Synergy (29 page)

As she
got ready, Dee couldn’t help reality check herself of where she was
going, and where she’d come from. She knew people probably wouldn’t
believe her if she’d told them this stripper from Detroit was going
to an album launch party of a famous singer, never mind the fact
the famous singer was her new boyfriend, as well as her baby’s
father. She still didn’t know what Jason saw in her, but she tried
not to think about it too much, knowing it would probably drive her
crazy. She’d never been to something as big as this, and she was
nervous about what to expect. She didn’t know if she’d have to take
photos, or answer questions. Would people really want to speak to
her? What would they ask her about? She didn’t know if there were
things Jason didn’t want her to speak about, or things she
shouldn’t say. She figured she’d probably have to be on her best
behaviour, making sure she kept it classy and not hood, and kept
the cussing inside her head. She knew it wasn’t the time to be
showing out and being ghetto.

Though
Dee knew she had to go now, she felt a fight or flight response
brewing inside, and everything in her wanted to choose flight – a
flight back home to see her son and her family. She tried telling
herself it was only one night, a few hours at most, but she
couldn’t lie, she wasn’t looking forward to it. As she finished the
last of her makeup, she looked at herself in the mirror one last
time, turning around to see her butt in her dress. She thought it
was hard to stay classy when she had a butt as big as hers. Dresses
were constantly riding up because of it, so something that would
have looked classy on somebody else looked short and sexy on her.
As she looked herself up and down, she failed to notice Joy coming
into the room, till she spoke and made her jump
slightly.

“
Don’t you look
lovely
” Joy admired, and Dee found herself
blushing slightly, something that she never did.

“
Thankyou. You
too
.”

“
Oh, this old
thing
” Joy joked. She was wearing a white
dress, down to the knee, paired with some silver strappy heels. She
looked good for a woman of her age, Dee had to admit. Even though
she was taller than her, Joy now appeared shorter as Dee’s heels
gave her the extra height to stand above her. She didn’t worry
about being pregnant with heels, practically everybody she knew was
still wearing stilettos near their due date.

Jason
and his stepdad Paul were waiting downstairs for the women to
finish getting ready, having already opened a beer or two while
they waited. As Dee and Joy made their way downstairs, they could
hear laughing and joking coming from the men, they sounded jovial.
As the women entered the room, Dee following behind Joy, their
laughter stopped, and instead, they admired the women as they came
through the door.

“
Very
nice
” Paul commented, kissing his wife on
the cheek lovingly, before he handed her a glass of wine he’d
already poured for her arrival.

“
Wow
” was all Jason could manage as
he watched Dee enter the room, before Joy stepped
in.

“
Doesn’t she look
lovely, boys
?”

“
Great
” Paul chimed in, taking a sip
of his beer.

“
You look
beautiful
.” Jason said, resting his hand
on the small of her back as she stood next to him. He rubbed his
thumb over her back caringly as he took a sip of his beer. He felt
himself blush a little bit after he spoke realising his parents
were listening and probably could tell how smitten he was with Dee;
they always knew exactly how he felt.

Chapter 26 – Twins

“
How does it feel
to have a boyfriend so famous? Where did you grow up? Do you like
the album? Where did you two meet? When’s the baby due? Is it a boy
or a girl
?” It felt like the questions
from reporters, photographers and the like just kept on coming,
with no break. The flashing lights from the cameras was something
Dee wasn’t used to, and every time she blinked, she saw little
bright spots. Just when she thought she’d regained her sight,
another one would go off inches from her face and she’d have the
struggle again, all the while questions were being thrown left,
right and centre. Some had more calming, down to earth voices,
while others were rough and ready, and didn’t even give her chance
to answer before they followed with something else. There were
definitely a fair few that Dee wanted to punch, but she had to keep
herself composed not only for the sake of Jason and his family, but
for her own reputation.

The
party itself wasn’t bad and Dee’s only disappointment was that
there was a free bar she couldn’t take advantage of. However, there
was also free food so it wasn’t all bad. She never passed up free
food; it was almost ingrained into her that that was something you
just don’t do. Back when she was a child, her mother couldn’t
always afford snacks or treats, so whenever an opportunity
presented itself, you took it.

While
everyone was in high spirits, no one was sloppy drunk or wild, and
she couldn’t help but think it was like no party she’d ever been
to. A party wasn’t a party in Detroit unless someone was being
sick. For the beginning of the night, Jason stayed close beside
Dee, showing her off like she was a trophy to anybody that came
into close proximity, but by the middle, he was nowhere to be seen.
She tried to remember this was his career, and she knew he probably
had to keep up appearances, make everybody happy, but she couldn’t
help but feel a little pissed off. She was never really left alone
since Joy or Paul always stayed close, or at one point, when they
were whisked off somewhere, Tom was on hand to talk to
her.

While
she didn’t have anything against Tom personally, she felt there was
something between them, stopping them from getting along. Part of
her thought he probably didn’t approve of her as a partner to his
friend, but Dee had never been concerned with what people thought
about her. She knew if he admitted he had a problem, she could
confidently tell him where to stick his opinion. There was nothing
particularly that he’d said or done, but she found they quite often
had awkward silences, like there was nothing to say. Something was
off about the guy, and she couldn’t put her finger on it, still,
she put up with him.

Dee had
got to listen to songs from Jason’s new album, which was playing
during the event. She thought it was weird to hear him sing and
remember that was a voice she’d heard for years, never paying much
attention, and not even realising he was who he was when they met.
Towards the end of the night, when everybody was a little merry,
including Jason, he took to the stage to thank everyone for the
support and coming out, before he performed one of his well known
songs for everybody. Everybody was dancing and cheering, and
generally in awe of him, again, something that was weird to watch
from Dee’s perspective. She felt almost as if she were in awe of
him too as she watched, though she would never say it out loud.
She’d never been a feelings type person, she found it hard to give
compliments or even take them for that matter. The night overall
wasn’t bad, though she was happy when it was time to leave. She
knew tomorrow she could wake up and get a plane back home to see
her son, who she was missing already; she’d never been so far away
from him.

Dee
thought about the arrival of the new baby, and everything that
Jason had been offering over the months. The offer of a new home
and money was something that was hard to think about. She was a
proud person and she would never in a million years think about
taking money off someone, though currently paying the bills was
starting to become difficult with not working at the club. In a
regular job, she would get maternity pay for the last few months,
and she’d be able to work pretty much until she dropped she
imagined if she was in an office or something, but working as a
stripper was different.

What
many people didn't realise about that type of job is that most
strippers aren’t employed by the club as such, they’re self
employed ‘independent contractors’, meaning Dee actually paid money
to the club to dance there. Any tips she earned she kept, and that
was her wage, so when she became pregnant, the club didn’t have to
fire her, though they would have asked her not to come back till
after she’d had the baby should she not have left of her own
accord. Maternity pay wasn’t in the equation. It wasn’t an ideal
situation to be in, but with no high school certificate, jobs were
hard to come by, and people in her area did what they could to
survive. Every day was a new hustle and challenge.

Dee knew
she was lucky to have met someone like Jason who had money, because
it meant the expensive baby things were all paid for by him,
meaning she didn’t have to rely on handouts and help for those too.
She’d kept some of Tushaun’s old things just in case she ever had
another baby, and while she was happy to use those, Jason had
insisted she buy new ones anyway, feeling it was his duty to help
her out with things like that.

It was
late by the time they’d all got back to Joy and Paul’s home, and
they were all ready to head straight to bed, which they did. They
were all evidently in high spirits, and it was nice to go to bed on
such a high. Dee could see a sparkle in Jason that she hadn’t seen
before, which she could tell was from his love of music and his
industry. She thought it must be nice to do something you truly
loved and enjoyed and get paid for it, a total win-win situation.
They chatted idly as they got ready for bed, Dee changing into a
pair of comfortable pyjamas and taking off her makeup in the
en-suite bathroom mirror. She left the door open as she wiped her
face, and Jason watched her from inside the bed covers. He yawned
as he flicked through the TV channels with the remote. He’d learnt
just from a few short months with Dee that she liked to fall asleep
with the TV on, the background noise helped soothe her to sleep.
She told him that sleeping in silence was impossible, because her
mind worked on overdrive.

Evidently, there was nothing decent on at this time of night,
so eventually he just stopped flicking and left it on whatever was
on. He knew they probably wouldn’t watch it anyway, and that it was
only there for the background noise, so he put the remote to one
side and shuffled lower in the covers, turning on his side to see
the TV. A small child was screaming in a supermarket, and a mother
looked utterly embarrassed as she tried to peel him off the floor.
In the background, Supernanny stood to one side and shook her head.
Jason chuckled lightly; he didn’t mind a bit of Supernanny. Dee
soon finished up in the bathroom and turned off the light before
joining him in bed. She shuffled down into the covers and turned
onto her side too, as the pair watched the show silently for a
minute.

“
How come these
parents don’t do shit when their kid’s bad
” Dee questioned. “
You the damn
parent, you letting ‘em rule
!”

“
I guess not
everyone’s cut out to be a parent
” Jason
observed, as Supernanny took the parent to one side, and started to
explain the procedure for dealing with the boy’s bad
behaviour.

“
On another
note...”
 Jason started, as he
remembered his grandmother’s words the day
before.

“
We should start
thinking about names
”

“
I
know
” Dee agreed. “
That’s the hardest part
”

“
You got any
ideas
?” Jason asked her.

“
Um...I like Devon, for a boy. Or Darrell, or
Tiann.”

“
Darrell’s not too bad. I always liked Olivia for a
girl.”

“
Mmm, I don’t know”

“
Or Nora.”

“
We ain’t calling her Nora, that’s like an old
woman”

Jason
chuckled. “An old woman?”

“
Yeah, it’s like Margaret or something”

“
No it isn’t!”

“
What about....Zavier for a boy?”

“
You think it’ll be a boy?” Jason asked.

“
Yeah, I don’t know why.”

The two
of them went silent for a minute, thinking in their own heads for
more names as they continued watching Supernanny on the screen
intermittently. The little boy on the screen was now talking to the
cameras, and his name appeared underneath in a caption.

“
Rio
” Jason read the little boy’s
name aloud from the screen, and as his brain registered it, he
repeated it again.

“
What about
Rio
?”

“
Rio
” Dee repeated, almost in a
whisper, and before Jason had prepared himself for her answer, she
rolled over in the bed and faced him, a smile on her face. It was a
strange look, because though she was smiling, Jason could see there
was pain hidden there too.