New Girl

Chapter 31.5

He tells me that he's 39, has 3 siblings 1 sister and 2 brothers. I've met them along with my grandmother on his side. They would come around for birthdays and drop off gifts for holidays. I haven't seen them in a while but overall they're really nice people. He went to Loyola University for basketball but then transferred to the University of Connecticut because they gave him more money and had a better Economics program. His favorite color is blue, favorite food is pizza, favorite subject is math. He says I get the brains and athleticism from him.

"So how did you meet my mom?" I ask.

"It was freshman year. I saw her walking around campus and thought she was the most beautiful woman on campus. One of my homegirls knew her from high school and told me she was an art history major. So I started making it my mission to put myself in places I knew she would be so that I could talk to her." He starts laughing. I think it's cute when men admit they have crushes and they plot just as much as women do. He continues, "I would try to talk to her here and there but she thought I was just trying to sleep with her and that wasn't the case at all. By sophomore year though I had added an art history minor so I could be around her more often."

"Could you paint or draw?" I ask intrigued on how he kept his scholarship. He shakes his head no and chuckles.

"I learned a lot about different art styles though. The point was for your mom to think I understood art and..." His thought gets cut short when Ma comes to sit next to him after cleaning in the kitchen. He looks at her like he's just seen an angel.

"It worked." She finishes his sentence rolling her eyes and kissing his cheek. I choke back a laugh as he wiggles his eyebrows.

"Why couldn't we be a happy family?" I ask. It gets quiet for a bit before he speaks up.

"I wanted a family, and when we started dating I told Myra that I wanted a family someday. I was in Indiana for a game when she told me she was pregnant and I remember I was so happy I told all of my teammates. I was there for all the appointments and everything." He stops and starts to look sad.

"But you didn't get your family. So what happened? Did you just change your mind or something." I say trying not to get upset again. My mom taps his leg.

"In a very selfish, anxious way, yes, I transferred to UConn and as the due date started to get closer and closer I started getting scared that I was going to end up like my father. I wanted to avoid that, by any means possible. So I made a promise to myself no matter what I wouldn't flake."

I want him to go into detail because as he probably knows he ended up like his father. I don't want to interrupt his train of thought so I stay quiet and he continues

"I promised I would be there to know the gender since we kept arguing over names and your birth. I came home to find out the gender because it was around Thanksgiving but the whole month of March and most of April I had gone ghost. I had gotten so overwhelmed by the thought of being a father I had talked myself out of it and had went back on my promise. I started making up dreams and ambitions I never thought about like going to the league, starting a business, making a lot of money, and having a bunch of girls. I had completely abandoned your mom. She would call and text and leave voicemails. I would see them and go about my day."

He picks up one of the pictures that was on the table and stares at it. It's a picture of my mom laying in the hospital bed holding me.

"The day you were born, your grandmother had called me and cussed me clean out saying that she didn't raise me to be a deadbeat, when I came home all of my stuff would be in the goodwill, I'm everything like my father etc. etc. but I didn't care. I was so caught up in my own selfishness that nothing she said affected me. I broke up with your mom and decided to live out my dream. I took basketball seriously and I became a rolling stone. I was popular, a star player, I was getting scouted, I thought I had everything I wanted and nothing could touch me. Until your mom, with you, came to visit me and caught me with my girlfriend."