Page 17 of Anything Goes

“Thank you, baby,” I said kissing her forehead and sending her off to her room. She skipped away without a care in the world. She was in such a hurry to get out of the room that I almost considered hanging up on Latrell's ass, but he would just keep calling back. Lifting my eyes to the ceiling, I eased the phone up to my ear. “What do you want? And why are you calling me on our daughter's phone?”

“You already know why. You won’t answer yours.”

“There’s a reason for that. You should take the hint.”

“Come on, Alauni. You should at least give me a chance to explain.”

“I did that already.”

He scoffed. “We barely talked the last time we were on the phone. Please, just hear me out.”

I didn’t want to hear him out.

What was the point? It wasn’t going to change anything.

“Are you still there?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m still here.” I fell back on the couch and slid my feet out of my socks.

This entire conversation was for the birds. I had better shit to think about…Law to be exact. I wasn’t fucking him, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t think about it.

“Does this mean that you’re willing to hear me out?”

“Sure, whatever,” I said, placing the phone on speaker and sitting it next to me.

“Thank you, I really appreciate you giving me a moment of your time.”

“Cut the pleasantries, Latrell. Just get to the point. Why is your little girlfriend messaging me?”

“Like I told you before, she’s not my girlfriend. She’s just a chick that I was cool with.”

“Did you fuck her?”

“No!”

“I find that hard to believe. She said that she’s pregnant by you.”

“That's because she's crazy. She and I haven't slept together. We've just hung out a few times.”

“I don't see a chick that you've only hung out with a few times going to that extreme to get in touch with me. Apparently, the two of you have been mighty damn friendly. Not only did she claim to be pregnant by you, but the chick sent me pictures of the two of you together.”

“Fuck those pictures.”

I chuckled. “That’s the damn problem, you fucked the hoe that’s in the pictures and now you can’t keep her ass in line.”

“I’m not sleeping with her.”

“Look, it doesn’t matter. You and I aren’t together, and we’re not going to be together. I just don’t like being in the middle of bullshit. Keep your hoes in check. Never should any woman be contacting me about my relationship with the father of my child. Repeatedly, she tried to get me to admit that we were together. I thought the bitch was nuts, so I kept calling her crazy and telling her to go get her answers from you. But she kept sending me picture after picture trying to let me know that y’all are together and I needed to back off. Does she know that I’m the mother of your child? Hell, does she even know that you have a child?”

“Yes, she knows that I have a child and she knows that I’m still in love with you. Like I said, me and her are just cool.”

“Okay, well, I don’t think she got the memo. You need to handle that.”

“It’s already been done,” he said. “I’m not even talking to her anymore. I don’t have time for all of the dramatics, especially when I’m trying to make things right with you.”

“If you're talking about making things right as far as us taking care of Layne, then okay. But nothing else, Latrell. You and I are done. I'm not interested in going backward.”

“I’m not the same man that I was before.”