Page 66 of Anything Goes

“Look, Alauni, I know I didn’t really do a good job of explaining what happened between me and Maxine, but I can assure you that I didn’t try to manipulate her,” he said. “Now, I won’t lie and say that I was okay with the idea of her carrying my child, because I wasn’t. I’ve made that pretty damn clear. But I would never tell a woman to have an abortion. I don’t believe in it. Could I have been more consoling to her in the situation? Without a doubt. But Maxine had done a lot of crazy shit to me. So, finding out that she was pregnant was the last thing I wanted to hear from her at the time.”

“What did she do?”

“Like I told you before, we spent a lot of time together. I enjoyed her company, but I wasn’t with the jealousy shit. On more than one occasion, she showed up at my house unannounced after seeing me talking to another woman, she keyed my car and cut up my seats.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, damn. I would have left her ass alone too,” I replied. “But hold up, I get the feeling that you didn’t leave her alone right away.” I shook my head. “Men love to ignore the crazy at first. Y’all get off on that shit. Then, after a few near-death encounters, reality finally sets in.”

Clearing his throat, he said, “You’re right, I didn’t leave her alone. When the shit would happen, I would confront her about it, she’d apologize and—”

“Let me guess, y’all would have sex?”

I could tell that he didn’t want to respond, but he went ahead. “Yes, we did.”

“Damn, men are really dumb. Y’all will put up with anything just to keep getting some ass.”

“Can I finish my story please?”

I chuckled. “Sure, go right ahead.”

“Anyway, the last straw was when I went out of town with my sister. She thought that I’d left town with another woman. As a result, she broke into my apartment, bleached damn near all of my clothes and destroyed my place. Shit was everywhere when I got home.”

My hand flew over my mouth. “Damn…this chick was really crazy.”

“Most definitely.”

“How did you know it was her?”

“She left me a note.”

“A note? What did it say?”

“Something about I needed to make sure that someone was watching my place the next time I decided to take a bitch out of town. Of course, this was before she learned that Tokyo was my sister.”

“Wow!”

“Yeah, so when she told me that she was pregnant a few days later, that was the last thing I wanted to hear from her. At first, I thought she was just saying that shit to get me to talk to her.”

“What made you believe that she was telling the truth?”

“I made her pee on a stick right in front of me. When the test came back positive, I went into panic mode. All I kept thinking about was the hell I was going to go through with her being the mother of my child. So, yeah, I told her that I didn’t want to have a baby with her. She broke out in tears, and I couldn’t even bring myself to console her. I didn’t even stick around to hear what she had to say. But the next time I did talk to her, which wasn’t too long after that, I told her that I would be there for our child no matter what. She seemed okay, and I thought that was the end of it.”

“But it wasn’t.”

He shook his head. “Hell no. Our next encounter involved a lot of yelling and her shooting my ass.”

“Wait, what?”

“Yep, she shot me right here in the parking garage. Unfortunately for me, the apartment doesn’t have any cameras down there, which is one of the reasons that I don’t park in that bitch anymore.”

“Oh my God! Did you turn her in?”

“To who? I damn sure couldn’t call the police. The chief of police is her father, and he thinks that she’s the perfect angel. He didn’t even know that we were involved with each other.”

I couldn't do anything but shake my head. This definitely wasn't the story I thought I was going to hear. “This shit is crazy.”