Teach Me How To Love

Part 27 ~ Michael's Little Girl

~ Michael's point of view ~

Did someone just call my name? . . I stop and turn around. It's Shane . . one of my good friends. We walk up to each other and say hi. I haven't seen him in like a month. I barely have time to hang out with him anymore. He says he almost didn't regocnize me with the sweatpants on and hoodie over my head. I don't ever leave the house looking like this but I really didn't feel like dressing up today. I guess my outfit fits my mood . . . I feel like crap.

"Haven't seen you in a while, gosh, you look bad . . . are you sick?"

"Yea . . . I feel horrible . . I would love to stay and chat but-"

"No problem . . I see you around . . get better soon, Mike, I'll call ya!"

"Yea, do that. . . see you, Shane!"

Destiny and I just got home . . first thing I will do now is take a hot bath. I'm freezing so bad. She suggests that I should go see a doctor . . . maybe I will tomorrow morning if I'm not feeling better by then. I hate being sick. I eat well, I don't drink . . . I take care of my body . . . that's why I'm not sick very often but when I get sick, it's like FULL FORCE, from head to toe, unable function right. . . . Destiny is being so sweet to me . . . making me tea . . massaging my shoulders . . . offering to make me food, whatever I like. I'm so glad to have her. She's so good to me.

"Honey, you got a text message . . want me to bring you your phone?" Destiny yells from the bedroom. "Yea, sure . . thank you" She walks in, putting my phone on the glass table next to the bathtub. "Thanks" I say, giving her a smile. "I'm making you soup right now, it'll be done by the time you're finished taking a bath" She says, walking out of the bathroom. I grab my phone and look at my text messages. I got a text message from Shane. . . . I open it and read:

"Hey bud . . too bad we didn't have time to catch up earlier. It was nice seeing you. What I wanted to tell you is that I saw Nastasia at the café in Brooklyn the other day. Not sure if you know she's in town. . . looks like she's visiting her sister. . . I know you guys don't talk much . . . . just wanted to let you know. But I didn't see Zaira with her. . . maybe she left her home in Washington"

Wow . . .

She's here in New York? . . . and she's not even letting me know about it? Nastasia is one of my ex girlfriends and the mother of my daughter. She got full custody of Zaira shortly after we separated. I tried to keep things going with her and me but she didn't want to. She hated me for wanting to pursue my career as a teacher. . . . she never forgave me for that. Why, I don't know. I guess she wanted me close . . . her family lives in Washington. And that's where she wanted me to live with her . . but my roots are here in New York.

Back then I was too immature and too young to take responsibility. I had no money, I had nothing . . . I needed all my energy for college. Nastasia never forgave me for being so ''selfish''. . . . .In order to ''save'' our relationship, she wanted me to move to Washington with her but I didn't want to. I refused to. My family and my job is here in New York. I grew up here. And Nastasia did too . . I never understood why she would wanna move so far away from where we both grew up. I guess it was because she wanted to live close to her family. Her parents moved from Queens New York to Washington shortly before we broke up. . . . .

A few years later, when Zaira was about 4 years old, I wanted to give us another try and ask her to move back to New York. . . . . but then she had already started a new relationship with some other guy . . . and I was out of the picture. And that's when Nastasia started to push me out of her life completely. Wanting me out of the loop . . . just because she has full custody of Zaira, doesn't mean she can keep her from seeing me. I guess that was her way of saying ''You didn't want us in your life back then, now we don't need you"