Forever. (This. Is. Not. Over. Book 3) (32 page)

“Ready.”

“Point one—”

“Oh, there’s no fooling me
,” I hear Mrs. Fulton say. Everyone in the room turns to look at her as she stands next to Red. “I may be old but I’m not blind,” she says to Red, who looks back at her, confused. “I just saw her last night. I said hello but she didn’t hear me.”

What is she talking about? I look at Red.
What’s going on?
Red gives me ‘the look’.
Something’s wrong. Do something.

“You all want breakfast?” I say quickly to the room. “We can place an order at
—”

“What are you talking about, Mabel?” Mr. Fulton says.

“Jasmine,” Mrs. Fulton answers. “She’s saying that you and I didn’t see her at the harbor last night.”

“Oh
, after our pinnacle tournament? Sure we did.”

I look at Jasmine and she’s staring right at Marlon who’s looking confused. Oh
, shit …

“That’s what I said.”

I steal a look at Jacob but he’s already staring at me, wide-eyed. Shit. I watch Uncle Preston close his eyes and then rub a hand over his face.

“So,” I say, “how about
—”

“
You jumped out of a town car,” Mr. Fulton says to Jasmine, “and you ran to that hotdog stand. Then you turned around with two hotdogs on a stick, and you gave that homeless man next to that trash can fire a few dollars. You pointed to the town car and he waved at it and screamed out ‘thank you’ to whoever was in it. You went back to the town car and you were switching so hard I thought you’d break a hip! I called out for you to knock it off and then—”

“Yes
, Jasmine was keeping me company,” Red says calmly. “I kept having false alarms last night so Jasmine and I rode around the city.”

“Ah
,” Mrs. Fulton says. “Makes sense.”

“Now that’s a friend
,” Marlon says. I look at him and he’s smiling at Jasmine. “For you to eat a hotdog on a stick?” He turns to face everyone. “Jasmine just finished her first cookbook, all natural food, French and Italian delicacies. Danielle’s literary agency is representing her.” Everyone starts saying their congratulations to Jasmine. Everyone but Winnie.

“So
, don’t ever tell anyone about that hotdog on a stick!” Jasmine says to us all before laughing. We all laugh with her, including me. Winnie is the only exception. Jacob smiles and runs a hand over his face. “And don’t tease me about it either!”

“Of course not,” Red says with the calmness of a serial killer. “The last thing we’d do right now is cause a scene.” I watch Jacob lower his head and close his eyes. “Now is certainly not the time. If anything
, we can talk about that hot dog later, one on one.”

Silence.

And then the door opens. Thank God. Ginger saves the day. The nurse rolls her in and she’s decked out in her first outfit, complete with matching hat. And here’s baby girl, wide awake, blinking slowly while she glances around, as though unimpressed that she was delivered to the Blair family. Obviously, the Blairs don’t have that good of a rep in heaven.

“There she is
,” I say as I head over towards her while she continues to glance around her. “I feel like I’ve waited all my life for this little girl.”

“Well
, you’ll be waiting even longer,” my mother says as she scoots me out of the way. “Wash your hands!” she screams out. “Elise and Jackson get to hold her first, of course.”

“Oh, we were in the room during the delivery; we’ve already held her little baldheaded butt.” Elise says. “We’ll let the others have their turn.” She and Jackson take a seat on a sofa nearby, sipping on their mimosas.

“Well, nice to see that Elise and Jackson were immediately notified of the impending birth of Sunday Simone,” my mother says. “I, on the other hand, was called
after
she was born.” She cuts her eyes towards me. “But we’ll discuss that later. Come along, everyone.” And before I have a moment to object, everyone rushes over to see Ginger, excited to be able to hold her for the first time, making a line at the suite’s kitchen sink to wash their hands. Jasmine nearly sprints to the sink, accidently knocking Nicky over in the process.

“Relax, baby
,” Marlon says as he helps Nicky up. “We’ll all get a chance to hold her.” Jacob and his father slowly get up from their seats to head over to the sink, Uncle Preston whispering something as they walk. I look over and see Red and Winnie looking at each other from across the suite before both drift their eyes over to Jacob. Oh, God.

“Give Sunny to Winnie first
,” my mother orders Lola, who scooped Ginger up before anyone else could. I now see that my mother is looking down at a sheet of paper and what appears to be a list, a red pen in her right hand. “She signed up to hold her first.” She scratches Winnie’s name off.

“Fine
,” Lola says as she walks to Winnie and slides Ginger into her arms. Winnie instantly smiles down at Ginger before giving her a light kiss on the lips.

“Danielle
.”

Everyone in the room turns towards the voice.

Demetrius Westlake. He’s standing in the doorway holding a bouquet of flowers. “Congrats,” he says with a half-smile.

“Demetrius
,” Red says with a smile of her own.

“I saw Mrs. Kyles and her husband in the elevator, she told me that you had a little girl.” He walks into the room, right past a glaring Jacob, seemingly not even seeing him standing there. Jacob clenches his jaw. “Congratulations
,” he says to me, his hand outstretched for a handshake.

“Thank you
,” I say as I shake it. Yeah … I’ve got a feeling this is about to go bad.

“Is she a redhead?” Demetrius asks me.

“She is.”

“Good job.” He lets out a small laugh.

“Glad you stopped by,” Red says in a cheery voice.

“Demetrius
,” Cadence says as he walks over, a huge smile on his face. “I’ve been meaning to drop you a line, thanking you for supporting that bill I helped write last month.” The two of them shake hands. The Blairs are republican, Demetrius is democrat.

“Yes, Demetrius,” Lola says as she walks over, her arm outstretched for a handshake lest Cadence forget that his Congressional appointment is
a joint venture between them two. “Thank you so much. It won’t be forgotten.”

“Of course not
,” Cadence says.

“No problem at all
,” Demetrius says as he shakes Lola’s hand. “Favors are the name of the game.”

“Absolutely
,” Lola says.

“Anytime
,” Cadence adds.

“Malcolm,”
my mother says, her eyes stuck on Demetrius, “make yourself useful for once in your life and put those amazing flowers in a vase. Just throw away the flowers you brought in and replace them with Senator Westlake’s.” I watch her bat her lashes as Demetrius. “His look so strong … and sturdy.” He gives her a smile and a wink.

“So Sunday, huh? Beautiful name,” Demetrius says as he scans the room for Ginger and lays eyes on
… Winnie. He breaks out into a wider smile. “Ah … there she is.”

“I advise you,” I hear Jacob say from across the room, “to get the fuck out.”

Nothing but silence fills the room as dozens of eyes bounce off of each other.
Jacob’s a loose cannon, please don’t get him started.

And here we are:

Jacob’s glaring at Demetrius.

Demetrius is smiling at Jacob.

Marlon’s grinning at Jacob.

Nat’s
eyeing Marlon.

Jon’s focused
on me.

Matt’s looking between all of us.

“Funny,” Jon says suddenly, self-righteousness etched in his voice. “They’ll take another man’s wife but we can’t even
look
at theirs.” Rule One: Smile. I give it my best shot. Perfect. I’ve been waiting for another go-round with this muthafucka. Good job, Jon. Marlon is obviously too bashful to get this shit started.

No man could tolerate his
woman fucking around on him for years with another man. No man could tolerate his wife being away from home for nearly a month. Men grow angry. Jealous. Suspicious. I’ve been waiting for Marlon’s retribution, his passive-aggressive method of combat. So Nat and I have been keeping an eye on him.

Rule One: Smile.

Rule Two: Control your emotions.

Rule Three: Be Nice.

Rule Four:
Be prepared.

And so, last Tuesday, Nat and I followed Marlon to the Starbucks on Tremont Street.

“Yeah,” Nat said as we watched Marlon and Demetrius talking over coffee. “He’s declaring war.”

“Yeah,” I said with a smile. “That he is.”

The End