When I pulled up to Castle Hill, Pernelle was already outside, sitting on the bench with a puffer jacket zipped up to her chin.
I blew the horn, and it took her ten seconds to stand but once she did. She got to my car pretty quickly.
“So, where are we going? Out to eat? Shopping for the baby?” She almost couldn’t stay still in her seat from the excitement.
“Nah, none of those places. We're going to the clinic to get a test ran.”
“Test? What kind of test?” The smile left her face.
“A DNA test. They are going to draw some blood from you or some shit, and that’s how we will find out if the baby is mine before she is born.”
Pernelle smacked her lips and crossed her arms, readjusting herself in her seat.
“You still on that shit, Crew? How many times do I have to tell you that you are the only man I’ve slept with in years? You know what, fuck this shit. I knew I shouldn’t have told you about her anyway. I’m out of this bitch.” Traffic around us had slowedto a crawl, and Pernelle popped the door open and hopped right out in the middle of the street, splashing her boots through the dirty ass snow.
“Yo, P. Why the fuck you tripping? It’s just a fuckin test. I just want to be sure she mine!” I yelled out the door, my voice cutting through the noise of engines and impatient drivers.
When I saw she wasn’t turning around, I threw the car in park and hopped out. A yellow cab behind me started honking like shit, and the driver jumped out, running his mouth.
“Why are you leaving your car here in the street, you idiot?”
He fussed in his foreign accent.
Between Cashmier getting on my nerves and Pernelle hopping out of my car, my blood was already boiling, so this fool picked the wrong day to fuck with me. I stormed up on him, grabbed him by his collar, and before he could get another word out, I laid him out with a clean right to the jaw. The sound cracked through the air. He tried to swing, and I slammed him up against his cab, gave him a couple more shots to his nose, and made sure he felt that lesson deep. Don’t fuck with a nigga like me. I don’t give a fuck what my consequences are when I’m mad. Fuck a consequence.
He hit the ground, eyes wide, lip busted, blood spilling onto his shirt.
“Now wait here, pussy, and make sure no one touches my car while I chase down this bitch.” He nodded, face trembling.
When I looked up the street, Pernelle hadn’t made it far because she was standing halfway down the block, watching as I beat the cabbie's ass for fucking with me.
“Yo, P, bring your ass back over here.” I jogged to catch her.
“Crew, leave me alone. Why you just do that man like that? Yo ass unhinged as fuck!”
“And you have to be too jumping out of the car like that.”
“No, I’m not crazy, Crew. I’m just not for proving myself to someone who I never asked to come around anyway. You came to my apartment wanting to be a father. Don’t act like I reached out to you, lying or no shit.”
“I didn’t say you did, but I told you that I have to have confirmation before I’m all in. If you can’t understand that, then you're selfish. Or you got something to hide.”
“Well, I don’t!”
She snaked her neck, giving me straight attitude, but even with her belly out front and her lip poked out, she looked more like a mad teddy bear than anything else. She looked curious as to why a smirk was forming on my face, but that’s because I felt like I was arguing on the streets with Winnie the Pooh or Little Bear or some shit.
“Listen, I didn’t come over here to disappoint you. I came to clear the air on shit so we can move forward in this co-parenting thing with nothing holding me back. Now, just come and get back in the car. We're going to take this test, and then I’ll take you to get some food. Even with the results still pending, I’ll feed you and baby Jane Doe.”
She tried to hold her attitude, but after a few seconds, she rolled her eyes and let out a little snort.
“Whatever. But I can’t wait for you to get these results so you can leave me alone about this.”
Pernelle griped and started her wobble back to the car.
When I passed the cabbie who was sitting on the curb crying, I flicked the bird at his punk ass and burned off down the block.
When we got to the clinic, we waited in the lobby for a couple of minutes, then were called back into a small room with a single chair for each of us. There was a tray of medical shit laid out on a counter with needles, cotton pads, and tubes with labels on them. When the nurse entered the room, she explained how the test would work. Pernelle’s hand started shaking, and when the lady unwrapped the needle, she reached out for my hand to hold.
I'm not going to lie, it felt strange because I hadn’t held hands with a woman in years. Shit, I only did in the past when a female was using my hands to balance herself while she was riding my dick.
