“Yes, bitch. You already know how he is,” I said, grinnin’. “He be lookin’ at my stomach like it’s the most important thing in the world. Like I’m carryin’ the cure to cancer or somethin’, bitch.”
Pluto laughed. “Cause to him, you are.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t hide my smile.
“He about to be ridiculous over My’Love,” she added. “Like scary ridiculous.”
“Bitch, you think he ain’t?” I shot back immediately.
Pluto bent over laughin’. “He gon’ be fightin’ you over her.”
“He already do,” I said. “He don’t even say ‘our.’ He just be rubbin’ my stomach talkin’ ’bout, ‘My daughter.’ Like I’m just holdin’ her for him.”
Pluto wiped her eyes. “That man waited his whole life for a daughter.”
“I know,” I replied, and that part make my heart feel heavy in a good way.
For a second I got quiet, and it wasn’t awkward, it was just one of those moments where the jokes settle and the truth sit there between you.
“I’m glad he got her,” I said softly. “I’m glad she came to us.”
Pluto nodded slow. “She already changing him.”
“She is,” I agreed. “You think he protectin’ me now? Wait til she get here. He gon’ lose his damn mind.”
Pluto smiled. “And you love that.”
“I do,” I said, rubbin’ my stomach again while my baby shifted under my hand. “‘Cause underneath all that crazy, he just wanted somethin’ pure, and My’Love is that.”
We kept talkin’ like that for hours, goin’ from serious to jokin’ and back again, and every time my mind tried to drift back to that courtroom I forced it somewhere else.
Then my phone rang.
Soon as I saw Kay’Lo’s name on the screen, my stomach flipped, and not from the baby.
“Hey, baby?”
“Baby,” he said, his voice low and heavy.
That low tone told me everything wasn’t sunshine in there.
“How it go?” I asked, tryna keep my voice even.
He exhaled. “Same shit.”
“What you mean?”
“That footage still ain’t been recovered,” he said. “Judge said without it, they can’t move forward like they planned, so they pushed the next date back another month.”
“Another month?” I repeated.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “They say they need more time.”
I closed my eyes for a second. “Okay.”
“I’m on my way home,” he added.
“I’ll meet you there,” I said quick.
