Bodies

trente-et-un

Milan didn't have time to get her bearings even though her head was spinning once again from the absolute foolishness that came from Tatiana's mouth. However, her brain was still on and it seemed like the Universe was working in perfect sync with her.

Tammy came back with their food, her arms loaded up like a balancing circus act. Milan used the commotion of her setting everything down to unlock her phone quickly and press record on its voice memo function... just as her strawberry french toast was being slid in front of her.

Immediately her nose was filled with the decadence of sweet summer strawberries on fluffy thick cut toast. Briefly, she could hear her inner child giggling as her mom dabbed a finger of the powdered sugar on her nose.

But when she looked up and saw who she really was across from, she sobered up immediately.

They definitely weren't any piece of the late great Mrs.Cozart.

Clearing her throat, Milan grabbed the syrup from the middle of the table and began to pour it over her french toast. "So, who's the father of the baby?" Milan kept pressing on without missing a beat.

Tatiana narrowed her eyes at Milan as she cut into her chocolate chip pancakes. "Chu-chi's my babydaddy." She answered the question begrudgingly. Milan tilted her head again, but this time in mock confusion that had Tatiana red in the face.

Pointing her strawberry laden fork at the bald man next to Tatiana, Milan asked, "And I presume you to be Mr.Chu-chi?"

With a loud belch, the man agreed as he began to put another sausage patty in his mouth just as he was finishing the other one.

"Yeah, dat youngin' mine. I be forgetting she half latina. My momma said all you gotta do is look at they ass funny and they get knocked up." Chuchi proceeded to burst out laughing at the end of his joke.

Otherwise the table was silent.

Wait until I tell Daya that one.

All Milan could do was look at Tatiana from across the table with the most disgusted look she could muster. This was the guy she was cheating on Ramses with? For as long as they were "together"? It would crush him.

But then Milan glanced over at Chuchi and that branded arm of his. Milan knew exactly what she saw in him. Although abrasive, stupid, and mildly racist... he brought her protection on the end Ramses could never secure for her.

The opposing side.

Cheating with someone who could keep you out of the mix if the tide turned suddenly in the oppositions favor, it was a survival tactic.

Milan knew what is was like to be put in the position of being exposed.

Hell, she couldn't even leave her house when Chrisanto's murder happened and it was her own brother doing the shooting.

Tatiana never had the problem of being without cover. Both sides were hers.

But now, she refuses to do the right thing. And Milan couldn't understand that.

While she was in such deep thought, most of the table was moving through their plate in silence. It seemed like Tatiana and Chuchi didn't have much in common, because the tension between them was heavier than the tension between her and Milan. But, with the jokes he tells, I wouldn't want to be sitting next to him either.

After dunking a piece of her toast into a syrup puddle and throwing it in her mouth, Milan piped with another question. Swallowing before speaking, she asked, "So, just to be clear and to make sure I can take this back to his lawyer..."