AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s a surprise, and everybody will find out today,” I said.
“Hmm, well he got a surprise for her ass too,” Jaquan said and went to sit down at the table.
I picked up my plate and followed him. ‘What’s the surprise? You may as well tell me. I won’t say anything,” I begged him.
“Hell no, Charlie,” he said, laughing. “Were you about to tell me about Toya’s little surprise?” Quan asked. “Hell no, you weren’t, so along with everybody else, you’ll find out when we get to the baby shower.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
3:35 P.M.
We finally pulled up to the baby shower and we were late as hell. We decided to drive in my Mercedes truck because we knew that we would be coming back home with a lot of gifts for our princess. We pulled up and parked the car in front of the building and Quan got out and got China from the back. Then, he came around and opened the passenger door for me. Once we were all out of the car, we walked to the doors leading into the banquet hall.
I had to admit that it was a full house. There were about fifty round tables in the building and each seated about ten people. The decorations for the baby shower were in a Frozen theme, and it came out beautiful. The section that I liked most was the candy bar in the back. A photographer walked around taking pictures, and the DJ was in his own little section of the hall as well. There was a projector in the front of the room, showcasing my pregnancy photos that I had taken with my husband and China earlier this month.
“Aww, you look so beautiful,” Monae said, coming over to me and giving me a hug. She placed a crème colored sash around me that read “Mommy to be” and I smiled.
“Thank you, sis,” I told her.
After I went around hugging damn near everybody, Quan and I took our rightful spot at the front of the room. I glanced over at the table where all of the guests were putting the gifts and it was full. It was to the point where they now had to start placing gifts on the floor. Before I knew it, my emotions got the best of me and I just burst out crying. Quan looked at me and bent down in front of me, wiping away at my eyes.
“You good, baby? What’s wrong?” he asked me.
“It’s just… I’m so happy,” I said, and tear
s started falling from my eyes again.
I didn’t get to experience all of this when I was pregnant with China. Hell, I didn’t even get to take maternity pictures. It’s just that being surrounded by all of these people made me feel very appreciative and I couldn’t control my emotions.
“Is she okay?” my mom came over and hugged me as well.
“She’s fine, just overwhelmed. The first pregnancy we didn’t have all of this. She’ll be good. Come on, let’s get this shower started and shit,” Quan said, causing me to laugh.
For the next hour or so, we played games, and of course the men were winning all of them because they were damn cheating. For instance, when we played the game where we had to fill a bottle up with juice, the men were biting into theirs, making it easy for them to win. And also the game where everybody had to guess my measurement, of course my husband won that one. Hell, he was with me every damn day, so I knew that he would end up winning.
“I would like for everyone to focus their attention to the front,” my husband said, getting up on the stage with the mic in his hand.
Everybody stopped what they were doing and focused on Jaquan. I’m pretty sure they thought that he was about to start rapping or some shit, but he had something else up his sleeve.
“As many of you all know, Charlie and I have been together for years and I don’t know what I’d do without this lady right here. From day one, she believed in me and she stuck around through all of the hard shit, and for that, I’ll be eternally grateful for her. Seven years ago, Charlie blessed me with the greatest gift ever and that’s my lil mama in the back of the room tearing up that cake,” Jaquan said and the room erupted in laughter because my baby was tearing up that Publix vanilla cake.
“Anyway, with my lifestyle, I always make sure that I put everything on hold when it comes to my family. A couple of weeks ago, Charlie and I found out some good news about our baby girl but unfortunately with our busy schedules, we weren’t there to share that special moment with our daughter, so I’m going to use the moment right here to make it up to her. Would everybody please stand up and help me honor our baby girl, who was awarded A/B honor roll and also student of the month,” Jaquan said.
Everyone in the room stood up and clapped for China as she came up to the stage with cake all on her face. She ran on stage and her dad gave her two certificates that he had made especially for her and then turned around and handed her a gift bag.
I watched as he got down on his knee in front of her and the moment before me was so special that it brought tears to my eyes. “China, I don’t want you to ever think that your mother and I don’t care about you because we have a new baby on the way. We will always love you, and we’re so sorry that we weren’t there to celebrate that special day with you, and it will never happen again,” Jaquan said.
China wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Everybody, including myself was clapping because the moment before us was truly beautiful. I came around and helped my baby girl off the stage and then walked to the back so that I could wipe her face.
“Ay, Dre, where you at, nigga? You told me you had a few things that you wanted to say as well,” Quan said, and I watched as Dre made his way to the stage.
This was one cocky ass nigga, and all of the single females looked at his ass in awe. Toya had a problem on her hands, but she definitely knew how to control Dre’s ass.
“I don’t know how the hell I’m supposed to compete with the moment my nigga just had with his daughter,” Dre said, and again, everyone laughed. “But for real, though. China, I’m just as proud of you and keep doing good in school,” he said and China looked at him in smiled. “But onto what I came up here for. First off, where my lady at?” Dre asked.
Everybody looked around for Toya, and she was potted coming from out of the kitchen holding a plate of food in her hands. I watched as she looked at Dre with pleading eyes, shaking her head no. I found it to be hysterical as hell because Toya hated to be in the spotlight.
Dre laughed and continued his speech. “As many of you all may know, I’ve been home now for about a year, after spending five years in jail. I hadn’t even been home for a full forty-eight hours and I was already in love with that beautiful woman standing back there. I may not like to admit it, but she changed me, man. Made me realize what it feels like to give out love and to receive that shit in return. I’ll admit that she put my ass on a chase. She made me work to get her and it made the chase that much more intriguing.
