CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER SEVEN
"We may have a problem."
"What you mean, problem?"
"Lyrica! She took it upon herself to snoop around in my office."
"Okay?"
"Okay!? The bitch was on my computer! She saw pictures of Gigi"
Ty was furious. Her nerves were all over the place. She couldn’t get in contact with Lyrica at all. And the last thing she needed was leaked information or another lawsuit while she was already going through a rough time trying to save her center.
"Damnit, Ty! What the fuck is the matter with you!? How did she even get into your office without you being there?"
"Fuck! She must've memorized my code. Let me call you back; Nina's calling in."
Ty was a little hesitant to click over to Nina. She had a weird feeling she was going to ask about Gigi, because she was friends with Lyrica, and Lyrica couldn't hold water.
"What's up, Ni?"
Nina had the bright idea to play it safe before asking about Gigi. She wanted Ty to be comfortable. She wanted her to feel like she had calmed down and was ready to be sweet and loving again.
"What's up with you? How did the game go?"
Ty paused. She couldn't tell if something was up or not, so she played it cool and told Nina about the ending of the game instead of making it obvious that she was nervous about Gigi.
"What's up with you? I noticed you dipped out early with your friend."
Nina knew that remark was only to try and get a rise out of her, so she decided to play Ty’s game a little bit. After all, Deon was indeed her new friend.
"Yeah. I had to stop and make a deposit; I didn't wanna be out there too late by myself."
"Oh. Your friend didn't make sure you were straight?"
"Yeah, he did. Made sure I got home ok, then we decided to go over to Munchies and grub a lil’ bit. I shouldn't have even done that; I had just left dinner with Charlene’s ass."
"True. That's what's up. So y'all been kicking it for a while then?"
"Nah. It feels like it, though."
Nina had to take her mouth away from the phone so Ty wouldn't hear her laughing.
She knew talking about Deon like they were close would get under Ty’s skin, but she didn't care at all. Two could play the game, and she had finally plugged in her joystick.
When Lyrica finally returned Ty’s call, Ty asked questions to find out what she knew. Of course, Lyrica denied going into her computer. Because she wanted to know what the hell was going on, she couldn't let Ty know she had snooped around and found her pictures.
She kept the call short because she was on the clock, but promised to give Ty a call after her shift.
While on her way to answer a call light, she bumped into Rose. She knew Ty and Rose knew each other because her son was a student at the center, so she stopped her for a quick second and asked if she knew if Gigi had ever attended the center at one point in time.
Rose didn't know. If it wasn't about her son or her coins, she wasn’t interested. However, since Lyrica had approached her on some shit about Ty, she had a few things she wanted to know as well.
"While I have you,” she spoke with her hands on her hips and her neck snapping from side to side. “Are you and Ty a couple?”
"A couple of what?" Lyrica snarled.
"Apparently a couple of fools. No need to get snappy. It was a simple question, just like yours."
Hearing all she needed to hear from Lyrica about Ty, Rose walked away to end her shift.
On her way to her car, she texted Ty and let her know she knew about Lyrica, then called Deon to see where he was. He had just picked their son up from her mom's and was heading to the ice cream parlor near her job so they could meet up, set visitation, and he could be on his way to get Nina.
When Rose pulled into the parking lot, she saw her son and his father laughing and eating ice cream. She got choked up for a moment because she knew she'd lost a good man fucking around with Ty. Then to find out that Ty already had a team of bitches was the icing on the cake.
She still had much love for Deon, but she knew he would never trust her enough to give her another chance. She sat in her car, watching him with their son for what seemed like forever. It wasn't until he spotted her that she put on her shades and finally headed towards the entrance.
She greeted both her son and his father with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, then got right down to business. She didn’t want to waste time with small talk or get wrapped in thoughts of what could have been. She wanted to clear the air and get away from the man she missed.
"How are we doing this? You want every other weekend and split holidays or what?"
"Every other weekend, and he chooses the holidays."
"Deon,” she rolled her eyes. “Our son is still a baby. You know he gon’ choose you every time. He's a little man, and he wants to do everything he sees you do."
Deon smiled proudly, thinking about his son following in his footsteps. From the moment he found out Rose was pregnant with his child, he knew he was going to be the best father he could.
"Ok then, let's split the holidays,” he said. “You get him half the day, and I get him the other half."
"And what about child support?"
"What about it? Anything he needs, he gets without a problem."
"I just wanna make sure that's not gonna change."
"Why would it?” Deon frowned. “I take care of my responsibilities with no problem.”
"Who knows why that would change?” Rose scoffed. “A girlfriend. You might get mad at me. Anything can happen between now and eighteen."
"Yeah, but none of that has anything to do with me taking care of my son."
"Ok. I hear you. So then I guess it's settled."
She reached for his hand to shake, which he took, but only to pull her to her feet and hug her like he used to. She held on to him for a good minute, hoping he would feel how sorry she was. She knew he knew, and she also knew that he harbored no ill feelings toward her, and that's what made the situation so hard.
He was too damn forgiving. She wondered why he didn’t hate her or cuss her out like any other nigga would when she crossed the line.
"You want me to drop him off to school tomorrow?” he asked as he gathered up their stuff to go.
"Yeah, you can. I have to go in a lil’ early tomorrow, so that would be good."
"Ok. I'll call you in the morning when I'm on my way."
Deon gave his son a hug and kiss before he headed out, and Rose watched him walk from the table to the door, pissed at herself for letting him get away. Just as she was about to get ready to leave too, Ty called.
She answered the phone already on ten, ready to give Ty a piece of her mind for being a lying piece of shit. She was livid, and she had every right to be. Ty had persuaded her to cheat on her man and break up her family, all while she paraded around with other bitches.
In the midst of getting cussed out, Ty spotted her car at the ice cream parlor. She made a quick U-turn and pulled into the parking lot. Hanging up the phone while Rose was still yelling, Ty walked into the parlor and sat at the table with her and her son. In the heat of the moment, neither of them noticed Deon walk back inside. He spotted Ty pulling in while he was on the phone with Nina, and quickly ended the call to see what the fuck Rose was trying to pull.
"What happened here?"
He approached the table with the illest grin Rose had ever seen. Completely caught off guard, she didn't know what to say or how to get her words out. All she knew was that Deon was about to lose his shit.
"Deon, this is my friend, Ty."
"Yeah, I know who she is, but that's not what I asked you. What's good? You got my man out here in the mix as soon as I leave?"
"No, Deon! It’s not even like that. She just popped up! I didn't know she was coming here."
Ty didn't say a word. She just kind of sat back with a smirk on her face, watching shit unfold.
"If you didn't know she was coming, get the fuck up and walk out with me right now," Deon ordered.
"Hold up,” Ty stood up. “Don't talk to her like that, my dude; she didn't know I was coming."
Deon grilled Ty like the man she acted like, but quickly remembered she was still a woman.
"With all due respect, my nigga, this between me and my baby moms. It ain’t got shit to do with you."
"That's my woman though," Ty said. “So I do got something to do with it.”
"And that's fine. But she ain't bout to be that right now in front of my son. Whatever the fuck y’all got going behind closed doors, I don’t want him nowhere around it. He still mine, and at the end of the day, I got the last say so."
Rose had never seen Deon act in the manner he was in that moment. She was both scared and turned on at the same time. She didn't know whether to get her shit and dip or take his ass to the bathroom real quick.
Ty, not wanting the situation to escalate, got up and left so Rose didn’t have to. But on her way out, she turned to Deon and said, "You got it this time."
Ignoring her and Rose, Deon picked up his son and stormed out. Rose was right on his heels, yelling and screaming, trying to get Jr. out of his arms before she never saw him again. The first time Deon had threatened to keep her away from their son for good, she didn’t see him for a whole month.
"Where are you going with my child!?" She cried. “Deon! Stop!”
He didn't say a word to her. He left her in the parking lot crying, while he sped off towards the bridge. He was fuming inside, and the only person he thought to call to express his frustration was Nina.
She agreed to meet him at the Purple Cow to talk in person instead of doing dinner since something more important came up. Truth be told, she just wanted to be in his presence. It didn’t matter where they were.
It took her all of ten minutes to get there, which she couldn't believe because she had never rushed anywhere for anyone. As she walked up the pier to greet him, she watched him interacting with his son—so loving and gentle. It was hard for her to believe someone so thuggish could be so nurturing and domesticated.
He didn’t have to say a word for her to know that his feathers were ruffled. But after introducing her to his son, he started ranting, and Nina sat in complete disbelief after hearing what he had to say. He himself was a little shocked to know that Ty and Nina were already acquainted. He knew the world was small, but not so small.
"So wait, how long have you and Rose?" She couldn’t even finish her question.
"On and off for about seven years. Finally got tired of her shit and decided to let that die. She's a good mom when she wanna be. She just… I don't even know, man."
"This is crazy as hell,” Nina said. “All this time we been working together, I had no idea she even knew Ty existed. Just goes to show, you never really know what people have going on."
"Nah, you can't believe that to be true for everybody,” Deon said. “Some people just fucked up and don’t care what they do to hurt people.”
Nina was impressed by how enlightening he was. In a way, he reminded her of her mom—how levelheaded and philosophical she was. It was rare that she ran across anyone who made her think of her mother, so she knew Deon had to be special.
"Look at you," she cooed. "You supposed to be ranting about how much people ain't shit, but still manage to see the good in the world. You better than me."
"That's just what I'd like to believe. I'll give anybody their props, even if they do me dirty. You get your blessings by being a blessing."
"That's true,” Nina nodded. “So what now? I mean, are you against the fact that she's been with a female, or you just don’t like that your son was involved?"
"Ay, if that's what she wants, cool. That's not a problem. I just don't want my son being exposed to people she's only messing around with for fun, you know? He don't need to be meeting everybody she decides she wanna to kick it with."
That was something Nina agreed with, one hundred percent. Her mother never allowed her to meet anyone she fooled around with, because she didn’t want to set a bad example for her growing up.
"Well, he goes to Ty’s center, maybe that's why she didn't think it was a big deal."
"What?"
Deon wore a confused expression, letting Nina know he had no idea Ty was the owner of his son’s school.
“What you mean?”
" Oops,” Nina cringed. “Sorry, I thought you knew that already?"
"So, that’s where they met, huh?" he asked himself out loud.
"Look, I don't wanna make the situation worse; I just…"
"Nah nah, you good. It's not your fault. I just didn’t know."
After talking to Nina, Deon felt a little lighter. She was a great listener, and she interacted with his son just as smoothly as she had with him. He apologized for their date turning into a therapy session, and promised to make it up to her. But she was cool with it.
She enjoyed being in his company.
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