His Side

One year later…

“Must be her again,” Cass stated.

I silenced my phone and slid it back into my pocket.

“Her ass is starting to piss me off.” I groaned feeling my pocket vibrate again.

“Do you want to call her back?”

I shook my head. “I told her I would be with you and Summer this morning. She doesn’t want shit but to make sure I ain’t on no bullshit with you.” I shrugged causing Cassie to laugh.

“I’m getting married in two months, why the hell is she so bothered?”

“Same shit I be telling her. Her ass is crazy. She thinks because I haven’t introduced her to Summer yet and the fact that she couldn’t come that me and you sneaking around.”

“Do you plan on introducing them?”

“Shit, at this point I don’t even know if I want to be around her.”

Cassie snickered just as my phone vibrated again. “Let me handle this,” I told her stopping mid-walk.

“Okay, I’m going to go show Summer the elephants.” I watched her push the stroller over to the cage while I took my phone out my pocket.

Today we decided to take Summer to the zoo since she’s never been. Cass’s fiancé was out of town and she didn’t want to bring our daughter alone and asked me to tag along.

“Why the hell do you keep calling me?” I snapped soon as I answered the phone.

“One of my friend’s daughter’s birthday party is today. I mentioned to her that you had a daughter around the same age, and she invited us to come.”

Closing my eyes, I pinched my nose. “Morgan, why the hell would I take my child around a bunch of people I don’t know. She hasn’t even met you yet!”

“And whose fault is that! I’ve been saying I want to meet her, but you act like it’s a crime.”

“Because you ain’t been around long. I’m not about to expose my daughter to every female I’m seeing!”

Morgan smacked her lips. “I don’t get what you mean Vince! It’s been three months and we’re exclusively seeing each other right?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I ignored her question.

“I think it’s time for me to meet your daughter. I mean you’re going on family gatherings with her mom and I couldn’t even come. Do you know how that makes me feel?”

Again I pinched my nose. “I don’t have time for this shit. You’ll meet my daughter when I think the time is right. I gotta go.” I hung up the phone without waiting for her to respond.

I gripped my phone tightly and released a heavy breath.

The past year of my life had changed drastically and every day I regretted my choice to keep Summer from Kayla.

When Kayla told me she couldn’t be with me anymore after learning about Summer she wasn’t lying. She ended up having an abortion and eventually moving back home with her parents. For weeks I tried to make things right with us until she told me the baby was gone and to leave her alone. That’s when I knew I had lost her.

Kayla wanted to be a mom more than anything and after losing our first child I would have never thought she would have aborted our second one, but I guess I didn’t know her as well as I thought I did.

Whenever I saw her after that night, she stared at me with so much anger that I had to question if the love I used to see was ever real or was it my imagination.

After learning about the abortion and then her moving back home, I threw myself into the club and Summer. I was pissed at myself and Kayla and started fucking different bitches, not bothering to make anything serious with them afterward.

Eventually, I met Morgan. She had got hired at my club as a service manager and the two of us clicked instantly. I didn’t normally mix business and personal but she seemed like a cool chick. She was the only one I was fucking consistently, still, it didn’t take away the hurt I had over Kayla.

A few months after she left I tried to call her but she had changed her number. She blocked me and everyone associated with me off social media and made her shit private too.

“Everything good?” Cass walked up and asked.

I looked down at Summer. “I see she tapped out earlier than expected.” I laughed at Summer as she lay slumped in her stroller.

“Yeah, baby girl can’t hang.” Cassie laughed.

Regardless of everything that was going on in my life I was grateful for Cassie. She never acted like a crazy baby mama nor was she ever on and bullshit with our daughter. It was times she told me to take a flight back home to see Kayla but I always brushed her off. I knew Kayla if she had tied her hands and moved on then there wasn’t shit I could do. She wasn’t the one to backtrack after she made her mind up.

“Have you tried to reach out to Kayla recently?” I looked down at Cassie and shook my head.

“C’mon, we might as well head out,” I told her grabbing the stroller from her. “But nah, I haven’t. Every time I think I want to try, I picture how she looked the night she found out about Summer and leave it alone. I love Kayla, but I never want to be the source of her pain again.”

“I get that but it’s obvious you miss her. I mean you’re entertaining Morgan’s aggy ass and you don’t even deal with bullshit like that.”

I had to agree with her. Normally I would have kicked Morgan to the curb. I didn’t like dramatics and complications, but I was tired of bouncing from chick to chick. I wanted something solid again. I wanted my girl back.

“So you think you know me huh?” I smirked.

“Hell yeah I do. You don’t like all the extra shit. You’re too damn laid back and nonchalant for all that. You’re trying to fill a void and you need to either go get your girl back or find another way to fill it.”

I chuckled because she was speaking facts.

Cassie had become like my best friend over the past year. We never overstepped boundaries and I respected her engagement. Truthfully even though she was attractive I didn’t see her like that. Most of the time she was trying to talk sense into me.

“I’mma holla at her about the shit she’s been on lately. The more she shows her ass the more resistant I am to let her meet Summer.” I looked back down at my daughter.

It made me think about the kid that me and Kayla could have had if she didn’t get rid of it. The love I had for Summer was something I never experienced before. Every day I wished I could’ve experienced that with the kid me and Kayla made.

“I think you two will work it out,” Cassie said looking down at her phone.

“I don’t know, her ass is a headache I didn’t sign up for.”

Cassie looked up at me with a balled-up face. “No, not Morgan. Kayla.”

I waved her off. “Nah, our time came and went. It’s been a year and she hasn’t reached out. I know when shits over.”

I licked my lips and looked forward.

Cassie went back to her phone while I thought her words over.

Maybe I was with Morgan because I wanted to fill the void of Kayla in my life. The two weren’t alike but Morgan wasn’t a bad person either. If she just relaxed sometimes we’d be cool.

***

“She’s still sleep so you can just leave her here and I’ll bring her to you later,” I told Cassie.

We were back at my place and it had been over an hour since we had been here and Summer was still asleep from the zoo.

“That girl sleeps like she worked a full workday. You can just bring her tomorrow if you’re not busy. I’m going out for drinks with some friends later and my mom was going to keep her, anyways.”

I shrugged. “That works too.”

“Okay, well I see y’all tomorrow.” She was looking at her phone then suddenly she looked up at me with a weird expression.

“What?”

Cassie pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Nothing, I’ll call later to say good night to Summer.” She hurried for the door.

I was sitting on my couch confused by her sudden change in demeanor.

“Vince!” I heard her called out a few seconds later.

“Sup?”

“I think you should come to the door.”

Bunching my eyebrows together I stood up and headed for my front door. Soon as I turned the corner that led to my foyer I froze.

“Hey.” My throat grew dry, while my chest squeezed. Her voice was something I longed to hear for over a year now. It was like a sweet melody to my ears.

“I think you two need to talk,” Cassie said giving me a sympathetic smile then walking out the door.

I couldn’t even respond back to her.

“Long time no see huh?” Kayla said after a while, still my words were trapped in my throat. My heart was pounding in my chest and I felt like it would leap through it any minute.

I looked her over and couldn’t deny how beautiful she looked. Her once head full of curls were shorter now. Her body was pretty much the same.

None of that had me speechless though. The main difference that had me stuck was the baby carrier next to her feet.