Heard It All Before by Michele Grant Page B

walked right up to me like we’ve known each other for ages. “Ready for lunch?” He shot a glance at Roman. “Hey, Ro.”
    Roman looked from me to Demetrius and back. “What up, D?”
    â€œDaddy!” Little Chase came running over. He was a cute little thing, the spitting image of his daddy. Roman reached down and picked up the child. “Can we go to McDonald’s, Dad?”
    â€œMay we,” he corrected.
    â€œMay we, Daddy?” the little sweetie persisted.
    â€œI don’t know—what did you do to deserve to go to Micky D’s?” Not one chopped syllable in there! Um-hmm, I liked this guy.
    â€œI pick-ted”—he paused at his father’s frown—“picked up all my toys and put ’em away.” This said, he turned in his daddy’s big, muscled arms and looked right at me. He inherited that look for sure. Then he looked at Demetrius and grinned. “Hi, Demi.”
    Demi put his hand up. “High five.” He slapped the child’s hand.
    Chase looked back at me. “Who’s your pwetty gullfwiend, Demi?”
    I beamed, so wise for one so young. “My name is Jewel, and I’m not his girlfriend.” I’d like to be your daddy’s; could you hook me up? Stop it, Jewel. I reached out and shook his little hand. It was real hard to be upset about his existence. He couldn’t help if his mama was ghetto.
    â€œJoo-well is a pwetty name,” he said seriously.
    â€œPretty name for a pretty lady,” Roman said. The boy was smooth. He put Chase down. “Let’s go get your mama and go to McDonald’s. Later, D.” He turned to walk away before shooting me a lethal look over one shoulder. “I’ll be seeing ya, Miss Jewel.” A challenging promise if ever I heard one. He and Chase walked hand and hand to the door. Rome walked right past a furious Jaquenetta, saying little else but, “Come on.” Then he was gone.
    â€œSo, what are you hungry for?” Demetrius asked in a friendly manner.
    Something hot and Roman. I smiled at Demetrius. “Oh, anything. I’m starved.” In more ways than one.

5
    From Ex to the Next
    Roman—Sunday, May 20, 11:30 a.m.
    Â 
    Â 
    D amn, Jaquenetta was a pain in my ass. Not one to speak ill of no one else, especially not the mother of my only child, my son, but one day she was gonna push me too far. Always popping up like she got claims on me. I took care of my boy, spent time with my boy; it was her I had had enough of. More and more she has taken to turning up when it was my day for Chase. Used to be she’d just drop him off, and that suited me just fine. Now she wanna tag along, and I have to say, I didn’t like it.
    No need to pretty it up. I married Jaquenetta when and only when she turned up pregnant. Was no great love from the get-go. We were swinging an episode or two now and then. I was taking care of “thangs”; she said she was. But something must have ... um ... slipped, know what I’m saying? Yeah, seven months and fourteen days to the day I married her, along comes Chase. About a year after that, when I had my shit straight, my money tight, and my lawyer together, I bailed. Jaquenetta was a damn octopus and all eight of those arms clingy and money-hungry as hell. “Where you going? Who you seeing? Did you get paid? Did you buy me something? I want this, I want that.” Lord, it’s enough to drive a man out his mind.
    Here was the deal: Jaquenetta never had shit, not even her daddy’s name or her mama’s love. I came up hard, but at least I had family, ya know? Pop and Madere slaved to bring me, my younger sister Kat, and my older brother Beau up right so we could get somewhere. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had each other. We may not have been given a lot of material things, but we were always told to hold our heads up high, be smart, and walk with some pride about