Page 74 of Surrogate For My Best Friend’s Man 2

“What’s funny?” He asked.

“Nothing.”

“Must be something.” He replied.

“Thinking about my wife.”

He shook his head. “That ain’t never funny.”

“Mine is.”

“She still fucking with you?” He asked with raised eyebrows.

I looked at him. “Mind your business.”

He laughed. “That means no.”

“Man, fuck you.”

He went back to whatever he was doing. I shook my head, but he wasn’t wrong. Alisha was showing up, that was it, and I knew better than to confuse the two. Her being in that courtroom didn’t mean she’d forgiven me. It meant she was Alisha. She could be mad enough to never speak to me again and still not let outsiders sit around watching our marriage fall apart.

That was one thing about my wife. She was solid. More solid than I’d been to her. That realization sat ugly with me. Because the fucked up part was, if I made it through all this legal shit, I still had another bomb waiting on me. Those babies and Shante. Alisha still didn’t know and every day that passed made that shit harder to explain. At first, I kept thinking I’d figure out the right time.

There wasn’t no right fucking time. How did you tell your wife your sister was carrying twins for the woman you’d been cheating with? There wasn’t no smooth way to deliver that shit, no apology big enough. No explanation that made it sound less fucked up.

And Alisha wasn’t dumb she was going to put every piece together. The baby shower and Kim showing up. Shante being pregnant and all the gifts she’d bought and every time Shante sat in her face pretending those were her and Malik’s babies.

Then she was going to look at me and I already knew what she’d see. A nigga who had made a fool out of her. I rubbed my hands over my face. For the first time in my life, getting out wasn’t the only thing on my mind. Because what the fuck was I getting out to? I could beat every charge they threw at me and still walk out of the county with nothing. No wife waiting, no Brittany running into my arms or a home that felt like mine anymore.

The government could take years from me, but that wasn’t what scared me the most. The thought of finally walking out those doors and realizing my own bullshit had already taken my family from me was the part I couldn’t shake.

A couple days later, my name got called for a visit. I sat up on the bunk. I hadn’t put in for nobody and Rell usually let me know when he was coming, and Shante hadn’t been up here. I thought maybe Alisha had finally decided to come see me. I got escorted down, sat at the little visitation station, and waited. Then Grandma Lorraine appeared on the other side.

I sat back. “Aw, fuck.”

She picked up the phone, I picked mine up slower. “Hey, Grandma.”

“Don’t hey Grandma me.”

Here we go. “What do I do?”

Her eyes damn near came out of her head. “What do you do?” She asked sarcastically.

I already knew then Shante snitching ass told her.

“Grandma—”

“You got your sister carrying babies for your side bitch?”

I closed my eyes. “Keep your voice down.”

“Boy, don’t tell me what to do.”

I looked around. “Grandma, we are in the county.”

“And?” She let me know.

“And these phones ain’t private like that.” I whispered.