Page 73 of Surrogate For My Best Friend’s Man 2

I looked at her. “What if it was something big?”

Her eyebrows pulled together. “How big?”

I immediately regretted asking and I shrugged. “I’m just talking.”

She looked at me for another second. “I don’t know.” Then she shrugged. “I guess it depends on what it is.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“But Shante knows me.” She smiled. “She knows the one thing I can’t stand is somebody lying in my face. Even if the truth hurts, just tell me.” She shook her head. “Don’t make me look stupid while everybody else knows what’s going on.”

Fuck, I looked down. That shit couldn’t have landed any harder if she knew exactly what was happening.

“You feel me?” she asked.

“Yeah, I feel you.”

She smiled. “Anyway, I’m about to get out of here.”

“Aight.”

“Tell Shante I said—” She stopped herself and laughed. “Never mind, I'll call her myself.”

“Yeah.”

She hugged me again. “Take care of yourself, Malik.”

“You too.” I watched her walk away. Yeah I could’ve told her right then and there all I had to do was call her name. What the hell was I supposed to say? Your husband got his side bitch pregnant through a surrogate and the surrogate is your best friend. Those babies you’ve been buying shit for aren’t mine and everybody's been lying to you. I couldn’t do it standing outside Somerset.

Not like that, but every time I talked to Alisha, minding my business started feeling more and more like I was helping them lie. I headed toward my truck. I kept telling myself it wasn’t my place, that was Deuce’s wife and Shante’s best friend.

But then I asked myself where did minding your business end and watching somebody get played begin? Because Alisha wasn’t stupid, she wasn’t weak. And she damn sure wasn’t the type of woman who deserved to have everybody around her knowing the truth while she walked around in the dark.

I unlocked my truck and tossed my bag inside. One month that’s all they had left. And if Deuce and Shante didn’t tell her before those babies came I wasn’t sure I could keep looking that woman in her face and pretending I didn’t know shit.

DEUCE

County had a way of making a nigga appreciate the dumbest shit today it was my bathroom. I was laid back on that hard ass bunk thinking about my bathroom at home, my shower, my towels. Being able to take a shit without another grown man ten feet away. That alone was enough to make a nigga change his whole life. I stared up at the ceiling and another court date had come and gone.

Alisha had been there, she been showing up lately, but that didn’t mean shit between us was good. My wife knew how to play her position. She wasn’t about to have everybody in that courtroom looking at her sideways or trying to figure out what was happening in our marriage. She came in looking good, sat with Grandma Lorraine, listened to everything, and left.

There was no visit afterward and she still wasn’t accepting my calls. Wasn’t trying to get close enough for me to whisper anything to her. Shit, half the time she barely looked my way. And I couldn’t even say she was wrong.

At court that morning, I’d caught her eyes once. I gave her a little head nod. She looked at me for about two seconds, then turned her attention right back toward the judge. Alisha could cuss me out, throw something, tell me to kiss her ass. I could deal with all that, but this quiet shit? Nah, I hated this shit. What really had me fucked up was Brittany. I hadn’t seen my baby since before all this shit happened.

Alisha wasn’t bringing her to no damn courthouse, and I couldn’t blame her for that. That wasn’t no place for our daughter, but knowing that didn’t make me miss her any less. I wondered what she was doing. If she was asking about me or If she was mad at me. If she even understood why Daddy hadn’t been home.

That shit ate at me. I laid back and thought about all the little shit I used to complain about. Brittany climbing in our bed, her leaving toys everywhere or asking me seventeen questions while I was trying to watch tv. A smile spread across my face, I’d give anything to hear that shit right now.

I’d let her climb in my bed every damn night. She could leave toys from the front door to the bedroom and ask me a hundred questions. I would watch the same cartoon until I knew every damn word. I wouldn’t complain about shit. I just wanted my baby. I missed my wife just as much. I missed her attitude and her smart ass mouth. The way she’d walk past me when she was mad and put a little extra switch in her ass because she knew I was looking.

I missed waking up beside her. I missed walking through the door and hearing her somewhere in the house. It didn't matter if she was cooking, doing nails, fussing about something I forgot to do, or laid across the bed scrolling through her phone. She was there, I had that. A wife, a daughter and a happy home, and still went looking for more.

“Dumb-ass nigga.” I shook my head. Kim had never been worth losing all that. And I wasn’t putting everything on her either. I made every decision that got me here. Nobody made me fuck her. Nobody made me keep going back and lying. Nobody made me create a whole separate situation behind my wife’s back.

That was all me, and for what? Some pussy? My ego? Having somebody on the side who wasn’t expecting me to be a husband every damn day? Whatever excuse I’d used back then sounded stupid as fuck now.

If I could make all this shit go away I swear to God cheating wasn’t even an option. I could be in a room with Beyoncé, Rihanna, and every thick bitch in Detroit butt ass naked. I’m calling my wife and telling her to come get me because it’s an emergency. A chuckle escaped me. A nigga learned the hard fucking way, but I learned. One of the dudes across from me looked over.