...
Back at the house Zay parked the car and sat in the driveway. He didn't want to admit it, but he needed a minute to digest the reality of this situation. Samara looked over at him and noticed that he didn't budge. "Hey? You ready to go in?"
"In a sec. Can you take the food in for me? I'll be right behind you."
"Yeah, sure," she said nodding her head. "No problem." Samara gave him a quick smile before opening the door and getting out.
Inside, the house was full of the Adams' extended family members all there to celebrate the holiday with the gift exchange and good food. Everyone was gathered in the living room excitedly talking over one another. When Imani saw Samara come in she was thrilled, because the last two people she had been waiting for had come back just in time.
"Oh good! Sam! Y'all're back." She looked behind her trying to locate Zay. "Where's my son?"
"He's still in the car. He'll be in in a sec."
"Ar'ight. He betta not make me have to go out and get him, cuz I will," she laughed. "You can put those bags on the kitchen counter with the rest of the food. I'll be out there in a bit to set everything up."
"Oh, I can do it for you if you want. It's no problem," Samara offered.
"Actually," Imani said thinking it over, "that's not a bad idea. Yeah, that would be helpful. Thank you so much Sam."
"Of course! Just show me how you want everything and I gotchu."
"Sounds good. Come on!"
..
While Samara was in the kitchen setting up the remainder of tonight's dinner, Zay walked in. He went over to Samara and hugged her from behind, sending quick kisses down the side of her neck. Samara settling into his embrace, reached her arm back and turned her face to look at him. "Hey. Everything okay?" she said kissing his lips.
Zay buried his face into her neck and breathed deeply before speaking. "I'm terrified at the thought of being a father so soon," he admitted. His confession made Samara turn her body completely around so she could give Zay her undivided attention. "If it turns out that she is mine I'll take care of her, but," he paused before continuing, "I'm not sure I'll be any good at it." Zay looked at Samara and shook his head as if it would shoo away his worrisome thoughts. "Anyway. That's what I was feeling and I didn't want to keep that from you."
"Thank you. I'm glad that you told me, cuz you had me a little worried in the car." Zay apologized and wrapped her in a hug. When he finally let go, Samara uttered, "Whatever you need, I'm here for you. Okay?"
"Yeah. I know," he smiled. "Thank you."
Samara smiled and shrugged. "Don't mention it."
"So, what did mama have you doing out here?" he asked returning Samara's attention back to the task at hand. Samara turned back around to look at the pans of food on the counter and then back at Zay.
"Not much. Just setting up the rest of the food and making sure that there are utensils and plates out. I'm pretty much done, really."
"So that means you have some free time?" Zay cheesed. Samara rolled her eyes and fought back a smile at what she knew was coming next. Zay leaned in and kissed her neck.
"Now why you always startin' something that you know we can't finish?" she whispered with a grin.
Zay just smiled in response. He pressed his lips against her collarbone then moved up to tease the space below her jawline, all before crashing his lips passionately into hers.
Imani, who had just walked into the kitchen, came to a complete halt when she saw them. Instead of clearing her throat or making a sound she slowly backed out of the kitchen. She had suspected that something was going on between them when Zay took Samara on that overnight trip three days ago, but she told herself she wouldn't pry. Now they were in her kitchen all boo'd up! That made her happy. Imani always liked Samara and thought that she would be good for Zay. She was just glad that he saw it too. As she left out of the kitchen she heard her husband say, "Sam in there making the food? I thought she was just setting up." Imani took that as her cue to rush out into the living room. "Shouldn't we exchange gifts first then eat?" she said trying to buy Zay and Samara some time.
"Ooh. I don't know about that baby. I'm hungry," Zayne answered. "Sam! Is everything good! The food is ready to eat, right?"
Samara broke away from Zay who just didn't want to let her go. "Yeah, the food is ready! Everything is set up!"
"Perfect! That's what I'm talmbout! Y'all can start heading into the dining room and kitchen," Zayne instructed.
Still in their same spot, Samara giggled at Zay who was in her ear. "Look at you. You are obsessed with me," she laughed.
"Come on. Let's go upstairs real quick," he motioned with a head nod.
Samara smiled. "But we're about to eat."
"Me too," he winked. "Come on."
Samara blushed and asked coyly, "You don't think they'll get suspicious and wonder why we're not at the dining room table?"
"Nah. The fam don't know our relationship like that," he grinned. As the family began to pour into the kitchen, Zay pulled a giggling Samara towards the doorway.
"What the hell was that about?" Zayne asked after they breezed past him.
Imani shook her head and chuckled. "Whatever it is, it don't concern you," she grinned as she grabbed a plate. "Didn't you say you was hungry? Whatchu want baby? I'll get it for you."
..
Later that night, while Samara was sleeping soundly beside Zay his phone rung. He grabbed it, peering at it with one eye open, and answered it.
"Hello?" he answered groggily.
"Hey. It's me. I'm outside. Can you come out so we can talk? It's important."
Zay gave a deep sigh into the phone and muttered, "Yeah. I'll be out in a sec." He got out of bed, careful not to wake up Samara, and slowly shuffled out of the room to get dressed.
When Lovie finally saw him approaching her she tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach.
"Sup," Zay yawned in her direction. "What's going on that you had to get me out of my bed at two in the morning?"
Lovie rolled her eyes. "Can you keep the boxing gloves off for like five minutes? Please?" she huffed. "I didn't come here to argue."
"Ar'ight. What is it?"
"Look Zay. There's no easy way to say this, but—London is not yours." She took a breath then continued. "I cheated on you when we were together and ended up pregnant with London. I didn't say anything at the time, because I was so worried about what you might think of me and I was scared. On top of that my family was about to move, so I just took it as an out and decided to keep it to myself. After the run in we had last night I knew I had to say something."
"Wow. Um. I'm relieved to hear that, but uh, you could have just texted me instead of driving over here in the middle of the night."
"No I couldn't have. This was a conversation that needed to be had face to face."
"Well if that's the case we could have had this conversation a little later in the day."
"True, but I couldn't sleep, plus it's Christmas and it's my daughters birthday. I-I wouldn't've had the time."
"Okay," Zay said nodding his head, "I'll give you that." Lovie stood there not wanting to leave, but unsure of what else to say. "So um anyway," Zay continued, "thanks for reaching out. Glad that you were able to clear that up for me."
"Wait. You don't have to leave yet. We could sit in my car. Talk some more."
"I'm actually kinda tired, so maybe another time. When there's sunlight...and more people around."
Lovie huffed. "Wow. So that's it? You really don't fuck with me, huh?"
"Lov, what are you talking about?"
"You don't wanna hang out with me or catch up and I tell you that you're off the hook, that you're not London's dad and your response is hella dry. Like, I'm tired of being iced out. I feel like I'm being punished or something."
"I really don't know what else I'm supposed to say. All of this happened when we were just sixteen. I'm not mad about the situation or at what you did. I just don't see the need to drag this out."
"Yeah, because you can go back to your perfect life with Samara."
"What was the point of bringing her up? She wasn't no where near the conversation and here you go."
"I'm sorry. I just don't like her."
"You don't know her!"
"No. But ever since you expressed how happy you were to see me she is still all you make time for."
"Lovie. I don't owe you anything and that includes my time. I have moved on and it's time for you to do the same. When you decided to break up with me before you left I was gutted. I reached out to you numerous times to which you replied 'leave me alone'. YOU iced me out! And now you come back in town for the holiday and you expect me to be, what? I don't know! waiting for you? That shit only happens in fairytales and in movies. In the real world we move on. You ended the relationship and that was hard for me at the time, but I've forgiven you since then and now you're making it hard to even want to be friends."
"I still love you. I never stopped. It's just hard seeing you with her. I thought it would always be us."
"Well where was that love when you cheated?"
"It never left. At the time I was just mad at you for ditching me to hang out with your friends all weekend. I wanted to get back at you, so when this guy who really liked me at the time asked me out, I said yes. That night I did something that I regretted and now I have a kid. I'm paying for the mistake that I made by seeing you be attentive to Samara in a way that you weren't with me. I just wanted you to be that affectionate when we were together."
"Are you serious? You're jealous that I give Samara more attention than I gave you when we were sixteen? Like, I want to care, but that's ridiculous. Grow up Lovie. In case you forgot you had my weekends sowed up. The weekend you're talking about was the first weekend I spent with my friends in months, because your parents raised a spoiled brat who lived in a world where everything revolved around her and because I loved you I sucked it up and did whatever you wanted to do to make you happy. It's been five years. I'm in a new relationship and my girlfriend takes an equal interest in the things that I like. As much as I wished you were like that when we were in high school I'm not 'bout to sit up here and compare how different y'all are, because she is not the age you were when we were dating and you were not the age that she is when we were dating. I dated you at sixteen. I'm dating her at twenty-one. You both have gotten two different versions of me, because who you knew at sixteen is not who I am at almost twenty-two. It's unfair to still hold me to those standards and then be jealous of my girlfriend because she got a better me."
"I just want my friend back."
"Maybe you should have thought about that before you started showing your ass around here."
"Zay—"
"Goodnight Lovie. You told me what you came here to tell me. I don't have nothing else to say." Zay walked away leaving a teary-eyed Lovie standing alone.
When he made it to the living room area of his bedroom he stripped, leaving the clothes on the floor. He crept quietly back into the bedroom and slowly laid back down into the bed. The moment his head hit the pillow Samara rolled over and snuggled close to him.
"You okay?" she mumbled into his neck. "You were gone for a little while."
"Yeah, I'm good," he said kissing the top of her head. "I just saw Lovie."
Samara picked her head up from his chest. "Lovie?" she mumbled. "This late?"
"Yeah. She called me outside so we could talk."
"Oh. About London?" she said laying back down on his chest.
"Yeah. She's not mine. Apparently she cheated." Samara sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"Sam lay back down. I'm not trynna get you all riled up this late."
She ignored him. "She what?"
"Yeah I know," Zay sighed. "But I'm not mad. It was a long time ago."
"She was over here acting like you were the love of her life, but she had a baby on you? That's crazy."
"I know. I can't make this shit up."
"What else she say?"
"That she still loves me and that she wants us to be friends."
Samara rolled her eyes. "Anybody that pulls up on you after two in the morning to deliver news that they could have texted is on some sneaky shit. She don't respect you or your relationship, cause a real one would have waited until at least ten a.m. to start their bullshit. If she come up here later today imma say something."
"Mar, don't stoop to her level. We don't need no drama on Christmas."
"She brought the drama when she showed up here with her sights on you."
"Sam. Relax. I don't want you to do anything that you can end up in jail for."
"What? I ain't gon' do nothing. I just wanna talk."
"Mmhm," Zay replied. He leaned over and kissed Samara's lips. "Let's get back to bed." Samara heard him, but continued her rant.
"But I mean...if her face accidentally, you know, come into contact with my hand then I can't be held responsible for whatever happens next cause technically she asked for it."
Zay grabbed Samara and pulled her back down into the bed. He scooted his body closer to hers and tickled her naked waist.
"Zaytavious Jones what are you doing?" she laughed.
"Trynna take your mind off of this. You don't need to be thinking about her."
"Then you shouldn't have told me that she was just here."
"I wanted you to know. I like being honest with you. Aren't you always honest with me?"
"Yes."
"Okay then."
"But Zay—" she pouted.
"Baby. What is it gonna take to get your mind off of this?" he said kissing the back of her shoulder.
"Give me her number so I can pull up."
"I'm not gonna do that," he chuckled.
"Okay." Samara turned her body around so that she could be face to face with Zay. She reached over him and grabbed his phone from the nightstand. "Then block her." Zay took the phone from Samara's hand and unlocked it. He went to Lovie's and his recent messages and blocked her. He held his phone up so Samara could see it.
"You straight?"
"Yeah," Samara nodded.
Zay leaned in and pecked her lips. "I love you."
"I love you too."
As the two laid back down in bed together Samara silently hoped that Christmas would be drama free. In the back of her mind however, she knew that there was at least a twenty five percent chance that Lovie would show up, yet she chose to remain hopeful that she would be wrong.
