Joy

            I don’t know how to feel about Storm right now. My feelings are genuinely hurt. After all this hard work we put in to making our relationship work, how could he ever fathom me cheating on him? I have no feelings for Trey whatsoever. That’s a downgrade to be honest. Storm is the only man that I want. He’s the one that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Storm is my husband, my man, my boo. I love that man.

“Reagan, baby, are you ready?!” I yelled up the stairs.

“I’m coming!” her tiny voiced yelled out.

Just because I was upset with Storm, that had no bearing on my relationship with Reagan. The date that I wanted to have with her yesterday was simply moved to today.

“Hey, mommy!” she greeted me. She was the most adorable thing ever.

“Hi baby girl. How are you feeling?” I asked her.

“I’m feeling good. Where’s daddy?” she asked looking around. I know she missed her daddy. They haven’t spent much time together since they’ve been out here and normally they’re inseparable.

“Daddy stayed home. We’ll see him later though. Is that okay, hun?” I asked her.

“Yes.” She replied simply.

“Faith, let’s go!” I yelled out. I knew she was somewhere in this house but I didn’t know exactly where. While I waited for her to surface, I decided to take a selfie with Reagan. We took one with regular smiles and then did one with crazy faces.  I posted it on Instagram with the caption: “Mommy/Daughter day with my baby!!! In my darkest moments she brings the sunshine.” I went ahead and tagged Storm in it just so that he knows that I’m not depressed and that our daughter is safe.

            By the time I was finished, Faith was downstairs, ready to go.

----------

“What’s going on with you, Joy?” Faith asked as we sat at our respective nail technicians stations. After doing a little shopping, we decided to stop by the beauty salon. Reagan was on the other side of the shop with the hair stylist getting her hair braided up into a cute little bun so, we finally had a moment to talk.

“Storm and I got into an argument this morning.” I said with a sigh.

“What could you two love birds possibly get into an argument about?” she asked with a giggle.

“Trey came by the bakery last night. He came to apologize and in the midst of that he tried to come on to me. I stood firm but then he leaned in and kissed me. Unbeknownst to me, he had the paparazzi on hand and by the time I got home to tell Storm about what happened, he had already sent Storm a picture message. Storm was pissed off and really thought that I had cheated on him. I drove him back down to the bakery and showed him the security tapes.” I told her.

“What was his reaction?” she asked.

“He felt bad and he tried to apologize but by that time the damage was done. My feelings were hurt. That’s why this morning we got into it.  I went off on him and told him that there’s no reason for him not to trust me. I told him that without trust there is no relationship and I took off my engagement ring.” I revealed to her.

“You did what???!!!” Faith practically yelled, making everyone look our way.

I simply lowered my head. I wasn’t ready for a lecture but I know I had no choice.

“Joy what were you thinking?” she asked me in disbelief.

“He needed to learn a lesson, Faith. I wanted him to hurt just like I was hurting.” I confessed.

“Naw Joy, I think you were trying to commit murder. You know how much that boy loves you. Storm can’t live without you in his life. If he didn’t have you he would curl up and die.” She said jokingly but I knew she was very serious.

Hearing what Faith said actually made me feel kind of bad.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have took my engagement ring off. I wasn’t serious though. I wanna be with Storm. He’s the only man I want to be with.” I confessed to her, tears burning the back of my eyes.

“I believe you honey bun. It’s not the end of the world. Trust me, Storm is not about to give on you that easily. Go ahead and call your man.”  Faith instructed, caressing my arm as I quickly wiped at the tears in my eyes.

I got out my phone and dialed Storm’s number.

He didn’t answer.

Storm

I got Joy’s call but I didn’t answer because I was too busy setting things up. With Noriah’s advice I decided to just set the mood. I brought out the candles, the rose petals, the music and our movie Love and Basketball.  Noriah helped me to see that despite how privileged they are, Faith and Joy are very simple girls. It doesn’t take much to make them happy. So a nice night with her man should cheer her up. I hope so because doing stuff like this was hard work.

The hardest part was figuring out how to get Joy to come back to the apartment so, we put a plan together. After they return home from the hair salon Faith would convince Joy to let Reagan go with the rest of the family to the L.A. County Fair.  Being that Joy doesn’t particularly enjoy crowded places that would leave just me and her at her parent’s house. Then I could work my magic.

----------

“Are you sure you don’t want to go?” Faith asked Joy as everyone was preparing to leave.

“I’m sure.” She said. I stood back watching silently.

“Alrighty then. We’ll see ya’ll later.” Faith said as everyone started to walk out the door. Reagan lingered behind and kissed and hugged both Joy and myself before running out after the rest of the family.

After everyone had cleared the house things got awkward. We stood in the foyer of her parent’s house and stared at each other.

“I’m sorry for not trusting you, ma. It wasn’t fair for me to assume that you would do something like that. I apologize for that, Joy. I didn’t mean to hurt you or make you cry.” I said moving in closer.

“I know you didn’t, hun. I mean think how I would have felt if I saw a picture of you kissing one of your exes. I probably would have reacted the same way….or worse.” She said with a slight smile. She closed the gap between us and I wrapped my arms around her waist.

“I love you a lot, ma. Don’t ever think that I don’t trust you. I trust you with my life. There’s no way our online relationship would have worked if we didn’t have trust.” I expressed before leaning down and kissing her on the lips.

“I love you too, baby. I’m sorry for yelling at you.” She responded after returning my kiss.

“It’s all good. I never knew you had it in you.” I said with a smirk, making her giggle.  

“You tryna crack jokes?” she asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Naw, I was just playing….come on ma, let’s go home.” I told her, pulling her towards the door.

I drove us over to her apartment, eagerly anticipating her reaction to the surprise I have laid out for her. When we reached the apartment, I let her walk ahead of me and open up the door. She opened the door and nearly fell out.

“Babbbbbyyyy…” she cooed softly. She turned around and looked at me and then went to explore. She looked at all the candles and rose petals that I had scattered around the apartment.

“Our movie…” she said softly, when she noticed that Love and Basketball was already set up on the TV just waiting for someone to press play. It was funny to watch her eyes widen when she saw the modest yet sexy pajamas that were laid out on the bed. With Faiths help I picked out some sexy all black lace short-like panties and a matching tank top for her.  

She nearly fell out when I brought out her favorite snack; chocolate covered strawberries.

“Awww baby you didn’t have to go through all of this. I don’t deserve it.” She said to me.

“You deserve the world, ma. And if I could I’d get if for you.” I said before kissing her on the lips. “Now go take a shower and change so we can finally relax.” I told her, pushing her toward the bathroom. I woulda ran Joy a bath and washed her off and stuff but, I’ve never seen her naked and I wanted to save the visual for our wedding night.

----------------

“Baby how are you feeling about the custody battle?” Joy asked me as she straddled my back, giving me a massage. After cuddling, watching the movie and demolishing the strawberries Joy and I still weren’t tired. We’ve been up talking since the movie ended. Tonight, I was supposed to be catering to her and here she is giving me a massage. I guess she’s over our little spat.

“I’m nervous about it. All I want is what’s best for Reagan. She means the world to me and I can’t imagine not having her around, you know.” I replied.

“I understand. I haven’t known her that long and I’m going to be devastated if she’s taken from us. I can’t lose my mini-me.” She said with a giggle.

“But at the end of the day, if the judge rules in his favor I’ll let it be. People will show their true colors when they think that they’ve won. People like him don’t last long in this world. She’ll be back with us before we know it.” I told her confidently.

“It was strong of you to say that, Storm. You know I’m here for you through whatever.” She said kissing me on my shoulder and then getting off of my back.

“I know you are and plus when we get married we can have a baby of our own.” I said, rolling over to lay on her lap. I watched as a smile spread across her face.

“Baby can I have my ring back?” she asked. I started to laugh because I knew it was hard for her to ask me that.

“Of course you can, ma.” I replied, pulling the ring out my pocket and slipping it right back on to her hand. “Don’t ever take that off again. You almost killed me.”

“I won’t. I promise.” She said, sealing her promise with a kiss.

**************

What do you think about Storm's thoughts about the custody battle?

Thank You so much to those of you who checked out, commented on and voted for "The Center". I truly appreciate it.