hosted a Fourth of July get-together in our first-floor unit. As my luck would have it, Renata was able to come home for a few days for the holiday, and I caught her up on everything Treesha left out in her letters.
The next day, I started a second job as a receptionist at a dental office. It was perfect because I needed healthcare benefits for prenatal care, something I’d been going without. That had me change my shifts to evenings and nights at the diner, which they were okay with. My benefits kicked in after two months, and I learned at my first OB/GYN appointment I was carrying a boy and was due in November, the day before Thanksgiving. I cried on the table.
That night, when I finally made it home, I threw the Blackberry Ashton had given me in the trash. I hadn’t used it since the week after my return home. It had been powered off. I felt if I’d made it this far without hearing from him, I was ready to let go of everything he’d given me.
By the end of the summer, my mother needed help bathing and used a cane to get around. She kept bumping into things around the apartment. It worried me while I worked. Aunt Sonya, Treesha, and Toya would come by and stay with her for a few hours at a time when they could. Those visits gave me peace of mind. That was especially because I started feeling like I was being followed. Weird, I know. But I was still a weird human, just one who now knew she liked guys—or could like guys.
One night, when I turned into my development after work, I saw a tinted out sedan sitting idle on the other side of the parking lot. It was the same one I’d seen on my lunch break the day before, and possibly the same I’d seen across the street from the diner earlier that evening. I didn’t say anything specific to my mother, but I did pay Toya to sleep at my place when she got off of work at the strip club. It wasn’t much, but she didn’t complain, and came when she could.
I’d been showing since late May. My belly had bulged a little earlier in that month, but nothing that screamed pregnancy until a couple weeks after I returned home. And while my weight didn’t get out of control and my nose didn’t spread right away, exhaustion became a bedfellow I came to hate. Shoot. I only battled morning sickness for about a month, but being tired to the point of sleeping all night sitting up on the sofa after work was an insane time for me.
So, when yells of “SURPRISE” rang out on a particular Saturday afternoon as I wobbled in exhausted from work, instead of smiling at the dozen of people throwing me a baby shower, I cried. Ragee’s big, beefy ass was there, front and center, likely uncomfortable around a gang of women who always seemed to flirt with him. I hadn’t seen him in months. Cried. I cried like a damn baby. What was even sadder was when I fell asleep an hour into the damn party. Thankfully, it was just a nap, and I was able to open the gifts when it was time.
Two days later, I came in from work to find a certified letter addressed to me waiting. Before I could kick off my shoes and take care of my mother’s bath, I opened it, hella curious. A check fell out, making me tremble anxiously. My hand went to my mouth after the first three lines.
Dear Madam Tori,
I hate that we didn’t get a chance to be in each other’s company again. I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of hiring someone to find you. I’m not quite sure what happened in the spring at Blakewood, but the gist of it is your friendship has ended with Sir Spencer. It’s a shame. I wanted to bear witness to the polishing of the diamond you are.
I hear there are some Blakewood folks looking for you, but cannot locate you since you moved and changed your number. Those foolish people can’t be operating with much intelligence if they don’t think to employ a P.I. like I did. Silly scholars.
Why did that make me laugh and cry at the same time? Shit! Pregnancy made me a damn water fountain!
Now, along with obtaining your residential information, I did