chap|three

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Don was in his office looking over some paper work for the clubs. Club Champs was doing great and so was Club Champs ;Miami and New York.

Don was now working on his new business venture: Taylor's which was his and Darnell's idea of having a restaurant. They wanted to have something to leave for their children once they got older along with the clubs.

They got the idea one night when they got completely drunk off their asses at the club and couldn't drive anywhere to have a meal. The food Don offered in the lounge part of his club was good but it was mostly finger food. At the time they needed food that could soak up the many alcoholic beverages they had that night.

In his drunken state Don began to ramble about opening up a restaurant next door to the club where they could have many different kinds of food to feed patrons that attended the club. It would stay open 24/7 not only for the drunken club goers but for everyday people who just wanted something good to eat during the day.

Once they sobered up Darnell recalled their drunken conversation and actually brought it to his attention that it was a good idea. They decided to go in half for the building that was next door and started turning it into a restaurant.

It was going to be something like a mix between a IHOP: where they served breakfast items all day, Applebees: so you could get you a good steak at a good price, and a Denny's: people could come in and chill if they wanted to. It's was nothing too fancy because it was mostly for the everyday person.

Now Taylor's was months away from being done but needed a lot of work. They still had to pick out silverware, plates, hire servers, and managers. It was coming together but it still needed time.

While Don got lost in his work trying to get everything together he received a call on his phone from Calvin his head security guard at the club.

He picked up the phone after a couple of rings.

"Yeah." He answered plainly.

"It's a woman down here named Jennifer with a little girl asking for you."

Don began to riddle his mind. He didn't know any Jennifers. Especially none with any kids so she must have been lost.

"I don't know no Jennifer. Did she say what she was here for?"

"She asked for you by name. She didn't say why she was here."

"Uh..um go ahead and send her up here."

A couple of minutes passed before there was knock on his office door. He yelled for them to come in. When the woman came in she was holding a little girl in her arms who was sleeping. Don didn't recognize who the was was and couldn't see the face off the sleeping child. Nothing came to mind as she took a seat in one of the chairs that where sitting in front of his desk. He looked at her while she looked around the office.

"Is there something I can help you with ma?"

Don chucked it up to she was looking for a job or something. He could tell by her face she was nervous.

She huffed finally making eye contact with Don. "You don't remember me do you?"

"Should I?" He retorted scrunching up his face.

"Uh...yeah. Two years ago. Miami. The W hotel."

Don began to think back. Two years ago he was in Miami at the W hotel. He had went out there after getting into with Darnell over what was some bullshit at the time. He had to leave to check on the club and went out there so a weekend to clear his mind and get some work done. He remembered after a long day of working with his construction crew, he went and hit up a couple of clubs and got sloppy drunk.

The women was all over him that night. He had gotten so worked up after getting into another argument with Darnell that he didn't care what happened that night. He left the club with a Latina chick but the next morning he got up and she was gone. He didn't know what exactly happened but he knew he woke up ass naked and his bed was a mess with his clothes sprawled out on the floor.

A day later he got a text from a unknown number telling him that she enjoyed their night together and didn't mind doing it again. He quickly deleted the message and blocked the number telling himself that he was taking that night to his grave. Once he made it back home he never thought about that night again until today.

"What are you trying to say?" He responded putting the dots together but not wanting to believe the mess that he unknowingly made.

"I'm saying that that night we had sex and you got me pregnant and now we have a three year old daughter."

Don couldn't believe this shit. She had to be kidding right now at least he hoped she was. He couldn't go tell his wife of five years that he may have gotten a random woman pregnant and out of it he had a three year old daughter. He was happily married. He didn't want to think about what Darnell would do if she found out about this foolery.

This wasn't the first time some woman tried to pin a baby on him, but this was the first time that it could actually be true. He prided himself on using a condom before he met Darnell and she was suppose to be the last woman he would ever have sex with. The fact that he couldn't hardly remember the night made it obvious he wouldn't be able to remember if her used a condom or not.

It was just his luck that the first and only time he stepped out on his wife he got someone pregnant. He looked over at Jennifer with skepticism.

"How I know that's my baby."

"Wow. I wasn't expecting that. I tell you that you have a daughter and you tell me that me she's not yours."

" I didn't say she couldn't be mine. I just asked how am I suppose to know shes mine? The only way we can determine that is a DNA test."

"Wow and now you need a DNA test?"

"Hell yeah. You see this ring on my finger. I have a wife and kids at home. We gotta determine that she's mine before I just go and say that shes my daughter. Sorry but that how it is."

Jennifer rolled her eyes. "Oh so now you care about having a wife. As I remember you had that same ring on when you fucked me so I guess you really don't give to fucks about that wife you got."

"You leave my wife out this shit. She ain't got nothin to do wit this."

"She will once she finds out that she had a new step daughter." She yelled.

Don looked at her crazy. Not only was she talking out her ass about Darnell but she had the nerve to be in his office yelling at him. His anger was starting to bubble up and he needed her out of his space as quick as possible.

"Whatever, we're doing that DNA test before anything else."

"You can't get rid of me that easily. I thought we could work this out between the two of us but I see you want to handle this a different way."

Don looked at her knowing what she was going with this. She wasn't nothing but a gold digger looking for a man to take care of her and her daughter and it wasn't going to be him.

She slid a piece of paper across the desk that she pulled out of her purse.

"That's my number and hotel that I'm staying at while I'm in Atlanta. I'm expecting to get a call from you soon and if not that little wife you got will know about me and our child."

With that she got up from her chair and walked out of Don's office.

Don looked down at the paper and balled it up throwing it in the trash. If she thought he was something to play with she had something else coming. He wasn't giving her the time of day. He thought again about the possibility of Darnell finding out. He was now stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He couldn't tell Darnell that he possibly had a daughter. What was he suppose to say? "Ohh baby one night when I was in Miami I was so drunk I slept with a random hoe and maybe got her pregnant and let's not forget I may have a two year old daughter?" But if he didn't tell her he was risking her finding out by Jennifer.

"Fuck." he yelled out. What the fuck was he gonna do?

For the remainder of the day he tried to get some work done but couldn't focus long enough to finish one task.

When the time came for him to leave to go pick up Kaydence and little Don, he logged out of his computer and grabbed his keys before locking up his office.

He left out of the back entrance not really wanting to speak to anyone. He sent his head manager a text telling him he was leaving for the night and he'll be back sometime tomorrow.

The ride to to Kay's school was long due to Atlanta's traffic as usual. The memories of his drunken night in Miami started to float back to his mind. Right about now he was regretting everything he did that weekend.

He wished he would have just stayed home and worked what ever little petty argument him and Darnell had had and maybe he wouldn't be in this mess.

He did want more children but he didn't want them with a woman that he didn't even know. If this child did up being his, he just hoped that Darnell wouldn't leave him or want out of their marriage.

Jennifer