The Glamorous Life (31 page)

W
hen Lolly arrived, she was very impressed with the house and a bit envious. She could tell that Lynx definitely loved Bambi. With every room she saw, the more she looked for reasons to hate Bambi. But once Lynx’s puppydog sad face popped in her head, she knew there was only one way to get this situation under control for her best interests. Although Bambi and Lynx were on the outs, she knew her son and knew him well. For sure they’d get back together, and there was only one driver—and the driver of the car was Bambi. Bambi had his heart, and Bambi now had the control that Lolly had once thought would always be hers.

I can’t beat this bitch, so let me join her. I’ll get in good graces with this chick, but I need to let her know she better mean my son some good.

B
ambi and Lolly drove to the restaurant in Bambi’s car. It was a nice seafood place that Bambi liked to go to with Lynx. They sat at a table by the window and ordered dinner. After their Chardonnay arrived, Lolly leaned in toward Bambi and said in a sweet voice that dripped with insincerity, “So, look, darling. Here’s the thing. I am sure just like your mother love you, I love my son, and I’m going to come to you like a woman.”

Bambi knew what was coming, but she bit her tongue for a minute to hear Lolly out of respect—she was Lynx’s mother.

“Look, the bottom line is, What is your agenda with my son?”

Bambi looked Lolly in the face and said, “It’s plain and simple.
I love your son with all my heart. I have no ulterior motives when it comes to him. We have an issue we need to iron out, but other than that, I promise you I mean him well and want nothing less than the best for him.”

“You know my sons and I have always been close, and especially so since their father passed away. I truly want them to be happy, but on the other side of the coin I won’t let a woman bring either of them down.”

“No disrespect, Ms. Lolly—I don’t know about any other woman, but I have no plans of standing in between you and your son. At the same time you have to allow your sons to be men,” Bambi said as sincerely as she could, but she really wanted to tell Ms. Lolly, “A daughter is a daughter for life, but a son is a son until he gets a wife.”

Satisfied with Bambi’s answer, Lolly changed the subject. The rest of the dinner was filled with a lot of small talk about Lolly’s favorite movie stars and Bambi’s business. When it came time to pay for the meal, Lolly let Bambi pick up the check even though Cleezy had given her two hundred dollars for dinner.

“We’re going to get along just fine,” Lolly said as they walked out of the restaurant. But Bambi wasn’t sure. For one thing she didn’t know if Lynx would ever forgive her. And what good was the mother without the son?

CHAPTER 32

Bundle of Joy

O
ver the next week, Lynx hung out in the projects and spent time in one of the crap houses. He ran into people that he knew from back in the day and even a few he had forgotten about because he hadn’t seen them in a while.

Lynx was coming out of the crap house when he ran into Shayla Love. Back in the day Shayla was one of Richmond’s finest. Back then, she was a brown complexion with baby-smooth skin. Back in the day she had long, coal black hair and was built like a brick house (measurements 36-24-36). Every dude in town, from the Northside to the Southside and from the East End to the West End, wanted Shayla, and she knew it. But she would not give Richmond dudes the time of day, which only made them want her more. Funny how things change.

“Whassup, Lynx?” she asked.

He scrunched his face up and said, “Who dat?”

“It’s me, Shayla,” she said.

He looked her up and down. This wasn’t the Shayla he knew
from back in the day. Shit had definitely changed. Standing there on the street, Lynx didn’t even recognize her. She had on a baseball hat, her haircut was close on the sides, and her clothes hung loosely off her body.

“Whad up, Shayla?”

“Fucked up right now. I need a ride. I need to be gone before my grandma get home.”

“How you grandma doing, anyway?”

“She’s seventy-nine and still holding on. She got high blood pressure and her heart a li’l fucked up, but overall she okay,” she said, looking down at the ground.

“Tell her I said hi, when you see her. How yo kids doing?”

“They doing fine. You know the three of them live up to New York with they daddy’s family. I still stay up there, too.”

When Shayla said that, Lynx remembered that he had heard that Shayla had three kids by some New York cat that she had married.

“Somebody tol’ me he got tow off for some trafficking charge. How much time they gave him?” Lynx asked, not really caring but making conversation.

“A dime piece.”

“Damn, why he have no chick riding with it? He should know better than that.” Lynx shook his head. “He could’ve really got an asshole full of time.”

“Dat’s right,” Shayla said, nodding. “Now I got to stay wit his people so they can keep an eye on me.”

“Yeah, well, what you doing down here?”

“Long story and I need a ride,” she said, looking around nervously.

“Where you going and what you looking all p’noid for?” Lynx asked, wanting to know what kind of stuff Shayla was really into.

“I’m trying to get to the mall and then gotta probably sell some pussy or something so I can get me some clothes and a ticket because I got to get back to New York.”

He knew that she was hinting for him to offer to trick with her, but he didn’t pay her any attention.

“Look, I am going to the Regency Mall, if you want a ride. I’ll buy you some jeans and a shirt.”

“Thanks, Lynx, you always used to look out. For real, my husband’s people pressing me to get back. I think they know I am down here on some bullshit probably. They are my bread and butter, and I can’t let them know what’s going on,” she said as she got in the car.

“Well, what’s really going on?” Lynx asked as he started the Porsche and drove away from the crap house.

“Man, Lynx, I’m all fucked up.” She twisted her hands together, and he could tell she was in deep shit.

“How?” he asked. All of a sudden he didn’t feel up to playing the role of Captain Save-a-Ho but asked anyway to make general conversation.

“I met this li’l young nigga and was creeping with him. Didn’t find out I was pregnant until I was about five months. So I couldn’t really get no abortion. So I kept buying all my clothes in bigger sizes so my husband’s family wouldn’t know. When I visit with my husband, it’s through a glass. Thank God, he didn’t notice. They all thought that I was gaining weight. With all my kids, I never got big, so I could play it off. I just had the baby three days ago.”

As he took a shortcut through Fairfield Court to hit Mechanicsville Turnpike, some nickel-and-dime drug dealers stood across the street in front of an empty building, waving folks down. Lynx glanced over at Shayla. She did look a little pudgy, and the baggy clothes didn’t help.

“Damn, so how you get away with that shit to come have the baby down here?”

“Well, three months ago, my grandma was sick. So I used that as the excuse, so I could come down here to have the baby. I know if they ever find out, they’ll take my kids. And he’ll have me kilt. Having some other dude’s baby when your man is locked up, and he’s your husband at that, is the ultimate betrayal.”

“I feel you. Damn, so what you do with the baby?”

She was silent for a minute. “Lynx, I don’t even wanna say.” “Don’t say you left it at the hospital.” He turned toward her angrily.

“I was, but I couldn’t,” she admitted, looking downward and biting her fingernails.

“So what you do?” he asked, demanding to know.

“I left it at my grandmother’s house, and that’s why I am trying to get out of town,” she said, unable to look him in the eye.

“I thought you said your grandmother was at the doctor.”

“She is.”

“Who got the baby?” Lynx asked.

“She waiting on my grandma.”

“What da fuck you thinking?” Lynx snapped.

“At least my baby will have some love for the first few years of her life,” she said, as if that was some kind of excuse.

“So, you just leaving yo baby? What if yo grandma call the people?”

“Then she just do. What can I do? I got to save my own ass.”

“You and yo grandma talked about the baby?”

“Nope. I just had to do what was good for me.”

Lynx was quiet for a minute. He wanted to stop the car and put Shayla out on the side of the road. He used to respect the way she carried herself, and now to find out that she wasn’t any
earthly good was disappointing to him. But she had something he wanted, something that could make his life complete.

“Look, Shayla, the bottom line is you just leaving yo baby, right? You don’t have no intentions on ever coming back for yo baby, right?”

“I can’t. I know it’s fucked up, but what can I do?” She choked back a sob.

“Look,” Lynx said, then paused. “My wife can’t have kids. Let me get the baby. I’ll buy it from you.”

“For real?”

“Yeah,” Lynx said. He knew this was exactly what he wanted to do.

“A’ight,” she said, like he was asking for a piece of candy or bubblegum. Lynx shook his head at her lack of attachment to her child.

“We gonna need to get the proper papers done,” he said.

“Okay, but ummm, we need to get them done quick, because I got to get back to New York,” she said.

“You got keys to yo grandma house?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, we need to get the baby now,” Lynx said, and turned the car around.

Shayla’s grandma lived in a little brick house in Church Hill. They walked inside, and Shayla led Lynx into the back bedroom. There lying on the bed with pillows on either side of it was a tiny baby girl, sleeping with a bottle beside her. At least the girl had given the baby something to eat, Lynx thought. He looked down at the baby. She was brown skinned, with long eyelashes and tiny little fingers. She had a head full of coal black curly hair. He looked at her and saw that she would get darker later. He picked her up and gently put her on his shoulder. She didn’t even wake up, but she nestled against him in her sleep.

“You sho you don’t want her?” Lynx asked Shayla, as if she was giving away an old coat or a pair of shoes.

“Man, I already got three kids. What I need with one more?” Shayla asked, putting some diapers and a few little baby clothes into a bag for him. “I’m outta formula, so you got to buy some.”

“That’s okay. My baby girl can have anything she wants,” Lynx said. He was already falling in love.

Lynx then called Tricia. He took the baby over to Tricia and told her what was going on and not to breathe a word to Bambi. He called Cook’em-up and told him to take Shayla shopping and to stay with her for the rest of the day. He put Shayla up in a hotel, and the next morning he took her to the lawyer’s office to get all the paperwork done.

When the lawyer saw how much Lynx was willing to pay, he put everything else aside and got right to work. It took a full day of running around to this place and that, but by the end of the day, it was done. After they signed the papers, Lynx took Shayla to the airport. Before she got out of the car, he handed her an envelope.

“You got no claim on this baby, Shayla. I don’t want no shit out of you when that runs out.”

“Lynx you don’t even have to say that. I know how you get down. Thanks for real, for digging me up out of this shit, for real,” she said.

“It’s thirty grand cash in there. Now go on home and try to keep your ass out of trouble,” he said.

Shayla’s mouth hung open as she looked inside the envelope.

“Damn,” she said. “You’ll be a good daddy, Lynx.” Then she tucked it into her purse, waved, and got out of the car with a smile on her face. Lynx headed back over to Tricia’s to see how his new baby was doing.