“Why it sounds like you giving up or some shit? Like you ready to drop her off to her grandma or some shit. What’s up, shorty? Talk to me,” I said and tugged on her thigh.
At the same time, our door was pushed open. Little footsteps could be heard coming into the bedroom. We both looked up and saw that it was Maya. She was so fuckin’ adorable in her Trolls nightgown with her little scarf on her head to protect the braids that Shae had put her hair in last night. She rubbed her sleepy eyes as she walked further into the room.
I wasn’t even sure what Shae had said to Maya, but Maya was too scared to even look at Shae. Her eyes were purposely avoiding Shae’s. She walked slowly over to the bed, and once she was close enough, I lifted her up under her arms and sat her in the middle of Shae and me. I didn’t even have to say anything because she just burst out crying.
“I… iiii… Dddd… Didn’t mmmm… mean to. I… jjj… just www… Wanted her… tttt…. to respond to mmm… meee,” Maya cried with her face buried in her hands.
Damn, at five years old, this little girl thought that she had to buy her mother’s love. I grabbed Maya by her arms, and I placed her in my lap as she continued to cry.
“And how were you going to give her the money, Maya? You know your mommy doesn’t even stay in the same state as us. We talked about that,” Shae said. I could tell she wasn’t moved by Maya’s tears in the least.
“I… ttt… took your phone yyy… Yesterday. I sss… saw her Instagram. Sh… she’s here. That’s www… whyyy I ttt… texted herrr,” Maya said, using the top of her shirt to wipe her face.
Shae picked up her phone again, and I watched as she went onto the Instagram app. Again, sure enough, there Krystal was, right here in Miami. Her ass was just posting at Take One a couple of hours ago.
“I www… was gg… going to ask you t… to ttt take me to my ggg… grandma’s house, and I was gggg… going to give mommy the mmm… money. I’m sorry, Shae. I didn’t mean to ssss… steal from you. I jjj… Just wanted to ggg… get her tt… to love me,” Maya stuttered.
The tough act that Shae was putting on, Maya was slowly but surely breaking her down. Shae used the back of her hands to wipe Maya’s face, and then she kissed her a couple of times on her cheek.
“Baby girl, if somebody is going to love you, then they have to love you for you. You shouldn’t have to pay anybody to love you, especially not your mommy. I believe she loves you. She’s just going through a hard time right now in life. Would you like for me to drop you off to your grandmother’s house tomorrow, so you can see them?” I asked her, and she nodded her head up and down that she did.
“Okay, I will. First thing in the morning,” Shae let her know.
“Thank you, Shae. I’m sss… sorry again,” she said one last time before she gave both of us kisses on our cheeks, and then she left out, closing the door behind her.
“I swear I’m not even trying to be funny, but she is definitely Trip’s daughter. It’s like I’m mad, but I get it. I get it, then I don’t get it. I’m making sense?” she asked me.
“Not really, shorty, but I get what you’re saying. I tell you one thing, she not gonna do that shit anymore. You scared the fuck out of her. She wouldn’t even look at you, man,” I let her know.
“Yeah, while you sat there and did nothing. How you going to hold her, when her little butt did something bad. I bet if she was a boy, the situation would have been really different,” Shae said.
“Hell yeah. I’ll have to punch my son in his chest for stealing from you. That’s why I don’t want no daughter. I’ll let her little ass walk all over me,” I said, pulling her into me and then down on the bed with
me.
I had her lying on top of me while my hands rested on her ass.
“You know I hate it when you come in the house and get in the bed wearing your clothes. Baby, you smell like weed, cigars, alcohol, and old people,” she said.
I laughed while shaking my head.
“You full of shit, shorty. You only saying that shit because you know where I went. You taking a shower with me? I could use a shower with my fiancée after the day that I had,” I let her know right before I leaned my head down and kissed her lips.
“I’ll join you. Start the water, big daddy,” she cooed right before she rolled off me and started removing her clothes.
I let out a loud whistle, and my dick jumped in my pants because I already knew what type of night it was going to be.
The next morning
True to her word last night, Jashae and I were pulling up to the raggedy, run-down apartments that Maya’s grandmother stayed in. Truthfully, we didn’t even know if Krystal was there or not. We just assumed that she was.
It was so fuckin’ crazy to me because I remember when Jashae talked to Krystal a few months back, around the time Krystal was getting ready to sign over her rights to Maya. Jashae had basically left Krystal a promise, telling her that once she signed on that bottom line, she would never be allowed to see Maya again. I was sure my shorty wanted to make good on that promise, but Maya still asked about her mother. No matter how good of a life that she was now living with us, that little girl still wanted to see her ole girl. Neither Jashae nor I wanted to tell Maya that she couldn’t see Krystal. At the end of the day, although she was a walking fuck up, she was still the woman who had birthed Maya, and that reason alone is why Maya loved her so much.
If it were up to me, and I didn’t care what Maya thought about me, I would have told her little ass no. That’s because every time I saw Maya, I was forced to think about her being left in the parking garage at Shae’s job. So, although this was a trip that I wasn’t too fond of, I was doing it for Maya.
“I’m not going to be hunting her stupid ass down all fuckin’ morning, Miami. If she’s not here, then oh well. I already texted her twice, letting her know that we were on our way to her mother’s house, and she didn’t respond to any of the text messages. I can’t believe that we’re even doing this. What type of parent gets to say that she doesn’t want to be a parent anymore, but we turn around and give her the luxury of even getting to see Maya? I swear this shit is stupid,” Jashae fussed as we walked down the walkway to get to Maya’s grandmother’s apartment.
Maya was walking ahead of us, damn near running to get to the apartment. She knew the way like the back of her hand, so we were following her lead. I looked down at Shae and grabbed her by her waist, placing her close to me. She had on a tank top today with some jeans, so her baby bump was live and in effect this morning. I had my hand on her stomach the whole drive over here. I was indeed a happy man to be having a baby with this fine ass woman right here. There was no doubt in my mind that the son she was having for me was going to be fuckin’ beautiful, handsome, all of that.