Page 47 of Contract With A G

“Is it good?”

“I mean, I don’t drink sweet tea, but a lot of people like it here.”

“Okay, let me get a glass.”

“I got you.” She walked away from the table, and Duke sat back, gold necklace glowing in the dimmed lounge.

“Damn, I brought you here for some sweet tea?”

“What, it sounds good right now.”

“Shid, I could’ve just taken you to Essex Chicken for that. Sweet tea really bussing there.”

“Funny.” I laughed at his sarcasm.

“For real though, you don’t drink at all?”

“I used too, I’m just not drinking right now.”

“Why not? You were an alcoholic or something?”

“No, not at all,” I tried to be as vague as possible.

The truth of the matter is that I wasn’t drinking because that was something Kharti told me not to do when she first approached me about the surrogacy. She said it could fuck with conception and they wanted my body healthy and ready to carry.

The waitress came back with our water and sweet tea, then left us with our menus. I scanned over them, and a few things caught my attention, but when I saw the catfish and grits, my decision was made.

Duke never looked at the menus and instead placed his arms on top of the table.

“So, tell me more about yourself, Toya, besides your love for doing hair.”

“Oh, I don’t love to do hair. I just work at the hair store, is all.”

“That’s crazy. You should be doing something you love. What is your dream job then?” He put a question on my mind I hadn’t thought about in a while.

“My dream job used to be teaching. I love kids, and teaching them different life skills and such would be so cool to me. Do you like kids?”

“I like my kid.” He took the cup of water up to his mouth.

“Oh, you have a child? How old?”

“She’s fifteen.”

“Fifteen? You have a daughter that old?”

He grinned as he rubbed his beard.

“Yeah, my Peaches is almost sixteen years old?”

That made the picture in his car make sense. It was his daughter in the photo.

“How old are you, Duke?”

“I’m thirty-one.” He explained why he looked so youthful.

“Wow. How did it feel raising a kid at that age?”

“It grew a nigga up fast, I'm not going to lie, but how old are you, if you don't mind me asking?”