AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He scoffed. “It would’ve been easier to make a phone call and get someone to cook it for us.”
She countered, “But it wouldn’t have been as satisfying.”
“I beg to differ.” However, ten minutes later after he tasted the burger, he changed his mind. “Okay, maybe you’re right. This is damn good.”
“If you think that’s good,” she bragged, “wait until you see what I can do with spaghetti.”
“Oh, I know you can throw down in the kitchen.” He grinned. “I used to eat your food, remember?”
“I’ve gotten better.”
Tazeem teased, “But you still don’t have the word ‘humble’ in your dictionary.”
“Hey, being humble is for chumps.” She flexed her right arm. “Winners like me just wait for our trophies.”
“If you can teach me how to cook like this,” he promised. “I’ll get you that trophy myself.”
“Hmm… I don’t know.” She gave him a slow up-and-down look. “Are you sure you can roll with the big dogs?”
“I can roll.”
She snorted in mock disbelief. “We’ll see.”
They both burst into laughter, and for a moment it felt like she’d been thrust back into their youth, when their relationship was better.
Because of her background, she’d been wound up pretty tightly in college. Tazeem had scaled the spiky wall she’d built around her heart. He’d helped her ease up a little and taught her that life was more than just books.
Sure, things had ended badly for them, but when they were good, they were really good.
“So what’s our plan?” Tazeem asked once they were done with their meal and seated in the living room. “How will we schedule time for me and Jay?”
“You’re not going to court?”
“Too much hustle.” He offered, “We’ll obviously need to see an attorney to get my name on Jay’s birth certificate, but I think we can iron out the other details between ourselves.”
More relieved than she could express, she nodded eagerly. “I agree.”
If their situation was typical, she wouldn’t have been afraid of going to court. But her actions were hard to defend in court. The legal system would likely punish her for hiding Jay from Tazeem.
Tazeem asked, “So what are you thinking of in terms of visitation?”
“Umm… weekdays are pretty dodgy right now because you live far from his school. Plus, you’ve never done the school stuff with him so you’d need to learn a lot of stuff before you can have him on school days.” She proposed, “But maybe you can have him on alternate weekends?”
“Like two weekends per month?”
“Yeah.”
His expression made it clear that he didn’t like the suggestion. “That’s not enough time.”
Eager to please him, she asked, “Well, what were you thinking?”
“The school thing makes sense, and I’m sure you also want some weekends with him.” He thought over it for some time. “Maybe I can just come over to your place every morning, help with the whole school routine thing so I can learn, then drive you guys to school and work. We can do weekend together until he gets used to me then revise the plan later.”
Surprised with the offer, she asked, “You want to do all that? Our place is out of your way, and we’d be severely disrupting your usual schedule.”
“I don’t mind.” Changing the subject, he started, “And about child support…”
Chess gasped in shock when he told her what he was willing to pay. “That’s too much money.”
