Another Man's Treasure (Joey Bada$$ Story)

Part Trentatre

Eight Months Later

It was hard to move boxes up and down stairs when I couldn’t even see my own two feet.

But I wanted to help. I wasn’t doing anything important, anyway. All day yesterday, I just watched old coming-of-age movies and spent an hour on the phone with my mother trying to explain to her how to use a cell phone that wasn’t a flip phone. At the end of the conversation, she informed me that she had to meet Joey’s parents before the baby was born, and that wasn’t a request, but a demand.

I told her that we’d see what we could do.

Joey’s father was in St. Lucia and wouldn’t be able to make it back up, but he was on good terms with his son. He never called but when I got down Joey’s back about keeping a good relationship with his dad, he’d call and they would have nice, genuine conversations.

His mother didn’t get to see him often. She still lived in Brooklyn but Joey was always busy, and when he wasn’t all he wanted to do was spend time with me and Tara. The last time he saw her was the first time that I met her, when I was two months’ pregnant and we thought that we should let her know now before it’s too late. I saw her again last month when I was going shopping for the baby, but Joey was on one of his mini-tours back then. He just got back home two days ago, and today he agreed to help Darius move out of his apartment downtown to a bigger apartment in Clinton Hill that was closer to where Joey and I lived.

The new place was actually more expensive than his spot downtown, but he was moving with his roommate, Dina, who would help him with the rent. She was the same girl that was there the day that I went to his house and got him to recite an improvised poem to me. She was still the same gothic, depressed girl from before, only now she wasn’t just Darius’ roommate, but his girlfriend. I’m not sure exactly how they ended up together, but I remember Darius telling me one day that he not only influenced her to join a  therapy group for drug addicts but would drop her off and pick her up from there daily. I guess all that time together brought them closer.

It didn’t matter how it happened, anyway. At the end of the day, I didn’t have to worry about Darius being in love with me.

I reached the top of the stairs, finally. The building he’d moved into did have an elevator, it just wasn’t working today. He only lived on the third floor, which I could manage. Any higher and I wouldn’t passed out, though.

“Here’s one of the boxes.” I dropped it in the doorway. The whole crew was here to help him move and to have a short-notice housewarming.

“Did you carry that up the stairs?” CJ asked me.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

He came and picked up the box to be carried to the back. “You know Joey would throw a fit if he knew you were walking up the stairs without him, and carrying heavy packages?”

“That box isn’t heavy, and I can walk up the stairs without holding on to him by now. I’m used to this belly.” I rested my hand on my stomach.

“Jamie, you can’t even tie your own shoes.”

He was right.

The night that Joey and I conceived the little angel in my belly was prominent in my mind like it was just yesterday. The sex itself was a blur, but I remembered the experience. I remembered regaining some memory of the night I had with Steez. Being with Joey helped me remember being with Steez, how warm his skin was against mine, how he was a little clumsy in bed and would smile every time he messed up, how he kissed me when he climaxed. He treated me like someone he’d known for ten years, not just like some wasted girl he met at a concert.