Sorry for the delay with this installment, I was experiencing a nasty bit of writer's block with deciding what direction I wanted this story to go in. With a change of attitude, however, I managed to get past it and push out this chapter. Needless to say, I'm pleased with the outcome. I made up and airline due to the fact that not all airlines have the same policies, so please, no one look up Zinc airlines, it doesn't exist. Anyway, this one's a little longer, I hope you all enjoy!
-Celestial Child.
C H A P T E R T H R E E
L e i l a
Leila felt infuriated. She finally made some progress with Antonio, though not much, and got him to agree to meet up with her at Simon's Bar and Grill. Simon's was a place they both loved to go when they were dating. True to his asshole character, Antonio made their phone conversation as difficult as possible, replying with short, monosyllabic answers for much of the conversation.
"Antonio, I've been trying to get in touch with you for four days now. Don't you think you should have at least called me back?"
"Yeah." He said simply.
Leila grumbled.
"Okay... so why didn't you?" She asked, as if she were speaking to a toddler.
"Busy." He replied.
"You were too busy to give me an explanation for throwing me out?" She asked incredulously.
"Yeah." Antonio muttered.
Leila sat perched on the edge of the large comfortable guest bed, rolling her eyes at the sheer stubbornness of him. Though she hated to admit it, she should have listened to Nisey and stayed far away from Antonio Juarez in the first place.
"Okay, fine. I guess I'll do most of the talking." She breathed heavily, "I was thinking that you and I could meet up and chat for a little bit. Maybe at Simon's? I had some news I wanted to tell you before... well before all of this, and I think you'd be interested in what I have to say." She held her breath waiting for another short answer from Antonio, and was both surprised and relieved when he gave her a full two sentences.
"That should be fine. When do you want to meet up?"
"Tonight around nine? I have some things I have to do before I can meet up with you, but I don't think this should wait any longer." Leila persisted.
They confirmed their plans for the evening and after they hung up, Leila went grocery shopping and stopped back at Denise's house to put them away, all before heading to the bar and grill.
She was nervous to say the least, and although she should have been fire-spitting mad, she couldn't help but feel apprehensive about telling Antonio the news about the baby. She didn't know what to expect when she told him about their little bun in the oven. Leila's hands flew protectively to her stomach as she fretted over his response. Like herself, Antonio was sometimes incredibly crude and an asshole, and she knew that if he didn't like the news she had to deliver, he would say some pretty harsh stuff. But she was serious about this baby, and she didn't know if she was making it up, but she could already feel her maternal instinct kick in.
She had a soft smile on her face, imagining a future of her nursing and taking care of her baby, when a motion at the door caught her attention. She smiled brightly at seeing Antonio walk in. She had to admit that he looked good, even after all of this shit he put her through, he still had the ability to steal her attention with his sexiness.
He wore black slacks and a burnt orange dress shirt with the top two buttons undone. On his right arm, he wore the golden Rolex she had gotten him for his last birthday, and on his face were a pair of dark shades. Once he stepped into the dimly lit bar, he removed the shades and looked around for her.
She decided to observe him from afar a little more before alerting him of her whereabouts. He was a very beautiful man. He had curly dark brown hair that was short cropped on his head and a closely shaved beard. His hazel eyes were framed by beautiful long eyelashes. If he were smiling, she would have been able to see those straight pearly whites he had too. Her eyes zeroed in on Antonio's full heart shaped mouth and she sighed. She once loved kissing those lips of his. Leila reminisced about all the times those lips brought her pleasure. Those had been very good times. Leila smiled smugly to herself. Antonio was a reminder that she had never had a boyfriend that wasn't attractive. Though in the end, their personalities were always a little questionable, she couldn't help but be a little prideful in knowing her man was the usually the most attractive one in the room.
Antonio was beginning to look a little frustrated, so Leila stood and waved her hand. He caught the movement, and hurriedly made his way to the table.
He sat heavily in the seat across from Leila, and looked down at his watch impatiently before giving her his undivided attention.
"Okay. I'm here." He said, sucking his teeth and placing his interlaced fingers on the table.
Leila smiled softly at him, trying not to let his foul mood affect her. This was happy news.
"It's nice to see you too Antonio. How are you?" She said sweetly.
"Just dandy," he replied sarcastically, "Can we hurry this up? Cindy and I have somewhere to be after this. She's waiting in the car for me." He mentioned casually, craning his neck around to find a server.
Leila had to swallow the initial shock she was feeling.
'Who the fuck is Cindy?'
She thought bitterly.
"Cindy?" She managed to ask, just as a cute blonde server came around and cheerfully asked for their drink orders.
"Hi, what can I get you folks?" The server asked, a large and pleasant smile on his face. He was oblivious to the growing tension at the table.
"Yeah, bring me a Crown Royal and a coke." Antonio said, avoiding eye contact with him. Whenever Antonio went out, he never made eye contact with the servers. It was a part of some weird power trip he was perpetually on that Leila always felt annoyed by.
The waiter, however, seemed unfazed by his behavior.
"Sure, and you?" he asked, turning to Leila.
"I would just like some water." Leila replied with a smile.
Antonio scoffed.
"YOU are just getting water? But you drink like a fish, Princess." He said, using that endearing nickname he had once used for her as an insult now.
The waiter picked up on the negative tension finally, said his bit about being back ASAP, and left them all alone in a hurry. Antonio looked expectantly at her and tried again.
"We gonna talk or what?" He asked with attitude.
She let out a strange chuckle.
"I don't really know where to begin." Leila said.
"Really? I thought you would for sure have your spiel down by now. Hasn't it been enough time?" He asked, a smug look on his face.
Leila narrowed her eyes, and couldn't control the snarky comment that escaped her lips.
"I don't know why you're giving me all that fucking attitude Tony, you threw my shit outside, not the other way around."
"You and I were done long before that, Princess." Antonio spat back.
Leila blinked at him. She felt her body begin to shake.
"What the hell does that even mean?" She said, trying not to raise her voice and failing.
Antonio sat unflinchingly. Leila huffed and willed herself to calm down.
"Look, aside from telling you my news, I just wanted to know your reasoning for throwing me out the way you did. I know my name wasn't on the lease and so technically I have no right to be there, but I thought you would at least be man enough to break up with me to my face." She spat.
Antonio replied with a blank face.
"The fact of the matter is, you were too damn busy flying to and fro to take care of your man, you were gone to God knows what state and I wasn't about to wait around to ask
permission
to be done with you Princess. I wanted you out, so I threw you out. For all I know, you could have been fucking someone else. I've seen what you can do behind the bedroom doors, how was I to know if you were being a freak solely inside of those sheets? I didn't know if you had joined the mile high club without me."
He smirked at the glare she was giving him and added the nail in the coffin: the part he knew would send her right over the edge.
"Plus, I needed to make more room for Cindy's stuff." He didn't elaborate more on that, and to be honest, he didn't really need to. Leila got his message loud and clear.
She gasped as if someone had just thrown a bucket of cold water on her. She was blinking more rapidly as she felt the stinging of moisture in her eyes. The realization that this was the girl who Antonio had cheated on her with, the cause of countless arguments between the two of them, hit her with so much clarity it shook her. A laugh of disbelief escaped her lips.
"I can't fucking believe you." She whispered, talking more to herself than to him.
"Well believe it baby. I've moved on, and you're just mad because for once something isn't about you." He replied with a smug grin.
The waiter came by with their drinks, and Leila wished like hell that she had ordered something stronger to take the edge off. She was incredibly tempted to rectify her order, but she both couldn't and wouldn't endanger her baby.
"You're an asshole, you know that? Is that all you think this is? Me being upset because something isn't about me?" She scoffed, "I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I should have listened to all of those people who told me you weren't worth shit," She paused to control the tears that were attempting to escape, then continued.
"I came here to tell you big news. Good fucking news! I tried to have a positive attitude even after you did all of that horrible shit to me and for WHAT? For you to come in here and try to hurt my feelings when
you
were the wrong one in the first place."
Antonio took a sip of his drink, and held his hand up to silence her.
"Okay, why don't you just tell me what the big news is since you keep hinting at it?"
"I'M PREGNANT!" Leila yelled, a little louder than intended. She looked around in slight embarrassment, but shook her head in indignation anyway.
Antonio's face fell. If Leila wasn't so pissed off, she might have started laughing, but she was too worked up, and was trying desperately not to cry instead. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out so he closed it. Obviously that wasn't what he was expecting.
"Oh what? You don't have a horrible remark this time?" Leila taunted, grabbing her glass of water and placing the coolness of it against her forehead. She needed to get out of there.
