The World Along With You

036.

WEST MEMPHIS, ARKANSAS
MONDAY 01/22

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Heaven Sent by Keyshia Cole blasted throughout Drew's apartment as she assembled her breakfast sandwich. It was 9:32 am and she was beyond hungry for some reason.

She missed having Nino around—especially with moments like these. She was due at any minute and she was sick of doing everything herself. Her feet were hurting, her back was aching, and she was just beyond ready to get baby Adonis out of her.

"Doni, you hungry baby?" She rubbed over her stomach with her free hand as she held the plate with the sandwich with the other.

Waddling over to the couch, she yawned a bit before taking a seat and placing the plate on the acrylic coffee table. Grabbing the remote, that was next to the plate, she turned on the tv and soon reruns of The Nanny filled the screen.

As she was about to pick up her plate and dig into her sandwich, her phone started ringing. Sucking her teeth, she quickly picked up the phone and answered once she saw it was Nino calling from the jail.

As the automated woman spoke, she instantly bypassed it by pressing the button labeled with the number one. While it connected, she put the phone on speaker and sat it on the table as she grabbed her plate.

"Goodmornin' baby, how y'all feelin'?" Nino's deep voice beamed which instantly made Drew want to cry.

Although she still missed him dearly, Belly had convinced her to calm down. Belly was talking to Nino's lawyer as much as possible trying to gather enough evidence to make Nino a free man.

"We good, we were just about to eat. I've been craving breakfast sandwiches every morning since Friday for sum' reason." She bit into the sandwich and let the flavor overwhelm her taste buds.

The breakfast sandwich consisted of a bagel as the buns, hash brown pattie, turkey bacon, fried egg, pepper jack cheese, and honey and hot sauce. To wash down her drink, she had a cold glass full of half-n-half from Wawa. She had been craving theirs specifically.

"I hea' you munchin'...I hope it's really that good, Drew." Nino mugged playfully which made her laugh, "How you feel 'bout tomorrow? You nervous?"

Tomorrow is supposed to be the day she was going to give birth to her baby boy. While most were often scared about child birth, she wasn't as scared. She decided it was best to think about the positives instead of the negatives.

Drew didn't even bother to watch labor delivery videos. Everybody had a different experience. She didn't want to add onto the stress that was already clouding her mind.

"No but I wish you was with me, Nino. I want you there so fuckin' bad." She shook her head back and forth, "Even if you were there for five minutes, I'd be satisfied."

"I know mama but you gotta' continue to be strong. You've been a good girl these past couple of days." He licked over his lips and Drew instantly felt herself getting soaked from his choice of words.

"I talked to your mom." Drew switched topics before taking another big bite of her sandwich and chewing and swallowing to speak again, "She's still really upset about Charice but she claims she's looking over her."

"Fuck Charice, she was pissin' me off fo' the longest." He barked before switching the phone to the other ear, "Ion' even wanna talk 'bout her. I miss yo ass like shit. Lemme hea' that pu—"

"Nino stop." Drew instantly cut him off before setting the empty plate on the table and picking up her glass of tea, "You're being nasty."

"Lemme hea' it. It's gon make me feel better. Plus, ain't nobody listenin'." Nino bit down on his lip just thinking about how he had her the last time they were engaging in sex.