The Baby They Bonded Over

Chapter 3

Nadia’s phone began ringing incessantly. The first time it rang, she saw it was her sister. She checked the time and knew she wasn’t at work so she didn’t need her to pick her up or anything. She thought about answering the phone but remembered when she was trying to get a hold of her the day Paul popped up at the salon. She had to vent to her voicemail. Her phone began to buzz again. She looked down at her sister’s smiling face and pressed the end button, sending her call straight to voicemail.

“Payback’s a bi*ch, ain’t it?” she chuckled as she put her phone on silent. Nadia sat back in her living room to watch TV. She wondered if it was an emergency, but then shook the idea from her head. If it were, she’d be getting calls from everybody, not just her sister. She started feeling bad that she was ignoring Sylvia but she also saw those blog articles and tabloids they put out that morning. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that her sister was just calling her to be nosy. She wasn’t ready to tell her what was going on with Paul. Nadia was in no mood for the, I told you he was a creep, speech. As much as she loved her sister, Sylvia was horrible at letting things go and letting her learn about life in her own way.

Sylvia stared at her phone wondering if there was something wrong with it. She glanced to Jeremy then back to her phone and back to him again before dialing Nadia one more time. The call was sent to voicemail again.

“What’s wrong?” Jeremy asked her seeing her frustration growing.

“I think she’s ignoring my call!” Sylvia exclaimed.

“She wouldn’t do something like that, would she?” Jeremy questioned with a puzzled look on his face.

“She just might,” Sylvia grumbled. “Give me your phone!”

Jeremy handed his phone to her immediately. He was already redirecting Sylvia’s wrath to her sister; there was no way in hell he’d get it pointed back to him.

Sylvia dialed Nadia’s number again.

Nadia watched her phone light up once more expecting to see Sylvia’s face. It wasn’t. Jeremy’s profile pic was him in his finest suit, getting ready for some function, tying his tie in the mirror. The candid photo captured everything she liked about him. She caught herself smiling at the mere thought of him.

The phone continued to ring and she decided to answer it. “Hey baby daddy. Now before you yell at me, it wasn’t my fault the tabloids got a hold of those pictures. And I had no idea that Paul was going to be such an asshole. Well, I mean I knew he was going to be an asshole, but not such a big one that you guys would almost start fighting. I hope it didn’t ruin anything you had going on for your business.”

“Ruin his business?” Sylvia questioned angrily now that she officially knew Nadia ignored her calls, “You’re going to ruin a whole lot more than that! And what the fu*k?! Why are you ignoring my phone calls? Why do you have Jeremy pretending to be your boyfriend? And who the hell are you calling baby daddy? You don’t think that I’m going to allow you to get pregnant! Do you even know what it means to be a parent? Do you know how much work goes into it? You’re barely bringing in enough to support yourself but now you want to bring a baby into this-”

“But I’ll be,” Jeremy tried to interrupt but his rebuttal was met with a stiff finger. He shut up.

“And you two don’t even know enough about each other to even be in a relationship let alone become parents! Why do you even think this co*kamamie idea will even work for somebody like Paul? He’s been pretty persistent up to this point, what makes you think another man getting involved is going to change anything? Don’t you think that’s just going to piss him off even more? What were you thinking?” Sylvia shouted.

“Are you done?” Nadia asked over the phone.

“Yeah, go ahead,” Sylvia sighed.

“Well first things first, I didn’t answer your calls because this is what I was trying to avoid. You’re judging this situation and you’re not in it and you’re not the one Paul is harassing. I knew you were calling just to be nosy and to yell at me for the tabloid stuff. You’re so ready to believe that I’m going to ruin Jeremy’s life, but I’m not. He’s a grown man and he could’ve said no. Two, I don’t need your permission to do anything. So you allowing anything to happen is co*kamamie because that’s not your call to make. Again, Jeremy is grown. Three, getting pregnant and raising the baby are two very different things. This ridiculous plan of mine will work as long as Paul sees I’m pregnant by someone else, I know it’ll be the nail in the coffin. He won’t want to deal with me after that,” Nadia explained.

Jeremy jumped in to add his thoughts too, “And even if we decided to keep the baby, I’m more than financially capable of taking care of both the baby and your sister, Sylvia.”

Sylvia shot Jeremy a dirty look, “You, shut up! The only reason you can even dream about keeping this baby is because you know Nadia. She’s not a gold digger and has known you for as long as I have. I get that you’re scared to give yourself to a healthy relationship, but this is not the way to your happiness.”

“So wait,” Nadia yelled. “As your sister, you don’t think I’m good enough for your best friend?! What the fu*k is wrong with me, Sylvia? Why isn’t our relationship healthy? Why can’t we decide to commit to each other? Because you said so.”

Sylvia rubbed her forehead, “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“That’s exactly what you’re saying!” Nadia shouted.

“That does kinda sound like what you’re getting at, but I see your point too,” Jeremy chimed in.

Sylvia shot him another twisted expression. “You’re good for any man you decide to be with. But this idea that you two need to be together to get you away from Paul is dangerous, especially when you involve a pregnancy. This isn’t something to play around with. I just don’t want either of you getting hurt. I can see where this can go all wrong. This whole pregnancy relationship can blow up in both your faces.”