you will answer.” We were having lunch at Nikki’s, a popular bar and grill at 97th and Western, eating Angus cheeseburgers and fries, and drinking cold draft beers served in frosted glasses. There were three pool tables to the far right, flat screens over near the bar to watch the game, and the smell of grilled steaks filled the air. Just the way I liked it. Tonight was probably our best date. We went and saw Denzel’s new movie, then drove to Lincoln Park and walked along the beach, by ourselves, just talking and holding hands. At one time doing that would have sounded corny as hell, but I was at a different point in my life since I met her and had a deeper appreciation for the simpler things.
It had been a week since Candace and I had our first date, and each day things got better. Somehow that woman had managed to do something in a week that no woman had been capable of doing before—got me thinking about settling down. Never once had it crossed my mind we were spending too much time together, or that talking on the phone more than once a day was a bit much. Instead, it was the exact opposite. I just couldn’t seem to get enough of her. We’d sit and talk for hours, or even just lie on the couch together and watch television. With most of the women I’d dated, after a little conversation an
d sex, there wasn’t much else except to make plans for me to tap that ass again. But with Candace, it wasn’t about the sex. She made me feel like anything was possible and that together we could do anything. She was great, and the truth of the matter is, I was crazy about her.
“Chauncey, that’s a silly question,” she replied with a soft laugh that always made me smile.
I leaned across the table. “Boo, I’m serious. I’m renting a room at the Y. I got a hoopty, and a GED. I see the way cats be checking you out. So I know you could have anyone you wanted, yet you’re with me.”
“Chauncey, like I told you before, I’ve dated the guys with money, education, and was bored to tears. There’s just something about you that I find myself drawn to.” She gave me her sexy sixty-watt smile.
“It must be my bad-boy image.”
She stroked my arm on the table, running her fingers across the letters carved in my flesh. “It’s not even that. Tyree’s hood and I vowed I would never go out with anyone else like that.” She paused long enough to frown. “I guess I like you because you keep it real. I’ll be honest . . . in the beginning I was a little hesitant about getting involved with someone who looked like a thug.”
Her comment made me laugh. “Nah . . . I had my days, but at some point we all have to grow up.”
“I wish I could say the same about my baby’s daddy, but Tyree maturing ain’t gonna happen anytime soon.” She didn’t go into serious detail about her ex and I appreciated that. I just needed to know enough to know who my competition was, that’s all. “I had enough little boys. At this point in my life, I need a man. Seriously . . . Chauncey, I love the way you take pride in your work. Women be sweating you and you just let it roll off your shoulders.” She paused, sipped her beer, and laughed. “I never thought about a dude . . . a straight dude doing women’s feet for a living, but you got the monopoly. Don’t be surprised if other brothas try to follow in your footsteps. You know how they be hating.”
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