Page 32 of Pretty

I was bored out of my mind, and Drew was away for a game. I was reading a book and sipping a glass of wine, but I wanted to get out of the house. I had gone stir crazy the last few days. It felt like I’d been locked inside since he left, and I had cabin fever.

My parents were in Bogotá for their wedding anniversary, Chloe was doing another modeling shoot out in California, and my brothers were doing whatever it was they did when they weren’t working. I should have gone to California with Chloe when she invited me.

I glanced at my phone for the third time before I picked it up. I dialed Lauren and waited for her to answer.

“Pretty.” She answered on the fourth ring.

“Hey. I was calling to see if you wanted to go out for drinks and catch a movie or something. You sound busy. Are you busy?”

“Mm. Nooo. Not really.”

“I’m bored, and Drew won’t be back home until tomorrow morning. I really need to get out of this house tonight. It feels like time is dragging.”

“Can’t you . . . paint? Mm read? Ohhh, dance.”

“Girl, are you okay?”

“Ye-yeah!”

“Anyway, I’ve been reading, and I’ve got way too much energy to stay still. And who in the hell would I be dancing with?”

“Luis.”

“Luis? Why would I want to dance with your pool boy?”

“Ohhh shit!”

“Lauren? Sis, are you okay?”

“Mm—ahhh—eeeh!”

“Lauren?” I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it before I placed it back again. “Sis, what’s wrong? Do I need to call nine-one-one?”

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!”

“Give me that ass! Spread it, mami!” The gruff voice in the background was definitely Luis’s voice.

“Heffa! I know you’re not having sex while you’re on the phone with me!” I fussed.

“Ohh, harder, Luis! Go deeper!”

“Ohh, it’s so soft, mami.”

I ended the call and tossed my phone to the sofa across the room. I couldn’t believe that heffa answered the phone while she was having sex. Worse still, I couldn’t believe that she was screwing her pool boy. When I asked her if something was going on between them, she swore there wasn’t.

Lauren, who was two years older than me, was thirty-one. Luis was only twenty-two and in his junior year of college. I shook my head, trying to erase the sounds that had filtered through the phone to my virgin ears.

I reclined on the couch, returned to my book, and drank a couple more glasses of wine. I had read four more chapters and was dozing off when the ringing of the doorbell pulled me out of my stupor. I frowned and got up to answer the door.

My heart raced in my chest when I opened the door and found Tanika standing on the other side. In her arms was a toddler girl with light bright skin like Cassius and Tanika, sandy brown curls like Cassius, and a slight overbite like Tanika. If the paternity test, the text messages, and our phone call hadn’t confirmed it, seeing that child in the flesh definitely did.

“Why are you here?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“You blocked my calls,” she replied smartly.

“We have nothing to say to each other, Tanika. If you thought bringing your baby here would get me to open up to you, then your ass is crazier than I thought.”

“Please. I just need to talk to you.”