“You busy?” I asked.
“A little. Why? You okay?”
I sat down on the arm of the couch and leaned forward. I placed my elbows on my knees. “The results came.” The shuffling in the background stopped. I knew that it got her attention.
“And?” she asked.
“It’s not mine.”
“You sure?” she asked carefully.
“It said it right there on the paper,” I said. “It’s not mine.”
“How do you feel?”
That question surprised me. I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought maybe she would ask, what comes next? What did that mean for us? I couldn’t answer that right away. But I couldn’t answer how I felt right away, either. I thought carefully.
“I feel . . . lighter,” I said honestly. “But not happy.”
“Why not happy?”
“Because my name still been dragged for weeks. Because you still had to sit in that. Because Yana had to hear people talk. Because I hate that I let it get that far before I told you.” She didn’t interrupt me as I spoke. “I’m relieved,” I continued. “But I’m not celebrating like I won something. I don’t like how any of it happened.”
She was quiet again. It didn’t feel distant. It felt thoughtful.
“You sound different.” She broke the silence.
“In what way?”
“You’re not gloating,” she replied. “You’re not mad. You’re not blaming her.”
I leaned back on the couch. “I’m not about to tear her down because it ain’t mine. That baby still somebody’s child. I’m just not his father.”
“And Amora?” she asked carefully.
I took a deep breath. “She called.”
“Already?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“She didn’t take it well.” I stood and walked slowly toward the hallway that led to my home studio. The house felt big at that moment, bigger than it used to. “She said blogs not gonna care what the test say,” I continued.
Princess sighed. “That sounds about right.”
“I told her that I didn’t care. I’m not doing the drama. I told her I’m protecting my family, and I meant it.” The words hung in the silence that fell between us again.
“You usually go quiet when things blow up,” she said softly. “You . . . you said all of this to her?”
“I know.”
“And now?”
“If it needs to be addressed, I’ll address it. But I’m not feeding into it either. I’m not arguing online. I’m not doing back-and-forth. The facts are the facts.”
“I understand.”
