All I Want... Is You (20 page)

Brian walked up with Tracie, noticing the dejected look on my face. “What the hell happened? You look like someone just tried to rip your heart out.”

Cori answered for me, knowing I really didn’t want to talk at that moment. “Omar’s mother did a number on him, blaming him for his death.”

Toni caressed my face, trying to get me to look in her direction. “Everyone knows that it wasn’t your fault, that’s all that matters. She never could handle the fact that Omar was always trying

to compete with you over any and everything.”

“I wish I could share your faith in me, Toni.” I told her. “You know how I was in high school. I was ruthless, even when it came to the crew in high school.

Player’s code, remember? Take no prisoners.”

“But you are not a thug, baby.” I heard Cori say. “I don’t deal with thugs anymore, even the wannabe idiots.”

“She called him a thug?” Toni raised an eyebrow. “Now I’ve really heard everything. Your parents live in the Mount Paran area, what the hell is she talking about?”

“Listen to me, and Toni can back me up on this,” Cori stood in front of me, her perfume taking control of my senses. “We would not be in your life right now if you were anything less than what you are right now. You are not the man that she tried to paint you.”

Toni chimed in, “She’s right, baby. I love you to death, but if you were anything like what Omar had become, I would have left you after that incident with Samantha.”

That got my attention, and she knew it.

“I hear what you’re saying, both of you.” I tried to shake off the words that I worried would haunt me for a long time. “Right now, I want to take my favorite ladies to dinner, if that’s alright with the two of you?”

Toni looked at Cori and smirked. “Be careful what you ask for, D, because you just might get your wish.”

We were about to head back to the car, when I heard a voice that nearly shook me to my core.

“Long time, no see, Derrick.”

I guess it was going to be one of those days.

What’s the old adage?

Into everyone’s life, a little rain must fall.

Seeing Stacy Kent standing in front of me was a little more than rain. More like a hurricane would be more appropriate.

I felt like I was in the twilight zone.

I tried hard to figure out why she was there in the first place; it wasn’t like she and Omar were close like that.

“Stacy, what are you doing here?”I had to blink twice to really believe she was there.

“Yeah, I would love to know the reason for this myself,” Toni chimed in, extremely irritated over the sight of my ex-girlfriend. “What, we’re resorting to opportunistic swoop-ins now?”

“Same old Toni, forever protective of your pseudo-boyfriend; no wonder we never got along.” Stacy snapped, and then she winced for a second.

In the midst of my shock and not paying full attention because it had been six months since we’d last spoken, much less seen each other, the details began to hit my senses like a runaway freight train.

Her hair was longer than I remembered.

She had a glow… a glow that I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit to.

And the baby bump that she was sporting was ready to take me into a tailspin of Biblical proportions.

Stacy could read my expression, even after all this time. “Yes, D, I am pregnant, and yes, you are the father.”

~Cori~

“
I’m calling bullshit, Stacy.”

I was with Derrick on this one.

How the hell is this trifling ass woman gonna stand here and drop something like this on my man’s lap out of the fucking blue?

Naw, I’m not feeling this at all.

“You can call bullshit all you want, D.” Stacy’s ice-cold stare in my direction seemed like a direct challenge, and I was more than happy to oblige her.

Pregnant or not, I will whoop that ass.

“He doesn’t have to, Stacy. You were the one who dropped him, remember?” Toni interjected.

“That was before I found out that I was pregnant.” Stacy gritted her teeth before turning her attention back to Derrick. “Do you want to know how far along I am?”

“I’d rather hear that from your doctor, if you don’t mind?” Derrick answered back. I could feel the heat on his skin, and that temper was about to flare. “And if I’m the father, I have a few other questions for him or her that I will have answered.”

“I told you this nigga wasn’t worth a shit, all sloppy about his business,” Tracie inserted, which had everyone looking in her direction. “How many other baby mamas do you have in the mix, huh? I’m not about to let you get my girl caught up.”

“I think it’s time for you to leave, Tracie. You have no clue what you’re talking about.” Derrick cut his look in her direction, then looking at Brian. “Get your woman under control, B, or I’ll have no other choice but to do it for you.”

Stacy started laughing after hearing that. “Still taking orders from D, Brian? You’re the one with the juice in this city, and you got your boy still handling things for you?”

“D, I think I’m going to take your advice this time around. We’ll talk later.” Brian surprisingly stated before pulling Tracie by the hand without further comment. The look on Tracie’s face let me know she was in for the ass-chewing of her life.

But, she had no business pulling that stunt. I know she was trying to protect me, but this was the wrong time and definitely the wrong place.

“I don’t know what the hell you hoped to accomplish, Stacy, but I expect to hear from your doctor in the next 24 hours. If I don’t, you’ll be hearing from my attorney for a paternity hearing so we can clear this up.”

“Well, since you want to roll like that, Derrick, allow me to remind you of the weekend in Antigua… you remember, when the condom broke and we didn’t find out until after we finished?”

I felt Derrick’s energy shift for a moment, but he remained stone-faced, as if no one could tell the difference in his demeanor. Toni could feel it, too, because she tapped my forearm in such a way to clue me in that we needed to talk the minute we got away from this ugly situation.

Derrick quickly recovered, countering her account. “Sorry, love, but Antigua was back toward the end of the summer, which means that you would be—“

“23 weeks pregnant.” Stacy flatly stated, shaking Derrick up. “I can tell by your face that you can do the math on when our baby was conceived.”

“But you were on birth control.” Derrick kept trying to piece the puzzle together, shaking his head in disbelief that this turn of events could be happening. “How the hell could you have kept this from me all this time? What did you hope to gain with all of this?”

“I was hoping to be the family that we wanted to be, D.” Stacy’s stance softened, which pissed me off even more. “I know you still love me, Derrick, and I still love you. I was scared to tell

tell you about the baby after I found out because I knew I’d hurt you when I left you. Please, I need you to understand… someone else tried to convince me that you weren’t the one for me, but I know now that I was wrong.”

“I’m not with this, Derrick. She’s an opportunist, she always has been.” Toni said. “She waited until now, at O’s funeral, to pull some shit like this?”

“Baby, let’s just go, okay?” I tried to pull him out of his aggression toward Stacy, even though I wanted to run through her myself. “We’ll figure this out together.”

“Together? Wait a minute… you’re his new woman? And why is Toni still defending you like she’s the woman in your life, too?” Stacy raised her eyebrow as she looked at me, trying to put her own puzzle pieces together. Once the light bulb went off in her head, she scoffed, “You have got to be kidding me, D. Are you serious? You’ve upgraded to a harem, now?”

“It’s in your best interest to leave my women out of this.” Derrick threatened. His stare was as venomous as hers tried to be earlier. “I’m leaving now, but you will not be able to lie your way out of this one. I promise you that.”

“
What the hell was that about, baby?”

We were finally at Derrick’s condo, trying hard to understand what the hell just happened at the cemetery.

Derrick looked emotionally spent from everything that had been thrown at him earlier.

It didn’t help that Omar’s mother speaking ill of him and completely ripping him to shreds over something that he didn’t do had him exhausted, too.

Then confronting the woman that turned his world upside down over six months ago, only to come back to upset the balance all over again.

I wanted to tear that woman apart.

Toni was chomping at the bit to do much worse.

“I’m… there’s no way… unless she lied about the birth control. How could I be so fucking stupid?” Derrick put his head in his hands. “She knew I didn’t want kids yet. Hell, I wasn’t sure I wanted to marry her because I suspected she was cheating on me.”

“D, what was she talking about Antigua?” I asked, trying to get him to focus. “She said something about the condom breaking. Is that true?”

“Yes, she’s right about that happening,” Derrick replied, sitting up on the couch between us. “We were both freaked out for a couple of weeks, but her cycle was on time the next couple of months, before she decided to leave me.”

“Baby, are you sure?” Toni insisted.

“Yes, Toni, I’m sure.” Derrick replied, blinking away the tears welling up in his eyes. “I’m not sloppy, as Tracie wanted to accuse me of.”

“What in the world was she thinking, Cori?” Toni asked me. “It’s like she’s been riding Derrick ever since he got with you.”

Toni had a point, and I wondered if something was going on that I wasn’t aware of. I needed to get a feel for that before something else goes crazy.

Derrick’s iPhone sang that a message came through. He picked it up and his expression changed. “Stacy’s doctor left her number. She wants me to call her as soon as possible.”

“You’re not going over there by yourself, do you understand me?” I emphatically told him. “We’re with you, no matter what.”

“She’s got a point, baby.” Toni held his hand as she spoke. “We are with you, we always have been.”

As I watched Derrick get up to speak on the phone to the doctor to set up the meeting to get to the bottom of things, I texted Tracie to let her know we weren’t finished and we needed to get shit straight, once and for all.

~Derrick~

Just when it was safe to exhale.

Now I gotta deal with this bullshit.

This was not what I had in mind after the weekend that we had.

Coming down to earth came with a landing that should have broken my spirit, to be real.

But I’m not weak like that, quite frankly. It’s gonna take a helluva lot more than what Stacy tried to throw at me to drop me to my knees.

Besides, a true player knows his resources, and I damn sure knew how to use them.

I called one of my girls that I remained friends with over the years; she’s an RN at Eggleston Children’s Hospital and she also does some private work, too. She and I met after one of my nephews had to do a weekend stay after he broke his arm playing little league football.

The things that that woman could do… I’m jumping off track, so forgive me for a moment.

Anyway, the first thing she told me to do when I got with the doctor was to find out how quickly a procedure called an amniocentesis be ordered. After I stopped looking like I had no clue of what the hell she was talking about, she explained to me that the procedure can tap the amniotic fluid to help determine the paternity of the baby.

Jackpot… that meant no waiting for the next three months to figure out all the bullshit after the baby got here.

After I promised that I would do another photo shoot for her as a present to her fiancé, she rolled me over to a home girl of hers that specialized in handling court cases that dealt with the issue.

Lawd, why do the fine ones always run in packs, I’ll never know, but the minute that I met with her, it was on from there.

When she told me that she could get something done within the next few days, I was ecstatic. I could wrap this shit up quick as a minute and get Stacy out of my life before things really fell into madness.

Suddenly, my cell phone rang.

I cursed when I saw Stacy’s smiling face pop up on my cell screen.

When will I learn to purge my phone when women leave from my world?

“Yes.” I flatly answered.

“Derrick, I know I’m the last person you want to hear from—“

“Talk woman, what do you want?”

“I saw the look in your eyes. Even through all that hurt I still saw the love you have for me.” Stacy kept up the onslaught, and it was killing me. “I know you love me, D. I know you’re trying to replace me, but you don’t have to anymore.”

“Stacy, I don’t love you anymore.” I declared. I desperately wanted to hear myself say it out loud. “Not after what you did to me. We can’t go back, no matter how badly you think you want to.”

There was a brief second or two of dead space over the connection, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I prepared for one of Stacy’s patented diamond-cutting rebuttals.

Some things never change.

“Fine… then I guess I can tell you that you should be served with papers for a paternity suit within the next few days, you sonofabitch.”

That one rocked me a bit, and it made me glad that I actually did go through the process of finding out everything that I needed to know so I wouldn’t be blindsided. “Okay, then you’ve made things easier for me, because that means I won’t have to hear from you until we get to

court.”

“
You’re gonna be sorry that you didn’t take things more seriously, Derrick!
” she screamed over the phone. “
By the time my lawyer is done with you, you’re gonna wish you’d tried to keep me instead of the bitches that you’re with now!
”

I knew that eventually it would come down to Toni and Cori. She was predictable as hell, and the jealous streak was still as strong as ever. One look at Cori was enough to send her through the roof. Knowing that Toni was still in the picture even after all this time was too much for her to take.