Mina Ch. 03

Life was moving at break-neck speed. The months sped past before Mina could catch her breath. Her world was morphing into this thing that seemed bigger than her and impossible to control.

During the three months after she and Bryan decided to keep the baby, something incredible happened. Bryan matured. He finished school and got his diploma, he stopped smoking and dealing and got a job working second shift at the shoe-lace factory on the South side of town. The work was tedious and boring, but the money was good, mainly because no one wanted to do it.

Seeing Bryan's dedication, Mina decided to go to Adams University so they could stay near their families while trying to raise their own. She had been incredibly stressed and so, so tired those first few months. When she wasn't on her knees praying to the porcelain gods, she was sleeping, or getting everything situated so she could start school in the Fall.

Her mother had come around after she realized that Mina wasn't going to bend to her will this time. She hadn't wanted her daughter to grow up that fast, but she also didn't want her to be alone in the world the way she had been. Life was hard enough without having to face it without the help of at least one parent who wanted the best. As an apology, she gave Mina the money to decorate the apartment she and Bryan had settled in. It was a small two bedroom, just off campus but after Mina had put color and furniture in it, Diana finally saw a home that she was proud belonged to her daughter.

Linda was such a hummingbird throughout the entire pregnancy. Never mind the fact that she was raising a toddler, and had another newborn grandchild to lavish with attention; her primary focus was Mina. The two talked at least once a day for those nine months. She bought bags and bags of clothes, toys, and nursery décor. She would have been in the delivery room too if Mina hadn't begged Linda to step aside for her own mother. Linda conceded, but didn't look too happy about it. She was not and would never be considered the "B" grandmother. As if to solidify her "A" status, Linda paid to have the apartment scrubbed, sanitized, and baby proofed before Mina and baby Ava got out of the hospital.

Ava was amazing. She made her mother smile and her father cry. She had Bryan's bright green eyes, only they were round and observant like her mother's. She had her father's dimples and her mother's lips, plump with the top one just a bit plumper than the bottom and flushed red. Her hair was soft as silk and black as night and her skin was beige, just shy of the tanned complexion Bryan got in the summer...that unmistakable Sicilian brown. Not only was she beautiful, Ava had impeccable timing. As if she knew that her mommy needed to be back at school in two weeks, she was born the first day of Spring Break.

By the time she was two months old, her parents had the routine down. Mina's scholarship allowed her to use her mother's monthly checks to keep Ava in the college daycare. Mommy and baby would leave the apartment at seven thirty; Mina would drop Ava off by seven forty five. After two morning classes, she would return to the daycare center to breastfeed her and leave again for two more afternoon classes. At three pm she would pick her up and they would return to the apartment just before Bryan had to leave for work. He would sit with his girls as Mina fed their daughter and talk to both of them before he went to work. By the time he got home at midnight, the first late night feeding would be over and his daughter was back to sleep soundly in her crib. Mina would finish any assignments while he ate and they would go to bed together, asleep by one-thirty am.

Mina seemingly had no idea the toll their scheduled existence was taking on Bryan. He'd had girlfriends before Mina and every time he felt trapped, he'd dump the girl and move on to the next. Things were different now, though. He felt like he was losing himself in this life. He still loved Mina, but he hardly got to see her. He adored Ava, but she was on the same schedule as her mother so he only spent weekends being her daddy. Mina's school work was a huge problem. She'd missed countless Sunday dinners at his parents' house to finish term papers and wouldn't let him take Ava either because she had to be close enough to breastfeed her when either of them needed it.

He hadn't gone into it thinking that it would be easy, but he was completely unprepared for just how difficult life would become. He wanted to go to the Pepper Pot and hang out with his boys but that wouldn't be fair to Mina. He wanted to quit his job inspecting the ends of a zillion shoelaces a night and go back to making money the easy way. He wanted something different. He was beyond feeling trapped, he was suffocating.

Everything came to a head in May when Mina told him she would be taking two classes throughout the summer term. Bryan had just nodded, choosing to remain silent, but inside he fumed. He'd been looking forward to three months without Mina chained to the computer desk, studying or clacking away at writing assignments. Summer was supposed to be fun, it was bad enough that he had to go to that soul-crushing factory every night, but to face her tired eyes every night when he got back home was just going to be too much. He wanted her to relax. He wanted to be able to have sex with her on a day that didn't fall on the weekend.

"I know it sucks," Mina said as if reading his mind. The two were standing in their small kitchenette washing dishes. It was Friday night...well, one o'clock Saturday morning and Mina was visibly relaxed after taking her last Final. "I just want to get my degree as fast as I can so I can start working and get Ava out of this place."

Bryan shrugged. "This place" was just fine ten months ago when they'd signed the lease. She acted like he was busting his ass to keep them in a slum village.

"Are you mad?" Mina asked with that innocence in her voice that made Bryan check his attitude.

"No," he lied. "If you want to do it, go ahead. If anybody can handle year-round school, it's you."

Mina smiled and pulled the plug in the sink. She dried her hands, gave Bryan a kiss on the cheek, and left to get ready for bed. Bryan watched the dirty dishwater spiral downward out of the sink before drying his own hands to follow his girlfriend to bed.

"Hey," Bryan said the next night. Mina had just put Ava down and was headed through the living area to their bedroom to get ready for bed herself. "Jerrod called and asked if I wanted to hang out tonight."

Mina rolled her eyes and frowned. Why had Bryan taken that call? He'd been successfully avoiding Jerrod's calls for months now. "That's cool," she muttered. "Are you going?"

"I actually think I am," Bryan said turning off the boxing match he'd been watching. "I haven't seen him in a while."

Mina wanted to tell him not to go. She hated Jerrod and didn't want Bryan going back to smoking weed. If he got caught with that shit her daughter would have a dad with a record. Then again, she was more aware of Bryan's anxiety than he knew. She could see that wild animal trapped in a cage look in his eye from time-to-time.

"You should go," she said forcing a smile. "You should go have some fun."

"What about you and Ava? I don't really want to leave you stuck here."

Mina widened the smile. "I'm not stuck. I'd be here anyway. She's started sleeping through the night finally so we'll be just fine."

Bryan nodded. "Cool. I'll give Jerrod a call then."

"Cool," Mina said letting the smile melt away as she continued back to her room.

***

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again!" Jerrod said to Bryan. They were sitting at a table in the Pepper Pot, both with bloodshot eyes and heavy lids from the blunt they'd smoked back at Jerrod's apartment...well, the loft over his parents' garage.

"Fuck you, man," Bryan said gazing around the club.

"No, I'm serious. Logan told me you moved in with Mina and started working at the factory. I thought I'd lost your ass to some Leave It to Beaver shit!"

Bryan snickered. "Shit, it's nothing like that."

"I'll bet." Jerrod wasn't interested in settling down with any woman and sure as hell wasn't having any kids. He knew that part of the reason he and Bryan were friends was the fact that Jerrod was similar to Bryan's brother Logan. The only difference was the fact that Jerrod wasn't up for none of that baby-mama-drama. He'd thought Bryan was on the same page too, until Mina got his nose wide open. A bitch makes a man wait for and work for some pussy and she thinks she can trap him with a baby. Fuck that.

Bryan rubbed his eyes and stared at the dance floor.

"Dude," Jerrod said nudging him with his elbow. "That bitch on the floor is staring at your ass hard as hell."

Bryan glanced around at the bodies moving and gyrating to the Beenie Man song the d.j. was spinning and his eyes landed on the girl Jerrod was talking about. She was fine as hell. She had long brown hair and a bronze tan made apparent by a short skirt. The strip of denim must have fallen just below her crotch because every inch of her long legs was bare and he could catch glimpses of white panties whenever she did a dip. Her arms reached to the ceiling, crushing her large breasts together in the sheer white halter top she had on. Jerrod was right, her gaze was focused on Bryan. She winked and licked her full pink lips when she caught his eye.

Bryan smiled. The familiar strain in his cock was building and before he thought about anything, he was crooking his finger to call the girl over to his table.

***

"Linda," Mina said into the phone. "Have you seen Bryan?" It was the next day, Sunday and it was past noon. Mina had been worrying since Ava cried her awake at seven that morning. She'd done everything to take her mind off of that niggling in the back of her mind. She fed and played with her daughter. She'd cleaned the house and now she was alone in her apartment with a napping baby, nothing to clean, and worry.

"No, honey," Linda said slowly. "When did he leave?"

"Last night." Mina paced the floor in the kitchenette and glanced at Ava sleeping in her baby swing down beside the couch in the living area.

"Did you two have a fight?" Linda's voice was thick with concern.

"No. He went out with Jerrod," Mina said trying to keep the contempt out of her voice as she said the asshole's name.

"Well," Linda said with a sigh. "I haven't seen him. I'll give you a call if I do."

"Thanks," Mina said weakly turning off the phone and putting it on the counter top. She wanted to cry, but she didn't know if there was any reason for tears. There was no reason to think that Bryan was lying dead in a ditch somewhere, but the alternative thinking was much worse. If he hadn't made it home because of some unforeseen accident, he was either in jail or with another woman. She couldn't handle either one of those thoughts. She was better off thinking he was laid up in that ditch somewhere.

***

"Shit," Bryan said as he blinked awake in an unfamiliar bedroom. There was a canopy over the bed he was in. His bed was a sleigh bed, no way to get a canopy on there, not to mention the sheer material was pink. Mina despised pink and sure as hell wouldn't want to sleep in a pink cocoon.

"Mmmm," a very feminine voice purred beside him. His heart sunk into his stomach and he fought the urge to launch out of the bed. "Good morning."

Bryan looked at the hand rubbing his chest. It wasn't Mina's small brown fingers laced in his black chest hair, the fingers were long and pale with long bright red nails.

"Shit," he swore again. "I gotta go."

The woman sat up, letting the cover slip into her lap. Bryan glanced at her DD cup creamy white breasts, with minimal scarring around the nipples from a damn good implant job. Noticing his gaze, she began tugging on one deep pink nipple. "How about one more round before you go?"

Her words brought on a crushing headache and he groaned. "What the hell did I drink?"

She giggled. "I made you a couple Kryptonites last night. You drank them pretty fast. You must have been drunk as hell to not remember."

Bryan felt like someone had punched him in the gut and hit him in the head with a cast iron frying pan. This woman's perky voice and giggle weren't helping any. "Look...uh..."

"Mary," she offered helpfully.

"Look, Mary. This was a mistake. A big fucking mistake. I've got a girl and we've got a kid..."

"I know," Mary said in that shrill chipper voice. "You told me last night at the club."

"Really?" Bryan said dropping to his knees to look for any article of clothing he'd been wearing the night before. "Then, how the hell did I end up back here?"

"I offered you a ride home after your friend ditched you. I told you I had to stop by my place and gave you a couple drinks...next thing you know, we were naked in the living room."

The living room; that must be where his clothes were, Bryan thought glancing around for the door that led out of the bedroom. He found it and sighed with relief when he saw his black boxer shorts in the doorway. He quickly pulled them on and glanced back at Mary. She was pulling on a white satin robe that didn't really cover up her naked body. She braced herself on the nightstand as she put on her bedroom slippers. That's when he saw the angry red numbers on the alarm clock beside her hand.

"Is that clock right?" Bryan asked feeling the invisible vice tighten around his pounding head.

"Yeah."

Bryan wanted to vomit. He didn't feel sick; he just felt the need to vomit at that moment. It was after one in the afternoon and he was no where close to home. He tried to remember the route that he'd ridden with Mary the night before, but his mind was a blank white slate. He had no idea where the hell he was.

Mary noted the sick look on his face just before he stumbled out of her room either in search of the rest of his clothes, or a bathroom where he could puke.

Bryan found both. His socks and white t-shirt were in the hallway and so was an open door to another pink room, this one contained a toilet.

"I called you a cab," Mary said when he walked out of the bathroom looking pale and drawn. She'd heard him retching and was no longer interested in bedding him just one more time. The last thing she needed was to clean up sick after a grown man.

Bryan pulled the rest of his clothes he found on the floor in front of a black leather couch on and stumbled onto the front porch of a townhouse in a relatively nice neighborhood, just as his taxi pulled up.

***

"Where the hell have you been?!" Mina shrieked when Bryan entered their apartment.

His headache had dulled during the cab ride, but came back with a vengeance. "Uh...Jerrod..."

"Don't even try that shit!" Mina said following him into the kitchen. "I called Jerrod and he said he left you at the club around midnight. He didn't know where the hell you were and neither did your mom."

Bryan filled a glass with tap water and frowned. Had he really painted himself into this corner? He had cheated and was now trying to think up a lie to tell Mina to cover his ass.

"Were you with a woman?" Mina asked, her voice catching in her throat. She didn't want to sound so scared and weak, but that was just how it came out.

Bryan shook his head slowly, but he couldn't find his voice to actually vocalize the lie.

"Don't lie to me, Bryan," Mina said crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"I was drunk," he started. "I didn't..." He stopped. He didn't what? He didn't mean to? He didn't want to? He couldn't find the words to explain what had happened last night with Mary, partly because he didn't know exactly what had happened. Partly because he didn't want to throw out excuses for what he did. Mina didn't deserve that.

"Get out!" Mina screamed. She woke the baby and Bryan's heart seized at Ava's plaintive cries from her room across the apartment. "Get the fuck out RIGHT NOW!"

Mina left him alone in front of the kitchen sink to attend to their daughter. Bryan fell onto the couch and listened to her through the baby monitor on the coffee table.

"Mommy's sorry, baby..." she cooed. Bryan listened to the shuffles as she sat in the rocking chair and quieted Ava's cries. "It's okay...it's okay...you're just fine," Mina sang. The cries died down to a whine. "Are you hungry Ava?"

Bryan pressed his hands to his eyes, trying to push back the tears. They slid out and down his face anyway. Fifteen minutes later, Mina came back to the living room. She glared at Bryan, not caring about the tell-tale trails snaking down his cheeks as he stared at the blank television screen. Her temper flared and she went to the bedroom. The room they'd shared for almost a year and began pulling his clothes from their closet.

Bryan heard the clank of the hangers hitting each other and went into the bedroom. Mina sat in the middle of the closet, her dark hair a mess, sobbing into her palms. She'd pulled all his clothes onto the floor with her. Bryan fell to his knees beside her, fresh tears following the trail already made down his cheeks. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, putting his arms around her trembling shoulders. She looked up at him with so much hurt in her dark eyes, his throat burned. He kissed her cheek left cheek, then her full mouth. "I'm so sorry," he repeated.

"Get out," Mina said one last time before escaping his embrace and locking herself in the nursery until she heard him leave twenty minutes later.