Miscegenist Sabishii (15 page)

I gave Tony a perplexed look.  How had we gotten here, like this?

I sighed.  “Come inside.  I think we all need to talk.”  Tony did not look happy but he followed us into the house.

TONY

Knowing that I was unemployed didn’t stress me out as much as it would others.  I had a fat bank account, a 401k to fall back on and time to decide what career path I wanted to take.  Nikki wasn’t quite as relaxed.  I’m not sure why she was so stressed, other than that she is just a naturally stressed out individual.  Pregnancy and unemployment hasn’t helped.  But money is not an issue so I wish she wouldn’t be so anxious.

She had decided to reveal all news to her family in baby steps.  First she told them that we were unemployed and after that died down she announced our engagement and today she is going to tell her people that she is pregnant.  I wisely declined to attend that particular revelation because I had told her to tell them immediately.  But she claimed to know and understand her parent’s so here we are telling them nearly a month after we’d discovered it. 

Once I stopped being a dumb ass and I let Nikki know that I wanted her AND her baby regardless of who had fathered it, our lives seemed to return to a comfortable routine.  Doctor visits, baby shopping, and just more time for us to reunite as a couple.  Pregnancy sex is very very good and because of the hormones, she is insatiable. 

I don’t think about the fact that the baby might be born looking like her and Dean instead of me and her.  I don’t think of baby names because there may not be a little Iyoki.  I just think about holding this little newborn in my arms and knowing that when he or she looks at me, I am the only Daddy that he or she knows. 

I don’t even despise Dean as much as I thought I would.  Recently, after going to his place for an online HALO tournament in which he and I were on the same team, Dean came up to me exclaiming how good I’d played for a newbie.  We’d had fun and he apologized for how our friendship had declined.  I was one step away from telling him not to apologize to me but to Nikki before I realized that I didn’t want this fool even knowing that there was a baby that might be his.  I couldn’t stop thinking that he might be stuck in my life forever…or for the next eighteen years.  So I shook his hand and told him that it was water under the bridge.

Having that change of attitude toward each other somewhat rekindled our friendship.  And though he and I aren’t as tight as the other guys and I are, we are cool.   At least until Jay got that phone call from his mother during our weekly basketball game at the rec center.

We were in the locker after another good game.  Someone had mentioned getting some beers and Dean had said that we’d just sweated away like a thousand calories and he wanted to drink them right back up?  We were in our thirties and pretty conscious that it now actually took work to stay in shape and to look good.  Even Budda had dropped enough weight that he couldn’t be called pudgy anymore. 

Jay was on his cell checking his messages and I was about to do the same, curious about how Nikki’s revelation had gone.  But Jay beat me to it.  He being Nikki’s cousin meant that his mother had already informed him of the baby news.  Jay swung around to me with a huge grin on his face.

“You fucking dog!”  He yelled happily.  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me that you and Nikki were having a baby?!”  He jumped on me, thumping me on the back.  The other guys turned to me in disbelief.

“T-baby finally impregnated a sister?!”  Pac joked. 

“Dude, how are you going to keep a secret like that for five damn months?!”  Jay laughed.  “I didn’t even know that you two were together that long!”  I don’t know why I did it, but my eyes swung to Dean.

He was watching the interaction quietly but then his hand froze as he was unlacing one of his shoes.  His eyes met mine and his mouth dropped.  He stood up slowly.

“Five months?”  The other guys were slapping my back and congratulating me but I kept my eyes on Dean.  “That’s pretty close, T.”

I saw him begin doing some calculations in his head.  Then his expression cleared and he looked at me again.  “Am I the father?”

The room got instantly quiet and I mean you could hear a pin drop.  We aren’t the only guys in the locker but absolutely no one said a word.

“No, Dean.”  I said angrily.  “You aren’t.”

“Oh you are a fucking liar.” He said in dawning realization.  “You were never a good liar!  Your tell is showing right now!”

For a moment I thought he meant tail, and then I realized that I had blinked too many times. That was my tell. Shit.

Jay looked back and forth from one to the other of us.  “No…”  He was blown over.  “No no no no no.  Dean!  You and Nikki?!”

“Before Nikki and I.”  I said.  “But that-”

“You were fucking my cousin?!”  Jay was all up in Dean’s face.  Jay and Dean are comparable in height so when they pushed off each other’s chests it was like two mountains colliding.  “Dude, we had a deal.  You don’t fuck anyone’s relative, or anybody we know!  And you broke that promise, dude!”

His mouth flew open and he pointed to me.  “T has been fucking your cousin!  Why aren’t you telling this to him?!”

“Because T is a good man.  He doesn’t fuck over people like you do!  You knock my cousin up-”

My eyes practically rolled to the back of my head and I almost blacked out; that is how fast I got mad.  “NOBODY KNOCKED UP NIKKI BUT ME!  I AM THE FATHER OF THIS BABY!”

Dean pushed past all of us.  “I’m going to get to the bottom of this!”  I hurried out of the locker room after him.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?!  No! Don’t even think about going to Nikki’s place!”  We were pushing and shoving each other and then we were outside.  He went to his truck and I jumped into my car.  Then we raced to the apartment.  I’m not completely sure how we didn’t wreck or take out a highway full of people, but he reached the apartment first, his truck partially up on the curb. 

I pulled up behind him and he was already banging on the door to be let in.  I grabbed him and pulled him away.  “Back off, dude, or I will kick your ass!”  He smacked my hand away and pushed me hard enough to cause me to stumble backwards. 

“Fuck off, T!  You knew all along!”

“There ain’t nothing to know!”  Then Nikki opened the door, looking like she’d just awakened from a nap.  And he asked her.  And she didn’t tell him that it was mine.  I thought that’s what we had agreed; this baby was mine, not anyone else’s regardless of whose sperm had impregnated her ovum.  Dean didn’t have to be here when I was going to step up to the plate regardless!

“Come in.  We need to talk about this.”  I gave her an incredulous look.  Why did we need to talk about this?  But I didn’t say anything, unsure of what might leave my mouth.  We went inside and I tried hard not to pace.

“Nikki? Could this be my baby?”

I saw her cross her arms in an almost defensive motion.  “It could be.”

Dean just nodded.  After a moment he took in a deep breath.  “That night I broke through the condom…”

Nikki’s eyes flitted to mine and then she nodded.  “Maybe.”

My breathing was coming in shallow spurts.  I wanted to punch something, but why?  This was before me.  We should be able to discuss this in an adult manner…except that I wanted to rip Dean’s cock off and shove it up his ass!

“Why didn’t you tell me?!  Were you ever going to tell me?!”

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know until very recently myself.  And considering that the last time I’d seen you, it was with you calling me a bitch, I wasn’t all that anxious to seek you out!”

Dean’s jaw clenched.  “I’m sorry for that.  I mean, you dumped me and I was just…being a child over it.  But this is so much more important, Nikki.  I mean…don’t you see that?”

She nodded.  “Tony and I just found out ourselves a little less than a month ago.  We’re trying to deal with it as well.  And when the baby comes and if it turns out that you are the father, then yes, I would have let you know.”  I looked at her, not realizing that this was the plan. 

Dean relaxed a bit more.  “Well I want to be there for you, Nikki, during this process-”

“That’s not necessary.”  I said tightly.  “She has a fiancée-”

“That doesn’t have a job.”  My mouth parted. 

“Dean!”  Nikki snapped.  “We are not struggling-”

“But a man works for his family.”

“And a man doesn’t come to a woman’s house drunk, beating on her door and calling her names!  So fuck you, Dean!”  I said angrily.

“No, fuck you, Tony!  I apologized for that and I see that you didn’t even come back and tell her that I did!  I mean, I know that she didn’t want to see me.  But you could have told her!”

I scowled.  “So now you know.  We’ll keep in touch.”  I went to the door and opened it for him.

He and Nikki exchanged looks and she nodded slightly for him to leave.  I hated that small show of intimacy.  He headed to the door, pausing before he was outside where I could slam it loudly after him. 

“Nikki, I want you to know that I’m very sorry for how everything that went down.  And despite how it appeared at the end, the brief time we spent with each other was good.  I know I was an ass.  But I hope you can accept my apology.”  He glared at me.  “If you need anything; money, whatever, call me.”

I held my breath and counted to ten.  I got to seven before he was out of the door and it was slammed and locked behind him.

“T how did he find out-?” 

“Why in the hell did you invite him in?!”  She gave me a look that seemed to say, ‘I know you didn’t just yell at me…’

I returned a look that said, ‘Yes I did!’

“Why are you mad at me?”  That simple question diffused me.

“I-I don’t know.”

“Well figure it out!”  She stormed out of the room and back to the bedroom where she promptly slammed the door.

I did what she said, and I took a few minutes to figure it out.  Then I tentatively opened the bedroom door where she was lying in bed on her side and staring at the wall. 

“Hi baby.”  I said.

She glanced at me.  “Hi.”  Her voice was shaky and it crushed me to know that she was so close to tears.

“I’m sorry.”

She sat up and looked at me.  “Tony, how many times do I have to apologize to you?  I’m sorry that this happened.”  Tears gushed from her eyes.  “I’m devastated that I’m doing this to you.”  I went to the bed and pulled her into my arms. 

“Baby, come here.  I don’t want you to apologize.  I don’t need that.”  She buried her head in my chest.  “Just don’t cry, okay?”  I tilted her chin upward and wiped away her tears.  We just stared at each other.  I placed my fingertips onto her belly.  I felt the baby in there moving and I smiled and then she did as well. 

“You’re a wonderful man.”  She whispered.  She placed her fingertips on my eyes and I closed them.  She traced the crease where my lids joined, following it lightly, and when her fingers moved to touch my nose I opened my eyes again.  Her hands moved to my hair and she swept her fingers through the strands.

My finger’s moved to her breasts and I stroked her nipple feeling it pucker through the material of her bra.  I cupped her breast in my hand, testing the increased weight and she groaned softly when my thumb circled the hardened flesh of her nipple. 

I sighed and urged her back onto the bed.  She laid back watching me with love and trust.  I slipped off her shirt and unlatched her bra and then softly I kissed each brown peak.  I covered her with my open mouth and carefully drew her breast into my mouth, careful not to tug too hard.  She drew in a sharp breath and her back arched.

Sitting up I pushed down her pants and she helped me by kicking them off.  I caressed her mound, spreading her wet hot flesh and then stroking her gently and repeatedly until her breath was heavy and strained.  She pulled me down to kiss her and I did, stroking her as I did.  Her hips rose to meet my touch and I looked at her and whispered,