My eyes furrowed. I wanted to say something else but decided this just wasn’t the time to have the baby discussion. The baby bug had sprung on me out of nowhere, but this club deal was something Jeb had been working toward since I met him. Everything he’d done in business led up to this moment, and yet I realized he hadn’t walked in particularly enthused after his meeting today.
“Anyways,” I said, ready to change the direction of the conversation when Jeb walked out of the bathroom shower and into our room with a towel around his waist, “how was the meeting? Tell me how he is in love with all of your plans for the new location. Tell me!”
Jeb’s back tensed as he dug in his drawer looking for some boxers. He turned around with an unreadable expression, sat on the bed, and looked over at me. He stalled as he searched for the right words.
“He loved all of my plans. It’s happening, the second location is indeed happening,” he said with no emotion as if the idea had suddenly become exhausting.
“I knew you would do it!” I exclaimed as I kissed him all over his face, but I simmered down when he didn’t match my excitement. “Am I missing something? Why aren’t you happy?” I asked.
“I’m happy about the deal,” he said flatly.
He stood up and walked back into the bathroom. I was becoming more confused by the moment. I went to the bathroom door and watched him carefully apply toothpaste to his toothbrush.
“Okay, so what’s the deal? Why are you talking about the deal as if it’s some chore you don’t want to do now, as if your hand is forced and you’re not feeling it?”
He finished brushing his teeth and looked at me. “I’m excited about this move, but I’m just drained..and, well,—” Jeb stumbled over his words. “I put so much energy in wanting this to be right that it has to be right. Me and Trey talked some things over, and for the most part, we’re seeing eye to eye. But there’s some things we’re not quite on the same page with yet.”
“I’ve seen the way you work. You’re extremely ambitious and meticulous about making Club Elite the club of the city. I’m sure Trey appreciates that. But you can’t do everything, Jeb. I can help with some things, you know. If you want me to come in and work with you for the next few weeks, I can do that.”
“No! I have an entire team in place. We should be good,” Jeb responded so quickly that it startled me.
I dropped the idea, saying, “Okay. I just want you to know that I’m here for you, in every way. Anyone who has eyes can see you’re putting your heart into the club. That’s enough to make anyone excited and committed about working with you.”
“Thanks, babe. It means the world to me to know that I have you by my side,” Jeb said as he walked over to the bed and got in. “Now, come. Let’s get some sleep.” He patted the spot on the bed beside him.
I got in bed and scooted as close to him as possible. As his arms enveloped me, I couldn’t help but think about how quickly he brushed off having a baby with me and the uneasy way he looked when I suggested coming
to his club to help out. I might have been reading too much into it, but this wasn’t my first rodeo with being engaged to a man and living the dream, only to wake up a year later living a nightmare.
Chapter 7
Tameka
I sat in the crowded gynecologist’s office with my sister Kemara, while she held Bryce in her lap, cradling him as if she was holding on for dear life. I was there for support while she attended her overdue post-partum appointment. Mothering had seized her life, and I was there to try to help her navigate it the best way I could. I loved seeing Kemara in her mother-mode. She was a great mom, and I saw so much of myself in her. I gripped the baby bag tight as I watched other pregnant women waddle to and from the back of the office while their partners dragged along behind them. My mind flashed back to when I would come to my doctor appointments while pregnant with Kevin, with a toddler-sized Eva scrambling to keep up by my side.
I didn’t have the tight grip on the baby bag back then like I did today. I fumbled with that thing during my baby days with diapers and zip-locked bags of snacks falling out while Eva roamed the office taking magazines off shelves just to throw them to the floor. It was quite the scene. Rodney wasn’t there to help me because of work or any of the many supposedly important commitments he had. He would straight-up ignore my requests and invitations to come to those appointments. I was ashamed at the memory and hurried to bury it back in my mind.
“Earth to Tameka,” I heard Kemara say. I snapped out of my flashback and looked over to see her finally relieve one of her arms to wave her new-baby-smelling hand in my face. “Come back to us!” my dramatic sister said mockingly.
“Yea, yea, whateva, whateva,” I brushed off her cute but poor acting skills. “I’m here, I’ve just been in…deep thought.”
“You don’t say!” Kemara rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair as if she had already proven that point.
“No, but seriously. I think I have just a pinch of baby fever,” I shared with Kemara, holding up my fingers to show that my baby fever diagnosis was slight, and nothing to be alarmed about. It was totally normal. Especially when I had both a new addition in the family and a wedding date coming soon.
“You’re seriously delusional, sis,” Kemara went on to say.
I gasped and turned to Kemara. “Is it that obvious?” I pretended as if I really cared about her slight although I truly didn’t.
Kemara rolled those infamous eyes and proceeded to say, “Tameka, I know you. I’ve sat here and watched the way you get all bug-eyed about these babies in here, and I’ve seen the way you take care of your nephew. You’ve been bit with the bug, my dear sis, and there’s no downplaying it.”
I sighed. I wasn’t in a relationship with myself though. In order to get excited about potentially having another baby, Jeb would have to be just as excited. He didn’t seem the least bit interested in discussing babies unless he was calling his new club expansion his baby.
“Jeb made a comment last night,” I blurted out. “…baby expo on TV…baby fever…he’s not feeling it,” I said, in my attempt to reveal last night’s events to Kemara.
Kemara laughed. “What? Slow down and tell me what the hell you’re talking about.”
I took a deep breath. “I was home last night waiting for Jeb to come back from his meeting with an investor when I had caught this Baby Expo infomercial on TV, which I was meaning to tell you about, by the way. But anyways, he walks in right when that infomercial was on, he notices the baby magazines on the bed, and he straight up tells me in so many words that his club’s second location is about to be his baby…yadi yah.”