In His Corner

by Alexandra Warren

  “Maybe. That’s none of my business though. My business is this little nugget’s, and this bigger nugget’s, father,” I replied as I dragged the bigger one out of the door, quickly locking up behind us before making our way out to the car. And after getting Lucy into the backseat, I was grateful when Gina offered to drive, my nerves far too out of whack to do it myself. Though not being behind the wheel only gave me even more time to overthink and freak myself out about what I was getting into.

  I mean, what if I showed up to the hospital and only made things worse for Sir Kingfield? Drove his blood pressure sky high with my presence and turned his minor stroke to a full one? What if Princeton had been brainwashed to the point of no return and wanted nothing to do with me? What if he…

  “This might be bad timing, but... I’m a little disappointed Prince doesn’t live in a mansion… with his auntie and uncle... in Bel-Air.”

  I honestly hadn’t even realized we made it to his neighborhood let alone were sitting in his driveway until I peeked up and saw the house that, in my opinion, was perfectly modest. In fact, I admired Princeton’s choice since he could’ve easily splurged on a place double or triple the size. But it was the perfect amount of space for him, Lucy, and myself whenever I came by. And while I wasn’t sure if he knew I noticed, I had seen the way he’d been slowly removing things from his trophy room to make way for baby Lattimore.

  Just the thought of never seeing the room fully transformed into a nursery had my chest hurting all over again, though I still found the strength to tell Gina, “Shut up. I’ll be right back.”

  “What? You’re not gonna let me room raid his crib with a black light while you take care of the beast?”

  Even during what felt like a crisis, I was glad to have Gina on my side, providing much-needed relief with her crazy ideas. And I couldn’t help but grin when I answered, “No. Cause if you start, you probably won’t be able to stop and we have places to be.”

  She seemed legitimately disappointed, crossing her arms as she pouted, “Fine. But if you’re in there longer than ten minutes, I’m coming in after you with my tranquilizer.”

  “Tranquilizer? You don’t even have a… nevermind.”

  I made my way to the backseat to get Lucy out and she led the way to the front door without a struggle as if she was happy to be home. But once we got there, it felt strange to use the keys I’d more than likely be returning. Still, I managed to steady my hands long enough to unlock the door and open it, Lucy taking off in a fashion that definitely would’ve dragged me if I hadn’t let her leash go in time.

  Since I wasn’t sure if Princeton wanted her roaming freely around his house, I made an effort to go find her so that I could put her in her rightful place behind the gate. But once I located her in the kitchen, I quickly realized why she had been in such a hurry.

  “Bella…”

  Just hearing him say my name sent shivers down my spine, my eyes immediately threatening to spring with tears that I was forced to swallow as I took him all in; from his tired eyes to the clothes I remembered from the day before, both signs that he had probably been at the hospital with his father since the last time I saw him. But just the thought of his father was enough to remind me of the origin for what was supposed to be a pit stop since, “I… didn’t expect you to be here. Figured you’d be at the hospital. I was just… coming to return her. But I can go now.”

  I was already turning to leave when Princeton professed, “Bella, I’m so sorry. All that shit my father said about you was foul as fuck. I know you didn’t trap me with a baby. Hell, if anything I trapped you.”

  I couldn’t turn back around fast enough to ask, “Excuse me, what?!”

  Princeton immediately put his hands up in defense, walking towards me as he replied, “I don’t mean that literally, B. I guess I just… fell for you so hard that the consequence of a child didn’t even faze me because I could already see that shit happening anyway. Could already see myself being with you for the long haul.”

  “Princeton…” I sighed, turning away as my eyes began to gloss over with tears yet again.

  But Princeton forced me to deal with them as he continued, “Nah, let me finish. This whole thing with my dad has me thinking maybe you were right to be concerned about my health. Maybe I really should be done with this boxing shit. I mean, it’s brought me some good, but it’s brought a lot of bad shit too. I couldn’t even finish high school cause my father was so pressed for me to turn pro. Wasn’t no prom, no graduation, no teenage mistakes. I had to grow up, fast, fight grown ass men all because my father wanted me to even though I saw what it did to him; who it turned him into. And now I’m at the point where it’s like, is this really what I want? Something I never seriously questioned until I saw him lying in that hospital bed. Something I never even thought to question until I met you.”

  I wasn’t sure if it was the weight of his confessions or my pregnancy hormones, but my eyes were a mess of tears by the time he finished. While I would never approve of what his father had said about me, I also couldn’t ignore the fact that I wasn’t the only one who had caught his wrath of hatefulness, his mean words nothing compared to the emotional damage he had done to his son. And not only the emotional damage, but the physical as well, putting him in a position that he was forced to defend himself through or risk getting himself seriously injured.

  It was fucked up, but it was also a testament to his resilience which allowed me to reply, “Princeton, I don’t want you to stop boxing because of my insecurities about your safety. You’re an incredible boxer. It’s in your blood, what you were born to do regardless of how I feel about it.”

  He shook his head, stepping even closer as he said, “Nah, B. That’s not what I was born to do. I was born to be happy, have my fair chance at bringing good to the world in any way I choose, a fair chance at living a normal life, having a normal family. With you.”

  “Prince…”

  “Did you mean it, Bella?” he asked, my look of confusion prompting him to explain, “When you said you were falling in love with me? Did you mean it?”

  I nodded through the knot in my throat, sucking up the snot that rivaled Viola Davis’s when I answered, “Fell fast and hard like every single one of your opponents. Well… except for “Big Time”.”

  “Ouch. Too soon,” he replied with a little chuckle before pulling me into an embrace that I greedily fell into, his chin resting on top of my head as he rocked me while confessing, “Bella, I want this so bad. I want you, and our baby, and everything else that comes with it. And I’m just… I’m sorry, okay? I know you. I always knew the truth. And I’ll never let him get in the way of that ever again, I promise.”

  His words were like music to my ears, a rush of relief running over me as I asked, “Is he okay though?”

  Princeton lifted his head so that I could lift mine, finding his eyes to explain, “Your father. Is he okay?”

  “I honestly can’t even begin to think about him right now until I know we’re okay,” he replied, his expression fearful as if he legitimately wasn’t sure.

  I was glad to put all his worries at ease when I smiled and replied, “We’re okay, Princeton. We’ll… be okay.” And I truly believed that considering we had been weathering storms left and right.

  Still, I wasn’t expecting Princeton to take things to the next level, giving me a kiss on the forehead as he whispered, “I love you, B.”

  “I… love you too,” I replied, my heart thumping through my chest as I tried to process what that truly meant for us.

  But my processing was interrupted by a voice behind us adding, “And I love y’all both. That was beautiful.”

  Princeton let out a low chuckle as I turned around in a fury to find Gina wiping her eyes. “Oh my God. How long have you been standing there?!”

  “Long enough to start planning your bachelorette party. After you give birth, of course,” she replied as she made her way deeper into the kitchen, an act I knew was just part of
her ploy of being able to explore Princeton’s home.

  I was just getting ready to put her assumptions to bed and stop her from being nosey when Princeton chimed in, “That’s if she ever lets me put a ring on it.”

  His words surprised me just as much as the ones before them, his talk of our love and the future for our family - for us - enough to have my cheeks aching from smiling so hard. And now that we were back in good graces, I couldn’t help but tease, “I know you work hard, but you gotta grind a little bit harder for a victory of that magnitude.”

  Even if we seemed to be back on track, launching ourselves into something like that so soon was far from appropriate regardless of how we felt about each other. And I was glad to hear we were on the same page when he replied, “Don’t even trip, B. I’m in it to win it.”

  Princeton

  “Bella, this might be your corniest work yet.”

  I had seen enough videos of these things to know how they went, had seen plenty more to know exactly how exciting finding out the gender of the baby could be. But looking at the giant gold balloons sitting on my back patio that spelled out, “ISSA BABY” had me shaking my head as I watched my girl pose for pictures in front of them, pulling out my phone to snap one for myself that I’d be sharing on my Instagram to announce the baby to my fans.

  “Quit being a hater, Prince,” Denise shouted as she snapped pictures on her own phone, Tony standing nearby doing the same with the flip phone I was surprised even had a camera.

  I was just getting ready to tease him about the picture quality when Bella shouted back, “He’s just trying to play it cool now cause he knows he’s going to be crying later when he finds out it’s not the girl he predicted.”

  Smiling, I snuggled up next to her which ended up putting me on the other side of the camera as Denise and Co. continued snapping pictures. But none of that mattered more than telling Bella, “I’m happy with a healthy baby, B. You know that.”

  “I also know what you said that day. Uh-Uh. It felt like a girl. Uh,” she said with a hip thrust and arm pump that had the both of us cracking up laughing.

  “I hope Denise caught that candid,” I thought to myself as I pulled Bella into my arms, looking down at her to ask, “Was that supposed to be my post-nut voice?”

  “It was your post-nut voice,” she replied with a giddy smile, giving me lusty eyes as if she wanted me to put another baby in her sooner than later.

  But for now, we’d just focus on the current one - and on each other - as I bent my neck to whisper in her ear, “Well you can hear it again once all these people get out of my damn house.”

  “Oh, can I?” she asked out loud, running a hand against my chest as Gina shouted, “That’s how y’all got that baby now!” And once again, we both busted out laughing before posing together for a few pictures in front of her corny balloons.

  “Whew. Mama’s gotta spring a leak,” Bella said, putting a hand on her belly - our baby - as she took off inside the house with Gina right behind her.

  While my eyes naturally followed her in awe, I was quickly snapped out of it when Little Tony said, “Aight. Yo turn, P!”

  “My turn?” I asked more to myself than him.

  Though Brandin was sure to make things clear as he threw an arm around my shoulder and shouted, “Yeah, yo turn! Issa baby, nigga! Come on!”

  I shook my head with a smile as him and Little Tony joined me in front of the balloons, first looking like a reject rap group as we posed with our arms crossed over our chest, then turning into a bunch of jailbirds as we dropped into a squat. But I was glad to have them here, glad I had at least some family for us to celebrate with along with Bella’s parents who had come into town just for this event.

  At first, I worried they wouldn’t be too happy to see me since their first time meeting me was at their daughter’s gender reveal party for a very unplanned pregnancy. But I quickly found out Bella’s father was a big fan and her mother was just as sweet as she was, creating an environment that we could all enjoy, even through Bella’s multiple pee breaks.

  Of course, my enjoyment didn’t mean the dark spot of my life wouldn’t be brought up the second our impromptu photoshoot stopped, Little Tony leaning in to ask, “Yo, Prince. You talk to your dad recently?”

  I shrugged, pulling out my phone and trying to decide what filter I wanted to use for Bella’s picture when I answered, “Not since he was cleared to go home. He been aight?”

  It seemed silly for me to be asking him of all people about my father’s well-being. But since I didn’t really want anything to do with my father right now outside of knowing his ass was still alive, going through a middleman seemed like the best bet. And I got all I needed once Little Tony replied, “Same ol’ grumpy ass King, so I guess so.”

  “That’s what’s up,” I told him, deciding she didn’t need a filter after all before posting the picture with a caption that matched her silly ass balloons. And while I could already imagine the notifications that would come from it, I was happy just staring at the picture - staring at my girl and our baby - and imagining what the future would hold.

  But while my head was in the future, Little Tony was still caught up on the past, asking, “You still don’t wanna talk about that day, huh?”

  Once again, I shrugged. “Not really. I mean, there’s really nothin’ to talk about. He was having a stroke, I got him to the hospital, the end.”

  Reliving the details made me feel things I hadn’t felt for my father in a long time. He had been so vile for as long as I could remember to the point that I had grown cold and numb to actually caring about him as a person. But seeing him in a crisis, having his life in my hands even if the doctors said he had a few minutes to spare by the time we made it to the hospital, made me worry about him in a way he never worried about me.

  And that made me angry.

  “So y’all were in the middle of training when it all went down?” Brandin asked in between his nibbles on a cupcake, a dot of frosting on the top of his nose like he was a damn kindergartener.

  The sight was enough to at least calm me down, even when I explained, “Not exactly. We were uh… we had kinda gotten into it over some shit he said about Bella and the baby. I was setting him straight and he… started having the symptoms. Asked me to call 911.”

  “Damn. That would’ve been crazy if he would’ve died right there in the gym,” Brandin replied, instantly making me cringe since it had crossed my mind more times than I wanted to admit.

  Still, I was glad when Little Tony did the scolding, giving his brother a punch in the shoulder as he snarled, “Do you ever stop and think before you speak? Or does it always just spill right on out?”

  Brandin responded with a shrug just as Gina and Bella made their way back, Gina excitedly announcing, “Alright! The punching bag is set. You guys ready to do this?”

  “Who’s punching it? Me or Bella?” I asked as we made our way over to the speed bag that looked more like a basketball piñata covered in red paint. But once again, this wasn’t about me or my opinion on Gina’s craftwork.

  This was about Bella, though it was clear I was alone in that thought when Brandin asked, “Who’s punching it? Who’s the real boxer, dummy?!”

  “Hey now. My girl’s got hands. Don’t get it twisted,” I replied, shooting a look Bella’s way just in time to catch her already blushing.

  But I was a little surprised when she clasped her hands in front of her mouth and insisted, “I want you to do it, Princeton.”

  “What? Nah, B. This is your shit. You can do it,” I told her, stepping back to make room. But instead of filling it in, she pushed me back into it.

  “I might not be able to break it. So you do it. Please.”

  Naturally, I had a soft spot for everything about Bella. But hearing her beg had me ready to knock that piñata clear into the neighbor’s backyard just to make her happy. And I damn near did, launching a punch with enough power to burst the speed bag open, causing a shower of pink
confetti to erupt.

  “Holy shit,” I whispered once I pulled my fist back, my eyes flashing over to Bella’s whose were already glossed over with tears as she covered her mouth with her hands in shock. But before I could say anything to her, I felt an arm around my neck as Brandin shouted, “And “The Prince” stays undefeated!”

  While I wanted to share in his celebration, I was desperate to get to my woman first, knocking him off so that I could pull her into a hug tight enough to lift her off her feet. And she eagerly accepted it, her arms wrapped around my neck as she whispered, “Issa girl.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at her silliness, putting her down just long enough to pull her face into my hands for a quick kiss before I said, “Told you so.”

  She lifted onto her tippy toes to give me another kiss, unable to control her wide smile even when she teased, “Well maybe you can pick up where Miss. Cleo left off once you’re done boxing. Since you wanna be a psychic and what not.”

  I shook my head with another laugh, resting my arms on her shoulders then my forehead against hers as she wrapped her arms around my waist. And I was grinning nearly as hard as she was by the time I replied, “Nah. I think I’ll just be a stay-at-home dad. Raise little Princess Lattimore while you’re out here being young Robin Roberts and shit.”

  “We are not naming her that,” Bella squealed loud enough for everyone to hear as she pulled her head away.

  But I pulled her right back in, her hands digging into my lower back as I rocked her in an embrace and offered, “Middle name then. Gotta continue the royal tradition.” … or better yet, bring some good back into the royal tradition.

  Before she could offer a rebuttal, Gina leaned in nearby, sticking her finger up as she said, “If I may put a name in the running, I hear Gina is becoming popular again.”

  I turned out of our hold, still keeping my arm around my girl’s shoulder when I replied, “Nah, Bella already knows what it is.”