Synergy

by Georgia Payne

  It was Friday, and Trey had organised to have Tushaun for the weekend. Dee was sad in a way that she had a couple of days without her son; she really did miss him when she didn’t see him every day. His little smile, his bright personality; she knew she was bias but he really was the best kid she had ever met. She thought about her son as she put on her makeup, wondering what he would make to a new baby brother or sister. She knew the time would come when she had to tell him, and she worried about what he would think. Would it confuse him, having a new sibling from a different father? Would he wonder why this baby had lighter skin than him? What did she tell him about the baby’s father? They would probably have to meet, since he said he wanted to be in the baby’s life. She wondered whether her son would like Jason, whether Jason would like him. Her mind was on overdrive thinking about the possibilities and what conversations she would soon have to have. She had always been a bit of a procrastinator when it came to things she didn’t want to do.

  Almost as if on cue, Dee’s phone buzzed next to her as she finished applying the last bit of makeup. Her screen told her it was a text from Jason. Opening it, she read what he had to say.

  ‘Hey, are you free tonight? I was wondering if you wanted to go for dinner, or we could just order in if you just wanna chill and watch a movie? Need a ride?’

  As soon as Dee saw the word ‘dinner’ she panicked a little bit inside. She knew he had money, and something made her nervous at the prospect of him taking her out. She wondered if he might choose a real fancy place she didn’t fit in. Maybe it would be confusing whether it was a date or not. Either way, ordering in sounded less fancy and more relaxed, so she replied after thinking for a minute.

  ‘We can order in. When you picking me up?’

  She followed her reply with a winking emoticon, so she didn’t sound so demanding. She wasn’t sure why he had offered her a ride tonight, when he hadn’t before, but either way she was glad. She didn’t feel like doing the same bus ride as before, and a cab would have been too expensive. Of course, she could probably always catch a ride off Tip, but she didn’t want him to know where she was going. That hotel was fancy.

  Jason

  Jason looked at the text message Dee had just sent him, and smiled. He replied asking her if 7pm would be okay, and she instantly replied it would. He set his phone down on the bed, and thought about seeing her later. He wondered what she would look like, what mood she would be in. After all, following the conversation they had days ago, her bad mood put him on edge. He had never seen a woman with such rage. Then again, every other time he had seen her, she had been...perfect. She had a tough exterior but he had seen her more vulnerable side. He had seen where she grew up, her relationship with her brother, and the way she spoke about her son. He could tell she loved him, and remembered the tears that glossed over her eyes when she told him she didn’t live with him anymore. He knew that had to be tough for her and his mind then turned to the new baby, the baby that was his too. Would she be able to afford to live with this baby? Probably not. He knew he was going to have to step in, offer financial help. He knew if they did it the proper way through the authorities that he would probably a owe a lot of child maintenance anyway with his income, but if it took more, he would give more. He made a mental note that this was a conversation he needed to have with Dee.

  Once the serious thoughts had evaporated for a minute, Jason thought about later that night. He wondered what they would talk about, what they would eat and do. He had pretty much every channel on the hotel TV so finding something to watch probably wouldn’t be a problem. He decided to not over think things, and to just go with the flow. He’d see what she wanted to do. It was a weird situation, he knew that, but he was determined to step up and be a man about it. He knew there may be some difficult decisions ahead, but he knew he had to do right for the child’s sake. He had such a brilliant upbringing, and he wanted the same for his child. He wanted to show the child a good life, he wanted his parents and his grandparents involved in their lives, so they could feel love like he did. He didn’t know what the future held, and he knew Dee may not have the same outlook as he did, but something would work out, he was sure of it.

  It was only 1pm, and Jason had another five hours before he even had to set off to pick up Dee. For once, he had had a slow day. He had been to the studio briefly this morning, but there wasn’t much more to do. He had actually finished all recording, and the songs had been finalised. This morning consisted of him and his team deciding which songs would be the lucky ones that made the final tracklist. There had been some debate, but after a few hours, it was decided. Fifteen of the twenty-two songs recorded had made the final cut. Now he only had promo work until the album was set for release, but until then, his manager had given him the rest of the day off. Him and Tom had grabbed lunch, and then they’d gone their separate ways for the day. Jason decided it was about time he kept to his promise of getting to know Dee. Since she’d told him she was pregnant, his every spare thought was about her and the baby.

  After he made sure the hotel room was presentable, Jason headed to the gym on the outskirts of town. He had been at least twice a week already since he’d been working in Detroit. He liked to keep himself fit, and lord knows in his line of work you had to. If you even showed one sign of slipping on your fitness regime, the public and media would be on you like vultures. You’d be ridiculed, paraded in magazines with before and after photos, and questioned why it’s happened. Are they depressed? Have they been overeating? He never wanted to give the vultures reason to talk, so for that reason he liked to do what he could to keep himself looking good. He wasn’t part of the celebrity culture that was pictured falling out of clubs drunk or getting arrested with DUI’s. He preferred to keep his private life as private as he could.

  Though the workout felt good, Jason couldn’t switch his thoughts off. He pictured in his head what it would be like to have a child. He wondered whether it would be a son or a daughter. Either one, he would be happy. He saw Tom with Lydia and the bond they shared, and he hoped his bond with his own child would be just as strong. He thought about Dee having a son, and wondered how her child would feel about having a new sibling, about possibly having a new father figure in his life. Truth be told, Jason was hoping he could make something work with Dee. He found her fascinating, as well as beautiful, and he was intrigued by her and her life. Does she like basketball? Can she cook? What kind of music does she like? Can she sing? He realised he really hadn’t learnt much about her at all in the three times he’d seen her. He hadn’t learned anything in the first night, besides the fact she had a brother, sister and a son. The second time, he met her brother; he heard her sister was the brains of the family, and he knew she walked home from the club where she worked as a stripper. She liked weed, and beer, and one thing he’d learned from the third time he’d seen her: she had a temper. Jason looked forward to getting to know the girl he barely knew but would soon be a huge part of his life.

  Once he had returned from the gym, he had a bite to eat before showering and making himself presentable. He called his mother to check in, as he did every few days, and saw that she was fine. She sounded her usual, happy self and was happy to hear her son was making an effort with his baby’s mother. Before he left to pick Dee up, he phoned down to the front desk of the hotel and asked them to bring some drinks up for his return. When they asked what drinks he would like, he stopped himself from asking for wine once he realised his guest was pregnant. Instead, he asked for a variety of soft drinks and some snacks. As he left for his car, he found himself feeling a little nervous. First date nerves?

  Chapter 14 – You’re Forgiven

  Dee wasn’t particularly dressed up for an occasion, but Jason thought she was stunning. She was dressed in tight jeans, a fitted top and gold hoop earrings, which he’d now noticed she’d worn every time he’d seen her. The earrings had a name embellished in the middle of them, though he had never been close enough to notice what they said. He
could only assume they said ‘Dee’ but she always had her long curls in the way. Tonight, her usual curls weren’t there; instead, she was sporting a straightened sleek look. Still, it flowed over her shoulders and back perfectly. When he pulled up in the car, it only took seconds before the front door to her house opened, and she stepped out, locking the door behind her. He didn’t even get chance to cut off the engine, so instead, he watched her walk to the car, her hips strutting in her high heels. This was the first time he had seen her house where she lived alone, as he’d only ever been to her mother’s, however, he didn’t get to see past the front door as she closed it so quickly.

  Jason had been raised to respect women growing up, and he always had the upmost respect for all women, family or not. He liked to treat women as a lady, not as a piece of meat like many. Of course, he’d had his flings in the past but if he was interested in a woman, he treated them right. The men in his family were old school, and liked to play the part of the gentlemen. He had adopted this nature growing up, so opening a door or pulling out a seat was second nature to him. However, Dee had barely given him a chance to step out of the car let alone walk around to the passenger side to open it for her. As quick as a flash, she had strutted to the car, a woman on a mission, and let herself in. He pulled himself back from sitting half out of the car, and positioned himself back in the seat, shutting his door after him.

  “I was about to get your door” he told her, not wanting her to think he didn’t care.

  While he was expecting a smile or a ‘thanks’, she instead waved her hand dismissively.

  “You don’t gotta do that” she said, buckling up her seatbelt beside him.

  It was a slightly awkward drive on the way to his hotel. While it wasn’t a long drive, the time seemed to go much slower, exacerbated by the fact they hit almost every red light. Luckily, the radio playing idly in the background provided a topic to talk about; Music. It was his first love in life, and it would be his last, he thought. He found that when all else failed in conversation, you could always get someone to open up by asking what music they liked. While you may have your disagreements, it opens up a gateway. Dee wasn’t shy about sharing her musical preferences. She told Jason about the rappers she liked and which she didn’t, and she expressed her distaste for some of their person lives. Jason asked her what kind of music she was brought up on, what her mother or father listened to, and she told him her mother listened to Whitney and Aretha, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

  “What about Al Green?” he asked, turning into the street of the hotel.

  “Oh yeah, him too” she agreed.

  “He’s a great guy too”

  “You met him?”

  “He actually lives close to me. His church is real close.”

  “Shit.” Dee replied with a surprised tone.

  As the car came to a complete stop, Jason cut the engine before getting out of the car and walking around to her passenger side in an attempt to get her door properly this time. By the time he walked around, she had already opened the door and was in the process of getting out of her seat. He pulled the door open completely and held it for her as she got out; slamming it closed once she was out. She half-smiled and muttered ‘thanks’ awkwardly, feeling in alien territory.

  As they made their way to the front of the hotel, the doorman inside opened the door for their arrival, smiling politely. Jason thanked him before immediately heading to the elevator, careful not to attract too many eyes. It was all attention that he didn’t need and he was pretty sure she wouldn’t appreciate it either. As the two of them stood in the elevator quietly, Dee fiddled with her handbag, reaching for some lip gloss inside which she applied to her lips using the elevator mirror. He tried not to watch her, and instead, looked at his feet and then the buttons on the panel.

  “You hungry?” he asked after a few seconds.

  “Starving. Are you?”

  He smiled and agreed. He liked a woman that liked food, so she had already gained brownie points in his mind.

  Inside his hotel room, the staff had left a selection of soft drinks at his request. When he swiped his room card to enter, Dee went ahead of him, throwing her bag down near the sofa and then taking off her heels, and placing them down neatly next to her bag. Suddenly, she lost half of her height and he couldn’t help but laugh a little bit at the decline. Throwing herself onto a seat on the sofa, she looked over to him puzzled.

  “What you laughing at?”

  “Nothing”

  “Tell me!” she demanded, her eyebrows furrowed but a smile making its way across her lips simultaneously.

  “Stand up” he said, and made his way over to her at the sofa. As she stood up from her seat, she stood almost a foot shorter than him without her high heels, and as he looked down at her, a smirk crossed his mouth. As she watched his smirk, she began to smile herself at how dwarfed she felt in comparison. Before she sat back down, she slapped his arm playfully and told him to ‘shut up.’

  “How high are those heels though?” he asked jokingly.

  “They’re not that high” she insisted.

  “You just lost half your height!” he laughed, sitting down on the sofa next to her. She smirked, and looked his way, their eyes meeting for half a second.

  “You want a drink?” he asked, as he hopped up from the sofa again and made his way to the drinks selection.

  “There’s orange, pineapple, cranberry...” he tailed off, as he looked at the drinks that lay before him.

  “No wine?” she asked jokingly, picking up a hotel menu that lay on the table in front of her.

  “They were all out”

  “Guess I’ll take a cranberry then.”

  “Vodka cranberry?”

  “Sure. Make it a virgin one”

  After he poured them both a drink, he sat back down next to her and put their drinks onto the coasters on the coffee table. Dee looked up from the menu she was studying, and glanced at the drinks he’d just made.

  “You can have a beer you know. Just ‘cuz I can’t.”

  Jason shook his head. “I don’t mind.”

  Though it may have been awkward in the car earlier that night, once the pair of them had begun talking about food and what they were going to watch, the conversation started to flow more easily. While they knew they needed to talk about more pressing business, i.e. her pregnancy and what they were going to work out between them with the child, their conversation didn’t seem to head that way. Instead, they decided on what food they were going to eat, and then ordered it from the hotel phone. That prompted a discussion about favourite foods and places to eat, and of course, their mother’s home cooking. While Jason shared tales of his mother and grandmother’s amazing food, Dee told a different story of a mother who found it a chore to cook. While she noted her mother’s cooking was as good as anybody’s, she said she didn’t find the time to do it very often with working so many jobs. Jason couldn’t believe that her mom worked three jobs, and suddenly, he had admiration for a woman he had never met. He knew times were hard for his own mom while he was growing up, and while she had worked hard, she had never had to sacrifice so much of her time between multiple jobs.

  Jason found himself more and more intrigued by Dee the more he spoke to her. He felt like on the surface he saw this beautiful woman but inside, she had so many different layers. As they watched TV, she would talk to the characters, vulgar in her tone, swearing at them for their actions. He found her fascinating to watch, especially to see how such a small person with such a sweet sounding voice had such a vulgar tone to her. He found it funny, really. As far as voices go, she really did have a sweet sounding voice at times. He thought that if he’d never heard her swear, he could imagine her being this good, mild mannered girl, but some of her choice words were anything but mild mannered. He laughed with her as she spoke; enjoying seeing her character develop more the longer they spent together. He really felt like he was getting to know this girl, and he liked it. Suddenly, he realis
ed that he wanted to make it work in more ways than one.

  Once they had finished eating and their plates were cleared away, Dee sat back comfortably and thought about how to ebb the subject of her pregnancy. She didn’t want to ruin a good conversation, but she knew no good would come of putting it off. Not one to think through her words carefully, she decided to just go in full force and ask what needed to be said.

  “So, what are we doing, with the baby and shit? I know you said you wanna be involved, but is that like financially or you gonna come and see them on a regular?”

  Taken aback by her lack of subtly, Jason took a deep breath and turned to face her.

  “I wanna be there 100%. Financially, emotionally. I’m that kids father right.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first guy to skip town.”

  “I’m not that guy. Trust me.”

  “So you gonna be taking plane trips every month? Every weekend?”

  Jason thought for a second. “I...guess I haven’t thought it through completely but, I just know I wanna be there every step of the way.”

  “You don’t gotta stick around for the scans and shit, I know you prolly’ got places to be or whatever. Work and all that.”

  “No, I want to. I really do. I think I’m gonna stay based here around work, for now at least. We’ll figure something out when the baby gets here.”

  Dee nodded acceptingly before Jason spoke again.

  “I...Kind of wanna get to know the baby’s mom for now.”

  “I thought that’s what we were doing.”

  “No...I mean, really get to know. I really like you, Dee.”

  Dee thought she might have just blushed, though she wasn’t sure she’d ever done that. As a defence mechanism, she wavered off his words.

  “You don’t even know me. How can you know you like me” she said, purposely avoiding eye contact.