Dirty Little Secret

"Faree, are you sure you can handle it. I mean-"

"We'll be fine, Nic." He laughed as he opened her car door.

She sighed, "Ok."

Nicki had accidentally scheduled her and MacKenzie's doctors appointments on the same day. Instead of cancelling one or the other it was decided that Safaree would just take MacKenzie to her appointment and Nicki would go to hers alone. She felt really uneasy about not being at MacKenzie's appointment but trying to cancel one and reschedule always ended up complicating things for their already busy schedules.

"Oh, remember to ask Dr. Dumante about doing an allergy test."

"Ok."

"And I can't remember if they said if they were gonna give her more shots but if the do be patient with her Faree and try to get some ice to put on it."

"Ok."

"Cause the ice makes it feel better."

"Nicki." He laughed.

"Ok. Ok. I'm going." She tugged on the collar of his shirt and pulled him down to peck his lips before getting in the car.

"Alright. See you at eight."

"That's not too late is it? Cause I can skip my meeting and they don't really need me babysitting them at the studio."

"Bye." He closed her door and went to walked into the house.

"Oh." He heard her voice and turned to her with a frown. "Can you barbeque today? We want ribs." She smiled. "Love you. Mean it. Bye." She said before pulling off.

Thirty minutes later Nicki found herself at a restaurant just minutes away from her doctors office. After this quick stop she would get checked out then head to the studio. She scanned the dining room until she spotted her lunch date, Stephanie. Stephanie was too busy looking at her menu to notice Nicki approaching.

"Hi." She said dryly as she took her seat. She kept her sunglasses on in case she caused a scene. Stephanie sighed and placed her menu down.

"I should've known you would show up."

"Stephanie, you need to stay away from him. He wants nothing to do with you any more."

"I just need to talk to him."

"You don't need shit."

Stephanie sighed and pulled her bag off of her chair and placed it on her lap. Nicki discreetly unrolled her silverware that was in a napkin and tapped on the handle of the knife with her pointer finger. She didn't peg Stephanie for crazy but you never know. Stephanie pulled a photo out of her wallet and placed it on the table. She slid it to Nicki. Nicki scanned the picture with her eyes as though she were trying to commit it to memory. It was a boy around two years old. He was biracial with curly brown all over his head. He was on a swing in the picture and he looked pretty happy. Nicki slid the picture back.

"That's not his kid." She smirked and cocked her head to the side.

"Yes, it is." Stephanie raised her voice a little.

"We both know you got an-"

"I went to the clinic. When it was time to get the procedure done I asked them to give me a minute. I cried in the bathroom for an hour then got dressed and walked out. All he said to me was ,"That was fast."." Stephanie was tearing up but Nicki was unmoved by her performance. "I just wore big sweaters that fall and when I said my grandmother got sick was when I had him."

"You were in a psych ward, Stephanie. Don't try to bullshit me."

"After I had him I wouldn't touch him or feed him and I started talking about hurting myself so they admitted me." Nicki didn't say anything so she continued to talk. "Look, I just want him to know his father."

"I would know one of my husbands kids from a mile away. That's not one of them." Nicki tapped the picture then stood.

"Everything can't be about Nicki all the time. Maybe if you weren't such a selfish bitch then we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Nicki sucked her teeth and took a deep breath. A million thoughts ran through her mind at once, none involving Stephanie walking away unharmed. She reached for Stephanie's water and threw it in her face then slapped her across the face hard. She scanned the dining room to see only an old man staring but he quickly looked away. She grabbed Stephanie's face with one hand and leaned towards her.

"Listen to me good Stephanie because I don't want to say this again." Stephanie tried to pull her face away but Nicki held tighter. "Stay the fuck away from my family. Do not contact Safaree again with your bullshit or you're gonna wish I just fucked you up right here, right now. You are so lucky that I'm pregnant and in a public place." She chuckled then pushed her face away hard and stood up straight. She plastered a smile on her face. "Oh, and this stays between the two of us. I'd hate to have to sue you for ruining my marriage and defamation of my character because after all. . . . .this never happened. Right?"

Stephanie looked away and sighed. Nicki cleared her throat. Stephanie glared at her.

"Right." Stephanie said.

"Bye Steph. It was nice seeing you again." She said cheery as she walked away. "Stupid bitch."


Hours later Nicki pulled into her garage. She was beyond exhausted with more things on her mind now than when she left. She was beginning to feel bad about going behind Safaree's back to meet with Stephanie. What if she was wrong? She still didn't believe that the child was Safaree's but he should know, right? On top of that she was just convinced by Wayne to do one final album. She told Safaree that the last album was just that, the last one. She was supposed to be slowing down to enjoy her kids and give them a full time parent. She sighed as she walked through the kitchen and wrapped her arms around Safaree. She smelled the barbeque on him and smiled.

"Hey gorgeous." He wiped his hands off then turned to her and embraced her back. She rested her chin on his chest and looked up at him.

"I missed you, sir." She said.

"I missed you more, ma'am." He pecked her lips. "How'd it go?"

"Good. My fluids are low though so-"

"Nicki-" He released her.

"Safaree, I don't need a fucking lecture. I just gotta drink more water and stuff."

"Alright." He said nonchalantly.

"Are you gonna say something to your seed?" She smiled and he smiled back.

He lifted her onto the counter. He placed his hands on either side of her bump and kissed her. He lifted her shirt to see the sonogram that read "Its A Boy" taped to her belly. He smiled wide.

"Yoooo." He said before kissing her stomach. She began giggling. "I thought you said you ain't wanna know."

"I didn't but the nurse slipped up and told me." She rolled her eyes thinking about the situation again.

"Another boy?" He asked with a wide smile and she nodded.

"Yup." She laughed. "I think he should be a junior."

"I like that." He nodded and pecked her lips repeatedly.

"Stop." She pulled away smiling and put her hand on his chest and pushed him back. "Where are my other babies?"

"Upstairs in our-"

Safaree was interrupted by a loud thud. They both furrowed their eyebrows trying to figure out what it was. They got their answer as soon as MacKenzie began screaming. Nicki wasted no time jumping off of the counter and running up the stairs two at a time with Safaree following close behind.

"What happened?!" She asked as she took MacKenzie from Micaiah and tried to calm her.

"She. . .she fell off the bed." He said nervously.

"Why'd you leave her on the bed alone?!"

"I didn't!" He said defensively.

"I did." Safaree spoke. "She was sleep so-"

"You didn't think that she might, I don't know, wake up and start rolling and crawling all over the got damn place?!" She laid MacKenzie on the bed and began examining her body for bruises and things.

"She ok?" Micaiah folded his lips to keep his smile from appearing. Nicki glared at him.

"You think it's funny?! What if she hurt herself?!"

"No, no Ma." He was still smiling. It was more of a nervous smile than anything and Nicki knew that but lashing out was her nervous habit so that's what she did.

"Get out, Micaiah." She rolled her eyes and picked MacKenzie back up.

"Nic-"

"You too. Both of yall get out. Ain't good for shit." She sat on the side of the bed bouncing MacKenzie.

Nicki stayed in the room for a hour. Safaree had to practically beg her to come out. When he finally got her to come out to eat she didn't say much.

"Ma, you mad?" She didn't respond. "We sorry, mama."

"Don't be." She said dryly.

"Yo, Nic, it wasn't that serious." Safaree looked at her. His stern face turned into confusion as she began to tear up.

"Ma?"

"Yall don't take anything serious. Yall think everything is a joke." She shook her head and wiped the single tear that had fallen.

"Nic-"

"No, Safaree. I'm sick of doing everything all the time. How much effort would it have taken to put her in the crib? We just had to take her to the hospital. My baby can't win for losing and I'm the only one who cares." She began crying.

"We care baby." Safaree went to stand by her. He rubbed her back while Micaiah looked at her strangely, not understanding where this outburst was coming from. "Look, we gone try harder. Right, Caiah?"

"Umm." He looked confused and Safaree glared at him and nodded. "Oh, yeah. . .yeah."

"Really?" She smiled.

"Yup."

"Lets go watch a movie." She said cheery.

"Alright." Safaree kissed her cheek. "Lemme clean this up and yall go pick something."

"Ok."

After watching two movies together everyone in the house was asleep, except Safaree. He had gotten up in the middle of the night, like always, to check the house. He was in MacKenzie's room looking over her crib when he felt Nicki's tiny arms wrap around him and her head rest on his back.

"Are you almost done?" She asked just above a whisper.

"Yeah." He turned to face her. The only source of light was MacKenzie's spinning night light. He just stared at her face for a minute until she broke the silence.

"I can't sleep without you."

"I do this every night."

"You've been gone longer than usual."

"You be counting the minutes?" He laughed.

"I told you I can't sleep without you. Come on, Faree."

"Al-" Before he could finish the doorbell rang. They both looked at each other strange.

"Its like two in the morning. Who is that?" She began exiting the room but he grabbed her arm.

"Go to bed. I'll go see." He kissed her forehead.

"No, I wanna-"

"Go to bed, Nicki." The doorbell rang again.

"Fine, but you got ten minutes before I come down."

"Nicki, we ain't in no damn scary movie. Go lay your pregnant ass down."

She rolled her eyes as she went to do exactly what was asked of her. She crawled to the center of the bed and pulled the cover over her body. She instinctively rested her hand on her stomach while she impatiently waited for his return. She found herself fighting her sleep in order to find out who was at the door but she couldn't do it for long. Just as her eyes closed she felt a shift in the bed and his body pressed against hers.

"Who was it?"

"We'll talk about it in the morning."

"Sa-"

"Nicki, please. . .just go to sleep."

She didn't put up a fight but now she couldn't fall asleep. Her mind ran with scenarios of what could've just happened to put him in such a weird mood. She had a horrible gut feeling that she couldn't shake. She just hoped that she was overreacting. 











Idk who has the link to Age Of Love but those of you who don't here: http://ofageoflove.blogspot.com/ .