As Long as there is Love-Chapter 15
Nina trudged downstairs as a knock, more like a pound, sounded at the door for the fourth time. She saw Travis in the kitchen acting as if he hadn’t heard it.
“Did ya plan on answering the door?”
“What?” He shrugged with his mouth full of food.
Nina grimaced. She could see everything that was in his mouth. “That is disgusting.” Where did Ronnie find him? She asked herself, heading to the door.
“Whoa. You look rather grimey.” At first, Justin thought that those were the wrong choice of words, knowing that she would probably take offense. Yet, after taking in her appearance, he agreed that they were not. Her hair was matted to one side of her head and she donned a pair of loose sweatpants. Not too many women wore baggy sweatpants unless they were feeling pretty damn lousy.
“Shut up. I don’t have to you let you in, ya know?”
“Yeah…but you are. Otherwise you wouldn’t have asked me to come.” He grinned.
Nina knew he was right as she watched him walk through the door, wanting to slap that stupid grin off his face.
“So why you look like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like…wait, I don’t know if I should say. Are there any kids around?”
Nina gasped suddenly realizing what he was going to say. He thought she looked like shit. Honestly, she didn’t know if she did. She hadn’t looked in the mirror before coming down. However, to hear him almost say it kind of hurt. She wouldn’t let him know though.
Justin laughed. He could still shock her with his comments to the point that he had her searching for the jaw that had fallen in her lap. And it was even funnier to see her play it off as if she wasn’t affected. Who was Nina kidding? They still knew each other pretty well after all of these years. “So um…why?”
“Why? I got sick from all of that rain, that’s why.”
“You weren’t even in it that long.”
“It doesn’t take much to get me sick.”
Justin sat on the couch and crossed his arms. “Yeah I remember when you forced me to sit by your bed when you caught a cold because you had lost one of your gloves on the way home from school.”
Nina rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I did not force you. You wanted to be there.” The way she remembered it, she couldn’t get him to leave her alone. He had talked her to sleep and did her homework, which he’d done wrong, but she hadn’t minded. She was just glad that he was there.
“Well, I’m not sitting by your bed this time if that’s what you called me over here for.” He joked.
Why was he is in such a playing mood? Can’t he tell that I don’t feel like it today?
“Actually, since I don’t plan to go to work today, I need you to drop the twins off at school.”
“But, Travis usually takes them right?”
Nina pointed to where Travis was sitting in the kitchen. “Look at him, he’s looks worse than I do and he’s not even sick.”
“Don’t ask to hold my sweatpants anymore Nino.” Travis replied from the kitchen.
“I was only joking.” Nina smiled innocently.
“He calls you Nino? Good one.” Justin laughed. “I might have to start calling you that.”
“Don’t even think it.” Nina narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m going to get the twins ready.”
“I didn’t say yes.”
“You had a choice?”
Justin didn’t answer. “I need to start coming up with better things to tell my fiancée before she gets suspicious.” He hadn’t meant to say it aloud, but he did.
“Why resort to lying just tell her the truth already. I thought y’all were supposed to talk about it last night. What happened to that plan?”
“We had an argument and didn’t get to that part of the conversation.” He would spare her the details of what else occurred between him and Michelle.
“Really?” Nina was sure he could hear the skepticism behind her voice. She believed that his cowardly ways had gotten the best of him last night when he decided that he was not going to tell his fiancée the truth.
However, when Justin asked what she was thinking about, her only reply was, “nothing,” before she continued upstairs.
Nina entered the twins’ room as they were tying their shoelaces. She was glad that they had finally learned because she almost went insane from frustration when she was teaching them. “Okay, mommy’s not going to work today.”
“Why?” They asked in unison.
“Because mommy’s sick.”
“Why?”
“Because the rain made mommy sick.” Nina replied a little irritated.
“Did ya have an ‘mbrella?” Neece asked.
“Did ya have a coat so ya won’t get wet?” Nikki questioned. She even crossed her arms as she did so.
Okay, I’m really annoyed now, Nina thought. She didn’t like the idea of being chastised by her children. It felt like the roles were being reversed as if she was the child and they were the parents. Nevertheless, they were right. She didn’t have an umbrella or a coat. She had refused Quincy’s offer to follow her to the car, which was probably why she had this cold.
“Mommy?”
Nina ignored them. “No more questions. Justin is going to take y’all to school.” She noted Neece’s frown, but wasn’t in the mood to handle it right now. She figured that it was only a short ride from the house to the school so Justin would be all right with her.
Justin took one look at Neece before his eyes drifted to Nina. “Do I really not have a choice?”
“Justin.” Nina warned.
He sighed. “Just get their jackets.”
Nina grabbed their jackets from the closet. She handed him Neece’s.
Justin shook his head. “I am not fighting with her to get that on. Give me Nikki’s.”
“Ya scared of a five year old? That’s pitiful.” She snatched the jacket and helped Neece put it on.
“That’s easy for you to say, she doesn’t scream when you touch her.”
Nina remained silent while buttoning up Neece’s jacket. She had this sudden urge to apologize for her daughter’s behavior, but decided against it at the last minute.
“What were you about to you say?”
“Nothing.” She quickly got up from the floor. “Go get y’all lunch boxes from the kitchen.”
Justin waited until the twins were gone to repeat his question. “Nina?”
“Sorry.” Her fingers wedged in her hair as she attempted to comb through it.
Justin stifled a laugh. “Sorry for what?”
“Everything.” Nina walked off, said her goodbyes to the twins before sending them in the living room with Travis.
“Something is wrong with this whole family isn’t it?”
Travis shrugged. “You’re the one that grew up with them and you’re asking me?”
“Right.” Justin nodded. Nikki grabbed onto his hand while Neece reluctantly followed behind.
He made it halfway to the school when Nikki decided that she didn’t want to go anymore. “What do you mean you don’t want to go?” Did it really matter what her answer would be? Wasn’t he supposed to make them go anyway?
“Go home.”
“I’m not taking you home.” Justin laughed. How would they take him seriously if he laughed? He cleared his throat. “You’re going to school.” In response, Nikki pouted and folded her arms.
Great, now he had both of them mad at him. Justin sighed, “Why do you want to go home?”
“I wanna be with mommy.”
“Your mommy needs her rest.”
Nikki paused as if she had suddenly come up with a better idea. “We go with you then?”
“What? No!” He was supposed to go to the studio today. What would he do with two little kids?
Justin glanced in the rearview mirror. Damn, there’s that bottom lip sticking out again. “Neece-I mean Nikki, you have to go to school. Your sister’s going, so you have to go too.” He finished, wondering if he sounded demanding enough since he wasn’t used to taking this tone with anybody.
“I don’t wanna go.” Neece spoke up.
Now she wants to talk to me, “I can’t believe this shh-” They were trying to play him and doing a damn good job at it.
“Please! Can we go with you?” Nikki continued.
Justin noticed that her whining resembled her mother’s. It wasn’t annoying, but persuasive. He found himself being sucked in. Besides, he really wanted to make peace with Neece.
“If I do this what’s in it for me?” Cause you’re mother is going to have my ass if she finds out.
“Huh?”
“What do I get from y’all?” Was he actually considering this? What kind of father allows his children to skip school in kindergarten?
Nikki reached into her lunch box. “Auntie made cookies.”
“Hand them over.” Ronnie always baked the best cookies. Justin sniffed them before placing them in his lap. “Neece, what you got girl?”
“Gummy bears.” She gave him her snacks as well.
“I’ll let y’all keep your sandwiches.” He found an intersection where he could make a u-turn. Where he was going, he had no idea.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Aww man I’m out of cookies.” Justin groaned. “I’ll just eat these gummy bears.” He took a handful from the Ziploc bag, tossing them into his mouth.
While reaching for the remote, he glanced over at Nikki who was retrieving her Barbie dolls from her backpack. I hope she doesn’t ask me to play with her. He looked around for Neece. What was she doing if she wasn’t playing dolls with her sister?
“Neece!” She didn’t answer back. He figured she wasn’t ignoring him. Justin shrugged.
“She could’ve been at school instead of here with me, but it was her choice.” He mumbled before something on TV caught his attention.
“Hmm?” He began reading aloud, “Please Maury help me find my baby’s father.” Justin shook his head as talk show host; Maury Povich introduced his next guest.
“Damn, this broad has been on here 12 times!” He knew it was insensitive to laugh but this situation was ridiculous. How could a woman be so careless as to sleep with so many different men that close together? Justin then realized that he wasn’t as insensitive as the guy being given a paternity test. He would never call a woman a whore.
“I wonder if this dude’s the father.” He listened to Maury say, you are not the father “I guess I spoke too soon.” Justin laughed, and then a thought, more like an infection that wouldn’t go away, crept into his mind.
Would it have been wrong of him to ask Nina for a paternity test? Unless you want her to cuss you out, he told himself. Yet, what if he was doing it just to be sure, for closure? How would he really know the truth without it? It wasn’t like he knew what Nina had been up to while he was gone.
Oh damn, he was doing it again, accusing Nina of being in the wrong. If only someone would stop him.
“Justin.” It was Nikki calling him.
“What? I mean, yes?”
“Can you play with me? Mommy always plays with me.”
Justin grumbled. He knew that was coming. What possessed him to bring them to his house? It must’ve been those damn cookies. “Sure but don’t tell anybody about this, okay? Men don’t play with dolls.”
“Okay.” Nikki smiled. “You can be Ken and I be Barbie.”
“Okay. What am I doing?” He was actually asking her and himself as well.
“You have to be the daddy.”
“I think I can do that.” Justin admitted with pride. He wished Nina and Ronnie were here to see this. He would prove them wrong.
“I’m the mommy.”
“Alright, wait where’s your sister? Doesn’t she want to play too?”
Nikki shook her head. “Neece don’t play with dolls. She play sports. She sleeping over there.”
Justin looked in the direction of her pointed finger. He was just sitting near her and hadn’t even noticed that she was there. “I’m going to go wake her.” He figured he could kill two birds with one stone if he played with them both now.
“Sleepy.” Never opening her eyes, Neece pushed his hand away. Justin realized that he was going to get nowhere without persistence. Persistence was the story of his life. It had gotten him his first date with Nina, and if he remembered correctly, probably the twins too.
“Neece. What is it that Nina calls her…Little bit wake up.”
She finally opened her eyes. “Why?”
“Don’t you want to play dolls with your sister?”
“No. She wanna play football.” Nikki answered for her sister.
“Do you?”
Neece managed a nod as she stretched.
“Okay. We can play football.”
Nikki began pouting. “You said we could play dolls.” Damn, he had forgotten about that. He didn’t know what to do. Was there a compromise in this situation?
“I’ll play with you and then we’ll play with Neece. Deal?” They nodded.
Justin watched for a while as Nikki showed Neece how to play with the dolls prior to joining in. He tolerated the doll playing for thirty minutes before moving the game outside.
Justin had the football in his hands. Now this was his kind of a game. Yet, he never played with five-year-old girls before. He would have to be gentle otherwise; Nina would have his ass for more reasons than one. “This is how this game will go…”
Michelle inserted her key in the door, dropping her briefcase by the door as soon as she entered. Where was Justin? She saw his car parked in the driveway. She wanted to talk to him about last night since they didn’t end on good terms. Well, they made up afterwards but that hadn’t changed anything. They were still mad at each other in the morning.
Something flying by the glass screen doors caught her attention. It was Justin running towards an imaginary goal with a little girl in his arms while she held the ball. Another little girl that looked just like her chased after them.
Michelle felt her heart fall to the pit of her stomach. She didn’t have to ask questions of who those girls were and why they were with Justin. Everything that she had been denying for so long had suddenly slapped her in the face. How would she maintain a hold on Justin now that she had three women to compete with, two of them being kids?
She didn’t deserve this. All she wanted was to have her marriage be better than her parents. To feel as if she was wanted. Would Justin still want her after this, after he found out the truth?