Synergy (18 page)

Around
ten minutes later, Dee opened the bathroom door and appeared in a
towel that was tucked in at her chest. Water droplets appeared on
her bare body and the steam from the bathroom circulated from the
door.

“
That shower was
amazing
” she announced, using a smaller
towel to towel-dry the ends of her hair which she’d gotten a little
wet. Jason couldn’t help but watch her, and for a minute, he
imagined ripping the towel away from her body, but he snapped out
of it.

“
I’ve got a couple
t-shirts if you want one for bed
”

“
Thanks
” she said, as she made her
way to the sofa while Jason rummaged through his drawers to find an
appropriate shirt. He pulled one out, and set it on the seat next
to her on the sofa, announcing his departure for his own shower.
Before he left, he took some bed clothes with him into the
bathroom.

After
his shower, he joined Dee back at the sofa. She was already sat in
his t-shirt, her legs sprawled across the other seat watching TV.
She looked comfortable, and it made him smile. As he moved near to
the TV, she looked up at him and moved her legs for him to sit
down.

“
It’s
OK
” he told her, and instead of allowing
her to move, he simply lifted her legs up and lay them in his lap
once he’d sat down. The two of them watched a show on television
for a while, neither of them saying anything, but it wasn’t an
awkward silence anymore. It was weirdly
comfortable.

He
looked over at Dee who now had her hands in her hair, tying her
long locks into a high ponytail. As she wrapped the band around her
hair, her gold earrings embellished with her name glinted off the
light in the room, and for the first time, he saw them clearly.
They didn’t say ‘Dee’ as he thought, but ‘Deleisha.’ He took this
in for a moment, and then spoke.

“
De-Lee-Sha
” he read aloud, causing
her to turn around and look at him.

“
What
?”

“
Your
earrings
” he pointed. “
Is that what Dee’s short for
?”

“
Yeah.
”

Jason
smiled. He’d never really given much thought to what her real name
was. He just took Dee as a given, never thought of what it might be
short for.

“
I’ve never heard
that before
”

“
I guess it’s a little unusual.
Don’t start calling me that though, it’s reserved for when my
mama’s angry at me.”

She
smiled jokingly, but her smile quickly faded.

“
Does that happen
a lot
?”

“
Has lately. She
didn’t take the pregnancy too well
.”

“
Really?
”

“
Really
. 
She brought Tushaun into it. She basically said I can’t even
look after the child I got, so this is gonna be another baby that
she ends up caring for
.”

Jason
frowned. He was surprised that her own mother had been so harsh to
her.

“I’m 
sure she didn’t mean it.
She was probably just surprised. We all were,
right
?”

“
Oh she meant it.
You don’t know my mother Jason, she can be a real bitch when she
wants to be.
”

“
You two don’t get
along
?”

“
No we do. We’re pretty similar for
a lot of things, but, she ain’t never been mother of the year or
‘nuttin.”

“
Is anybody?”

“
No for real, she done some fucked up things.”

“Like what?”
 Jason found
himself asking, before his mind had got into gear. Thinking how
intrusive he just sounded, he spoke again before she had chance to
answer. “
Sorry, you don’t have to tell
me
”

“
No, it’s cool. She just basically
was a druggie half my life, got us in some shitty
situations.”

“
Wow. I can’t
imagine
.”

“
Having to phone
ambulances for your mom and then her shouting at you for doing it.
It’s fucked up
.”

Jason
listened intently. He was surprised at what Dee told him, and he
could tell the whole situation still struck a chord for her. He saw
the frown lines in her forehead, and the way her words sounded
harsher as she spoke about it. He’d been privileged to have such a
fantastic mom growing up; he couldn’t imagine how hard it must have
been for her growing up with a mother addicted to drugs.

“
I just wanna be a
better mom to my own kids, you know
?” Dee
added.

“
I’m sure you
will. I guess you already are, you’ve already got a son that loves
you
.”

“
Yeah
, 
he’s amazing too.” 
She
smiled
. “You wanna see a
picture
?”

“
Sure
” Jason agreed, scooting along
the sofa to get closer to her as she picked up her phone and looked
through it.

Dee
showed him a few different photos. One of Tushaun on his own, one
with the two of them together, and one with her sister. It was the
first time he had seen Dee’s sister, Kiki, who she and her brother
had talked about before.

“
Wow, you two look
so different to be sisters
,” he said,
studying the photo in front of him. Though she was clearly
beautiful, he didn’t see much of a family
resemblance.

“
I know, everybody
says that. Different dads though
.”

“
Do you still see
them
?” he asked, thinking he had never
broached the subject of her father, though he’d never heard a
father mentioned before.

“
Never met ‘em. Either of ‘em.”

“
Oh
”

He knew
it wasn’t his place to start asking further questions, but he
thought it was sad that neither sister had ever known their
fathers. Sadly, he knew what an epidemic it was becoming these days
for fathers to be absent in the raising of children, and he knew he
was lucky to have his stepfather when his biological father didn’t
make the cut as much as he wanted him to. He knew this was why he
had to stand by his child, and make sure he made it work. It made
him think of how much Dee probably distrusted the words of fathers,
knowing she never knew her own, and knowing her relationship with
her son’s father broke down. He knew at only twenty-two, she must
have been around twenty when she had her son, and he couldn’t
imagine how hard it must have been raising a child so young on your
own. He had respect for what she had done already.

The
night was getting late, and as Dee took out the gold earrings from
her ears, she yawned loudly.

“
Tired
?” Jason asked, starting to
yawn himself after watching her.

“
Yeah
,” she agreed.

It
didn’t feel that weird when the two of them moved to his bed and
got under the covers. They left the TV on for a little while but it
wasn’t long before Dee’s eyes started to close over slowly. Jason
didn’t realise until he laughed at a segment on the television and
looked over to see if she was laughing too. She wasn’t. He kept his
gaze on her for a second to check if she was really asleep or just
dropping off. As he saw her chest rise and fall he smiled and after
a few minutes, he picked up the remote from the bedside table and
turned the TV off, leaving the room in silence. He sunk his body
down into the covers and felt an unfamiliar heat radiating from the
body next to him.

It had
been a while since he had shared a bed properly with somebody. It
felt nice to feel that in the space next to him, rather than a cold
side. Sometimes he would roll over to the other side in his sleep
and feel the cold sheet under his body, making him shiver,
especially in the winter. He thought about how nice it would be to
permanently share his bed with somebody, to feel there was a
presence in the room other than himself. As the thoughts whizzed
around in his mind, he soon succumbed to the sleepy veil that
clouded his mind and before he knew it, he was snoring lightly next
to her.  

Chapter 16 – Four Months

It’s amazing how fast you can get to know somebody when
you’re really, actively trying
, Jason
thought. Sometimes, you can be with somebody for months and feel
like you still don’t really know everything about them. You may
know what shows they like to watch on TV, or what their favourite
food is, but when it comes to the nitty, gritty stuff, like their
past, their fears, their dreams; it can be difficult to find ground
to mention it. Jason knew that not everybody was so open with their
dreams like he had been. People feared letting people into their
dreams, for fear they’d shoot them down.

Jason
had taken an active role in getting to know the woman who has
having his child. He was interested in her on a deeper level than
just as a baby’s mother, and he wanted to know everything about
her; her dreams, her fears, the intimate details you don’t tell
just anybody. He knew she may not be perfect, but neither was he.
He knew they were opposite in many ways, but somehow it worked.
They say that opposites attract, and he believed it. He had been
with people in the music industry, and frankly, it bored him after
a while. Though he loved his work with all his heart, he liked the
idea of having something besides work to talk about with someone.
He’d been in great relationships but they’d never lasted very long.
He’d simply become bored with them, and the spark fizzled out. His
friends had joked that he was a commitment-phobe but he knew that
wasn’t true, he just needed somebody different, somebody with some
spark.

Dee
certainly had spark. It had been a month now since they had been
getting to know each other, and he was learning so much. They made
an effort to see each other as much as they could, and while they
were originally doing it because it was the right thing to do, they
both found they wanted to see each other now. It was weird for them
to go a day without speaking, even if it was just a text message.
It was clear to everybody around them that they were falling for
each other, and while Jason would admit it, Dee kept things closer
to her heart. Sometimes, they would simply hang out at his hotel
and watch TV, or play games. He’d bought a new Xbox not long after
the first time she had been round, and while he’d actually bought
it for himself and Tom to play when they were bored, it turned out
Dee loved to play too. She told him she had often beaten her
brother on FIFA and Fight Night, but he didn’t believe her, so she
proved it to him by beating him too. He couldn’t believe he’d found
a woman who loved to play video games too. He found it hilarious
how competitive she got, and how her foul mouth would get worse the
more pent up she got.

After a
week or two, they found the courage to go out together for lunch
and dinner. Of course, this was a difficult decision because they
knew at some point the paparazzi would get wind of it and Dee would
be the next girl to be researched intensely for the papers and
magazines. He didn’t want to do that to her, because he knew she
didn’t sign up for it, but it was something out of his control. The
first time a few men with cameras showed up and started taking
their picture, Dee simply ignored them and kept on walking, and he
was proud of her for not reacting. However, she didn’t always have
the same reaction. He knew she was an angry person regardless, but
with hormones in the mix and sometimes hunger on the way to eat,
she would give them an earful. Something he would cringe at,
because he knew it would never be a positive thing for her. He
didn’t want people to think badly of her.

Dee was
four months pregnant now, and her stomach was showing, something
that was getting harder to cover up. She would wear loose dresses
if they went out together but they both knew it was probably time
they told somebody before the story was ‘leaked’ into a trashy
magazine with a ton of lies. Around a month ago, Jason had
convinced Dee to get a check up at the doctors, and he had paid for
her to go into a good hospital. He was surprised when she said she
had only ever had one or two checks with her previous pregnancy, as
he knew it was important to track the baby’s progress. Considering
she had only confirmed her pregnancy with a positive home pregnancy
test, he thought it was about time they had it confirmed
officially. There was no doubt she was pregnant, but he wanted to
know how far she was, if the baby was healthy, if it was too late
to get the tests. The first appointment, the doctor had told her
she was already three months pregnant. Dee had told him she was on
the contraceptive pill, but admitted she didn’t always have the
best memory for taking it. Jason didn’t have any ground to be mad,
he knew it was his responsibility to be safe too, and that night,
he’d disregarded everything.