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As she stood at the stove fixing plates I imagined coming home to her and my daughter everyday.

“Oh yea,” she looked over her shoulder. She caught me looking directly at her ass. “Really?”

“Anybody would look.”

“Oh okay,” she rolled her eyes. “Anyways, did you get the stuff I sent you for the baby shower?”

“Yea,” I replied. I had looked over everything while I was on the way over here. “You gon’ force Hello Kitty on my baby, huh?” I asked, only messing with her. The baby shower theme was “Hello Baby” with Hello Kitty decor. If everything came to life as nice as it was on the digital mock ups then it was going to be a grand ass baby shower. I didn’t expect anything less from Lourdes.

“No, she’s more than free to have her own interests as she grows up. But she’s definitely going to be a Hello Kitty baby. That’s going to be the theme of her nursery and maybe even her first birthday.”

“I hear you, Lo,” I chuckled as she sat a plate in front of me. My stomach growled in anticipation as steam rose from the pepper steak. “Damn this shit still hot. Granny must’ve just left.”

“Granny didn’t cook this,” she laughed.

“Oh, so it was Ms. Lucia then,” I said while digging in. I got some steak and mashed potatoes on the fork and I had to close my eyes when I tasted it. That’s how fire it was.

“No nigga, it was me. I know how to cook, yea.” She tossed a napkin at me before switching back over to the countertop to grab her plate.

“Shittt, I wouldn’t know. You never cooked like this for me…and it’s a shame because this shit good.”

“Well thanks,” she laughed. “But that’s a lie. I’ve cooked breakfast for us multiple times.”

“Breakfast is not complicated, though. So I thought that was all you knew how to make, for real.”

“That’s messed up because you were the one always insisting on going out to eat. Had you asked me to cook I would’ve.”

“Shit, why you never offered?”

“Baby, I don’t offer to do labor,” she scoffed before going over to the couch with her plate. “Now go ahead and eat so you can get the hell out of my house.”

Chapter 7

Lourdes

“They came out so cute, best friend,” Dream said as she looked at the Halloween pictures I’d just posted on IG. This year a slutty Halloween costume and the club obviously wasn’t in the cards for me, but I still got in the spirit with my girls. They were down to do something lowkey and chill with me because they were working overnight. We made Halloween themed pizzas from scratch, we baked cookies, we threw on Michael Myer’s Halloween movies, and we festively wore Halloween pajamas. I had gotten the cutest black and pink skeleton pajamas with a baby skeleton on the stomach. Dream demanded that I take pictures as soon as she arrived, but I had planned on doing that anyway. The cat was out of the bag about my pregnancy and I was happy to post more.

“You better had asked Ali if he was cool with you taking those pictures without him,” Denim smirked before taking a sip of her spooky themed Sidecar. I was so jealous because they’d been sipping on cute, Halloween themed cocktails since they arrived and I couldn’t have in on the fun. They made me mocktail versions of everything they were having but it was just glorified juice. My baby growing inside of me was a beautiful thing but I was counting down the days until I could evict her from my body. My first night out was going to be a movie.

“Girl, fuck you and Armias,” I replied and they cracked up with laughter.

“Wowww, it’s fuck me because your baby daddy running shit?”

“That nigga don’t be running shit but his mouth. He damn sure don’t run me.”

“Ion know, sis,” Denim chortled. “I think it’s you who don’t be running shit but your mouth.”

“I don’t know how you figure that.”

“Hmmm, let’s look at Exhibit A.” Dream glanced down at her phone and quickly pulled something up before turning it around to show me.

I smacked my teeth because she was showing me a picture of Armias and I from my second maternity shoot. I was expecting to see something new, not something I’d sent them myself. I took the pictures on Monday and I had the edits expedited because our baby shower decorator needed them asap. The pictures were so breathtakingly beautiful that I sent them around to everybody I was close to immediately. I had three different set ups for the shoot and they all came together perfectly. For the first set of photos I was covered in a pink, mesh sheet that was flowing in the wind to blend in with the background of pink sheets. The second concept was me sitting on a circle swing covered in pink flowers. I had the same pink sheet concept for my look but it was silk and styled to show off my stomach. My backdrop was something like a castle right out of heaven. Three big white windows reflected natural light and showcased pretty clouds.

My photographer, Kiyor, was the goat at what she did because you’d think I took those pictures on location in the sky when I was really in front of a green screen in her studio. I’d never used her before, but I knew she had to do my maternity pictures based on all her other work that always ended up on my timeline. Adding Armias into the shoot was a last minute thing, so I wasn’t sure how it would work out but she made it easy. We both agreed that putting him in the last set up was the best idea because it was the only one I was fully dressed in. Well, fully dressed compared to the other two concepts. The backdrop was pink and nude stone wash. Oversized white vases filled with even bigger nude and pink feathers and flowers were placed all over. I had a big, poofy pink pink dress that opened at the front to show off my belly. My prop, which was created by Kiyor, was the cutest gold baby carriage that was covered in pink flowers. Kiyor also made my life easier by sending reference photos of things Armias could wear. I loved everything she put together, so I sent it directly to him. I knew he was excited when he was Facetiming me from Dillards in Lakeside mall to show me all his options. We eventually decided on a semi-formal pale pink blazer, the matching slacks, a white tee, a pair of nude and white Balenciaga sneakers he already owned, and he topped it off with a cuban link and Rolex. He looked good as fuck on the day of the shoot and he had a fresh lining and retwist. I was so happy my mom and Aneesah had tagged along with us because it made it easier for me to control myself.

“Dream, what’s the point of you showing me pictures I sent y’all? What does that prove?”

“That he’s running shit, hoe,” she laughed. “He bullied his way into that shoot at the last minute.”