It was now 4:30 p.m., and the cookout was set to start at 4. I didn’t want to get there early, because I was hoping by the time I got there that the sun would have went down a little bit. Shit, I was pregnant and I didn’t want to be sitting my ass up under the sun all afternoon. I got up out of my bed to go and get my daughter from out of her room. When I walked inside, I noticed that she was up from her nap.
“Hey baby,” I said, picking her up from her crib.
“Ma Ma,” Harmony cooed, reaching her little arms out for me to pick her up.
After showering her face with tons of kisses, I put her on my hip to search for something for her to wear. After that, I got her ready for her bath. Two and a half hours later, we were finally walking out the door. I knew my girls thought that I had changed my mind about coming, being as though I was so late. It took me forever to find me something to wear, even though my ass had a closet full of shit. What I decided on was a denim shirt, along with a pair of my gold Robin jeans. On my feet were a pair of low top MK sneakers. I had my hair parted down the middle, resting a few inches above my ass. Looking at me, you couldn’t even tell that my ass was spreading because the only thing that grew a little bit was my hips and my ass.
Thirty minutes later, I was pulling up to the park. It look me a little minute to find pavilion fifteen but when I heard all that loud ass music, I knew which one it was off the bat. I noticed that it was packed with a whole bunch of people, and God knows that I didn’t want to be in all of those people’s faces. After parking my car, I went around and got my baby from out of the back seat. Tucking my purse under my seat and walking with my daughter on my hip, I made my way inside the party. As soon as I walked over, I noticed my girls sitting at one of the tables, talking amongst themselves.
“Hey y’all” I said, waving at them.
“Tisha, I didn’t know you were still coming,” Ka’lani said with a confused look on her face. I noticed that the other girls had a confused look on their faces as well, which made me wonder what the fuck was going on.
“What’s up with y’all, why y’all looking like that?” I asked them, but nobody responded to what I just asked.
“Daddy, when is my little sister coming?” I heard from behind me. I turned around and an older version of Harmony was standing next to the grill by Otis. I swear it felt like all of the wind had left my body. I swear I felt like I was hyperventilating. I swear I had to catch myself because I had almost dropped my baby. Otis and I eyes met, and I heard him whisper something to the little girl, and she went and sat next to another lady. I followed the little girl with my eyes the whole time. I watched as she sat next to a lady with Turquoise hair. I couldn’t see the woman’s face because her back was turned to me, but I had a strong feeling that was her mother.
Just as quick as I had gotten there, I turned around and left. I tried to walk away as fast as I could, but as soon as I reached my car, I was being pulled from behind by those strong ass arms that I missed so much. I knew it was him because I could smell his Tom Ford cologne lingering in the air.
“Tisha, what the fuck is wrong with you girl? Why you leaving?” Otis asked, turning me around to face him. At that moment, I fuckin lost it. I couldn’t control my anger, my hurt, or my tears.
“When the fuck were you going to tell me that you had another daughter?” I cried. My cries only upset my daughter, and she started crying as well. Otis took Harmony from out of my arms, trying to calm her down.
“Baby, I just found out about this myself like three weeks ago. I promise that I was going to tell you this shit,” he told me, trying to calm me down, but I was hysterical at that point. Ka’lani came over and took the baby from Otis’ arms, because my crying was only making Harmony worse.
“Tisha calm down, you going to upset the baby now,” he said, pulling my closer to him as I continued to cry against his chest. I was supposed to be the one to give him his first child, not that bitch.
“Tisha, me having a baby that I knew nothing about don’t stop no show. I’m still going to be here for you and Harmony. Shit, I still want to get back with your ass but you ain’t letting me. But what I’m not going to do is be a pussy and run away from my responsibilities,” he said, and I pulled away from his hold.
“How am I supposed to compete with that though? She had your baby first. Is she the reason why you been ignoring my ass for the past few weeks?” I asked, wiping my tears.
“Tisha, I ain’t asking your ass to compete with shit. I’m just letting your ass know what’s up. And hell no, she ain’t the reason why I been avoiding your ass, you been the reason. Tisha, your ass keep pushing me away every time I try and get back in,” he told me.
“Whatever, Otis. I’m about to leave. I’m not about to sit here and watch you play the perfect family with this bitch while me and my daughter sit off to the side and watch, like I’m your fuckin sideline or some shit. Why the fuck would you even let me come here, knowing you was bringing your baby mama!” I snapped.
“Tisha, when is the last time we had a fuckin conversation? How the fuck was I supposed to know that you were coming? You can leave, but you not taking my daughter nowhere,” he said, walking in front of me.
“Nigga you got me fucked up, I’m about to go get my fuckin daughter, and we are about to leave,” I said, and he pulled me by the front of my shirt, roughly pulling me into him.
“You gon’ keep trying me and Ima fuck your ass up right here in front of everybody. Now, if you want to leave you do that. But my daughter been talking about seeing Harmony all day, and I’m not about to let her leave with you because you wanna be spiteful about the situation. I done told your ass I just found out about her,” he said through clench teeth, and I was trying so hard to keep the tears in but as soon as I blinked, they came rushing down my face.
“I’ll just go,” I said, barely above a whisper.
“Tisha, you know I’m not asking you to leave but I’m not about to have you take Harmony either,” he said, letting go of my shirt.
“It’s fine Otis,” I said, walking away and getting into my car.
Honestly, my feelings were hurt to the core. To have another little girl that I didn’t birth call Otis daddy really did something to me. I wasn’t necessarily mad at Otis, because like he said, she was conceived when him and I weren’t even together. I just felt like he was ignoring the way I felt, and expected me to be all on board with him having another child. I got in my car and I noticed that my girls were calling and texting me, trying to see if I was okay. I simply turned off my phone and pulled out of the parking lot. In order for me to leave, I had to circle the pavilion and as I was doing that, I saw Otis walking with Harmony in his arms, placing her in his daughter’s lap. The sight before me brought a shit load of tears to my eyes. I watched on as his baby mama looked at his two daughters interacting with each other as well. This was something that was clearly going to take some getting used to. Right then, the only thing that I wanted to do was climb in my bed and take my ass to sleep. Now I had two bitches that I had to deal with, which was Marshae and know this Turquoise weave-wearing ass bitch.
Chapter 8: Otis
I couldn’t get that look from out of my head that Tisha gave me once she heard Tamia call me daddy. She looked at me like I had just did the upmost betrayal to her in life. I swear to God, had I known that Tisha was coming, ain’t no way in hell I would have invited Akira to come. Yes, I would have brought Tamia with me still. The reason why I didn’t think she was coming is because I didn’t hear none of my niggas telling me that their girls told them that Tisha was going to come, so I just took it upon myself to invite my baby mama and my daughter to the cookout. Plus, it was going on six and Tisha still hadn’t shown up, so I just knew that I wouldn’t have to worry about her running into my baby mama and my child.. As soon as I saw her Range Rover pull up, I just wanted to crawl into a damn hole and die. I knew wasn’t nothing good going to come from out of the situation at all. My eyes were on Tisha like a hawk the whole time, but she didn’t look at me until she heard Tamia say daddy. It was confirmed two weeks ago that I was 99.9% the father to Tamia. Ever since then, I was trying my best to make up for lost time with her. Tamia had already met my niggas, along with Tisha’s girls as well. Everybody loved her and they felt as if she was the spitting image of Harmony.
Watching Tisha pull off and seeing her hurting like that hurt me to the core. I knew that she was embarrassed and she felt betrayed. I feel like I broke her heart in front of all these people, not to mention in front of m
y baby mama. I also knew I hurt her when I told her that she couldn’t take Harmony with her, and when I jacked her up in front of everybody. We may have been in the parking lot when all of this was happening, but I’m pretty sure that everybody was watching us. I wasn’t about to have Tisha at home crying and stressing herself out, which is why when the cookout is over, I’m taking my ass over there to get my woman back. I feel like for the past three months, I haven’t been doing anything but hurting her chance after chance, and honestly, it wasn’t fair to her.
“Daddy, my little sister is so pretty,” Tamia beamed as she played with Harmony. Crazy, because Harmony never took well to new people, but she was very open to Tamia. I smiled looking at my two beautiful girls, and headed back over to the grill to continue with the ribs.