I looked at my sister for her response, but all I got was a blank stare and a brief, but awkward pause.
“He totally shut me down, Kemara! I didn’t even get a chance to express to him that, yes, yes, yes! I want another baby! And with him! The man I love,” I exaggerated to my sis.
“Oh shit,” she said as her face read something along the lines of Yikes.
“I know right! He came home last night pretty stressed, I get that. He wouldn’t even tell me much about how the meeting went. You know he usually gives me the play by play, but last night he wasn’t having it. He even shut me down when I told him I’d be willing to come to the club to help out, so all I could do was tell him I would always be a listening ear,” I said all in one breath as I exhaled all that happened to Kemara.
Just as my eruption came to a close, I finally settled into the realization that Kemara’s Oh, shit, didn’t have a damn thing to do with what I was vomiting up to her. I watched her look behind me at the door and shake her head. Her face unraveled into a snarl right before my eyes. She patted my leg, and quietly instructed me.
“Look, look. Look who’s here,” she murmured.
I turned to see Melody promenade in pushing a stroller while accompanied by an attractive young couple. I instantly whipped my head back around towards Kemara, though I was about a good millisecond late.
Shit! She had definitely recognized me staring at her from across the gynecologist’s office like a mad woman.
“Oh heavens! Is she coming this way?” I whispered as I tried to capture Kemara’s attention. She was still gazing at the lady, while completely neglecting her job as my intel.
Kemara continued to pat my legs. “She’s coming; she’s walking this way. She definitely saw you, sis,” she hissed indiscreetly.
“Tameka!” I heard Melody say. I stood up and smiled and greeted my ex’s ex who always stepped to me in the fakest way she knew how.
“Hello, Melody,” I said rather lukewarmly. “I see you go to the same ob/gyn as my sis. What a small town.”
“A small town it is!” Melody replied.
I looked down at Kemara who was still sitting with the baby. I was trying to make eye contact with her so she could get the hint to stand on up and jump in this conversation too. I wasn’t a fan of small talk, so I required someone who could diffuse the situation should things have gone haywire. But, of course, my sister sat idle as if she were aloof to the message behind my eye contact.
Melody leaned down and took a look at Bryce and managed to squeeze out an “Aw, how cute.”
“Really, Melody?” I asked curiously. I couldn’t help but to question her sincerity. She never even attempted to mask her dislike of children, and yet we were at a gynecology office with her cooing over my nephew, and she was pushing Rodney’s child around in a stroller.
“Nope, still not getting what all the baby hype is about,” she quickly acknowledged.
“So I’m interested. Why get pregnant by Rodney?” I felt Kemara tug at my shirt from behind. I shooed her hand away and waited for Melody to respond.
“To be honest, having a baby by Rodney meant padding my pockets with his money for the next eighteen years,” Melody said coldly.
I don’t know why her apathy startled me. I should have been used to her by then, but before I knew it, I was ready to go off on this chick who broke up my family just because she wanted a paycheck.
Kemara caught my arm before I did something I regretted, which was smack her.
“You fucking whore,” was what I proceeded to say right as Kemara stood up with the baby and pinched me. I rushed to the aid of my arm which was now throbbing with pain that my own sister had caused. She then turned to us both and reminded us this wasn’t the place.
“We’re in a doctor’s office filled with new moms and their babies, ladies. I actually worked really hard to find an obstetrician I like, so simmer down please,” said Kemara.
I backed down and shook it off, but that didn’t stop Melody from trying to get the last word. “You can have him back!” she said. “He’s useless since that accident he had chasing your man. He doesn’t even remember me, so I know he doesn’t remember how to make any money. That’s why I needed a backup plan.” Melody turned and gestured at the couple she brought with her. “By being a good Samaritan for this lovely couple who can’t have their own child. Once I hand this baby
to them, it’s pay day, bitches.”
“Bitch—” I advanced towards the heartless woman when I felt Kemara tug at my shirt.
“She’s not worth it,” Kemara growled through clenched teeth. “Plus you wouldn’t want me to beat you down if I were to lose my spot here at this office, now would you?”
Sometimes, I wished Kemara would just shut up. But at that moment, I sucked it up, flopped back onto the seat, and just shut the hell up myself. I watched as Melody flipped her long, flat, straight hair and switched back to her seat to sit beside her impending payday. My mind then raced to how that couple was going to treat my kids’ little sibling, and I started to panic while thinking about my kids living a life of not knowing their little brother or sister.
I thought about Rodney and how disillusioned he was. He didn’t believe he had been engaged to Melody, let alone that she had given birth to his baby. And she wasn’t much of a fiancée to stick around and try to convince him otherwise.
Someone needed to let Rodney know that he was about to have a child in the world without either of its’ parents. He needed to know, and I was going to get him to see that he needed to act and act fast.