didn’t say anything.
“You didn’t even tell me your name.”
“Wayne. Yours?”
“Joy.”
“Aight Joy, I’ll see you around.” He said and continued walking down the hall.
Joy went inside her room. She pulled the case up onto the dresser and opened it. She put some in the refrigerator to get cold. She turned on the TV and sat down to eat her food. She hadn’t watched too much TV. She didn’t want to see no babies or kids. Just the thought of seeing one made the sadness that now consumed her heart worst.
Joy had to turn the TV off and she couldn’t finish her meal. She was bored and lonely. She thought about Kevin and the baby all the time. She refused to give the baby a name. She just wanted to forget. She wished that she would had told Kevin about the money. Maybe he wouldn’t have gone to work that day.
She replayed the message he left over and over. She couldn’t believe that she would hear his voice again. She didn’t know if the baby was his or not. She even thought about going back to see her but couldn’t bring her self to follow through. She only had to close her eyes to see her face.
Chapter Nineteen
Joy could no longer stand to be in the room at the motel. She didn’t even have any more clean clothes. She was wearing her last clean pair of under wear. She had to buy a trash bag from the lady vacuum the hallway, to put all her stuff in. She sat on the bed and finished off the cooler she was drinking. She couldn’t remember how many she’d drunk. She wished that she had something stronger.
For days now, she’d been drinking case after case of coolers. She didn’t know how many trips she made to the beer place. Since her initial visit, she didn’t see Wayne. She wasn’t really attracted to him but, he seemed to be the only dude she met in a while that didn’t try to get at her.
She checked one last time to make sure that she got everything before she left. She had no place else to go but back to her apartment until she figured out what else to do. She still had the money. She knew that if she saw Simone, she would notice that Joy wasn’t pregnant anymore. She would just tell her that she lost the baby and leave it at that. She would act like she was too upset to explain what happened.
As Joy walked to the bus stop, she heard someone beep at her. She turned and looked in that direction but then kept walking. She heard someone yelling, “Aye.”
She sucked her teeth. This dude won’t give up . Then she felt him tap her on the shoulder. “Hold up,” she turned around and was surprised to see it was Wayne.
He looked different. He had a low cut. His dreads were gone.
“I didn’t even know that was you. What happened?” she asked, pointing at his head.
“I needed a change,” he said simply, like it was no big deal to him.
Joy studied his features. She could tell that he was at least in his mid thirties.
“I’m surprised to see you still here. I was driving by here on the way to pick my daughter up from the movies, when I spotted you.”
“Oh.” Joy said.
She looked in time to see the bus coming, but she wasn’t even close to the stop. She was mad that he made her miss the bus but didn’t show it. When she turned around, he was staring at her. She became self-conscience. Her clothes were wrinkled. Her hair pulled back into a ponytail.
“Yo, you need a ride somewhere?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“Yeah,” Joy wasn’t trying to wait for another bus.
They hopped in his car. He had a two door Nissan Sentra. Outside his car showed it’s age but on the inside everything appeared new. He had leather seats and plush carpet on the floors. The dashboard was wood and he had a CD player with a radio that named each song and artist that came on.
“Which way you headed?”
“Cottman and Bustleton.”
“Ok.”
He drove off in that direction. They were headed in the opposite direction of the mall. He said that he was picking up his daughter. Joy