Page 15 of Their End Game

I took the diaper bag from her. “She’s in good hands, Radiance. I know you have only probably left her with your parents or Santia, but I got this.”

Pressing her lips together, she forced a smile. “Call me if you need me for anything. Please?”

“Got you.”

“I love you, baby girl.” She leaned in for a kiss, almost missing Ja’Lani’s cheek as she grasped my shirt, pulling back. We both had to laugh. “Well, damn. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Enjoy yourself.”

Offering me a warm smile, Radiance slowly turned, walking away, and I probably should have headed in the room. Instead, I found myself watching her. Radiance walked with poise, commanding attention without demanding it. Her calves flexed with each step, while her heels tapped the marble floors, and her loose curls bounced effortlessly with each step. She was beautiful even without seeing one feature of her face. Reaching the elevator, she pressed the button, looking back just when the door opened. The smile and wave combo she did before disappearing inside had my big grown ass feeling some type of way.

The fact that I was stuck let me know that after all the time we’d been apart, what I always felt for Radiance was still very much present.

“Got a minute?”Vanessa rounded the corner with a bottle of water in her hand.

I had hoped she’d gotten her own room as she stated before storming out, but when I heard her come in, I knew she hadn’t. I looked to Ja’Lani as she slept, stretched out on the sofa beside me, before I looked back to Vanessa. “Now’s really not a good time. My daughter’s sleeping.” I spoke calmly since I didn’t want to trigger Vanessa and she have one of her many fits she’d recently been displaying.

She smiled. “I come in peace. I promise.”

I searched Vanessa’s eyes to find some truth or even a lie, but lately, I hadn’t been able to read shit about her. I didn’t speak, but I did gesture that she had the floor. I’d allow her to say what she needed, and if for whatever reason things took a turn, the conversation would be over.

“Ja’vari, I know I’ve said this before, but this time, I genuinely mean it. I am sorry. I have hated how I reacted to this whole situation and even how I talked to you. I allowed my emotions to get the best of me and get in the way of things, and I am sorry. I know it won’t happen overnight for me, but give me some time, and I can be okay with this. I really just have to get over the initial shock of it all. But I want what we have to work and continue as it was before we left Korea. You never know where things might lead us.” She nervously laughed at the ending part.

Sitting up, I rested my elbows on my knees. “I’m going to be honest with you, okay?”

“Okay.”

“You and I worked for so long because you knew your place and where you and I stood. The last couple of days, though, you have shown me your hand, and I can’t rock with it. It’s one thing to play in my face or move how you do, but now it’s involving others, and I can’t let that happen. Before this trip, I didn’t know I had a daughter, but now that I do, it’s a must I protect her at all costs. You have disrespected her each time you’ve disrespectedher mother, and it’s not something I am going to deal with.” I spoke firmly.

“What are you saying, Ja’vari?” she questioned just above a whisper.

I knew Vanessa knew what I was saying, but I guessed she needed me to spell it out for her. “This kicking it shit we had going on, it stops now. We can still be friends though.”

Vanessa gasped. “I can change. I am okay with us being friends. I also won’t cross any more lines. I promise.”

“It’s not even just about you. I gotta do this for me.”

Silence fell upon us. “So, this is it?”

“Yeah, it is.” I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but it had to be done. There was no need in continuing to drag her along when nothing more than what we had would become of us.

Vanessa slowly nodded as she stood. “Got it, Ja’vari,” she muttered before walking off to the bathroom. I saw she was fighting tears, and I hated to be the reason for them, but there was nothing I could do about them. I felt how I felt and was standing on it.

14

Vanessa:

I’d held the tears in long enough to make it to the bathroom, but once inside, the floodgates opened. Ja’vari had been honest from the start, and though I knew I wasn’t his girlfriend, until he ran back into his ex, we acted as such. Cupping my hand over my mouth, I did my best to muffle the sounds of my no longer silent cries. I was hurt, and there wasn’t really much I could do about it. Pressing my hands on the sides of the sink, I stared back at my reflection. I hated what I saw. My eyes were red, swollen, and puffy, my lips needed moisture, and my skin looked blotched. I didn’t resemble myself at all.

“Get it together, Vanessa,” I mumbled to myself.

Pushing the tears from my face, I sat back on the closed toilet seat lid. I couldn’t just let Ja’vari go like he wanted. He said we could remain friends, but I knew our friendship would never be the same again since it had been destroyed so quickly.

“Think, Vanessa, think,” I coached myself, looking around the bathroom as if my answer would be in such a small space. Ididn’t even know what I was searching for, just that I didn’t want to lose Ja’vari, even if only in a friendship.

With tears still pooling, my eyes scanned the small bathroom quickly yet with precision. When they swiftly passed Ja’vari’s electric toothbrush, I doubled back with an idea. Ja’vari may have felt the baby was his, and she may have even resembled a girl version of him, but I wasn’t convinced. If I could prove Ja’Lani wasn’t his, I knew he’d be hurt, and my arms would be the ones to catch him when he needed consoling. Slipping my phone from my back pocket, I hurried to Google Chrome before typing twenty-four hours DNA test results nearby. Ja’vari may have been convinced the kid was his, but I wasn’t, and I needed the proof that she wasn’t.

I knew I could use Ja’vari’s toothbrush to get his DNA. I just had to find a way to discreetly get something of the baby’s in order to get hers. Call it denial or psychotic, it didn’t matter to me. I had to do something. On the same site I’d found the DNA center, I found a list of things I could utilize to discreetly have the test done. “Bingo,” I said, louder than intended as I hopped from the toilet seat.

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