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The lump in my throat pissed me off almost as much as seeing the woman going inside Quinton’s house when I pulled up to see him. To think that I rushed over and dropped my boys off at five on the dot to make it over and see him bright and early only to catch him with another woman.

He thought revealing that she was Victor’s mother made it better, when that actually made it worse. I was not about to get into baby mama drama with no one. I didn’t care how much of a good man he had portrayed himself to be. I knew how messy that shit could get.

Just because I wasn’t fucking around with Greg didn’t mean I didn’t know that was the norm for people who shared children. A dude would be living in the house with his child’s mother claiming they were just roommates while the whole time they were sharing a bed and fucking every night. I didn’t want anything to do with it.

My phone rang, interrupting my music and getting on my damn nerves because I already knew that it was Quinton. Although I wanted to be petty and let him go to voicemail, I refused to show my hand and let him know how hurt I was. I actually allowed myself to like him enough to start falling for him. I’d cooked dinner for him and his son and felt hopeful about what our future would hold.

“Baby, I asked you not to leave,” he said when I answered the phone.

“I was not about to be part of whatever you had going on.”

“I could have sworn you said you trusted me. Tell me that’s not what you said.”

“I must have been mistaken,” I replied.

“I wasn’t trying to be sneaky. I even asked you to come inside and meet her so you would know there was nothing crazy going on.”

“Who the fuck you explaining yourself to?” A woman chimed in.

“Trisha, I asked you not to talk like that in front of Vick. He’s got a smart enough mouth without thinking he’s supposed to curse every other word.”

“I’m just asking who she is. Is that the one who burned rubber on you this morning ’cause I was there? I hope she don’t think I want you no more. You old news, baby boy.”

I was mad at myself for laughing at her comment, but part of me also felt relieved. That was even more sickening.

“Trisha, can you go inside with Vick and get us a table? I’ll be right in.”

“Come on, Son. Let your daddy make up with his woman. She must be one hell of a woman for the great Quinton Woods to be explaining his self to her. He don’t even know how to apologize.”

“Trisha, come on now.”

I heard the door slam twice before he spoke again. “Baby, you still there?” he asked.

“You didn’t have to call me and interrupt family time,” I sassed.

“I can’t eat until I clear the air with you. I would never play with you like that. I didn’t know she was coming by.”

“Do you know what time it is, Quinton? How do you think that shit looked to me?”

“I know it had to look crazy, but I swear I’m telling you the truth.”

“Look, if the two of you are trying to reconcile, I can’t stand in the way of that.”

“That’s not what’s going on. I know you just heard that lady. Even she knows you got my nose wide open.”

The laugh that came from me was involuntary. He joined me before I could stop myself.

“She actually saved your ass. I was about to put rat poison in your coffee.”

He chuckled. “Damn, you was gon’ kill me, baby?”

“Nah, I’m not a killer. I just wanted to make you sick.”

“You sound experienced. How you know the difference between how much to add to kill me and how much to just make me sick?”

I smiled at his question. “I plead the fifth.”

“Aww hell. Remind me to stay on your good side.”