Chapter 29

After settling my peeps at the table and taking their orders, I head to the kitchen to hand the order slip to the chef.

I step out of the kitchen, when Rochelle, the hostess, approaches me with a smile. "Hey, Tia, table three is ready for you," she says before walking away.

"Thanks," I mutter and walk toward the table of four young girls who look about my age. I smile and say, "Hi, I"m Tia. Can I start you off with drinks?"

One by one, they rattle off their drink and appetizer orders. "I"ll bring that right out," I tell them.

As I grab the drinks and make my way back toward their table, their conversation catches my attention.

"His dick is so fucking big," the girl with long blond hair exaggerates, fanning herself with her hand.

"Here you go," I say as I place their drinks on the table. Just as I am about to walk away, I notice that the girls" shirts have the same college logo as Donnie"s. Curiosity getting the best of me, I have to ask, "Do you go to Vanderbilt?"

The girl with the blond hair smiles, but her expression looks a bit forced. "Yes, I do," she replies.

"I have a friend who goes there too. Maybe you"ve heard of him. Donovan Du Pont. He"s the..."

The woman sitting across from me gives me a snarky grin and says, "Star pitch player. I know." She takes a sip of her drink. "He"s my boyfriend," she says nonchalantly as if I should have known that already.

Is this bitch for real?

"Excuse me?" I ask incredulously. "Did you just say that Donnie is your boyfriend?"

"Yes, I did," she replies in a duh tone as if I am the one being ridiculous.

"No, the fuck you ain"t," I scoff and lean over the table with both hands planted flat on its surface. "You must be smoking some good shit because Donnie is my best friend"s boyfriend and baby daddy." I sense my crew standing up and approaching me.

The girl"s face twists in anger as she realizes she has been caught in her lie. "It's none of your business so just fuck off."

"You made it my business the moment you opened your goddamn mouth and spoke his name," I sneered. It took all my restraint to not slam the bitch's fucking face on the table.

Standing tall with both hands tucked in my back pockets, I am flanked by Telle and Lupe. Tiny, ever the lookout, is standing behind busty blondie. I can feel the heat rising in my cheeks as I try to put her in her place.

"This girl"—I point at blondie—"says she"s Donnie"s girl."

My girls, sensing the tension, begin to laugh. With a twinkle in her eye, Telle steps forward and says, "No she's not." Her voice is full of amusement. "But she wishes she was."

Blondie, appearing offended by Telle"s skepticism, pushes her drink away and looks directly into my eyes. "Look," she says in a serious tone, "If I"m not his girlfriend, then why do I know he has a birthmark near his penis?"

The fuck?

Lupe leans in closer and asks, "Are you telling me you"ve seen his dick?" to which busty girl replies with a snide tone, "Yes."

Tiny joins in on the conversation and asks, "But, like, really up close? Like up in your coochie close?" She says it in a laughing tone, but I'm not laughing.

Blondie's eyes widen as she exclaims, "Oh, my god!" Her voice is filled with disbelief as she stares at me in horror. "Are you insane?" She shakes her head in disgust, her lips curling into a frown. "I won"t tell you shit," she declares firmly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Says the girl who claims she"s seen his dick up close," Telle retorts.

As I glance at the other girls around the table, I observe them slowly retracting.

"You, in the red," I say, motioning to a girl with a pixie cut wearing a red off the shoulder sweater. "What"s your name?" I ask her.

"Savannah," she replies, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Savannah, have you seen blondie here with Donovan? Have you seen them together?"

She shakes her head several times.

Blondie speaks up. "My name is Payton," she snaps.

Payton. Payton. Payton.Why does that sound familiar?

Then the realization hits me like a bolt of lightning.

"Wait, you"re the Payton?" I ask with disbelief.

Payton looks at me as if her name should carry some significance. But instead of being impressed, I burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Payton asks in an annoyed tone.

While I struggle to regain my composure, Lupe steps in, her eyes blazing with anger. "You just accused Donnie of cheating on our best friend," she says, her voice tight with barely suppressed fury. "I suggest you squash that shit now."

Seb suddenly appears behind us and sternly commands, "You"re drawing an audience. Take this shit outside or walk the fuck away."

Damn. He's cranky as hell today.

I turn my head to look at him and notice a strange glint in his eyes. Just then, his gaze shifts from me to something behind me. Curious, I follow his line of sight and see Max and Gio walking toward the back of the room. I assume that they are going to check on Sadie.

Without wasting time, I turn to Tiny and give her a silent nod. She seems to understand what I mean and clumsily bumps into Payton, causing her to spill her drink all over herself. Payton immediately springs up from her seat with a loud squeal.

"Oops, my bad," Tiny says mockingly as she moves to stand beside Telle.

The three other girls get up, and one says, "Um, we"re going to go, Payton."

"Wait! Are you serious?" Payton calls out, but her words fell on deaf ears as the girls walk away without looking back.

Trixie intervenes and says, "Miss, you need to leave." Then she turns to me and warns, "Tia, I suggest you take this personal matter outside, or you"ll be out of a job."

Her message is loud and clear—Take your shit outside before the boss cans my ass.

I give Trixie a wink.

Payton scoffs and starts to walk out the front door, but before leaving, she pauses and looks back at us. Her eyes fill with disdain, and her lips twist into a snide smile. "It surprises me that someone like Donnie is with a gold digger whore from the other side of the tracks," she says, giving us a once-over and a sneer before walking out. As soon as she is gone, I feel anger boiling in my bloodstream. My girls and I exchange looks, and without a word, we all get up and follow Payton out the door.

Sadie

As I take a hesitant step forward, Max and Gio gently hold me back. I feel anxious as I survey the scene in front of me. I clear my throat and ask cautiously, "What"s going on?"

Payton's head snaps up at the sound of my voice, and she grins widely.

"Oh, hi, Sadie!" she exclaims, enthusiastically waving at me.

"Is this chick high?" Gio asks, then Max chimes in. "Fuck no, she"s not. She"s just loca."

I give Gio"s arm a pinch, then playfully smack Max on his rock-hard abs, saying, "Okay, that"s enough." I turn my attention back to Payton. "What are you doing here?" I ask, still keeping my distance.

"Well, if it isn"t the trash from wherever the hell you came from," Payton says, her mood taking a swift turn.

"I'd watch it if I were you." Tia lunges for her, but the girls hold her back.

With a look of anger, Seb points directly at her and, in a loud voice, says, "Get the hell out of here because I won't stop the girls from fucking you up." He remains calm and composed, not showing any signs of fear or weakness in the face of his aggression.

Payton mutters something under her breath as she walks away. But as soon as she reaches her car, a devilish smirk creeps across her face when she turns back to face us. "Doesn't his birthmark near his big dick look like a moon?"

My blood freezes in my veins.

"Yeah." She runs her tongue over her upper teeth. "His big dick took me hard," she rasps and winks. Before Tia can rip her head from her body, Payton gets into her car and drives away.

"Let me go!" Tia snaps, struggling to escape Lupe"s and Telle"s arms. "I"m going to rip that bitch in half," Tia snarls.

"Reina, she's lying," Lupe says.

I look over at her and smile. "I know, but I'm curious to know how she knew how big he is and where his birthmark is." I ponder this while the guys choke on their laughter.

"Fuck, Reina," Max groans. "I don"t want to know how big D"s dick is." He pretends to gag.

"That chick seems strung out, right?" Tiny asks.

I don't respond because something about Payton's behavior seemed wrong. Her eyes didn"t appear to be glazed over from drugs.

Meanwhile, Telle is struggling to keep Tia under control. "Are you going to calm down?" Telle says through giggles holding onto a rabid Tia.

I admonish Tia, saying, "Tia, relax."

When Tia is finally released, she turns to me with a wild look in her eyes. "You know she"s lying. Donnie would never do that to you," she states.

I nod at what I already knew. But there is something off about this, and I am determined to get to the bottom of it.

And the first question I need to ask my boyfriend is how Payton saw his dick.

Donovan

Seb texts me that something went down tonight at Shorty's job. The first thing that came to my mind was Jake was hitting on my girl again, but when Seb mentioned Payton, I knew it wasn't good. He told me Shorty was staying over at their place, which made me a bit jealous since I wanted her to be at mine, but after what Payton did, my room was tainted. I cleaned the room from top to bottom and wiped off every surface to get rid of her scent and replaced it with Shorty's Victoria Secret body spray she kept in my bathroom.

Once Seb sent me the address, Ash happened to walk out of his room and followed me without question, and I didn"t stop him. It's a twin thing.

The ride to Seb's place is a good twenty-five minutes from our place. When the crew moved to Tennessee, they rented a house that Javi helped them get. It has two stories, five bedrooms, and three and half bathrooms. Everyone has their own room except for Seb and Lupe. I have only been out here one time, but I remember they have a massive yard with private fencing. Which is why Shorty and I agreed for the crew to host our gender reveal party.

When we pull up to Seb's house, the two garage driveways are occupied with cars, the light over the porch is on, and several are on inside the house. I park the car on the side, and we exit the vehicle and walk up the pathway to the front porch. When we reach it, the door opens wide before I have the chance to knock.

Seb fills the doorway with a beer in hand. "Sup, man." He opens the door wider, gesturing for us to step into the entryway that opens to a natural wood staircase. The place has different scents since the girls like to have different plug-in scents in each room, from sweet floral fragrances to citrus scents.

We shake hands and he closes the door. "This way." He gestures for us to follow him toward the loud voices and Latin music playing in the background. We round the corner to see the girls sitting around the dining room table playing dominos and the guys in the living room playing a zombie game on PlayStation. But my girl is missing. I turn to Seb and ask, "Where's Shorty?"

"She's in Telle's room with Tia," Tiny answers. Tiny really is a tiny thing. She's wearing a baseball cap on the side over her long caramel with red highlighted hair. She has her leg propped on the chair with her arm resting on her knee. She looks like a little badass.

"You got a lot of explaining to do!" Telle sing songs. She's wearing a black hoodie with graffiti art on the front and her hair is pulled up to a high ponytail as she stuffs a potato wedge into her mouth.

"I know," I sigh, rubbing my hands down my face.

"Shut up, bish." Lupe lightly smacks the back of Telle's head. "Come on, Donnie. I'll take you to her."

I nod and follow Lupe as she leads me out the way we came in and up the stairs. I haven't had as much interaction with the girls as I have with the guys. But like the guys, the girls are loyal to a fault, and I'm so grateful Sadie has a crew that loves her as much as I do and will fight for her.

"How bad?" I ask Lupe as we almost reach our destination.

My question makes her stop in place. She turns to face me. "Not as bad as you might think." She gives me a warm smile. "But that Payton chick is fucking crazy. We were all ready to take her out."

I nod and work my jaw.

Fucking Payton.

I haven't told Shorty what Payton did because I can't have anything happen to her if Shorty retaliates. Payton seems unhinged, and I won"t risk Shorty"s safety because of Payton"s infatuation with me.

"Come on." She gestures with her head toward the last door on the right. Lupe knocks and announces that she's opening the door. When she does, I see Tia and Shorty lying on the bed facing each other, laughing and listening to something on Tia's phone. Shorty looks over Tia's shoulder and her smile widens. Tia follows her gaze, and when she sees me, Tia hops off the bed. "What up, D!" she says, holding up a peace sign.

"You're so fucking ghetto, Tia." Lupe laughs. "Come on, let"s leave them alone.

Tia glances at Shorty and leans down to grab her phone and says, "Call me if you need me," and then kisses her cheek. She pats me on the chest and smiles when she closes the door behind her as she leaves. I walk over to Shorty and help roll her onto her back. "Hey," she says quietly.

"Hey, are you okay?" I ask as I take her hand and kiss her fingertips.

"Yeah, just really tired," she says almost sleepily.

I lay beside her on my side with my hand on her belly. "And the boys? Are they doing good too?" I look up at her through my lashes. She wraps her hand over mine. "Yeah, they're good." She smiles.

We stay silent for a few minutes until she breaks it. "How did Payton come to see your dick?"

I cringe at the memory. With my hand still on her belly, I tell Shorty about the day Payton was in the bathroom while I was showering. When I'm done, she looks disgusted. "That sounds all kinds of fucked up," she says quietly. "Why would she do that? And why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I don't know, babe." I lift her shirt to expose her belly. "And I didn't want to worry you. I have a restraining order against her, but please be careful and tell me immediately if she shows up anywhere near you, okay?"

When she doesn"t respond and just stares at me, I continue. "I can't let anything happen to you, Sophia, or my boys."

"Don't hide shit from me again." she says in a firm tone.

"I won't."

"I'm serious Donnie."

"I promise." I press a kiss on her round belly and rest my ear there, listening to their hearts beat, and then I feel a kick.

I smile. "Did you feel that?" I look up to Shorty, who's smiling down at me. "Yeah, I felt it."

"Is that the first time?" I ask, dreading to hear that I might have missed it.

She shakes her head and the tension in my stomach goes away.