Page 42 of Mister President

“You what?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I have to go.”

“Mandy, what the fu—”

After disconnecting the call, I temporarily turned his notifications off. My head shook as I stared into the distance.

“You wanna talk about it?” Felicity asked softly.

My head shook again. “After all these years, things are finally going to shit between us. I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it through this, cuz. I’m trying to do the right thing and be happy that he’s moving on but…” The tears started to fall, and I wiped them away. “I love him. I don’t want to let him go.”

Felicity scooted her chair over to mine. “If you want him,” she took my hand into hers, “have him.”

“He’s with—”

“That don’t matter. It’s not going to last. Focus on yourself and your son. Love on you so much that he’ll drown in the overflow when he comes back to you. Because he’s going to come back to you, and when he does, you need to be ready…”

25

Elias

The Weekend Before Halloween

Massaging my beard,I looked over at EJ. I wanted to ask him about his mama but was unsure if I actually wanted the answer. We’d just finished getting his Halloween costume and decorations for the party. Even though he’d be with Amanda the week of Halloween, the party would still be at my home like it was every year. This had been our tradition since he was four.

Halloween was his favorite holiday, unlike Christmas for a lot of kids. I think EJ loved the fact that he could dress like his favorite character or superhero at the moment, go trick or treating in my neighborhood, Amanda’s, and our parents’, then have a party with his friends. He would always have enough candy to last him well into the new year.

This year, Amanda had convinced him to be SpongeBob. I was supposed to be Patrick, and she was going to be Sandy. Her corny ass loved when we could dress like a family of characters. For the party, though, I would be the Joker, she would be Harley Quinn, and EJ wanted to be Batman. He’d been a differentversion of Batman for the last three years. Every time I thought he was about to phase out of it, they’d come out with a new movie, and he would get obsessed all over again.

Now, we were watchingThe BatmanandThe Penguinsince I had him for the weekend. I needed my son more than usual. I missed him and his mama, so I was glad his grandparents didn’t give me a hard time about keeping him.

“What’s uh…what’s going on with your mom?” I asked. “Has she been talking about anything new lately?”

He looked over at me briefly before exiting out of whatever he was looking at on his phone. I felt like ten was too young to have a phone, but he was allowed to have it in case of emergencies and when he was around us to play games and shit. When he turned thirteen, he’d be able to have it permanently.

“Well, when we were talking about me going to middle school next year, she said she’d be going to school too. I said it was pretty cool, but she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.”

My mouth opened, but I was literally speechless. A clipped laugh erupted as I squeezed the steering wheel.

“She’s going back to school? That’s dope. Do you know what she’s going for?”

His head shook. “No, sir. You know Mama doesn’t like to talk about herself. All she said was we can do our homework together.”

We shared a quiet laugh. My girl was going back to school? Why didn’t she tell me? I felt a little offended, but realistically, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Amanda was already a closed book, but with the static that had been between us, when would she have had the chance?

As I pulled into my driveway, I noticed a town car by the mailbox. A slow sigh escaped me. It was Fiona. I didn’t go into the office today, so I was sure that was why she was here. She’d been calling and texting, and I told her I needed some time…I guessed that answer wasn’t good enough. Her pulling up was why I didn’t like telling women where I lived, but it also made me feel good that she cared enough to pop up on me. I respected and appreciated the fact that she remained in the car and didn’t risk my little man seeing her.

After EJ went inside, I headed out to the car. Leaning down, I motioned for her to roll the window down.

“Is it safe for me to get out?”

I nodded but didn’t move so she could. “Yeah, but what’s up?”

“I just…wanted to check on you. You didn’t come in today, and you’ve been very short. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” was what I said, but that wasn’t really the truth. What I was dealing with wasn’t worth discussing. Things had been off between us. I didn’t like that she still hadn’t told her parents about us, even after she met mine. It made me feel like she was hiding something.

Plus, Mama said there was something off about her, and I trusted my mama’s intuition more than my own. She liked Fiona and said she was a nice person but that something seemed off, and that was the same way I described it. I wasn’t sure what it was, but until I figured it out, I didn’t feel like it was wise to open myself up to Fiona completely.

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