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“I don’t know why he would.”
She smirked. “Tobias and I are cool. Why wouldn’t he mention you? I mean, we’re not besties, but we’re adult enough to have small talk about women from his past.”
That shit nipped at me. They were keywords used to trigger me. Krista, at five-feet, eight-inches, was taller than my five-feet, three-inch frame. She was thicker than me, too, and had thrown that in my face back then.
I smiled, trying to measure my tone and irritation. “I’m not small. Never have been—in any fashion to Tobias. Neither am I simply a woman from his past. That was you, until you decided you didn’t want to play fairly.”
Krista scoffed. “Are we still on this bullshit? Our daughter is eight-years-old. I’ve had a few relationships since then, and so has Tobias. Aren’t you happily married, too? Or are you?” Her eyes examined the robe I wore.
“What I am and what I do is not your business. You only need to be concerned about that as it concerns Tobias.”
Her brows met. “Why?”
“Because there won’t be anymore ‘oops’ pregnancies happening for you with him ever again in life—this oneorthe next.”
She laughed. “You’re still stuck on that old ass shit! Like I said, don’t you have a whole assLeague-playing husband? Oh, my bad. He was cut mad years ago. I guess he broke now, and you want back on Tobias’ train. He’d be a sucker if he let you do it. You should’ve stayed when you had a chance back in the day. But you chose money.”
“Fuck you!” I was jittery with emotion, ready to explode. “You don’t know shit about me other than how you conveniently chose to keep the baby when you discovered there was a me. Your lost, misguided ass got pregnant from a random fuck. When he asked you to get an abortion because there was a “me,” your trifling ass stalked me and decided you wanted to keep the baby.”
“Lennox, lady!” Her head swung, eyes wild as she smirked. “You think you mattered to me that much? Like…who the fuck were you back then—who the fuck are you now, besides one of Tobias’ many whores?”
Pedro, Tobias’ cook, finally appeared, going to Krista’s side. “Please. Wait until Mr. Elliott returns to continue this conversation,” he pleaded with her.
I was past the point of reasoning with now. “I was that girlyousaw something in. You hated the fact that he really wanted me. He told you we had something special, and you should abort the baby. You refused after learning about me! You don’t remember? You told me the whole story via inbox back then.”
I’d never forget being torn, hurt, and feeling pressured on both sides. Kelvin and his team were pursuing me at the same time Tobias showed up to my grandmother’s house with red eyes, saying he had a baby on the way. Apparently, it happened just weeks before we met. We’d been seeing each other for months! Krista purposely waited to tell him. It was a casual mishap because they were never in a relationship. They’d known each other for some time, but decided to sleep together after a party, then resumed their normal lives.
At some point, Krista found Tobias and told him the news. It was at such a daunting time. Tobias and I had been falling for each other, but my grandmother had just forbidden me from seeing him. Kelvin had been coming around, impressing her. I often thought back to that short span of time. If Tobias had not been expecting a baby, I likely would have disobeyed my grandmother and saw him anyway. I was an adult—granted, but still financially dependent. What was the worst she could have done to me? Put me on punishment? I felt betrayed by Tobias in a way because I’d slept with him three times at this point, something I’d never done so quickly and easily with any other guy. Not even Kelvin slept with me so soon after we’d met.
A young Tobias told Krista she couldn’t have the baby because he was trying to pursue something with another girl—a girl he’d seen a bright future with. He even told her my name. I guess that alone sparked her creative research.
“What inbox?” Tobias appeared in the foyer, his hat and coat still on.
My eyes went straight to Krista. “Tell him!”
“Tell him what?”
“Tell him how you searched and found me onFacebookback then.”
“How?” Tobias demanded.
Krista seemed to be annoyed by it all. “You mean to find you?” She shrugged. “You told me her name was Lennox. I went to your list of friends and there was only one with that name.”
“And you reached out to her?” his voice calm, steady.
“I was—what? Seventeen…eighteen-years-old at the time?”
“Yeah. And very antagonistic over a guy you barely knew.”
“I knew Tobias long before you came into the picture, sweetie.”
“Yeah, but not as a girlfriend or even a prospective one. You were a random. Never me. Not then ornow—”
“Lennox,” Tobias warned, taking to my side with a gentle hand at my waist. “Elia’s here.”
“I’m not going to shut up.” Krista wouldn’t win now. Not with all Tobias and I stood to lose. We were in too delicate of a promising space. Her mere presence represented a bad omen. I damn near hated her. Had gone to her public profiles onFacebookandInstagramwhen she moved over there. I guess one could say I’d turned into the stalker. Krista was your average, aimless, hood chick. There was nothing special about her. Nothing notable at all.
