Mateo sat in his house drinking whiskey straight. He checked the time seeing it was 9:53pm. He knew Sofia would be arriving at any minute and there was no telling how she would act once she arrived.
He felt like every area of his life was in a whirlwind right now. Or at least the two biggest pieces, dealing with Sofia and Jessica.
Jessica barely said two words to him at the dinner or when he stopped by before they left. She was still upset with him and he understood it. He was learning that she needed her time to get over things.
A knock came through on his door, knocking him out of his thoughts as he got up. He opened the door as Sofia stood there looking good as hell. "Hey," he let out as he took her in. "Why didn't you use your key?"
She walked in as she responded. "Didn't think it was appropriate."
He closed and locked the door as he headed to his spot back on the sofa. "You can help yourself to something to drink, or anything in this house for that matter. You do live here."
"Did." She corrected as she took a seat on the same sofa in which he sat on.
He didn't respond to the correction as he focused his eyes on the TV though he wasn't really interested in it. "What's up?" He questioned. He looked over at her, "why did I get to get blessed with your presence tonight?"
She sighed, "I just want to talk about, everything."
He gave her his full undivided attention. "Okay, shoot."
"Who is the girl?" He knew this question was bound to come up sooner or later. He just expected her to ease into this conversation. But that was out the window.
He picked up his drink, throwing the rest of it back. "Her name is Jessica, and no she's not here in San Diego." He was almost certain that would be her next question.
"When? And how?"
"What do you mean?" He questioned back as they sat facing each other.
She rolled her eyes, "when did you fuck her? And how did you meet her?"
He ran a hand over his face. "X's birthday weekend, at a club."
"Wow, really? A true groupie ho?" She questioned with disgust written all over her face.
"It wasn't even like that."
"Wait," she started as if she had just had an epiphany. "So this was when you all went to San Francisco?"
Mateo nodded. "So those times we went or you went alone there was it really to see her?" Anger brewed in her.
He shook his head no. "I really had work to do there sometimes, but yeah. Sometimes I was going to meet up with her but it was strictly for the baby. I swear there wasn't and there isn't shit going on between us you could ask her yourself."
She sat there looking at him for second, not knowing if she should believe him or not. She wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Call her," she let out.
He was taken by surprise. Though he suggested it he didn't expect her to really take him up on the offer, at least not right now. "She probably won't answer."
"Why?"
"I said something that I shouldn't have in a sensitive moment."
"What did you say?" She pushed.
He sighed, "Sofia that doesn't matter."
"Mateo what did you say?" She questioned loudly. "You're telling me it's nothing going on between the two of you and you can't even tell me why she's upset with you right now?" She yelled.
"I told her that I wished it was you that was pregnant and not her. After just finding out the gender of our child." He yelled back.
Sofia's heart warmed a little. To her she had no reason to be remorseful towards this girl. Everyone knew about her and Mateo. They were on each other's social media. On friends social media's, all the public events he went to she was right by his side.
A small smile played on her face before she quickly wiped it off. "Why would she be mad about that?"
"What?" He questioned with confusion. "What do you mean why would she be mad about that?"
"Does she know about me?"
"Of course she knows about you."
"Then why would she be upset that you would rather me, your girl be pregnant than her some groupie ho."
Mateo chuckled at her ignorance. "Because Sofia, we moved past that phase. If we both had it our way she would have been pregnant by the guy she was seeing and it would be you on my end. We've hashed that out already. So it was wrong as fuck for me to say it when I did."
Sofia rolled her eyes as she waved it off. "Do you want to be with me Mateo?"
"You know I want to be with you."
"Then I want me, you and her to just sit down and get some things clear."
"Like what?" He inquired.
"A lot Mateo. We're both clearly going to be in your life. So I think it's important we meet and important that we talk."
He nodded in agreement, but wasn't satisfied in her explanation of what she wanted to talk about. But he wasn't going to push it right now. He was just happy she decided to stay with him.
She sighed, "it's going to take me some time to get back into the swing of things and get past the hurt," she let out. "And I know it's going to dig into me more when I actually see her. But I love you and I want to try and make it work. I want to at least give it a shot."
"Come here," he demanded as she moved closer to him. He pulled her into him, hugging her as he placed a kiss on her forehead. She moved her head as she connected her lips to his. She missed the feel of his lips, she missed him.
--
Jessica got out of her car tired as hell from the 12 hour shift she picked up from one of her colleagues. She worked 10am to 10pm and she was just ready to shower and get in her bed. There were a lot more surgeries that day than she anticipated.
She locked her car and made her way up her steps to her apartment. She heard a car door close as she quickly turned around to see who it was. She expected it to just be one of the other residents who lived over there. But was wildly surprised when she saw Dwayne walking towards her. "Dwayne?" She questioned as she stopped walking, a look of confusion clear on her face.
He had a box in his hand, which she assumed was her stuff. Causing her to chuckle a little it had been well over a month and he was just now deciding to bring her stuff over? "What's up?" he let out as he looked her over. His eyes stopping at her protruding belly. She continued to walk again as she made her way to her door, unlocking it as Dwayne followed her in. Setting the box down once he made it inside.
She looked over at the box and thanked him. "I have your stuff, it's in my room let me grab it." She quickly sat her stuff down and made her way to her room while Dwayne stood by her door taking her place in. He missed her, and he couldn't lie. That was the main reason he decided to finally bring her stuff over. He knew this moment would come and he needed some type of leverage to use to see her. However, seeing her stomach further reminded him why he wasn't with her and why he didn't think he could be. Not while she was carrying the baby at least. She walked back out with the box as he quickly walked over to her taking it.
She rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "Relax, I'm only a little over five months. I can carry a box."
He chuckled as he looked her over. "You look good though. Pregnancy does you well."
She smoothed her hair down, as it was up in a bun on top of her hair. A little self conscious, knowing she did not look her best after working twelve hours straight. "Well thank you. You still look good yourself."
He nodded. "How's baby girl? And," she paused for a second. "Your girl."
Dwayne looked down as he sighed, "my girl?" He questioned as he looked up with slight confusion. "But Briana is good."
"Aren't you back with Brielle?"
He chuckled wondering where she got her information from. He wasn't back with her. Fucking her from time to time and doing family things with her that she asked, yeah. But he damn sure didn't plan on making things official with Brielle.
He shook his head as he licked his lips and crossed his arms. "Nahh, what makes you think that?"
In that moment Jessica felt a little stupid for assuming they were together because she saw them in Walmart. But then she quickly thought of the phone call he received after he came to her place acting a fool.
"Saw you all in Walmart, and I'm pretty sure it was her voice on that phone call you got last time you were here." She stated as she crossed her arms.
He pointed towards her living room area, "can we sit ? Can we talk?"
Jessica made her way towards her couch and sat down. "Did you ever sleep with her while we were together?" She questioned as he took a seat by her.
He thought about whether or not he should lie. But he felt like it was no point now. They weren't together and she was pregnant by another man.
He nodded his head as he leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs, his head looking down at the floor before he looked over at her. "Yeah. That's why I broke up with you. I felt horrible about it."
"I knew it," Jessica let out lowly as she looked away from him. "You acted like you were so innocent and so perfect in all of this. And you cheated on me Dwayne. I didn't even cheat on you."
"I know Jessica, but your situation is still worse! You got pregnant by this clown!"
"After you broke up with me!"
He shook his head as he leaned back on the couch. They sat silently for a minute before Jessica's text tone went off and she got up to go grab her phone. She picked it up seeing a message from Mateo as she unlocked it to read it. When's your glucose test again?
She quickly responded before locking it back and going to sit back down with it in her hand. In like 3 or 4 weeks, the 24th I believe. She was still very much upset with him and she could care less at this point to have anything to do with him. But she wasn't going to block him out if he wanted to be involved.
Okay, I'm going to be there. With Sofia. I won't bring her to the appointment, but she wants to meet you..
He sent another message before she could respond. I was thinking we all could do lunch or something after the appointment if you're fine with that.
She read the messages but didn't reply as she locked the phone and looked at Dwayne. She barely wanted to be in Mateo's presence so she damn sure didn't want to be in his girls.
"Baby daddy?" He questioned causing her to chuckle. "Wouldn't you love to know," she responded purposely not answering his question.
"Are we done with our talk?" She questioned as she looked at the time, 11:01pm.
He looked down at her belly before looking back at her face. "I miss you," he let out truthfully.
She rolled her eyes, "oh no! Don't come over here trying that just because you and Brielle aren't working out right now. Nope, not doing it." She stood as he did the same.
"Man me and Brielle aren't together, if anything it's strictly sex. It's nothing like that."
"Then go give your 'I miss you's' to her. I don't want them."
"So you don't miss me?" He questioned. She did, she thought this man was the love of her life at one point. "That's not the point Dwayne, of course I miss you! I love your stupid ass. But just because I miss you doesn't mean I have to decide to deal with you. You cheated on me, fought the father of my child and just straight up acted a damn fool towards me because shit didn't go your way."
"Because I love you Jessica!"
"And that's how you show it?"
She had a point and he knew she did. "And what are you really here for? You've already stated you couldn't stick around with me being pregnant with another man's child."
He sighed, "because this shit is hard Jessica. I thought the feelings would just go away. I thought I could fuck my way over you. But it's still you. No one as ever made me feel like you do."
"It's never easy when you love someone Dwayne! It hurts, it's going to hurt. But one day it won't anymore. You think I'm not hurting? Seeing you in the store with Brielle, watching you up and leave? Being pregnant by a man who is in just as much of a relationship as we were? I'm dealing with shit too. You broke up with me, twice. And I'm not going to play this game with you. You're not going to just run back my way when you want to and think shit is sweet."
"One more." He didn't know what overcame him. He didn't know why he was standing here asking his ex, who was pregnant by another man to give him another shot. She had some type of hold on him.
"For what Dwayne? Why should I? So you can go cheat on me with Brielle again? So you can constantly bump heads with Mateo? I don't need that type of drama in my life. I'm about to be a mother!"
"Jessica please, just let me prove I'm not bringing drama. Let me prove I can try and be cordial with your cornball ass baby daddy."
Jessica loved him and was still dealing with the hurt of their breakup and she honestly couldn't say she wanted to go back down this road with him again, but the thought of having him at the lunch with her when she met with Mateo and Sofia comforted her just a bit.
"Okay," she started. "I'm doing lunch in a couple of weeks with Mateo and his girlfriend. Come with me, show me you can be cordial with him." She knew this could turn out horrible or okay, but she was willing to test the waters to make her feel more comfortable.
He nodded, "Okay."
She unlocked her phone deciding to text Mateo back. Okay, Dwayne will be with me as well.