did you say?” Brent asked, the disbelief in his voice and on his face.
“I said, she says I’m her baby’s daddy.”
“Oh, shit,” I mumbled, clearing my throat as I sat back in my chair. There was another moment of painful silence before Brent and I asked, “Are you?” in unison.
James shrugged his shoulders, giving us the lamest answer we could possibly hear. “I really don’t know.”
I jumped out of my seat, pointing my finger in his face. “What you mean you don’t know? How the fuck you don’t know? Did you fuck her without a raincoat?”
All he did was nod, and I went off on him again.
“Oh, my God! What the fuck is wrong with you?” I was about two seconds away from putting my foot in his ass.
“Sit down, Sonny,” Brent ordered. “Let the brother explain.”
“Explain! There ain’t no explanation for this, Brent!”
“I said, let the man explain. Other people are trying to enjoy the game.”
I looked around and everyone in our section was staring at me. So I did as Brent asked, folding my arms and staring angrily at James. I was disappointed in him, really disappointed. He was the one who always had his shit together.
“You’re right, Sonny. I should have never slept with her without a condom, but hindsight is twenty-twenty. I just have to deal with the consequences now.”
“So, did you have some type of blood test or something?” Brent asked.
“Nah, I asked her for a blood test, but she threatened to tell Cathy about the baby if I pushed the issue.”
I unfolded my arms. “That’s ’cause the baby ain’t yours. Can’t you see she’s trying to trap you? That’s why she don’t want you to have a blood test. That’s what these young girls do.” I was so heated, you would have thought she said it was my baby.
“Yeah, but what am I supposed to do about it? She told me if I don’t pay her child support and babysit, she’s gonna go to Cathy.”
“Fuck it. Let her tell Cathy. But I wouldn’t give that bitch shit!” I told him adamantly.
“He can’t do that and you know it, Sonny.” Brent chimed in like he was Johnnie Cochran defending his client.
“Why the fuck not?”
“Because Cathy will divorce me,” James said, “the same way your wife would divorce you if you showed up with a baby by some other woman.” Yeah, right, I thought to myself. My wife’s not going to divorce me if I come home with a child out of wedlock—she’s going to castrate me.
“But that baby ain’t yours, man,” I protested.
Brent shook his head. “Have you listened to a word the man’s said? He’s not sure if he’s the father himself, so why should you be?” I didn’t have an answer for that.
“Look, you guys enjoy the game and Hooters,” James said with finality. “I gotta go babysit.”
“Keep your head up, bro. We’re gonna figure a way outta this for you, man,” I told him with certainty.
“The only way out of this is to keep this crazy bitch happy so she doesn’t go bothering my wife. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Brent grabbed his arm. “The only way out of this is to put your faith in God and pray on this.”
James looked him in the face and said, “I’ve been praying, Brent. I’m just waiting for God to answer my prayers.”
8
Brent
“I love you, Mr. Williams.”
“I love you more, Ms. Hendy…I mean, Mrs. Williams.” I smiled as I said it. I was sure my bride-to-be was smiling.
We’d been talking on the phone for about twenty minutes. I was lying on my living room sofa about to take a shower, change into my pajamas, and go to bed in anticipation of tomorrow’s big event. After the game, I’d gone to Hooters with Sonny at James’s request, but I still couldn’t believe he actually left the game to babysit a kid he wasn’t even sure was his. Lord, I hoped Cathy never found out about this. Not having James around kinda spoiled the rest of the evening for Sonny and me. We didn’t even stay fifteen minutes at Hooters before deciding to leave. When I got home, I prayed, then I called Alison to say good night.
“Mrs. Williams. Lord knows I love the sound of that,” Alison said. So did I. It was hard to believe, but this time tomorrow we’d be on our honeymoon on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. We were planning on trying to have a baby right away. Both Alison and I loved kids, and we both wanted at least two. I wanted to be a dad more than anything in the world.
“Me too. I can’t wait to show you off as my wife.”
Alison was quiet for a moment before she said, “Brent? Can I ask you something?” Her tone lost its excitement.
“Sure, baby. What is it?” I sat up.
She never asked a question. It was more like a statement, a confusing statement at that. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I’ll understand if you wanna back out.”
I pulled the phone from my ear, staring at it before resting it back against my head. “Huh? What are you trying to say?”
“I wanna know if you really wanna marry me. Are you sure you’re not just doing this because you feel sorry for me?”
How could she be questioning my love? Maybe she was just having last-minute jitters, but her comment caught me off guard and left me feeling insulted. “Why would you ask me that? You know I love you, Alison. Have you ever even seen me look at another woman?”
“No, but I see the way they look at you. They all want you, Brent, even the married ones. How long are you going to want me, with all of them waiting in the wings for us to fail?”
“Until death do us part,” I answered, confused by her sudden lack of faith in me.
“I hope so, Brent, because sometimes I think that you could do better. That you’re just settling with me, and I don’t want you to settle.”
“I’m not settling, Alison. I love you.”
“But why? Why me? I’m black as hell, I’m damn near forty, and I weigh over two hundred fifty pounds.” Her curse caught me by surprise. “The only thing I got going for me is my Indian hair.”
“You’re the woman I fell in love with, so all the rest of them don’t matter. And I don’t give a darn if you weigh two thousand pounds. I love you, Alison, for the woman you are inside. I don’t care about that superficial stuff. I want you to be my wife.”
“That’s all I wanted to hear,” she answered, sounding more like herself again. “’Cause once we walk down that aisle, I’m never giving you up. And I mean never.”
“I don’t want you to give me up. Alison, you’re the woman I wanna grow old with.”
She let out a thankful sigh. “I love you too, Brent, more than anything in the world.”
“Good, then we still have a date to meet at the altar tomorrow?”
“I’ll be there,” she assured me.
We chatted for a few minutes longer, then said our final good night before hanging up. I took a shower and got ready for bed. I thought about calling James to see how things were going with the babysitting, but before I got to the phone, there was a loud knock on my door. I jumped out of bed.
“Who is it?” I asked as I went to the door.
There was