“You don’t have to. Just trust that I will take care of him, and that’s all that matters between us.” She threw the black diaper bag from the ground over her shoulder and then walked out of the room to cut the conversation. I’m glad she did, though, because she was always good at playing victim.
I walked back over to the other room, where Pernelle was still waiting patiently and scrolling through her phone.
“I got the paperwork. I’m ready to leave now.”
“Alright, let’s go.” I opened the door, and we walked out of the office with plenty of eyes cutting my way by the nurses who were judging the fact that I had two women here at the same time getting a DNA test. Shit, at least I care to know about these two mutha fuckas. Grimy niggas like my pops and some of my sister’s baby daddies didn’t give a fuck if they were the fathers or not. At least I'm trying to step up for both of them. Shit Hov's conversation with me had weighed heavily on my mind and he was right; bosses can't be deadbeat fathers.
When we got inside the car, I turned down the stereo, playing the soft R&B I liked to listen to from time to time.
“You hungry, P?”
“No, I’m fine, just ready to go.”
“Nah, I heard your stomach growling the whole time we were in there.”
She laughed, and her belly bounced.
“Well, sure I'm hungry, Crew.”
“Okay, what do you want?”
“Whatever we pass by is fine.”
“That’s not a good answer. What do you want, ma? Don’t make me choose. I’ll go get your ass some frozen broccoli pops or sum shit.”
“We'll I guess I would enjoy Dack’s Cuisine in Eastchester. It’s a Caribbean restaurant I've been seeing all over my TikTok. They have fried lobster loaded with mac and cheese and fried shrimp.”
Her mouth was damn near drooling talking about that food.
“Okay, I will take you and baby Jane Doe there.”
“Stop calling her that, Crew.” She shoved me playfully with a smile on her face. Pregnant women seem to be easy to deal with because the mention of good food made Pernelle forget that I had just had blood drawn from her for a DNA test that she claimed we didn’t need. Only time will tell, though.
I wasn’t impressed with the way the restaurant looked on the outside, but the smell coming out of those doors every time they swung open smelled like food coming out of my mama’s kitchen. Shit, I wasn’t even hungry before we pulled up here, but now I’m ready for a plate of whatever looks good to me on the menu.
The restaurant had open seating, so Pernelle and I took a booth near the window, grabbed our menus, and quickly figured out what we were getting. The waitress came over to us with two glasses of water, and I sent her back for a few lemons because I hated the taste of tap water without them. When the waitress returned, Pernelle ordered a seafood platter with everything on it. The menu said it was $140, so this seafood platter better come with everything from fried fish to Ariel and Sebastian from The Little Mermaid on it.
I kept it simple and ordered oxtail mac and cheese because I'd had it before and knew I would fuck it up. As greedy as a nigga is, I’m still picky too. I've had too many bad experiences trying different shit at restaurants, so I stuck to what I knew wouldn't get sent back.
Once the order was placed, the food came out fast, steaming hot, and the smell had both of us ready to eat like we hadn’t had a meal in days. We dug into our food, not saying a word, both eating like we were in prison.
“Damn, shorty,” I said when I finally looked up from my Oxtail mac and cheese from the sound of her working those crab legs.
“You're cracking those joints like a pro.”
“I know.” She laughed.
“I love crab legs. Seafood is so good to me,” she slurped up the juices from one of the legs.
It's crazy with her eating like a savage that I was still able to admire how fucking Pretty Pernelle is. Even though she didn’t have those European model features like Cashmier, she still had a gorgeous face with dimples so deep you could probably swim in them. She had pretty ass eyes and a pretty ass smile, though I’m sure she never had dental work because she had a small gap, but I thought the shit made her authentic. I know she may be out of shape now, but I saw her pre-pregnancy body, and the baby had that thickness that made my mouth water. She better not pass that shit down to no daughter of mine though. Shit, I wanted my baby to be pretty, but she could be built like the letter P for all I care.
“You know, crab legs are my second favorite to oysters. I fuck some oysters up at least once a week, well, on payday when I can afford them.”
She smirked, but my mind immediately went somewhere else.
“The hell you mean you fuck oysters up once a week? Don't those things make you want to fuck?”
“Yeah, they are aphrodisiacs.”
