Make You Mine (19 page)

“Stop putting words in my mouth, Caress,” he told her dismissively before he dropped back down in his seat.

Caress snatched up the court papers. “These are proof positive that I made the right choice to leave your ass alone.”

Julius nodded his head as he looked up at her. “Considering the type of woman I see you are now, I thank you. Believe me.”

That hurt like a dagger to her chest, but she covered it well. “If it's war you want, Julius, then that's not a problem, player.”

Julius waved his hand at her. “Call me or come back when you want to sit down like a grown woman, Caress.”

“Sit down for what, Julius? Huh? You're trying to take my child from me.”

Julius forcefully slammed his hands on the top of his desk as he jumped back up to his feet. “Caress, I am not trying to take him from you,” he roared, before he turned and walked away from her. “We're not getting anywhere with this, Caress. Please just leave.”

“You started this,” she told him, turning to leave.

“Correction, I'm finishing this,” he flung back at her.

Caress ignored him as she kept it moving out of the studio. Once she was in the security of her car she dropped her head to the steering wheel and cried.

 

“Can you believe she came in accusing me of trying to take Justin from her when all I've been asking for is the right to see my son?”

Tamara picked up the cup of hot chocolate and sipped deeply as she diverted her eyes from Julius.

“You know what? Black women are such hypocrites,” he said with emphasis as he threw his hands up in the air.

“Really?” Tamara asked, as she crossed her legs.

“Yes!” Julius sat forward to cross his arms on top of the small table in the donut shop on Broad and Market. “You have a man begging to step up to be a father and she is pushing me away. Now if I threw her on the street when she was pregnant and let her lay up in the hospital alone and then walked away from my responsibility it would give her something to tell Maury Povich about.”

Tamara took another sip of her cocoa because she was really trying to keep her neck and nose clean of this feud between her two best friends. She hoped they would be able to handle this, but alas the courts were now involved and Tamara knew she would be getting a call from Caress just like the one she got from Julius an hour ago.

With an internal sigh, she placed a neutral look on her face and let Julius get it all off his chest.

 

“He is so petty, Tamara!”

Tamara nodded sympathetically at Caress before she purposefully placed her face in the soft crook of Justin's neck.

“How dare he sue me for partial custody, Tamara? What the hell is Julius thinking? And to think for one hot second last night, with all that rain, I started to tell him to come on over and get a little bit. Humph. He can forgetaboutit.”

Tamara stood Justin up on his legs and bounced him as he smiled at her like he should be in commercials. He was so completely oblivious to the ensuing drama between his parents. She wished she could say the same.

As Caress continued to pace and insult Julius, Tamara was seriously regretting her role in getting the two of them together.

Seriously.

One month later…

Caress sat at her living room window watching the snow fall. Fall and then winter had always been her favorite time of the year. The coldness kept the streets free of most loiterers, and under the blanket of the crisp snow the urban landscape was almost majestic.

She was just fighting the urge to raise the window and scoop some of the snow into her hand when her doorbell rang. Pushing aside the rare show of child-like frivolity, Caress felt nerves attack her stomach as she moved over to open the front door.

She had been dreading this moment since last week when the family court judge awarded Julius liberal visitation rights. It was a temporary order until their child custody case in a couple of months. Things were so bad between them that they mutually insisted that Tamara, Kendrick, or Dwayne do the picking up and dropping off of Justin so that they didn't have to deal with one another.

Caress smiled at Tamara and Kendrick as they stomped the fresh snow from their feet before entering the apartment. “Hey, y'all.”

“What's up? The baby's ready because we really want to get out of this snow,” Tamara said, not bothering to remove her winter white wool coat and fitted cap.

Caress nodded as she moved over to start putting Justin into his puffy snowsuit. Her son smiled up at her and she bent over to press a kiss beside his mouth. “I'm gonna miss you, little boy,” she said to him softly.

Kendrick lightly touched her shoulder and Caress pushed away her misgivings. Not that it mattered anyway. Okay, she couldn't stand Julius right now but she knew he would never intentionally hurt their son.

“You are coming to our dinner party next week?” Tamara asked as she picked Justin's bursting-at-the-seams baby bag.

“Will
he
be there?” she asked, maneuvering Justin's cap down onto his head.

Caress didn't miss the look Tamara and Kendrick exchanged.

“Does it matter?” Tamara asked, sounding tired and aggravated.

Caress gave her friend a sidelong glance as she rose to her feet with Justin in her arms. He absolutely hated the confines of his snowsuit. “I don't want to be in his company any more than he wants to be in mine.”

Tamara took Justin out of Caress's hand as Kendrick grabbed his car seat before heading to the door.

“I'll tell you like I told him. You're invited and I expect to see you there, Caress.” Tamara headed for the open door, but she turned on the heel of her boots. “And don't spend all weekend worrying about Justin. You know he will be just fine with Julius.”

Yes, yes she did. She nodded and turned away, not wanting to witness them walking out the door. This was the longest she would ever be separated from her baby. With a sigh, she set out to make herself busy with anything to take her mind off being apart.

Caress scrubbed her bathroom.

She cleaned out her fridge.

Dusted her entire apartment.

Mopped her kitchen floor.

She was just making a fresh pot of hot chocolate to enjoy while she watched TV when there was a knock at her front door. After wiping her hands on a dish towel, she went to the door and looked out the peephole.

It was her new neighbor from upstairs, Ahmad Pittons.

Caress had found the rather tall and rather handsome man to be polite and helpful since he moved in two weeks ago. She stepped back and opened the door with a friendly smile. “Hi, Ahmad,” she greeted him as she tilted her head up to adjust to his six-foot-five-inch frame.

“Just wanted you to know I put down some salt around your car while I was doing mine,” he told her in that deep voice of his.

Surprised and pleased, Caress reached out and lightly touched his wrist. “Thank you so much.”

“No problem.”

And with one final wave he walked away and continued up the flight of stairs to his third-floor apartment. A real gentleman. No wiggling for an invite inside her apartment…or in her bed. No making her feel like she owed him something.

Caress closed her door and locked it. She liked Ahmad and not just because of his physical appeal but because his chivalry reminded her of Julius.

Or at least the Julius she thought she knew and loved.

The days of Julius playing man of the house were over and Caress had to admit that Ahmad came in handy—and all without one advance made.

Finishing up preparing her hot chocolate, Caress filled a cup that was big enough to be a small bowl, and then settled down to veg out on television, pretending that the best parts of her life weren't at Julius's.

 

“Thanks, Tamara,” Julius said, his words framed by cold air as he hurried to throw the baby bag over his arm as he held a blanket-covered Justin in his car seat.

“You didn't have to come downstairs,” Tamara called out the window from the passenger seat of the car as Kendrick rushed back inside the heated interior.

“I'm good,” he hollered over his shoulder as he made his way to his front door.

“Don't forget the party,” Tamara hollered out the window into the light snowfall as they drove up the street.

Julius didn't bother answering as he hurried inside his home.

Excited to finally spend time with his son, Julius rushed into the living room already cozy and warm from the lit fireplace. He unbundled him from the confining snowsuit. “Whaddup, son?” he joked as he stretched his arms to hold Justin high above him in the air.

Justin, who had to be the most even-tempered baby he knew, laughed with an open mouth causing one long drool of saliva to land on his chin. Julius just laughed. “I love you, little man,” he told him with complete honesty.

Caress hated his guts, but Julius was proud of himself for stepping up and fighting for a better relationship with his son.

He was just sorry he had to lose Caress in the process.

 

Tamara had had enough.

She was beginning to feel like a rope being tugged from both ends by her friends. They couldn't—wouldn't—even communicate without her. Both complained to her about the other. Both wanted her to take sides. Wanted her to choose.

Well enough was enough.

Tamara watched as Caress strutted into Pages Restaurant on Halsey Street downtown. She looked good in the dark denim jeans she wore with ankle boots and a short leather jacket. Tamara just smiled at the way Caress was completely oblivious to the stares and second looks she received from the men she passed.

“Hey, girl.” Caress unzipped her coat before sliding into the booth seat across from her. “How's my baby?”

“Why don't you call Julius yourself and ask him?” Tamara suggested as she played with the straw in her cup of fruit juice.

Caress frowned. “I'm
not
calling that fool,” she snapped.

“And why not Caress?” Tamara asked patiently.

“After what he did to me?”

“What exactly did he do to you?”

Caress sat back and eyed Tamara for a long time before she finally spoke. “So you're on your boy's side, then?” she asked with a tinge of anger in her voice.

Tamara did not back down from Caress's long and hard stare. “So you're going to burn another perfectly good relationship because you'd rather feel right?” she asked.

Caress frowned. “Excuse me, Oprah?”

“No, I'm your friend…and I'm Julius's friend,” Tamara banged her finger against the top of the table as she spoke. “And I am fed up with both of you. Seriously.”

The anger dissipated from Caress's face. “What did I do?” she asked, obviously surprised by Tamara's anger, like she was the only one entitled to the emotion.

“Threw away a perfectly good man,” Tamara began, ticking her points off on fingers. “And treated him like he didn't have just as many rights concerning Justin and you do, and then got mad because he stood up
like a man
and demanded those rights, Caress.”

Caress's eyes widened more and more with each reprimand. “Well damn, Tamara, say what you really feel.”

Tamara softened her face as she reached across the table to playfully swat Caress's hand. “Somebody needed to say it, and don't worry I got some words for your baby daddy too.”

“Like what?”

Tamara eyed her. “Those words are for his ears.”

Caress drummed her fingertips atop the table. “Julius started this whole mess,” she insisted.

“Caress, do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” Tamara asked. “Say what you want, but you two are no happier with this semi-war than you are apart. You two are miserable because you're fighting so hard not to get along. I mean, really, two grown people who can't accomplish the simple task of dropping their son off at each other's house. Are you two kidding me?”

Caress shifted her eyes away from the truth of Tamara's words.

“Do you really hate Julius that much, Caress?” Tamara asked softly.

“I never said that I hated him.”

“Do you still love him?”

“No,” Caress said quickly. Too quickly.

“What
ever
.” Tamara rose from the booth. “My point today is not about matchmaking. My point is to look out for my godson because the foolishness has to stop. You both were—are—wrong in this and Justin deserves better than two stubborn, horny fools trying to win. In the end, Justin is losing
big
time. It's time to put Justin first.”

Tamara walked to the buffet spread to fix her plate, leaving Caress to marinade on that.

Lady O has nothing on me.

 

Julius was completely stunned as he watched Tamara bend down to blow air bubbles against Justin's smooth and round brown belly. She did that in between telling him that he was wrong for suing Caress. “So I should let her dictate when and where I see my son?” he asked, as he leveled his eyes on her.

“No, but you could have let her know you were hiring a lawyer before he slapped court papers down her throat. Or you could have been a little more patient with a woman whose child was kidnapped. Or you could have checked yourself before you blamed her for the kidnapping.”

“So I'm wrong and she's right?” he asked in disbelief.

Tamara looked over her shoulder at Julius. “No, you're both wrong, and you're both so busy claiming you can't stand each other because you know you want to lay each other. Keep it funky right now, Julius. Okay?”

Julius opened his mouth to protest but Tamara held up her hand. “I'm not concerned anymore with making you nuts realize what you're throwing away. I'm on strike from Hell Date. My point is to pull myself out of the mix before you two have me bald-headed from stress and unnecessary drama.”

Julius shifted his position in the club chair. “What does that mean exactly?”

“I'm telling you like I told your baby mama—”

Julius winced. “She is not my baby mama. She's the mother of my child.”

Tamara rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I'm out of it. If you two need to communicate with each other about Justin then please do that. Call each other. Don't call me. I will no longer play taxi, transporting him between the two of you. I'm out. Done. Finished. Finito. Stick a fork in me because—”

Julius held up his hand. “I get your point,” he told her dryly.

“Good.”

 

Caress was tired of being cooped up in her apartment. It made her miss Justin more and not even a marathon of Celebreality shows on VH1 could erase Tamara's words from her mind. Her apartment was as clean as she was going to get it, and she was sick of snacking.

Hell, she was even sick of her own company and her inability to occupy her time without Justin, without work…and without a boyfriend. “I need a life,” she muttered aloud.

Since Julius had Justin every other weekend—for now at least—she would have more time on her hands…whether she wanted it or not. “Asshole,” she muttered at the thought of her ex.

Do you really hate Julius that much, Caress?

She frowned. “Aw, shut up, Tamara,” she said aloud at the memory of her friend's words as she grabbed her coat from the rack and walked out the door.

Before she reached the bottom of the stairs she had slid the cap from her pocket down over her head and ears, wrapped the scarf around her neck and mouth, and shoved her hands into knit gloves. She could feel the biting winter winds as soon as she stepped outside.

Several of the neighborhood children were outside enjoying the snow. Caress walked down the salt-covered steps and saw two girls whom she didn't recognize in bright coats trying their best to build a snowman in front of the apartment building.

“Hello,” Caress said to the girls who looked about ten.