That tender sweetness.
There was my Darius.
I knew it.
Iknewhe was in there.
I opened my eyes and put my hand to his cheek.“I’m sure,honey.”
“I don’t have any condoms.”
I nearly started weeping.
I got an imagination.
A man who was getting some somewhere else, or open to itshould it happen, would carry condoms.
It was me for him.
And it was him for me.
I knew then, just like me, there was no one else.
“I love him with everything I am, and I’d never make anotherchoice, but I got pregnant at sixteen, baby,” I whispered, smiling so there’dbe no sting.“I’m on the pill even if I’m not active.”
He started to detach, murmuring, “This is a mistake.”
I grabbed on with everything at my disposal and held tight.
“This is meant to be,” I informed him of something I knew hehad to know.“I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Let me finish.”
He shut his mouth.
I smiled again.“You don’t buy a couch for a baby momma.”
“Sure you do,” he muttered.
“No, you didn’t hear me correctly.Youdon’t buy acouch for a baby momma.”
Another eye flare, but after it happened, he said, “You’regonna regret this.”
“I can assure you, I…am…not.”
He hesitated a beat.
But he was Darius.
And I was me.
He didn’t leave.
He kissed me.
I pushed down his boxers.
