Evan was doing his internship with Hector. The two weren't just the closest, and Evan wasn't all excited to meet his father. He didn't want anything to do with Hector as his son. But he was still interested in working with him.
Evan was civil. He couldn't be bothered with his father being his father after eighteen years. All he really cared about was that Larielle had gotten him the opportunity to do what he wanted.
During lunch, Evan went to check on a twelve week pregnant Larielle. She was at home with her mother, and CoCo had lunch on the table by the time Evan showed up. She was leaving the house to go and see Francis.
Larielle had accepted the pregnancy for what it was and had even started thinking of names and that she wanted a girl.
Evan didn't care either way as long as the baby was born healthy. He was just happy Larielle had taken up a positive attitude about the whole thing.
"Hey, baby," he greeted, leaning down to kiss her. She was sitting at the kitchen table eating. The past week, she was always hungry. She wanted to devour everything in sight.
"I thought about making you a plate. And then I did," she told him, grinning, seemingly impressed by herself for this feat. Evan just felt like there was something else in this story. Something like she had eaten his food.
"Why do I feel a but somewhere in here?"
"Buuuuut... I ate it."
"Yep. Figured."
She smiled and got up. "I'll make you another plate."
"Thank you," he said and moved to kiss her again.
She got up and started on making Evan a plate. And he watched her. She was beginning to show just a little bit, but he wasn't complaining. He liked seeing her with that round belly.
She came to the table and gave him the plate, sitting in his lap, kissing his lips. "I cooked for you," she told him proudly.
"You cooked?"
"Yep."
"Not CoCo?"
"Not CoCo. RiRi." She smiled.
He chuckled and put his arms around her, kissing her. She held onto him while his warm hand rested on her ass. But then she pulled away.
"You should eat. I made you lunch."
"I know, baby. And it smell so good," he assured her. She smiled, stroking his face before getting up to let him eat.
She watched him as if he'd never had her cooking. She just wanted to make sure he liked it. But he wasn't complaining. And that was a good sign to her.
"Is it good?" she asked skeptically. It was a new recipe neither she nor CoCo had ever tried.
"It's great, baby," he assured her, kissing her and brushing her hair back with his hand.
As if in reassurance, Evan had two more bowls of the hamburger rice dish. He didn't bother asking what was in it.
"You wanna go to the park?" he asked. "A few of my friends wanna play a game today. Be my cheerleader?"
She smiled, her arms around him. He tapped her leg and she got up, putting the food away. She followed Evan out to his car, and they made their way to the office first.
"Hector wonna see you," Evan explained.
"Oh. Okay."
They went up to Hector's office, and she smiled when she peeked inside. "Hey, Uncle Hector. wassup?" she wondered, stepping inside.
"Hey, mija," he greeted with a smile, getting up to hug her. "Brisa wants to throw you a baby shower."
"Yea? That's fine, Uncle Hector. Just have her call me."
"Okay. Hey, I wanted to talk to you, though."
Evan looked at Hector a moment, before he pulled Larielle into his arms, and lifted her chin. "I want to be the one to tell you what he wants to talk to you about," he told her.
Larielle was confused, and she looked to Hector, who said nothing, giving Evan the floor.
"Hector is my father," he told her.
That caught her by surprise and she moved to sit down, processing this information in her head. "You told me you didn't know your father, Evan. Why would you lie like that?"
"Baby, believe me, I didn't lie to you. I didn't know my father until you introduced me to him," Evan told her gently.
"Uncle Hector?"
Hector released a breath, and Evan decided to leave them alone. He just said his part and told her that he'd wait for her outside.
Larielle looked at Hector. "Did you not know about Evan, Uncle Hector?"
Hector sighed and held his temples. He wanted to talk to Larielle about this because he knew that she and Pedro were going to wound up talking and he didn't want her to be caught unawares when Pedro talked to her like his father knew he would.
"I knew about Evan eleven weeks into his existence."
"So Shayla didn't tell you she was pregnant?" Larielle asked.
"No, she was eleven weeks pregnant when she told me. And at the time, I was eighteen. I already had a son to take care of. I didn't want to have another child. I asked her to have an abortion and she told me she didn't want to do that. And I didn't stick around to find out. Shayla stayed down in Naples with her father, and I went back to my campus. As you know, I went to the University of Michigan and interned under your father. This part of the story you know. But I settled where I did in hopes of running into Shayla again. Because I love her."
"So you don't love Aunt Brisa?" Lari asked, her heart breaking for her aunt.
Hector let out another long breath. "I love Brisa, Larielle. Never doubt that for a moment. Brisa and I have been together for a very long time and we know anything there is to know about each other. I'm very comfortable with Brisa. But I'm not in love with her."
"Because you're in love with Shayla?"
"Yes."
Larielle didn't really know what to say. She just sat there, digesting this information. "Does Pedro know this?"
"No. Brisa and I are going to sit down with him tonight and talk to him. We're getting a divorce."
"So you can be with Shayla?"
"Well, that part is contingent upon Shayla, and I don't really think that's something that she wants right now. Given some time, I don't know. Hopefully."
Larielle held her head. This was a lot of information to digest.
"How long has Evan known that you're his father?"
"I'm assuming he asked his mother after the first time you brought him here."
"And did you know then, too, Uncle Hector?"
"I had a hunch," he admitted.
She didn't know what to say, she was so speechless. She put her head between her knees, feeling dizzy. Pulling in deep breaths, she let what she had just learned sink into her. The man she had known pretty much her whole life had a life she had never known about. She had known this man since she was four years old. And all this time, she had been dating his son. And she hadn't even known it. She could have grown up with Evan and seen him the same way she saw Pedro. But thank God she didn't because now she was having his child.
"I wanted to meet Evan when he was fourteen. Well, that's when I reached out to Shayla. But I wanted to when he was eight."
"What happened?"
"Well, when he was eight, I just didn't have the balls. I was afraid of what he would think of me. When he was fourteen, Shayla told me that she wasn't going to sit her son in front of a perfect stranger and introduce him as his father."
"I see," Larielle said. "I won't tell Pedro, Uncle Hector. I'll let you do that. I have to get going."
She stood slowly, hugged Hector, and went out to the hall to find Evan sitting in the waiting room with his phone in his hand, Bluetooth in his ear talking to his mother.
When he saw Lari, he got off the phone with Shayla, took the Bluetooth out, and took her hand. "You alright?" he asked, putting his arm around her back with their fingers intertwined.
"It's a lot to take in," she admitted. "I don't know how you digested that."
"Well, I think that's one of the minor things I've had to deal with," he told her honestly. "There could be worse things in my life than meeting my father. Honestly, it's not that bad to meet him. It's just disappointing that I had to meet him as a man when he could have been there when I was a boy. But he wasn't. Honestly, I'm not sweating it."
"He's in love with Shayla."
"That has nothing to do with me," Evan informed her, leading her out the door. "We can walk to the park," he told her.
"Okay," she agreed, smiling.
They walked to the basketball court at the park and Evan's friends were already there, shooting around. "'Bout time, nigga!" a light skinned dude called.
"Boy, you alright!" Evan told him, leading Larielle to the bleachers. "Hey, ladies," he greeted, smiling at the girls.
"Hey, Evan," the group sang back, most of them quite flirtatiously.
"This is my wife, Larielle," he introduced. "Lari this is Brit, Tiff, Clarise, Amanda, Kae, Jayla, and Lela."
Larielle waved to the group, and most of them greeted her back. Jayla gave her the stank eye. Well, she knew whose crush on Evan was the most serious.
"Make her feel welcome," he told the girls.
"She's fine with us," Tiff promised him.
"Yep. We'll get her all comfy," Brit added. "Go play basketball and don't foul my man," she told him, popping her gum.
"Yo man betta stay out my way. He don't know nun 'bout dese handles, ma!"
Brit laughed as Evan kissed Larielle, removing his work clothes and revealing basketball shorts and a white tee underneath. And then he was off to play. She hadn't even noticed his sneakers earlier.
"So you pregnant?" Jayla asked, blowing a bubble. Clarise popped her in the head.
"Why you so rude?"
"What? Y'all was asking the same thang at the wedding. Why else he go get married outta high school?" Jayla looked Larielle's curvaceous figure over as her bubble popped. "Plus, if I recall correctly, in that tight ass wedding gown, if you wonna call it that, wasn't no pudge. Unless it's a baby bump. Because you'ont look fat to me."
Jayla's friends all looked embarrassed at her bluntness. Larielle just seemed uncomfortable, clearing her throat. "I'm pregnant," she said, point-blank, hoping to end the discussion.
No one said anything for awhile, and Larielle folded Evan's clothes in her lap, watching him playing with his friends. She decided to root for him like she said she would. He was looking so good out on that court. So yummy.
"So where you from, Larielle?" Brit asked, smiling.
"Sterling Heights."
"You cute," Tiff told her. "And you fine as fuck. Like, Evan said you fine as fuck. But I usually'ont be agreeing wit him. His last girl... She was whateva! But don't go breaking his heart, Larielle. We would hate to hunt you down and damage such a pretty face," she told her, blowing an even bigger bubble than Jayla that didn't pop but instead deflated gradually back into her mouth. "But I like you so far. Our boy got nothing but praise."
"Evan is good to me, so I stay good to him," Larielle said.
"Ugh," Jayla complained. "Why you talk all bourgeois?" she asked. Larielle frowned.
"I don't talk bourgeois. I speak properly. And my man doesn't have a problem with that," Larielle said plainly. "If you do, tough titty because it's only two people's approval I need and I guarantee you are not one, Jayla. I just met you, you don't want to meet me," Larielle warned.
"What, bitch? I'll beat yo wonnabe white ass all up and through this fucking park here today. You wonna fucking try me?"
Evan saw the fight that was about to happen and quickly made his way over to diffuse the situation, deciding he needed to take Larielle home.
"What happen?" he asked as they made their way towards the office to his car.
"I don't know. She just had an attitude, and I wasn't going to back down."
Evan said nothing more about it. When they got to the house, Larielle decided Evan was hungry and needed to eat something. So she reheated her hamburger and rice.
When he finished eating, he pulled Larielle to him and held her. "When I get off today, I want to take you somewhere nice, wife," he told her softly, leaning down to kiss her. She held his face in both hands, allowing him to part her lips and fill her mouth with his taste.
The two had been married a couple weeks but had no chance to celebrate said marriage. So she wondered where he was taking her.
"Okay."
"I have to go now. Are you going to be okay here?" he asked, looking at her. She nodded, and he kissed her again. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Evan kissed her one last time before he left the house and went back to work. Larielle began to clean up the kitchen, singing to herself. When she heard the house phone ringing, she went to answer, surprised to hear static over the other end. Provided the phone was a little broken, the sound quality was usually fine.
Deciding whoever it was would have the cell number of whomever they wanted to reach if they were important, she shrugged it off and hung up the phone. She went back to the kitchen and finished the last of her dishes wondering where Evan wanted to take her. She couldn't wait to see.
The doorbell rang, and Larielle went to see who it was. Looking through the peephole, she saw Trina and frowned. But she opened the door. Maybe her ex-friend wanted to apologize and be her friend again.
"Hi, Trina-"
Her words were cut off as she took a cloth to the face and everything faded to black.