“I got something I need to tell you.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. “What?”
“This braud I used to mess with, she hit me with a paternity suit.”
My eyes got wide and I turned to look at him.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah man. I took the paternity test and these are the results.” He looked down.
“How long has this been going on?”
“I found out a couple of weeks ago.” He looked back up at me. “I was trying to find the right time to tell you.”
“And you think this is the right time?” I stood up.
“Better to get it out the way now.”
He handed me the paper.
“I don’t even wanna see it.” I started for the patio door.
I’m done with this nigga and his secret lives.
“Just read it.” He stood up, holding out the letter.
I snatched it and he looked down.
I took a deep breath before opening it and when I saw what it was, I hit him upside the head with the paper.
He started laughing and grabbed me. “Stop hitting me.”
“Why would you do that?” I gave him a straight face.
“To get you back at you from yesterday.” He rubbed my chin.
“I was about to loose it.”
“I know.” He laughed and sat back down.
I sat on his lap, straddling him.
“Baby this is amazing, though.” It was his acceptance letter to UPenn.
“You think so?” He blushed.
“Hell yes, this is the top school for dentistry! I’m so proud of you.” I hugged him and kissed his lips.
He wrapped his arms around my waist.
He played with the cloth belt on my robe.
“Too bad I’m not going though.”
“What you mean you not going? This is a fucking Ivy League school. Like Harvard. Like Yale.”
“I know.”
“So why wouldn’t you go?”
“I already submitted my stuff to Emory. I’m just gon stay in Atlanta for grad school.”
“Why?”
He was silent just looking in my eyes, while twisting his lips.
Then I got it. “No August. No. You’re going.”
He shook his head and smiled.
“I am not letting you pass up your dream school to stay with me.”
“You’re not letting me past up anything, I’m making my own decision.”
“No August. Not many African-Americans, let alone black men, get in there. It’s stupid to past this up.”
“You gon come to Philly with me?”
“What? No. I can’t with work. And then I’d have to sell my house.”
“Aight then. I’m not going.”
“I’ll come visit you on the weekends.”
“It won’t be the same.”
“We can make it work.”
“I already made up my mind.” He sat back.
“Why would you--.” My sentence was cut off by the lump in my throat and tears forming in my eyes.
“Why you crying babe?” He furrowed his eyebrows
“Because. I don’t want to be the reason to hold you back.”
He laughed. “You not holding me back. Schools come and go. But what we have, that’s once in a lifetime.”
“That’s crazy. Like…like…I’m not even worth that. You sacrificing your dreams. ” I wiped my eyes.
“My brother told me before he died, “Yung all this material shit gon fade. But when you find a woman that’s down for you. Somebody that’ll be there whether a nigga on the bus or a limo, you keep her. She the one gon be there when the smoke clear and it’s nothing left but you. I found that shit, and I’m not letting go. As long as I’m a dentist, the school don’t matter. But it does matter whose my wife and the mother of my kids. And that’s you. And if that means I gotta pass up on my dream school to be next to you everyday, I’m willing to do it.”
“August.”
“I don’t want to talk about it no more. Get ready so we can go.” He kissed my forehead and went inside.
Chapter 29
Start from the beginning
