Page 48 of Anything Goes

Looking me over with her little brown eyes, Layne said, “Mommy, why are you being mean to Daddy? Did he do something to hurt your feelings?”

“Baby girl, that’s something that your father and I have to discuss. Don’t you worry about it.”

Jumping back into the conversation, Latrell said, “How in the hell are we supposed to have the discussion if you won’t unblock me long enough to talk to my ass?”

I wanted to respond, but instead, I gritted my teeth and continued nibbling away at the crust of my pizza. Bottom line, I didn't owe him shit. Not a conversation, not a phone call…not one damn thing. At this point, the only thing he rightfully deserved was my ass to kiss. Had he been in the same state, I would have allowed him to do just that. Then again, even that was too good for him. Kissing my ass was like finding the golden ticket…so nope, he couldn't even do that.

Fuck Latrell!

“Baby girl,” I said, smiling at Layne. “Tell Daddy you’ll call him back later. You still have a few tokens left on your card. We need to use them before we leave.”

“No!” Latrell shouted, sounding like a kid throwing a temper tantrum. “She’s still talking to me. You can go and use up the damn tokens if you want to play games so bad.”

“Daddy, stop being so loud. Everyone can hear you.”

“Sorry, baby. You know, Daddy’s been thinking. How would you feel about coming to live with me permanently?”

My eyes widened.

Is this nigga serious?

Frowning, Layne said, “Um…I can come visit.”

“But Daddy doesn’t want you to just come visit. I want you to live with me for good.”

“Okay, that’s enough.” I snatched the phone from Layne’s hand and quickly ended the call. The last thing I wanted to do was make a scene in front of her, but he wasn’t giving me much of a choice. The shit he was saying to get a rise out of me was ridiculous, and the fact that he would stoop to the level of involving our daughter was even worse.

“What’s going on with you and Daddy?” Layne asked, leaning forward to pull her straw between her teeth.

“It’s a long story, baby. But we’ll deal with it.”

“You sure? It doesn’t look like you guys are dealing with it. Not in a good way, at least.”

Sadly, Layne was right, and if a six-year-old could figure that out then there was really a problem. But I just couldn’t bring myself to be the bigger person in this situation. Sure, it may have seemed like Latrell was putting forth and effort by trying to talk to me, but I didn’t trust it. I didn’t trust him. Period.

“I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but your father and I will work things out eventually. We always do.”

I hated lying to Layne.

Truth be told, I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen. Him threatening to take her away from me was where I drew the line. I didn’t play like that.

“Well, I hope you guys work it out soon because I don’t like seeing you guys so mad at each other.”

“I know you don’t. I’m sorry.” Reaching my hand forward, I asked, “Are you finished with your pizza?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’m going to go dump this stuff in the trash. Wipe your hands so we can play a few more games and use up the rest of these tokens.” I scooted out of the booth and made my way to the trashcan. While standing, I couldn’t help but feel like someone’s eyes were on me, but when I looked around no one looked familiar. It was mostly kids running from one game to the next, and a group of women standing in a small huddle, talking.

Shaking it off, I returned to Layne and grabbed her hand. “What game do you want to play.”

“Golden Hoop.”

I laughed. “We’ve played that game a million times already. Don’t you want to play something else?”

“Nope. I love basketball, Mommy. You know that.”

“Yes, I do.”