All I could do was stare.
“There were ways, woman,” he went on.“You made your choice,don’t put that shit on me.”
“You can’t be serious,” I whispered.
“Ididn’t disappear for three fuckin’ years.”
It felt like he’d punched me in the throat, the pain so bad,I couldn’t speak.
And the look that came into his eyes, the look ofdisgust…no, revulsion, nearly brought me to my knees.
He was also whispering when he said his last.
“Fuck, the one person in my life I didn’t think would carvea piece out of me cut off the biggest piece of all.”
And with that, he walked right past me and out the door.
Three days later…
The envelope was on my kitchen counter whenLiam and I got home that evening.
It had my name on it, written, and I didn’t recognize thehandwriting.
Inside, in fives, tens, twenties, a few fifties and twohundreds, was three thousand dollars.
I could buy a toddler bed with that money.
I could feed both of us for three months with that money.
I was still furious at Darius.How our conversation wentthree nights ago was not okay.This wasn’t about him.It wasn’t even about me.It was about Liam.
I was so furious, I wanted to take that money to that bar,hand it to Shirleen and tell her to tell Darius from me he could go jump in alake.
The thing was, this wasn’t about me.
It was about Liam.
He needed a toddler bed, and he was going to need a roomthat it would fit in.
So I took the cash, stuffed it in my underwear drawer andwent about my evening, making dinner and being certain my kid didn’t figure outhow to pull the childproof plug from an outlet and electrocute himself.
Chapter Three
Playground
Rock Chick Rewind
Still some time ago, but not as much…
“Do I need to make my feelings about wherewe’re standing right now official?”Toni asked.
I didn’t move from my position of leaning against the trunkof my car next to Toni where it was parked at Shirleen’s bar on Colfax.
I also didn’t answer.
“Okay, don’t get mad…” she started, but didn’t finish.
However, her words made me take my laser beam stare off thefront door of the bar and turn it to her.
