No Ordinary Love (18 page)

Catrina nodded. She could at least agree with that. There was an abundance of four letter words she wanted to say to him. And liar would be the first one. “Fine,” she murmured, trying her hand at keeping calm. It wasn’t easy to be tight lipped about how she felt. “What are you doing at my house?”

“I couldn’t find my house keys, so I came over here last night. I guess I should have checked your plans, seeing how you’re with another nigga right now.”

“I guess you should have.” Her voice was cool enough to put frost on the sun. “I can’t talk right now. I can’t do this, not today.”

That wouldn’t do. It steamed him to think that she was with another man at that moment. “No, we do need to talk today.”

Catrina went into the kitchen so her parents wouldn’t hear what she said to him. “Too damn bad. It’s the biggest day of my career, and I do not feel like dealing with bullshit between us.”

“Bullshit between us?” he repeated. “You the one that’s with someone else.”

Tears sprang into her eyes. “I’m not with anyone else right now,” she said weakly before cutting their connection.

The phone began to ring as she suspected it would as soon as she set it down on the table. Taking a deep breath, Catrina took a seat and let it ring. The phone rang three more times before she finally answered it.

“Where you at?” he demanded.

Catrina saw no reason to lie to him. Right now, lies would only make things ten times worse. “I’m at my parents. David, today is really big for me, and I can’t be anymore fucked up than I am. I need to be focused, and I won’t be, if I see you.”

As angry as he was, Davis understood what today’s wedding meant for her company. “After the wedding then. Bey, I really need to talk to you.”

Catrina sighed. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way.” Then she considered. “Well, I really don’t care how you take it. I don’t want you to be there when I get home, so could you just please do me a favor and go before I get there?”

David cleared his throat. “I can do that, if you promise me that we’re going to talk about whatever you’re upset about.”

Catrina nodded. “Okay, I promise that we’ll talk.”

Chapter Fourteen

The Letter

Daemon

January 11, 2001
Dear Daemon,

I know that things have been a little strained between us since I left. I had so many reasons for doing so. We’ve discussed those reasons countless times over the past five and a half years. I know that you’ve forgiven me for breaking your heart, and I’m sorry that I had to. I really did love you. But there were things that I had to do for myself without you. Things that if offered, you weren’t ready for. You were adamant about wanting to remain in Philadelphia and at the time, I didn’t see any way that I could get you to move.

Okay, this is the coward’s way of dealing with an issue, but it is the only alternative I have short of bringing it to your doorstep.

First, I want say that I need you to be as open-minded and understanding as possible. I’m moving back to Philly this summer permanently, and this only concerns you because I have a four year old daughter. You have a four year old daughter.
Karea Deana Hicks
Born: Feb 1, 1996 weighing 7 lbs. and 8 oz.

“Are you the fuck kidding me? She even got your last name. Is she serious?” Tyree questioned Daemon, the letter still in his hand.

Daemon shook his head. “Read this one,” he told his friend.

June 1, 2001

As you can see from the previous letter which I never had the heart to send back in January we have a lot to discuss. I didn’t know that I was pregnant until after I got to California and couldn’t kick what I thought was a stomach virus. I didn’t tell you because at first I was going to get an abortion. Then when the time came, I couldn’t do it. I didn’t realize until that moment that I was carrying my future in my womb. Daemon, she is everything to me and I couldn’t fathom what my life would be without her. She is my success. Everything I am is wrapped up in her. I did what I thought was right for us. I had so many concerns with telling you. I didn’t know if you were ready. Things would have been very difficult trying to make it work out. We live at opposite ends of the country. I just didn’t know how to tell you, and trying to contemplate the changes that would need to be made to accommodate our lives seemed more than impossible. I could write forever on how wrong I was or trying to explain the circumstances that led me to make the choices I’d made, but I won’t. I realize that this is a lot for you to take in, but I’ll be waiting on your phone call. You may not believe me but I’m willing to do whatever is necessary to prove to you that she is yours. Like I said, I’ll be moving back to Philly soon and if I don’t hear from you by then, I’ll stop by your house, and we can take it from there.

Tamika Johnson

David sucked his teeth. He already had enough on his mind without trying to contemplate what a child would mean for Daemon.

“She is lying,” David said. “Have you spoken to her yet?” he asked with a frown.

“I received them today. And not that I think she lying or anything, but I’m still trying to process this,” he told them. Both of his friends stared blankly at him. Tyree sucked in a breath.

David chuckled although there was nothing funny about his friend’s situation. “You a dickhead. I know you didn’t say that you believe her,” he tried clarifying.

“I know you’ll get a test. No botch walk up to you and say you got a kid and you believe her ass. I raised you way better than that. And you talked to this hoe like a million times since y’all broke up. You even seen her lying ass,” Tyree added.

Daemon pushed his chair away from his desk and dragged his hands down his face. Damn, it had been a very long day. He’d spent the better half of his morning reading the letter over and over. He waited for Tamika to call like she’d told Casey she would do the night before but hadn’t. He had tried calling her but had hung up, because he didn’t know what to say. Based on calculation of the dates Tamika had provided in the letter, the child would be five-years-old. Five years without a father, without him if he was her father. He’d spent his entire life without a father and be damned if his child would do the same. He, just didn’t know where to start.

By twelve that afternoon he’d called his friends and arranged to meet with them around six o’clock in the evening to break the news to them and get their reactions. At one p.m. he’d called his mother who had first questioned his belief of the situation and then advised him to have a DNA test done. Serena Hicks had raised him to take care of all of his responsibilities, but that didn’t mean taking care of someone else’s.

“I’m so damn angry that she would do something like this, Ma,” he’d said to her.

“Well, so am I, boy. You think she want money?” she had asked him.

“No, she has a good job. And I don’t see her lying about this.”

“Daemon Karon Hicks, she is a liar. She’s saying that you have a five-year-old daughter who she kept from you. Wake up, boy.”

Hearing the impatience in his mother’s voice had Daemon sighing. He hadn’t expected Serena to be happy about the potential granddaughter. “She want something and we are not about to give it to her until we sure.”

“I know, Ma.” A knock on his office door reminded him of his one-fifteen appointment. “I have an appointment. I’ma call you later, after I speak with her.”

“Okay. Love you, baby. Tell Casey to call me; I have a couple things to go over with her.” Their conversation ended with that. He was grateful that the afternoon run to Voyce Record, and meeting with the realtor to check out a couple of locations for his hair salon filled the rest of his day. There had hardly been a free minute for him to think of anything other than business. That was good.

“What the fuck do tell Casey?” he grumbled.

“Keep it to yourself ‘til you find out what’s up with Tamika. This kid may not even be yours.”

Both Daemon and Tyree knew their friend and understood how David thought. His philosophy never proved to yield any positive results. When it came to relationships David was a master at loving and leaving them. He would not be used as a fountain of creditable advice.

“Dave, no offense but you never think clearly about telling a woman the truth,” Daemon informed him. “A woman that you love and respect deserves the truth.”

David frowned and stood up. The truth, or the lack of it, always got him into trouble when things seemed to matter the most. “Yes, she does deserve the truth but you don’t even know what the fuck the truth is, nigga. You don’t take this serious, not from no bitch who wrote it in a letter mind you, that you got a fuckin’ kid that you know nothing about, and just turn your girl’s life upside down.” David then stared at Tyree, anxiously waiting for his best friend to co-sign. “Can you tell him, please?”

“If this were any other girl you would be right. But it’s Casey. He owes it to her.”

Resigned to being alone in this, David shrugged and said, “Do whatever you want. Long as you’re smart about it.”

“You niggas act like I’ma just claim some kid. Y’all know me better than that,” he said to his friends.

David smiled, despite his sour mood. “I was worried.”

Tyree chuckled, “Me too, man. You used to love the shit out of that girl.”

Daemon sucked his teeth. “That don’t mean I’m dumb, nigga. What the hell am I going to do with a five year old? I can’t believe that she’d do some whack shit like this.”

“You ‘bout to be going through it. And you know Tamika still want you, right?” Tyree asked. He had his share of baby momma drama with Nyimah and felt he knew.

Daemon hissed. “Please, I am not about to fuck with her.”

“Don’t front, nigga. Like three months ago before you decided to start messing with Casey, you was gon’ give her a chance. I couldn’t stand her ass, but she was throwing that pussy on you and had you whipped,” Tyree remembered.

Daemon yawned and cracked his knuckles. “Well, we even, ‘cause we couldn’t stand Nyimah.”

David nodded in agreement. “She wasn’t even that pretty.” Then he added, “Okay, she was hood cute, but her attitude was trash,” when both his friends eyed him.

“Whatever,” Tyree said. “The only person any of us liked was Catrina. Aside from Casey.”

“Wasn’t today that big wedding?” Daemon questioned. He’d forgotten in the mist of his day.

Tyree said, “Yeah. Briannah was excited as hell this morning.”

“Now who whipped?” Daemon commented absently to Tyree. “Weren’t you supposed to go to the reception?” he added to David.

She doesn’t want me there, David thought, as he rolled his head around and stretched his arms over his head. “My head is fucked up with the thought that she didn’t want me there.”

There was never a question of who when David used the pronouns she or her. There was only one she and her in his life. Catrina.

“What did you do?” Tyree questioned sure that Catrina’s usual drastic approach to these situations were never unfounded.

Utterly confused for the first time in a long time, David shrugged. “I didn’t do a damn thing. The night before last we were all boo lovin’.”

“Boo lovin’ dog?” Daemon asked.
David shook his head. “I hear it a lot. I have no idea what’s wrong with her.”

Tyree frowned at his friend. “Are you certain you didn’t do anything to her?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Y’all think she seeing somebody else?”

“Doubt it,” Tyree told him.

David looked over at Tyree. “How you so sure?”

“’Cause, like two weeks ago you said that she wasn’t, and Briannah would have told me. She did suggest that I tell you to step up your game or something.”

“And you know that’s right,” Daemon chimed in. “You know she in love with love you, man.”

“She was crying and I want to know what happened. I can’t take her ignoring me for another year.”

They all understood that not speaking to David was a possibility.

“Let’s hope it’s not that serious,” Tyree added.

Chapter Fifteen

What You Say

Casey

“You could have called me to let me know that you were okay,” Daemon told her as he pulled back the covers of his bed.

Casey sighed. “I talked to you like twenty times, Daemon. Why were you calling me all day anyway?” she asked him.

Daemon frowned. He’d made those phone calls out of guilt. The news he was ready to drop on her was very heavy. He could barely carry the weight of it himself.

“I was worried,” he said, leaning over the bed to grasp her hand.

Casey laughed. “About what? You knew that I was with Trina and Bri.”

Daemon looked down at his watch. “It was like nine when you stopped answering my calls. You listen to any of the messages?”

Casey shook her head and squeezed his hand before letting it go. “Aside from a very busy day, Trina was a wreck. She found out that Dave is moving to Atlanta, and to calm her down, we took her to get drunk after the wedding and reception,” she explained.

“And you ain’t feel the need to call me back?” he questioned.

Casey sucked her teeth. “Did you hear me?”

“Yes, I heard you.”

“So you know that I was busy, right?”

“Fuck being busy. It’s two o’clock in the morning, Case,” Daemon said.

Casey stepped away from the bed. “I think I will sleep in my own room.” She began picking up her clothes.

Daemon frowned. “What?”

Casey rolled her eyes and sighed heavily before saying, “You don’t fuckin’ listen.”

Daemon folded his arms over his chest. He had too much of his own issues on his mind to listen but said, “I’m listening,” not wanting Catrina’s problems with David to interfere with their relationship, especially since he had his own news.

Casey shook her head. “Only because you think that’s what I want. Why are you always so closed off when it comes to Trina and Dave.”

“’Cause you always get so worked up about their bullshit. You always so damn concerned with what’s going between them and how hurt Trina is. She working my boah and you and your friends always actin’ like she the victim.”