Forever. (This. Is. Not. Over. Book 3) (31 page)

“Bye
, Jacob.” She locks eyes with me. She’s waiting for me to say it.

But I won’t.

She waits.

Not happening.

She waits.

I smile at her.

She gives me a small wave before she turns around.

I go ahead and let her leave.

And then my phone vibrates.

Winnie 11:21 pm:
Jacob, my water broke.

Me 11:2
1 pm:
On my way baby

Two Months Later …

(
labor
.
suite #43
.)

Danielle: Shiiiit!

Malcolm: Red,
breathe
, baby.

Danielle: Oh God!

Malcolm: Baby, just breathe … come on, breathe with me.

Danielle: I need a fucking epidural!

Dr. Zara Harlow: I’m sorry, Danny, but it’s too late for us to give you one. You’re going to have to push this one out
au naturel
. And here I thought you were tough.

Danielle: Aunt Zara, I can’t do it.

Dr. Zara Harlow: The longer you fight it, the lower your baby’s heart rate is going to get. If it gets too low we’ll have to cut her out of you. Now, she’s stuck in your passage so this
will
get tricky. I really need you to push.

Malcolm: Danielle, just
push
. Come on.

Danielle: It’s not easy, Malcolm!

Malcolm: Danielle, I get that. Okay? But the baby’s heart rate is dropping.

Dr. Zara Harlow: It’s at 100. Nurse, get the surgery team ready. You hear that
, Danny? You’re about to be cut open if you don’t push this little girl out. Or worse, she’s not gonna make it.

Danielle: Fuck!

Malcolm: Danielle, fucking
push
!

Danielle: Aargh!!

Dr. Zara Harlow: There you go! There’s her head … Come on, Danny, push her out, she’s stuck.

Malcolm: Danielle, please,
please
, push.

Danielle: Aargh!

Dr. Zara Harlow: A little more.

Danielle: Aargh!

Dr. Zara Harlow: Just a
little
bit more.

Malcolm: Come on, baby. Come on. Come on. Almost there, baby. Come on.

Dr. Zara Harlow: One more push, Danny. Let’s go!

Danny: Aaaaaaargh!

Dr. Zara Harlow: Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?

Malcolm

(
ginger
.)

“So how was it!”
Jasmine asks as she rushes into the hospital suite, Marlon close behind her with a smile, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

“Piece of cake
,” Danielle says as she leisurely sips on orange juice and leafs through a
Hello!
magazine. Red’s hospital suite is filled to capacity with family, so Angie Blair is directing traffic.

“Jasmine, please walk
around
the chair,” my mother feels she has to remind Jasmine.

“Oh
, okay. Got it,” Jasmine says as she makes a show of moving her entire body away from it. My father has recently retired his post as Ambassador to the UK. Do you know what that means? Angie and Wynston Blair are living back in Boston. You can only imagine what I’m going through.

“Malcolm,” Queen Angie says, “
has the nurse told you when Sunday Simone will be reentering her suite?”

“No,
Ma.”

“Well
, what did she say?”

“She said that Ginger needed to wash up. That’s it.”

“What time did she leave?”

“I’m not sure. I didn’t look at my watch.”

“So you don’t know when Sunday Simone left, you don’t know when she’ll be returning … was she even born?”

“Here we go
…”

“I mean, you know
nothing
. Tell me, Malcolm, why did you come here today?”

Why … so when I say everyone is here, I do mean everyone: Cadence, Lola, Nat, Dena, Jacob, Winnie, all of our kids, Red’s parents, my parents, Jasmine’s parents (her mom was the one who delivered Ginger), Jacob’s parents, Nat’s parents, my grandparents, some cousins which include Jacob’s sisters and all of their families, my mother’s sister and brother, Rossi and Eva, Marla … everyone’s in this goddamn suite. (Jon’s outside in the car. And he’s been there going on two hours now
, for good reason. He and I had it out here recently. But that’s another story for another time. Today is about Ginger.) Danielle’s family from Baton Rouge has been blowing both her and my cell phones up, trying to coordinate travel arrangements and hotel stays to officially meet the newest Blair baby. Baby girl is out getting pampered: washed up, dried off, powdered and dressed.

Elise and Jackson are talking to Nat’s parents.
Jacob’s off to the side holding his brand new son, Jamie, who’s two months old. His father, Uncle Preston, is sitting beside him. Currently Jacob is parting Jamie’s hair to the side, just as Rena, who is standing over him, instructed. Marla’s watching from a few feet away, probably praying for a time when she, too, will have a baby’s hair to part. Her new spiritual guide said that should be soon. Winnie’s laughing with Jacob’s sisters and some of my other cousins. Jacob’s mom is whispering something to my dad and then looking at my mother. Dad has an ‘I know, I know’ look on his face. Everyone else is just scattered around laughing, talking, sipping mimosa, shooting the breeze. Neither Jacob nor Winnie acknowledged Jasmine and Marlon as they entered the room. I think everyone’s starting to finally get over that picture and the problems it caused yet again. It seems that everyone has stuck with their own family and their own lives. Finally, we have some semblance of peace around here.

I’m sitting beside Red’s hospital bed, fanning her while she continues to sip her orange juice and browse through her magazine. This is done according to my mother’s instructions after she observed that Red, a black woman, looked pale. As Marlon and Jasmine make their way over to us, they both have wide smiles fixed on their faces and Jasmine’s carrying a ‘Baby Bouquet’ of cloth diapers, BPA-free toys, Aveeno Baby products, sparkling apple cider and a dozen white roses. I stand to greet them, happy that they worked
things out. I know this may sound crazy as hell, but I was against Jake and Jasmine breaking up their families in order to be together, I just couldn’t tell Jasmine that during our ride. She was my client; I wasn’t hired to tell her what to do, I was hired to get her out of trouble and try to keep her marriage together. My clients have no idea what a divorce could do to them financially and politically, so my goal is to always keep a struggling family intact. I’m glad Marlon and Jasmine are still together, though I’d never breathe a word of that to Jake.

“So sorry we’re late!” Jasmine says. “The meeting with The Board took longer than expected. We had to vote on a new member, that new state senator Elijah Benson and his wife. By the way, I vetoed them. I saw Elijah’s wife drinking white wine last month and she’s pregnant. I ought to call the cops on her. Oh
, and guess who Marlon and I saw in the elevator just now? Demetrius Westlake, that senator from South Carolina. You remember him, don’t you Danielle?”

Ah, Demetrius. I look at Jacob and smile. He’s pretending like the name Demetrius Westlake means nothing to him so he’s purposely ignoring me. I know this because he just stuck up his middle finger in my direction.

Jasmine continues, “Doesn’t he help out at feminist rallies in Charleston sometimes? Anyway, he says he’s in town because his frat brother just had a baby and he’s the godfather. And get this: he, Jon, Matt and Marlon are in the same frat! Did you know that? Oh, and when I walked on the elevator, I overheard him making plans to head to Martha’s Vineyard this summer. You
do
know that’s where Marlon’s family always summers, though he and I have missed the last two summers thanks to
the business
.” She rolls her eyes.

“So come to find out Marlon and Demetrius summered in the same town but never ran into each other
, and honestly, I never saw Demetrius there before either. Anyway, so nice of him to travel up here from Charleston. He brought a teddy bear and everything,” Jasmine says before coming over to me and pulling me into a big hug. “Mwah!” she says as she gives me a huge kiss on the cheek before turning to Red. “Girl, I am just
so
busy these days; I need a vacation. I’m just trying my best to hold this city together.”

“A baby girl
,” Marlon says to me as we come into a half hug.

“Yes, sir
,” I say as I pat him on the back.

“You’ll love every moment of it.”

“I already know.”

I, Malcolm Blair, have my very own ginger.

Sunday Simone Blair was born February 13
th
at 8:45 am, weighing 6 pounds, 3 ounces, and possessing three or four strands of red hair. Good enough for me. Needless to say, she came out looking like her father, as any baby girl should. She also came out staring at Danielle with a ‘what the hell was the hold-up?’ look. Even Danielle said ‘who does she think she’s looking at?’ I do believe Sunny rolled her eyes as the nurse was carting her out the room for her first bubble bath. Good. Danielle’s met her match.

I’m sorry, but I must say this again: I have my own ginger. Damn
…

As the suite is filled with small talk and laughter, Jasmine and Red are getting carried away with labor horror stories. Jasmine swears Pearl took thirty-nine hours to deliver, she doesn’t care what the clock said. Red swears Nicky was born ten pounds, two ounces though when he left the hospital he had shr
unk down to just under seven. Marlon and I stand by Red’s bed while Jasmine scoots Red’s leg over and gets comfortable on it, unwrapping her Baby Bouquet to bring out the sparkling cider so that we can toast.

This is perfect. All of us are here and we’re happy. We’re just trying to make the best out of the life we were given and …

“Hello.”

Everyone in the room turns towards the door.

Jon.

“Jon!” Marla screams out. “The baby has red hair!” She claps and jumps up and down.

“She does!” Nicky screams out as he and his ‘best-friend’, Jacob’s son Ralphie, are watching a Pixar movie on my laptop.

“Yep
,” Roman says as he walks over to Jon and gives him a high-five. Roman and Big J, the name Roman calls Jon, do this every time they come into contact with each other. Jon will do anything to get on my goddamn nerves. “Her hair is
astonishing
.” This is a new word that Cadence has recently taught Roman.

“It’s red, dad!” Nicky says.

“Nice,” Jon says as he gives an uncomfortable wave to everyone else as they all give him a ‘
Hey, Jon!
’ He looks at me and gives me a nod. I give one back. Yeah, muthafucka, don’t think this shit is over. But like I said, I won’t get into that today. He slowly walks into the room and now everything returns to normal. “Hey, Danny.”

“Hey
,” she says with a smile and shake of her head as Jon walks over to join Marla.

So
, like I was saying, everyone’s normal. Jacob and Winnie are on great terms and he hasn’t mentioned Jasmine to me at all. He has been spending more time with his father lately but other than that, things are normal. Jasmine and I go for rides at least once a week like I promised.
I just need to think
, she tells me. So we don’t really talk, just blast the music, crank up the heat, roll down the windows and cruise. All in all, everything worked out fine.

“Well, hello!”

Everyone in the room turns towards the hospital door again.

The Fultons.

“Well, young man,” Mr. Fulton says to me, a look of concern on his face. “How many of these you plan on having?” He ushers his wife into the room. “Feels like I’m up here every day.”

“My favorite couple
,” I say as Mrs. Fulton walks over to me and gives me a hug.

“Mmm … you smell so good,
” she says to me. I give her a wink. “Doesn’t he smell good?” she says to Mr. Fulton.

“Uh
-huh. Now, listen here,” he says while giving me a half hug. Mrs. Fulton walks towards Jasmine and Danielle. “You’re gonna have to be tough on this little girl. Chances are, she’ll be a fox.”

“She already is
,” I assure him in my most serious look and voice.

“Told you. Now
, I’ve raised two girls so I have some pointers. Tell me when you’re ready.”