Mr. Wrong After All (12 page)

“Is this Corrie,” Sabrina said, changing the subject.

“Oh, Sabrina, I’m sorry. Yes, this is my daughter. This is Corrie.” Ahmad quickly picked up on what Sabrina was trying to do and played right along.

“It’s great to meet you. You are a very pretty little girl.”

“Who are you?” Corrie asked, looking suspiciously at Sabrina.

“Corrie, this is Sabrina. She is Nikki’s best friend,” Ahmad explained.

“Are the two of you ready for tomorrow,” Ahmad’s mother interrupted with her thick Jamaican accent. “Tomorrow is the big day.”

“I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life,” Ahmad answered as he brushed a lonely tear from my cheek.

I’m ready, too. I’m ready to start my new life and leave this old one behind.

Chapter 20

Ahmad

“I do.”

When I heard Nikki say those two words, it was like music to my ears. We were now husband and wife. At first, I thought I had made a hasty decision by asking Nikki to marry me. After all, we hadn’t known each other for very long.

Look at her. She is so beautiful standing there in her white dress. You made the right decision.

“You may kiss the bride,” the chaplain announced.

I couldn’t wait to kiss my wife for the first time. Nikki’s eyes danced as I pulled her body closer to mine. I just wanted to hold her in my arms first, so she could feel safe from the hurt she’d known so much of her whole life.

“Would you just kiss already? Some of us
do
have to go to work,” Nikki’s best friend, Sabrina, said from the sideline. “It ain’t legal until you kiss her.”

The five other people in the office laughed at Sabrina’s quick wit. I leaned in and planted a passionate kiss on Nikki’s soft lips.

We kissed for what seemed like hours.

“I said kiss her. Not make another baby.”

“Sabrina, do you ever quit,” Nikki asked, giggling like a little schoolgirl. I loved her laugh. I promised myself that I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that Nikki laughed like that every day. I never wanted her to be sad another day in her life.

“Now you know better than that, baby. Sabrina is all mouth,” I said.

“Whatever, Ahmad,” Sabrina answered, rolling her eyes. “You just make sure that you take good care of my friend, Mr. Jacobs. I’d hate to have some of my homeboys to jack you up.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

We all laughed. I assured Sabrina that she didn’t have a thing in the world to worry about. I fully intended to take extra good care of my new wife.

“I’ve never been happier than I am right now, Ahmad,” Nikki said, as she hugged me again.

Nikki kneeled down to Corrie’s level and looked her in her eyes. “Corrie, how do you feel about what just happened? Are you happy?”

“Yeah, I think it’s cool. Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, sweetheart, you can ask me anything you want.”

“Can I call you Mommy?”

I could see Nikki fighting back tears. As hard and as emotionless as Sabrina always tried to be, there were even tears in her eyes.

“I would love that but only if you’re comfortable with it, Corrie.”

“Okay then. Mommy.”

Corrie is right. This is so cool. My two best girls are loving on each other. What could be better than that? Life is going to be good for us.

“Well, I hate to break up this little love fest but like I said, I’ve got to get to work at the hospital,” Sabrina chimed.

“Thank you so much for being here, Sabrina. You know I love you, girl,” Nikki said, giving her best friend a hug.

“Yeah, Yeah. Where else would I be? ”

“I love you, too, Sabrina,” I said, kissing her cheek.

“Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty.”

After the wedding, Corrie went back to New York with my mother. Nikki and I planned to finish packing our things here and drive the moving truck to New York in two days. My grandmother’s apartment on Flatbush Avenue was all ready and waiting for us to move right in.

I had so many wonderful things planned for Nikki and me on our wedding night. After all, she had been through, I knew I would have to be patient with her and not push. Things had to happen in their own time.

“Is everything set up?” I whispered to Sabrina before she left for the hospital.

Sabrina had agreed to help me with the hotel arrangements. I wanted to surprise Nikki with a beautiful room overlooking the Potomac River at the Watergate Hotel for our wedding night. I knew that it would be something she would definitely not expect or even think we could afford.

“Yeah, it’s all set. I went by earlier and picked up the keys. I

even took some rose petals and spread them all over your king-sized bed,” Sabrina said as she discretely dropped the keys in the front pocket of my blazer.

“Thanks, girl. You know that if I wasn’t marrying Nikki…” “Niggah, please. As if I would even have your pretty ass. Nope. Give me an ugly dude any day.”

Sabrina and I both burst into what seemed like uncontrollable laughter. I could see why she and Nikki were so close.

“Okay, let’s break this little chat up,” Nikki interrupted.

“Look, I need to get to the hospital before they fire my ass. Congratulations, y’all. Nikki, girl, call me before you leave for New York.”

Nikki and Sabrina hugged. Both of them were trying desperately to fight the tears.

On the drive to the hotel, Nikki drilled me about where we were going and I refused to tell her anything.

“Ahmad, you’re not going to tell me?”

“Nope.”

“That’s just wrong. I’m your wife now and you’re obligated by law to disclose everything to me,” Nikki said, pouting and folding her arms, looking out of the car window.

“Yeah, okay,” I said laughing, “and where did you read that?”

“I don’t remember. It’s probably in the Bible,” Nikki said as she moved closer to me, laying her head on my shoulder.

When we pulled up to the Watergate Hotel
,
Nikki put her hand over her heart and gasped.

“Ahmad! This is the Watergate! How on earth…”

“Don’t worry about it. I did it for you. I wanted us to spend our first night together someplace special.”

Once we were inside of our hotel room, I realized that Sabrina had done a lot more than she’d told me about. Not only were there red rose petals all over the white linen draped king-sized bed, but there were several bouquets of flowers placed in the room. A bottle of Moët sat chilling in a silver ice bucket next to the bed along with a basket of white grapes and chocolate covered strawberries.

“Oh baby, this is so beautiful,” Nikki said as she tearfully surveyed the room.

It sure is. I’ll have to remember to slip Sabrina a few more dollars because I know there was no way in hell she could have done all of this with just the money I gave her.

“All for you.”

I took Nikki’s hand and pulled her close. In her eyes, I saw expectation and fear. Her body had begun to tremble a bit. I held her tighter hoping she could feel the security in the strength of my arms. I lifted her chin with my hand and planted the first kiss of the evening on her perfectly shaped lips. She hesitated at first but soon let her lips melt into mine. I slowly began to unzip her dress and stepped back to watch it drop to the floor.

Her skin glistened flawlessly beneath the white lace of her bra and panties.

“You are so beautiful,” I said, removing my shirt.

Nikki didn’t say a word. She just stood there and smiled. I took her in my arms again and was amazed at how turned on I was by the touch of her soft skin against mine.

I want you so bad. I’ve wanted you from the first moment I

saw you. Finally.

“I love you, Nicolette Jacobs,” I whispered in her ear, gently nibbling the lobe.

“I love you, too,” she responded, breathlessly.

“Can I make love to you?” I asked, staring into her eyes. Although we were married, I didn’t want to take advantage of this delicate moment.

She nodded.

“You can trust me. We can take this as slow as you need to.”

She nodded again. This time she wiped away a lonely tear as it slowly rolled down her cheek.

Just as I’d promised, I took my time touching and kissing her warm body all over, trying hard to contain the fire that raged out of control inside of me. I reached between her legs, hoping to feel her sweet wetness saturating my fingers, indicating that she was ready but instead, she was as dry as a desert. Even though her body was there with me, I could tell that her mind was somewhere else.

“Nikki, are you okay, baby?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure because you’re not…” “I told you that I’m fine. Just do it. I’m fine.”
Just do it? Oh hell no.

“Nikki, talk to me. What’s going on? I don’t want to just do it. I want us to take this trip together.”

She pulled the covers over her naked body and turned her back to me.

What the fuck? Okay, man, remember to be patient. Your wife has been molested. Did you think this was going to be easy? You’ve got to show some patience here or you’ll fuck up everything.

“Nikki,” I said, touching her shoulder.

“Ahmad, this is very hard for me. Okay? There is nothing I want more than to make love to you right now but I can’t get the image of what my father did to me out of my mind.”

“Baby, I’m not your father. I’m your husband. There is a huge difference. We’re supposed to do this.”

“I know that, Ahmad. I can’t help it. I thought, I hoped, that going to counseling would help me deal with this better but it hasn’t. I don’t know what to do. What if I can never…”

“Shh…” I said as I spooned my body against hers. My dick was as hard as a rock and aching for some pussy. I started thinking about how much I wanted to kill that motherfucker who was the blame for all of this bullshit. “We have all time in the world.

Don’t worry about it.”
Goddamnit!

I held her until we both fell into a deep sleep. The startling ring of the telephone awakened us.

Who in the hell could that be? No one knows where we are.

“Hello. What? Hold on.”

Sabrina was on the other end of the phone. Her voice sounded frantic when she asked to speak to Nikki.

“Oh my, God,” Nikki screamed as she jump out of bed.

Goddamn, she’s fine
.

The sight of my wife’s body made my shit harden again.

“Okay, we’ll be right there, Sabrina. Thanks for calling.”

We’ll be right where? It’s three o’clock in the fucking morning.

“Baby, what did Sabrina want? What’s going on?”

“Ahmad, we have to get to Doctor’s Hospital as soon as possible. Shannon is in the emergency room,” Nikki said, searching through her suitcase before disappearing into the bathroom.

Oh fuck no! Shannon! What in the hell am I going to do now? I can’t go to that hospital with Nikki. What do I tell her? I can’t tell her the truth. Not right now. She’s going to question me if I don’t drive her to the hospital. Fuck! I have to know what’s going on first.

“She said that Shannon came in the emergency room in labor. I didn’t even know she was pregnant,” Nikki called from the bathroom.

Fuck!

“Ahmad, get dressed,” Nikki instructed when she opened the door and saw me sitting motionless on the side of the bed.

“Oh, okay.”

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. I didn’t know what to expect anymore. One part of me wanted to crash the car just so I wouldn’t have to come clean with Nikki about the whole Shannon situation and my role in it. The other part was screaming for me to tell her the truth.

But what is the truth? That I’m the father of Shannon’s baby? We don’t know that for sure. It could be anybody’s. There is no need to say a word until you know for sure.

Should I at least tell her that I used to fuck her sister? Naw. Let’s just see what happens at the hospital. No need to go admitting to something no one has accused you of, yet. That’s a player’s number one rule. Come on, man. Pull yourself together.

Fuck!

Chapter 21

Nikki

Shannon is about to give birth to a baby! Mama was right thinking that Shannon was in trouble. Why wouldn’t she come to us with something so serious? Not keeping up with my little sister was a big mistake. How could I have been so selfish?

Ahmad and I rushed to the hospital to see what was going on with my sister. During the ride, neither one of us said a single word to the other. I had so many thoughts racing through my mind about everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours; I felt the beginning of a migraine coming over the horizon.

Ahmad is too quiet. I know he must be angry with me for behaving like such a child when it came to making love. Ahmad is my husband. That’s what married people do. Why am I tripping over something that should be a no brainer? My behavior was unacceptable. Now, what should have been the most special night of my life has been made even more tragic by this emergency. Ahmad has to be pissed.

My heart ached knowing that I had ruined our wedding night for Ahmad. He’d been so patient with me. For whatever reason, I allowed my mind to keep retreating to the darkness of my past and my body followed.

“Ahmad, are you okay?” I asked, rubbing his tight thigh. His eyes remained on the road.

“Yeah, baby. I’m fine.”

He’s so angry, he can’t even look at me.
“I’m sorry about what happened earlier.” He didn’t respond.

“Ahmad. Baby, did you hear what I said?” He still didn’t respond.

“Ahmad!”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“What’s on your mind? You seem a million miles away.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Nothing is really on my mind. I’m just concentrating on getting us to the hospital.”

You’re lying. You are angry with me but you don’t want to admit it. You’re afraid to hurt my feelings.

“Are you angry with me about what didn’t happen tonight?”

“No, Nikki. I told you that I understand what you’re going through.”

“I heard what you said but you still seem upset.”

“I promise you that I am not upset about that. Like I said, we are on our way to the hospital in the middle of the night. I just want to get you to your sister. I know how worried you are about her. That’s all.”

Okay. If that’s your story, I’m not going to press the issue. But we will talk about this later.

When we arrived at the hospital, Ahmad dropped me off at the emergency entrance while he went to find a place to park the car. As soon as I walked through the sliding doors, I felt my heart pounding in my chest.

“Excuse me, can you tell me where Shannon Evans is?” I asked the person sitting behind the desk. “She came in tonight in labor.”

“Nikki,” Sabrina called from the hall before the receptionist could answer my inquiry.

“Where is she?”

“Follow me.”

Lord, please let everything be okay.

“Sabrina, what is going on?” I asked as we rushed down the long corridor.

“Somebody dropped her off in the ambulance bay. Her water had broken and she was in active labor.”

“I still can’t believe Shannon is pregnant and nobody knew about it. How crazy is that?”

“Girl, I know what you mean. Where’s Ahmad?”

“He’s outside looking for a parking space.”

“Shannon is in here,” Sabrina said, pointing to a room at the end of the hall. “You go on in and I’ll wait for Ahmad in the lobby and let him know where you are.”

“Push! Push!” I heard a woman yell from behind a curtain when I opened the door.

“I’m pushing!”

I recognized my sister’s agony-laced voice.

Oh my, God! She’s having the baby right now! This can’t be happening.

I pulled open the curtain and rushed to Shannon’s side. For the first time in a long time, she actually looked happy to see me. She reached for my hand with desperation in her eyes. I realized that now was not the time for us to get into the when’s and why’s of what was happening. My little sister needed my strength to help her through this.

“Okay, Shannon. Come on and push as hard as you can,” I instructed.

She leaned forward, grabbed her ankles, and did as she was told.

Oh my, God! I can see the baby’s head.

“You’re doing great, young lady,” the nurse said. “We’re almost there. All we need is just one more big one.”

I placed my hand on Shannon’s back as she leaned forward again. This time, her push was accompanied by a gut-wrenching scream.

The baby is out. I’ve just witnessed a new life coming into the world.

“It’s a girl,” the nurse announced, cutting the cord.

“Shannon, you did it,” I said, wiping the sweat from my sister’s forehead. It was hard for me to believe what had just happened.

“Nikki, how did you know I was here?”

“Sabrina called me.”

After weighing the baby and cleaning her up a bit, the nurse brought the baby over and placed her in Shannon’s arms.

“Five pounds and three ounces,” the nurse said.

“Oh, Shannon, look at her. She’s beautiful.”

Shannon just looked at the baby without saying a word and without any emotion.

“Is the baby okay,” I asked the nurse.

“Everything looks fine. But the doctor will further exam her in the nursery,” she answered, looking at Shannon and waiting

for a reaction. There was none. “Someone will be by shortly to get you admitted and take you to a room on our Labor and Delivery floor,” she continued.

I couldn’t understand how Shannon could be so quiet. She had just experienced the most incredible miracle in the world.

“Knock, Knock,” Sabrina said, poking in her head.

“Come on in,” I answered, never breaking my stare at Shannon, who was looking in the opposite direction.

“I just saw them take the baby upstairs to the nursery. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything is fine.”

Sabrina looked at Shannon then looked questioningly at me. I shrugged my shoulders. Just then, another nurse came in to take Shannon upstairs.

“I’ll be up in a minute,” I comforted as the nurse pushed Shannon’s gurney out of the room.

“What’s up with her?” Sabrina asked.

“Girl, I don’t know. She hasn’t said much of anything to me.

Where’s Ahmad?”

“He is safe and sound in the waiting room.”

Okay. Let him know that I am on my way upstairs and I’ll see him in a few minutes. I want to make sure Shannon and the baby are okay.”

I went to find my sister and hopefully to get some answers to the many questions surrounding this whole ordeal.

“Shannon, why didn’t you let me know what was going on?” I asked as soon as I walked into the room. Shannon had a semiprivate room but she didn’t yet have a roommate so I sat on the unoccupied bed.

“Like telling you anything would have made a difference,” she snarled back.

“You could have at least told Mama. She’s been worried sick about you. You haven’t called home and every time she’s called you, no one could say where you were. Did you move out of the dorm?”

“Nikki, I haven’t been in school for almost a year. If you really cared anything about me, you’d know that.”

“I do care about you. Whatever gave you the impression that I didn’t? I just didn’t like the things you were doing because they were dangerous.”

“Yeah, right.”

A knock came at the door and an older woman walked in carrying a clipboard.

“Miss Evans, I’m Rose Gaines from the hospital admissions office and I’m here to get some information from you.” Shannon rolled her eyes in my direction.

What the hell is wrong with you?

“What is your full name?” the woman asked.

“Shannon Marie Evans.”

“Your date of birth?”

“October 21, 1971.”

“Occupation?”

“Unemployed.”

You should say student.

“Have you chosen a name for your baby?”

Shannon paused for a minute. Then she smiled and looked at me.

“Nikki, why don’t you name her?”

Me? Why me
?

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“How about Aliyah Nicolette,” I responded.

“Aliyah Nicolette. I like that,” Shannon said, nodding at the woman.

“What is the name of the father?” the woman asked.

“Ahmad Jacobs, Jr.”

What the fuck did that bitch just say? Ahmad Jacobs, Jr.?

My head spun around like that little girl in the
Exorcist.

“What did you say?”

“I said Ahmad is the father of my baby. Oh what? You didn’t know?” Shannon asked, laughing.

“Didn’t know what?”

“That your man and I used to be fuck buddies.”

“What?”

“That’s all I need for now, Miss Evans,” the woman said as she sensed the growing tension and got the hell out of the room.

“Ahmad and I know each other very well. Just ask him about me. He’ll tell you. He’ll tell you a lot.”

I just stared blankly at Shannon. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

This can’t be happening. Shannon has to be lying. Ahmad doesn’t know her. Why is she doing this?

“How do you know that Ahmad is my man, Shannon?”

“I know because when I went to his apartment to tell him about the baby, I saw your picture there.”

I have to find Ahmad and put an end to this bullshit.