Page 87 of Buy Back My Love

“How the hell would I know already? I’m saying what if.”

Maisie finally sat down across from us with her coffee. “What if what, Lee?”

I tore a piece off my biscuit and picked at it. “What if I end up pregnant?”

“Then you got a decision to make.”

I looked at her. “Ain’t no decision.”

Anika leaned back in her chair. “So you keeping it?”

“Hell yeah, I’m keeping my baby.”

Saying it out loud made my stomach flip. I looked down at my plate because I didn’t even want to think too hard about what that would mean right then.

“I just don’t know how the fuck I’m supposed to do all this by myself.”

“Who said you was by yourself?” Anika asked.

Maisie nodded toward me. “And you know how to work.”

“I know. I gotta get my suite going anyway, get back doing nails and start making my own money.”

“Exactly,” Maisie said. “One thing at a time.”

I sat there for a little while, thinking about everything waiting for me back at that house. My clothes, my nail stuff, everything I had bought since coming home. Then I looked at Maisie.

“Can I stay here for a while?”

“No.”

My head snapped up. “Mama!”

“Don’t Mama me.”

“Why you doing me like that?”

“I’m not doing nothing to you. You have a house.”

“That nigga put me out!”

“And?”

I blinked at her. Maisie took another sip of coffee like she hadn’t just lost her damn mind.

“Mama, did you miss the part where he told me to get the fuck out?”

“I heard you. Your name on that lease?”

I frowned. “Yeah.”

Anika looked over at me. “Since when?”

“Since I came home. JB took me up to the main office and had them add me.”

Maisie set her cup down. “Then what the hell are we talking about?”

“He still the one who paid the rent.”