The Bodyguard

Chapter 27

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"Mommy wake up!" I heard Cj screaming as I sat up in the bed. I glanced around realizing I was back in my bed and Uncle G's and Aunt Bee's house. I glanced over at the clock on my nightstand seeing the time was 3:45 p.m. My AA meeting started at 4:00, so if I wanted to be on time I had to get moving.

"Mommy's up baby, scoot over so I can get dressed please?" I said nudging Cj's small frame over gently. He fell into a fit of giggles and climbed out of the bed. I followed suit and climbed out as well.

Since I'd gotten dressed before I took a nap, I decided to just freshen up. I went into the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth, and spray on a little perfume. After fluffing out my hair a little bit, I was ready to get to this meeting.

I picked Cj up and placed him on my hip before heading down to the living room. Ivy was sitting on the couch indian style watching a movie on Netflix. I placed Cj down on the couch beside her.

"Do you mind watching Cj while I go to my meeting? If you don't want to I understand, it's fine. I'll jus-" she held up her hand to cut me off.

"Girl, go to that meeting. You know I'll watch CJ I don't even know why you asked." I nodded and thanked her before grabbing my purse off the end table near the door. "I'll be back in a few hours sweetie! Be good for Tee Ivy, I love you!" I called over my shoulder. Cj yelled a short, 'love you too' and I was out the door.

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I glanced around the room at all the unfamiliar faces. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous and a little intimidated. I didn't want anyone to judge me because of my situation, but I had to realize that everyone was here for the same reason...to get better.

A few minutes later a tall white guy with a body full of tattoos walked in. He walked to the front of the room and gave everyone a friendly smile.

"What's up everyone? I'm Bob, I'm a leader here at AA Houston and I just want to welcome you all to the first meeting of the month. Whether you're a newcomer, or you've been attending meetings faithfully I hope that tonight you become closer to your goal or sitting down the bottle.

Like we do every other meeting, I would like for us all to get to know each other. So I'm going to ask everyone to go around the room and state their name, hometown, and an interesting fact about themselves."

Bob earned a few groans from the people in the room...including me. I really didn't want to share an interesting fact about myself to a room full of strangers.

"How about we start with you?" Bob's ol happy go lucky ass said while pointing directly at me. Suppressing a sigh, I stood from my seat with a smug look across my face.

I took a deep breath before speaking. "My name is Cayatana Santiago, Caya for short. I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana." I wrung my fingers together and slid them down my sides to rid them of moisture. "I guess an interesting fact about me would be that I have a 3 year old son." I quickly sat back down in my seat.

Just like in the movies, everyone said that annoying ass, "Hi Caya" greeting and then they moved on to the next person. I decided to tune everyone else out until the introductions were done. We were now moving into the deeper part of the meeting, I chose not to share my story with everyone in the group because I wasn't comfortable. Hearing everyone elses stories had me feeling a little better. These people were just like me in a way, just trying to find a way to cope with their pain.

"Excuse me," a man next to me said.

I gave him a questioning look and turned my attention toward him. He was sitting down, but I could tell he was rather tall. Tattoos adorned his pale skin in its entirety, and as much as I hated to admit it he looked kind of good.