Teach Me How To Love

Part 28 ~ Unconditionally

"Go over to her!" Shane whispers, giving me a nudge. "Not yet, I want her to sit down first. . if I go up to her now, she will probably leave the café" I whisper back to him with my eyes focused on Nastasia and Carmen. They're looking for a place to sit. Zaira isn't with her . . but maybe she's at Carmen's place. That I hope. . . I wait for them to order something and then I will go over there . . .

Destiny keeps calling me . . . as much as I want to pick up, I can't . . not right now. . . 'cause then she'll ask where I am and all that . . . I'll call her after I took care of this. . which I'm gonna do right now. The waiter just brought them their cappuccinos. I take one last sip from my tea and get up. "Good luck, Mike" I force a smile in his direction. "Thanks, I need it"

I clear my throat and walk over to them. I'm a little nervous because I know what I'm getting myself into right now. When it comes to Zaira, Nastasia won't hold back . . she opens her mouth wide open and lets me know what she thinks . . she's the type of woman to get their claws out. I stop next to their table. . . Nastasia looks up at me . . . and then gives Carmen a look.

"Look who we have here" Carmen says, folding her arms. Nastasia turns back to me, giving me a fake smile. "Michael . . what a pleasure to see you here" She says, obviously lying. "May I speak to you in private for a minute?" I ask with a serious tone in my voice. She shrugs. "I don't know . . depends on what you wanna talk about. . ."

"You know what I wanna talk about, Nastasia . . ."

"No I don't . . . but if it's about Zaira you can turn right back around and walk away, 'cause I ain't talking to you about ma little girl" She says, with a whole lot of attitude.

"She's MY little girl too, in case you forgot. . . . why didn't you tell me you were coming to New York?" She slowly gets up, looking deep into my eyes. "Since when do I have to tell you what I'm doin' and where I'm going?!"

"Well . . maybe because I haven't seen Zaira in over 6 months and I have you thank for that! . . .you keep making up excuses that I can't come visit you guys in Washington, and now you're here and you don't even call me! . . Where is Zaira? . . did she come with you?"

"I'm not making up excuses, ok? we're busy! . . and yes, Zaira came with me but you will not see her! . . we didn't come here for YOU, we came here to visit Carmen!"

"I WILL see her! . . whether you want it or not! . . just because you're living with her, doesn't mean I have no right to see her! . . she's my daughter too, why are you doing this to me? . . you know I wanna be part of her life! . . why are you shutting me out?? . . don't let it out on Zaira, it's not her fault!"

"Zaira doesn't even wanna see you, Michael . . ."

"That's where you're wrong! . . I talked on the phone with her recently and she told me how much she misses me!! . . so cut all the hate crap and start thinking about how your behavior affects her! . . she needs her father in her life!"

"Well, MICHAEL . . you had your chance! . . you could've moved to Washington with us but NO, you had your precious career going . . becoming a teacher was all you cared about! . . Zaira and I were never a priority in your life . . ."

"You know I struggled, Nastasia! . . I always wanted to become a teacher, and you know that! . . sorry for wanting to do something with my life so I can support myself and my family! . . I always loved Zaira! I ALWAYS wanted to be part of her life, but you started to shut me out of her life more and more . . . I used to see her every weekend . . and later on it became every other weekend . . and now it's been 6 months, Nastasia . . . 6 months! . . her birthday is coming up and I will not miss out on it!! . . ."

"Michael . . . we have everything planned for Zaira's birthday already . . and according to her birthday-friends-list, you're not on it! . . you can come visit us before we leave for Spain in May"