Carl Weber - Baby Momma Drama

“Tomorrow around seven,” I echoed. I hung up with a huge smile on my face. I was finally going to get back with Travis. Oh, he didn’t know it yet, but when I promised that he could leave right after dessert, I forgot to mention that I was dessert.

“Mommy? Mommy?” Maleka was standing next to my bed, shaking me awake, which was no easy thing to do. I’d gotten out of bed after my call with Travis. I must’ve been up half the night, cooking and cleaning, getting things ready for my dinner with Travis. I wanted everything to be perfect when I seduced him. I wanted to make sure he had no doubts about coming home.

“What, Maleka? What is it, baby?” I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

“Somebody keeps knocking at the front door.” I sat there for a second and listened. She was right. Somebody was at the door. I got out of bed and looked out the window. There was a police car in my driveway. I was scared. Police never showed up in the middle of the night unless they had bad news.

“Maleka, go back to bed, baby. It’s only five o’clock in the morning.” I escorted her back to her room, then headed down the stairs nervously to answer the door.

“Who is it?”

“Chesterfield Police, ma’am. Are you Stephanie Johnson?”

“Yes, I’m Stephanie Johnson. Is everything all right, officer?” I opened the door and gasped at the sight in front of my eyes. “Oh, my God!”

“What’s up, Shorty?” Malek managed to croak, though his mouth was so messed up I don’t know how he could speak.

He was leaning against the two officers, ’cause he didn’t look like he had the strength to stand on his own. His face and clothes were a bloody mess. It looked like he was in a lot of pain. Shoot, he was so messed up, if he hadn’t called me Shorty I might not have recognized him. The officers helped Malek inside, and somehow we got him into the kitchen. He sat at the table and put his head down on it. I stood and spoke with the police.

“What happened to him?” I whispered the question but I knew the answer. Derrick and his friends sent their message, like I asked. Only problem was, I told him to scare Malek. From the looks of it, they tried to kill him.

“He says he got jumped. We found him about two blocks from here in his car. Says he was trying to make it over to your house but he ran out of gas.”

My heart started racing like an Indy 500 car. If Malek named Derrick and his crew, I was in some deep shit

“He got jumped? Who did this to him?” I asked with mock concern.

“He said it was too dark to see his assailants, ma’am.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Is he okay? He looks like he should be at the hospital.”

“The paramedics cleaned up his wounds, but he’s still in pretty bad shape. They recommended he go to the emergency room and have some X rays. They think he might have a couple of broken ribs.”

“So why’d you bring him here? Why didn’t you take him to the hospital?”

“He refused to go to the hospital, ma’am. He said he wanted to come here.”

“What do you mean, he refused?” I glared at the officer.

“Can’t you make him go?”

“No, ma’am, we can’t. Not if he doesn’t want to. But you’re right He should go to the hospital. There could be some internal damage.”

Just the sound of that made me shudder. What if they had fucked him up so bad he was bleeding internally? I did not want to be responsible for his death just because he was too stupid to go to the hospital. I looked over at Malek’s motionless body resting on my table and shook my head. If it wasn’t one damn thing, it was another.

“Well, why’d you bring him here?” I folded my arms across my chest and turned back to the cop. “Why didn’t you just take him home to his momma’s house?”

“He didn’t mention his mother. He just asked us to take him to his girlfriend’s house.”

“Girlfriend! I ain’t his girlfriend. I’m just his baby’s mother,” I protested, but it was useless. These cops didn’t give a shit who I was to Malek, as long as they knew they could leave him here.

“Ma’am, we were only responding to what he told us. We can take him home if you’d prefer.” It was clear from his expression that the cop did not want to have to do that.

Of course, I would’ve preferred to have Malek out of my house right then. Shit, I’d spent an hour scrubbing that kitchen floor so it would be sparkling for Travis’s visit, and here was Malek leaving bloody footprints all over it. But I also knew I had some responsibility in this whole thing. Malek wouldn’t be in this condition right now if it weren’t for me. Yeah, I wanted his ass to leave me alone, but I didn’t mean for it to be like this. He was my daughter’s father, after all.

“Ma’am?” The officer was getting impatient. Probably close to the end of his shift, or something.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “You can leave him here.”

“Okay, then, Miss Johnson. I’m going to leave you the number to the station house. You be sure to call us if he remembers anything about the people who attacked him.”

He handed me a card, went and spoke a few words to Malek, and then they were gone. I looked down at the number he had given me and prayed we wouldn’t be needing it. The police said Malek didn’t know who had jumped him. That was good news. I might be in deep shit if they found out it was Derrick and his boys. Not only would Derrick probably give me up as the one who ordered the attack, but my sister would never forgive me if her man violated his parole on my account. I had to be as nice as possible to Malek to make sure this whole incident stayed between us.

I wet some paper towels and started to clean his face. “Malek, you need to go to the hospital and have some X rays.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Well, then why didn’t you let the paramedics take you?”

“I wasn’t going to no hospital unless you were the one to take me, Shorty.”

I sighed. “Damn, Malek. Why you gotta be so difficult? You almost died tonight, and you’re still worried about getting with me?”

“Naw,” he managed to explain through his swollen jaw, “this ain’t about getting with you. I just wanted to make sure you knew what your boy Derrick did to me. Let you know I got your little message.”

I gasped and pulled my hand back from his face. So he did know who jumped him, after all.

“Malek, I…” Damn, I felt bad all of a sudden.

“You what, Shorty? You didn’t mean it? Please, you told me you was gonna have someone kick my ass. That nigga Derrick made sure I saw his face. And he made sure I knew why he was there.” He stopped for a few seconds. It was obviously painful for him even to be talking, but he was determined to make his point. “So I want you to know I got your message.”

I looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. My shoulders slumped. This just couldn’t get any worse.

“What do you want me to say, Malek? I didn’t mean for you to be hurt this bad. You just wouldn’t leave me alone. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Save your bullshit for someone who cares. I got your message; now here’s mine. I will see Maleka anytime I want, and you will be givin’ up the booty, no questions asked.”

“Please, Malek. You don’t really think I’m gonna do that shit, do you?”

“Oh, yeah, you’re gonna do it. Or, if you’d like, I could just regain my memory and call up my new friends at the police department. I’m sure they’d be happy to pay Derrick a little visit, ask a few questions.”

I was like a trapped animal. My mind was racing, but I couldn’t think of any way out of this. The best I could hope for right now was to buy myself a little more time. I doubted it, but maybe after Malek cooled off a little bit, he’d change his mind. At least I might be able to ensure his silence if I had some time to think of a plan. And it had to be one that would allow him to walk away with some dignity. See, I knew that right now Malek’s demands were all about pride, anyway. He was already pissed that he couldn’t have me. Before I walked out on him after Nana’s funeral, he probably figured he could have me anytime he wanted. Guys can be that way sometimes. They figure once they’ve hit it, you’ll never refuse them again.