Page 69 of Save Room for Us

“I don’t know how I’m gonna do this without him if he doesn’t make it,” she cried, sitting across from well-known interviewer Marissa Roach.

“We are all praying for him, Jacinta,” Marissa replied. “Did you ever get the impression that Anastazia was lying when she would divulge details about Cedric?”

“Every time.” She sniffled with her lying ass. “Her stories never really matched up. She would show me a bruise and tell me he shoved her into the dresser but then when I would bring it up again, the story would then be he pushed her into a wall.” She scoffed.

“That lying bitch,” I groaned.

“Lie bitch!” Sophie repeated, causing me to shake my head at her. She dropped hers in sadness as I kissed her round cheek.

“Let me turn this off, Anastazia. You don’t need to be watching this.” My mother walked in carrying a plate of food, setting it on the coffee table and grabbing the remote.

“No not yet,” I told her, sitting down just as I heard someone fumbling with the front door. I knew it was Analicia because we were the only two outside of my mama who had keys.

Stepping in, she paused, so I knew she was watching the interview.

“I can’t believe her dumb ass is going out like this for a nigga like Cedric.” Analicia came and sat down just as my mother returned with a plate for her.

“Yeah,” I started to cut into my pancakes, “a lot of us women’s downfall is ignoring red flags and signs in favor of holding on.”

“That’s true.” Analicia looked over at me, and we exchanged eye contact that said a lot. We both were no strangers to that shit. “I mean damn though, she’s seen the pictures like everyone else.”

“She even looks like a damn fool.” My mama reentered the living room with a tiny plate for Sophie who was now kneeling at the coffee table, happily ready. She then fixed her own plate.

“I don’t think she believes the shit she is saying. Jacinta may not be bright but most women are smart enough to recognize a gut feeling. She knows I was telling the truth, she just doesn’t care and doesn’t think he will be that way with her.”

I’d had several talks with Jacinta, and she’d divulged a lot to me on how her religious parents were constantly giving her shit for not being married to the point where she moved to LA from Minneapolis. She was so hung up on nabbing a man that when I mentioned Asif and his fine brood of brothers, she’d commented for weeks after about me or Analicia hooking her up. It was honestly sad, but I took it like a joke so she wouldn’t look so pathetic. Now I wondered if she’d already been messing with Cedric at the time yet still looking.

When she told me she was pregnant, I wanted to ask by whom, but I knew most women found such a question offensive so I didn’t.

Because of that, right now as I looked at the TV watching her fake cry and lie on me, I couldn’t be upset. Jacinta was desperate and her desperation caused her to become involved with a man who was going to ultimately be her downfall, just like he was mine. Cedric was a different type of crazy, the type of nigga we saw on an episode ofFatal Attraction.

I may have made it out with my life, so far, but my life wasn’t the life it used to be. My nursing license was gone for the moment, all my hard work meaning nothing. I didn’t have custody of my own daughter, and I couldn’t go down the damn street without people gawking at me or a reporter trying to pretend they weren’t following and filming me at the grocery store. The only thing I could hope for Jacinta was that she woke up sooner than later. While I didn’t care for her, I wouldn’t wishthe type of man Cedric was on any woman, because once he had you in his grasp, he never lets go.

My mama had stepped out with Lisara to try this new steakhouse they’d been excited to get to, so it was just Sophie and me at home. We’d been playing for a while, mainly in her tiny kitchen she’d asked for, and now we were coloring.

My phone buzzed as I helped her fill in a unicorn with a crayon, and I saw it was Asif.

“Hi.” I simpered, despite me not even hearing his voice yet.

“What’s good, love?” His raspy voice poured through the phone like silk.

“Just coloring with baby girl. You?”

“Thinking about yo’ ass but what’s new? Y’all want some company?”

“If you’d like to spend your Saturday night with me and a toddler then sure.”

“I would.”

“Okay, then come on.”

“You need anything before I get there?” he inquired, and the basic ass question made me nibble on my lip.

Asif was the type of nigga you let bend you up like a pretzel in the bedroom because he deserved to have you in any way he wanted. When I would listen to my sisters-in-law go in detail about all the shit they allowed their husbands to do, Analicia included, I’d concluded that that would never be me. Sex was a chore, and if a nigga thought I was gonna be swinging from the plant hooks just to make him bust, he was crazier than Cedric.

Now though, my tune was changing. Asif turned me on mentally and physically, not to mention he boosted my confidence, and that was a dangerous cocktail because I knew once I allowed him sex, I would be ready and willing to take my orders like a good soldier.

“Nope, I’m fine. Don’t bring them Sour Punch candy straws in here though because she’s gonna want some and I need her in bed in about an hour.”

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