Nyair scoffed as he and Demi stared each other down. Lauren wanted to die. Her ex and her…her what? She didn’t even know what to call Nyair. He was her nothing. Today was nothing. It meant nothing.
“He just stopped by to hear the plans for your banquet.” Lauren had to pipe up because Nyair was too busy performing in a pissing contest to acknowledge the question.
“Umm… I’ll call you,” Lauren stammered. “About the banquet.”
Demi knew her well enough to detect her nervousness.
“Email you. She gon’ email you,Coach,” Demi added.
Nyair’s focus went to Lauren. She was pleading with him with just her eyes.
Please let this go,she thought.
“Goodnight, beloved,” Nyair said. He held out a fist to DJ. “Take care of your queen, DJ. She’s…”
“Irreplaceable,” DJ finished. Nyair taught all his players to respect their mothers, to view them as queens. It wasn’t the first time Demi or Lauren had heard him refer to her in that way, but it hit differently today.
“Absolutely,” Nyair confirmed. “Y’all enjoy the evening.”
Lauren almost didn’t want him to go.
“You care to explain that?” Demi asked, but he wasn’t asking; he was demanding answers. He just happened to disguise his dominance in a question.
“No,” Lauren answered simply before switching her focus to DJ. She hit the unlock button on her key fob and opened the back door to her car. “Climb in, baby.”
“I’ma follow you to the house. I got to talk to you about something,” Demi stated.
“Yeah, okay,” she said.
Demi opened her door and she climbed inside. He knocked on the top of the car before walking to his own. She adjusted her rearview mirror and the look on her son’s face set off every alarm in her body.
“What’s wrong, kiddo? Didn’t you have a good time with Daddy?”
DJ shrugged. “He’s lame now, Mom. I don’t want to go there anymore.”
“Wait, what?” Lauren asked. “What happened to make you say this, baby? Your dad loves you.”
She felt herself growing angrier by the second, defensive, as only a mother would. Something had happened. Something bad had to occur if her son felt this kind of disdain for Demi.
DJ shrugged again. “I just want to go home.”
It took everything in Lauren not to pick up her phone and call Demi to demand answers. The fact that he was following her was the only thing that made her keep her cool. “Okay, baby.”
As soon as they pulled into the driveway DJ hopped out, punched in the garage code, and ran inside. Lauren slammed her car door and turned to Demi as he climbed out of his car.
“What the hell is going on with you two? Why is my son upset, and why did you bring him back early?”
Demi winced as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“He… umm,” Demi started. “The boy got a lot of shit on his chest. He blew up at an important event. He embarrassed a lot of people.”
“What the fuck you mean he embarrassed a lot of people? Nigga, my son just sat in my backseat with his eyes all bucked and watering like he had the worst night of his life. You better start fucking talking, Demi!”
“Man,” Demi muttered. “He got on the mic and blurted the bullshit he hear you talking about Charlie. How she stole your husband. How she’s a side chick. How I abandoned my wife and son. That shit sound familiar?”
“Oh, he stated facts then?” Lauren shot back. “She did steal my husband! You left us!”
“A bitch can’t steal a nigga, Lo! I ain’t want to fucking be here! I ain’t leave my fucking son. I left you!” Demi barked. “And you need to watch how you talk about me to my son! Around this bitch, dirtying up my name, making him hate Charlie. Charlie ain’t do shit to you. She ain’t even know about your ass. That’s how detached I was from this marriage. She thought I was fucking single! If you want to blame somebody, blame me!”
