Page 33 of Unexpected Pass

She was gone. I rewound the camera footage, eager to see when she’d left. Sure enough, around 7:00 p.m., there she was in 4K quietly getting up from the couch after my mom fell asleep. I rubbed my hand across my forehead as I watched her board the elevator and travel down to the ground level where she got into a taxi.

“What are you doing, Phileigh?” I murmured to myself as my heart sank.

Why would she leave without saying anything? She had my number. We’d exchanged numbers back in Orlando. I knew Phileigh was in a challenging position with her being pregnant and the baby’s father bailing on her. I got it. My daddy didn’t bail by choice, but a single mother still raised me. Maybe that was why I had a weak spot for Phileigh. If she let me, I would be there for her as her man or friend. It didn’t matter. Exiting the camera app, I pulled up Phileigh’s number and pressed call. If she thought she was getting away from me, that easily was mistaken. The phone rang three times before the call picked up. Her soft breaths filling my ears was the only way I knew she was on the line.

“Phileigh.” I was desperate as fuck for answers on where she was. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Kellon. I’m boarding my flight.” The tone of her voice made me lose any hope of getting her back here.

“Why are you going home? Why did you leave?”

She was quiet for a moment, and I could hear the flight attendant calling boarding groups in the background.

“Phileigh,” I called her again, trying to plead with her not to leave.

“Kellon, I’m so sorry,” she replied softly. “You’re great, really great. I’m so lucky to have met you. I appreciate everything… in another life, we could...”

Her voice cracked, and I could feel my chest caving in.

“I like you a lot. I didn’t expect you to handle me being pregnant the way you did. It just shows that I come with way too much baggage. You deserve a woman who isn’t pregnant by someone else, Kellon.”

I rested my body against the kitchen counter. She had my legs growing weak. How could I be this attached to a woman I had only met forty-eight hours ago? It sounded crazy, but I was attached.

“Aye, don’t say that shit! I don’t care about any of that shit you saying. Don’t get on the plane. You promised me you’d come to New York.”

“I did. I’m sorry, Kellon,” was the last thing she said before hanging up the phone.

“Phileigh!” I yelled her name, but I already knew she was gone. “Shit!”

I couldn’t wrap my head around what had changed in such a short time. Last night then in the morning, she was cool. Now, she was on a plane back home. My eyes landed on my mother, and I immediately became irritated. She had to have said something to give Phileigh a change of heart about a nigga. I shook my head, moving fast through the kitchen and back into the living room.

“Did you find her?”

I shook my head, taking a deep breath.This is still your mother.

“She just boarded a flight home.”

“What?” She tried to act shocked.

“What did you say to her, Ma? What did you do? You told me you were going to play nice.”

My mother looked taken aback. Her eyes were wide as if she didn’t know what I was talking about.

“Don’t blame me. I... I didn’t say anything bad. I was just trying to be supportive. I told her we could figure the pregnancy out as a family?—”

“The pregnancy?” I cocked my head to the side. I was confused about how she found out.

“I’m not supposed to say anything. She wanted to tell you… first… but… Son, Phileigh is carrying your child.”

My eyes bulged, and I couldn’t do shit but just stare at her. Suddenly, it made sense why Phileigh had fled. Ma hadn’t been mean to her. It was the opposite. Ma had been nice to her.

“Dammit, Ma!” I shouted, pacing back and forth.

Ma thought Phileigh was pregnant by me. I didn’t know how the story had gotten misconstrued, and I didn’t care to correct it. I knew Phileigh cared, though. Knowing my mother, she probably had spooked the shit out of her with baby shower and wedding talk.

“See? This why you don’t get someone pregnant before making her your wife and introducing her to your mom. How long have you been hiding this girl?”

“Ma, please don’t start.” I didn’t feel like hearing her go on and on about some shit she didn’t know anything about. “Mind your own business, man.”

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