Tara’s eyes darkened, but her voice remained pleasant, “And you do because he lets you spend the night? You have a lot more convincing to do than just standing here in your stay-over robe and slippers.”
The baby started becoming agitated, forcing Tara to tend to her, “Oh, Azina. It’s alright, princess. Mommy’s here,” she sang in her maternal vocals as she picked the baby up. She no doubt wanted me to catch her daughter’s name and deep down inside it was a gut blow, but I had my game face on and was facing a gridlock in score.
The doorbell rang and I jumped to it, remembering Azna was being dropped off from his grooming appointment, another service that the property assisted with.
I took Azna from the arms of Roberto, thanked him and closed the door. There was still no signs of Azmir, leaving time on the scoreboard. I carried him over to Tara.
“Oh, a doggie. How cute. I didn’t know Azmir was fond of animals,” her wry statement screamed of sarcasm.
With a smile as broad as a billboard I said, “He bought him for me,” as I petted Azna. “Tara, maybe Azina would like to say hello to Azna,” I smiled with my eyes, trying to keep from laughing at her haunted expression. She was offended and I was glad.
And yet another score!
“You named your dog after him, honey? How pathetic,” she laughed, and well it seemed.
“Oh, sure! I find naming a dog he gave me after him far more appropriate than a baby that he didn’t give you.”
Her smug was clipped. Tara took off her gloves, “Listen, bitch. You have no right speaking about my child or anything between Azmir and me. You may be his new little piece of ass, but we still have undeniable and irreversible history.”
I scoffed, “New little piece of ass? I guess you weren’t made aware of our recent engagement.” As I extended my hand I informed, “Azmir can be so modest. But you still should have heard, I was there when he shared it with all of his closest friends,” my eyebrows furrowed. As bad as I wanted to laugh at the lack of a poker-face Tara was capable of issuing, I had to stay focused on her next move; I knew it was coming.
“What the fuck?” Azmir belted from the foyer a few feet away. Both our heads swung to him. He was topless, wearing basketball shorts and black ankle socks. His splendid frame was hard to ignore. This couldn’t have played out any better if I had planned it from start to finish.
“What the fuck are you doing here and why do you have...” he gestured toward the carriage. His tone wasn’t of his CEO mien, neither was it raised as to involve emotions, but it was sound and crisp. It was also clear that he was just as dismayed by her visit as I was. At this point, he had even intimidated me.
“I didn't know you had company,” Tara hissed in my direction.
“That doesn’t answer my question. How’d you even know where I lived?” Azmir was livid. I could see it all in his face as he approached us in the living room. I put Azna down on the floor. Even I was heavily awaiting this answer.
She cut her eyes to me and I could tell my presence under Azmir’s wrath made her incredibly uncomfortable, but seeing that we were both indisposed drew a picture of private boundaries that she had clearly crossed.
“I heard about the fire in Pasadena and wondered if you weren’t still living in that house where you could be. So, I did some digging around and came up with this address.”
“Digging around? What type of answer is that? You know what…” He raised his hand to cancel out his previous question. “How about we get back to why you’re here?” He didn’t stand next to me, instead he was adjacent, placing himself in the middle of Tara and me, but I still had clear view of her.