I shook my head. “Yes. It’s just different. It feels like it’s gonna take a while to get used to.”
“Aight. You need help getting undressed or am I enjoying a free strip tease?”
“Nah. Get on outta here, champ.”
“You’re shitting me. Now go ahead and get this shit started before I need some theme music, baby mama.”
“Shut up.” I tossed my shirt at him and he caught it.
“Damn you smell good,” he complimented.
Once I was fully undressed, I put the gown on. I was about to fold my clothes but when I went to do so they were in his lap already folded.
“Worst fucking tease ever. What do you wanna do after this? I’m yours until about eight.”
I laughed. “I’m actually hungry. I want a really good burger.”
“Course you do. You boutta start having to eat with Jordyn.”
I laughed hard as hell. Even though he was joking, he was lowkey serious. No matter how disciplined he was, he loved food. I was about to respond but there was a knock at the door.
The doctor entered with a nurse wheeling a machine and once again I had butterflies in my belly. Indiri must have seen it because he was at my side holding my hand with the quickness.
From the moment his hand interlocked with mine, everything moved fast. It felt like the moment I blinked, we met the most innocent form of our baby,his or her heartbeat.
The doctor then confirmed I was about eight weeks along and gave us a late summer delivery estimate. I could barely hear her over the sound of his or her heartbeat filling the room. It was the most melodic tone I had ever heard, proof that we’d created a life… a life I wanted to protect from everything going on more than anything.
After we left the doctor’s appointment, I got my burger then we did an impromptu stop by my mother and grandmother’s house. It was time I told them, seeing as how Siyah had been hounding me. When I showed my mother the sonogram, she jumped up and down, rejoicing and doing the cabbage patch for about ten minutes straight while my grandmother seemingly already knew. Long story short, they were happy and so was I.
With Indiri, I actually saw a future I didn’t have to romanticize. I saw us.
Chapter
Eighteen
Indiri
Three Months Later
From the moment I heard my child’s heartbeat, nothing else mattered besides his or her life and getting in this fucking ring. After that, the media circus would find something else to focus on other than my life and who was in it.
“You know not responding to him pissed him off even more.” Jordyn laughed as we were seated in the back seat of the suburban leaving the underground parking garage of The Oak. We had yet another press conference and I was over this. It was like all ol’ boy did was talk. On my life I was gonna be mighty fucking pissed if he got in the ring and bitched out after all this.
“I’ma respond, just not in the way he wants.”
Jordyn laughed. “Oh, I know?”
“Indi, Duke said she’s still at the shop. You wanna slide by there?”
I sucked my teeth. “Yeah, she was supposed to be at the house. You wanna drop Jordyn off at her spot before we hea?—”
“Um, no. She’s been promising me pastries for months now. I’m going with you and I’m leaving there with something.”
I shook my head. “Aight then, let’s go. Which location is she at?”
“The main one.”
I sat back in the seat and closed my eyes. My mind went back to the press conference and the fact that ol’ boy was nowhere near focused on the fight. He kept finding ways to bring up Selah.
