I hadn’t seen Jeremy in months, and the last time I did, he had a low cut. Now, he’d grown out his hair and was starting dreads, which in my opinion had his grown ass looking kind of childish. I wanted to say that Jeremey worked as an accountant and was probably on break with his job as well, which would explain the suit that he was in. Then again, I thought he was a mortgage broker. Shit, I didn’t know. Back then, the plan was all about getting fucked, not necessarily getting to know each other.
I turned and looked at him. He was standing at my side, and I noticed the way his eyes lingered on my stomach. I was in a black work dress that clung to my body just a little bit, so my baby bump was on full display today. Pretty much everyone at the job was congratulating me today. Since I was so secretive, and I didn’t really make co-workers my friends, none of them knew that I was expecting.
“Ummm, hey, Jeremy,” I said, being very dull with him and hoping that he would take the lack of energy or happiness in my voice as a hint and leave.
“You got a baby on the way?” he asked, but I didn’t answer. He awkwardly smiled and then turned his attention to Jabari.
“You’re a lucky man, my brotha. A reallll lucky man. I’d sell my soul to be in your shoes and—”
“Yo, if you still want your soul, you better get the fuck away from this table. You lucky I didn’t beat your ass the second you walked over here and said something to my girl. You ain’t gotta remind me how lucky I am, nigga! I wake up to her every morning and go to sleep with her every night. I’m aware of my luck!” Jabari barked.
I wanted to just sink into this damn chair and disappear because this was too fuckin’ awkward. A man whose face I used to ride for hours and someone whose dick used to beat at my walls repeatedly was having a conversation with my man. I’ll give Jeremy his credit and admit that back then, I used to think that his sex was everything. It wasn’t until I got with Jabari, who could get me to cum just from one stroke, that I realized that any man I’d ever had sex with before him was mediocre. I watched as Jeremy threw his hands up in surrender, basically letting him know that he didn’t want any smoke with him.
“My bad, man. I didn’t mean no disrespect. I just know what you working wit—”
Jabari stood up and punched the shit out of Jeremy.
“Fuck you mean you didn’t mean no disrespect? Pussy, that’s like the third time you done disrespected me! The moment you saw that bump in her fuckin’ stomach and you saw me sitting with her, you should have just kept it pushing, nigga!” Jabari was leaning down and barking this to Jeremy while he lay there holding onto his nose, which was bleeding.
Onlookers were staring in our direction; a few phones were pulled out and a couple of waitresses had come over to attend to Jeremy. All the while, I sat there, embarrassed as hell. Jabari had the fuckin’ nerve to look annoyed, yet he was the one who had just punched somebody in the middle of a fuckin’ restaurant. I watched as he pulled out a single hundred-dollar bill, and then he threw it on the table.
“Let’s go, or would you rather stay and nurse the nigga?” Jabari asked me.
I guess I took too long to answer his question because he ended up walking away toward the door. If anything, I was just in a state of shock. The waitresses were trying to get me to tell them what happened while also asking me if I was okay, but I ignored them and walked out of the restaurant. Jabari and I hadn’t ridden together, but his car was parked right next to mine. I could hear the loud engine from his car, which let me know that he had started it and was probably going to leave without saying shit to me.
Instead of getting in my car, I jumped in the passenger seat with him. Before I could even get my seatbelt all the way on, he shot out of the parking space, just in case someone called the police on his dumb ass.
“You lucky I didn’t kill that nigga,” he spat.
“Why am I lucky? It makes no difference to me whether he lives or not! I haven’t seen Jeremy in months. You just sat there and called me insecure but look how you’re acting! Wow, you are really a piece of work” I announced then turned around in my seat, so I could put my purse on the back seat.
“I ain’t insecure, shorty. I’m a fuckin’ man, and I wasn’t going to stand there and let another man disrespect me right in my fuckin’ face. That nigga was telling me how lucky I am and saying that he knew what I was working with, which is the equivalent of him telling me that your pussy is good! Fuck out of here with that bullshit, man! If you can’t sit there and agree that the nigga was disrespecting the fuck out of me, then you obviously not grown enough to even have this conversation with me,” he spat.
“Turn back around and take me to my car. This is not going to work,” I told him, but he kept driving, paying my request no attention whatsoever.
“I ain’t taking your ass nowhere but back to work. Leave your key with me. I’ll have somebody pick it up and bring it back to the crib,” he said.
I didn’t even respond. This lunch date was going completely left. The car was silent for about ten minutes before Jabari finally started talking again.
“How many times you fucked that nigga?” he stupidly asked me.
“Why are you asking me that? Even so, I don’t fuckin’ remember!” I yelled. He was pissing me the fuck off, bringing up shit in the past.
“You fucked that nigga so many times that you can’t remember, Mahogany? Throw out any number, man. What? Two or three? Five or six? I want to know,” he kept fuckin’ with me.
“Probably twenty! You happy now? I don’t ask you how many times you fucked them hoes who walk up to you and start conversations when the two of us are out. Anything or anyone that I did before you is in the fuckin’ past, Bari! Why are you doing this? You questioning me about a nigga who don’t even know if my pussy is hairy or bald at the moment because he hasn’t seen it in that fuckin’ long! You know that I wasn’t a saint before I got with you. I told you on many occasions that I love to have sex. You are not the only nigga that’s explored my pussy, Jabari. Just like I’m not the only woman that’s rode your dick. What’s the difference from when I told you this shit months ago to now?” I questioned, trying to get him to make this shit make sense, but it just wasn’t.
He didn’t even respond to me. Jabari was such a fuckin’ hypocrite. I felt like I was constantly shown bitches that he fucked with before me, and because I was a woman who didn’t want to live with the stereotype of nagging, I would just take that shit! He saw one nigga that I had dealings with before him, and it was World War III. The whole way to my job, Jabari drove like he was ready to get my ass out of his car, but I swear I didn’t care because I didn’t too much want to be around him either.
After about five minutes, he whipped his car into the parking lot of my office building. He didn’t say shit; he just popped the locks.
“How am I supposed to leave without my car, Jabari?” I asked with my hand on the door, ready to get out.
“I’ll be back! How the fuck else? Or did you think Jeremy was going to come and get your ass?” he spat.
I laughed. I really laughed to keep myself from slapping the shit out of his ass.
“Only if you didn’t come back, then yeah, I would have probably expected that,” I shot.