i still love you • blake griffin

•seven•

August 1, 2015

"DeAndre Jordan, what are you doing here?"

With Blake out of the house for most of the day, Vivian knew she'd be able to get some work done but when she went downstairs, she saw DeAndre lying on the couch.

"I could ask you the same thing," he said, giving her a hug. His eyes traveled south and widened when he saw the small baby bump. "Never mind."

She was glad DeAndre was smart enough to put two and two together so she wouldn't have to explain anything.

"How did this even happen?" he asked. "Because when y'all were getting divorced, you made it very clear that you didn't wanna see Blake again, but now you're pregnant with a little Griffin and living in his house."

"I was drunk, and he just so happened to be there," she shrugged. "Better Blake than some stranger."

DeAndre nodded in agreement as Vivian sat next to him on the couch. "Does this mean y'all are getting back together?"

Vivian was tired of that question, and DeAndre was only the second person to ask. As much as she hated the idea of having a baby out of wedlock, she knew she & Blake were capable of raising a child together.

"Absolutely not. I think we'll be perfectly fine co-parenting."

He nodded slowly. "You don't have to answer this if you don't want, but what really happened between you & Blake? I get that he cheated, but you didn't ask for a divorce right away, so what happened?"

"Did Blake ever tell you that I was pregnant when we were married?" DeAndre furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. "I've actually been pregnant four times, and I miscarried all four times." She paused for a second as tears welled in her eyes. "Do you know how devastating it was for me to find out that my husband got another woman pregnant after I had four miscarriages?"

Vivian began to cry, so DeAndre wrapped an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. She never talked to anyone about her past pregnancies or her marriage and to her surprise, it still made her very emotional.

"So why'd you stay with him after you found out about Brynn?" he asked carefully.

"I loved him," she simply stated. "I didn't wanna give up so easily, but he started to change. He let her disrespect me all the time and every time I told her off, I was the bad guy to him. It got to the point where he would start disrespecting me, and I wasn't gonna put up with it, so I left."

Now that DeAndre knew more about the ending of Vivian & Blake's marriage, he had more sympathy for her — especially since he was pretty much anti-Brynn.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm not exactly her biggest fan," DeAndre said. "Neither are his parents, but don't tell anyone I said that."

"That actually does make me feel better," she chuckled. "But...what's the kid like?"

"He looks just like Blake only with blonde hair and, I think, gray eyes," he answered. "But he's really friendly and kinda funny for a kid. You two will get along great."

•

Blake walked into the house with his son, Ford, in his arms, and they went straight to the living room. He really wanted Vivian to meet Ford, which is why he was happy when Brynn said he could take Ford home with him.

"Vivian, can you come in here for a minute?"

She walked into the living room from the kitchen and when she saw Ford, she smiled. "When DeAndre said he looked just like you, he wasn't kidding."

She sat on the couch, and Blake sat besides her, sitting Ford in between them. She waved at him when he looked at her, and he smiled and waved back.

"Vivian, this is my son, Ford," Blake said. "Ford, this is Vivian."

"Bibinan?" She nodded to let him know whatever he said was close enough to her name. He then giggled, which she thought was so cute. "Hi, Bibinan!"

"Oh my goodness, you are so cute!" Vivian squealed.

He moved to sit on her lap, catching her by surprise, but she didn't mind considering how much she loved children. Blake could tell that Vivian & Ford were already attached to each other, and he loved that they were already getting along.

"What did y'all do today?"

"We went to Disneyland for his birthday," Blake answered her. "And I'm tired."

He laid his head on Vivian's shoulder and she, surprisingly didn't say anything about it. She was so busy telling Ford happy birthday and trying to make him laugh, she didn't even care.

"Why are you so tired anyway?" Vivian finally asked him.

"It's exhausting being around boring people for long periods of time, Viv."

She chuckled. "Exhausting people like who, Blake?"

"B-r-y-n-n and her family," he sighed.

Blake really just wanted to spend some quality time with his son for his birthday instead of spending the day with Brynn and her family. But it was rare for her to leave Ford alone with Blake, so he sucked it up and spent his day with the Camerons all for his son.

"Speaking of her, does this mean I'll be seeing her a lot more now?" Vivian asked, letting Ford play with her phone.

"Yeah," he answered slowly, keeping his head on her shoulder. "You know you two are gonna have to learn to be cordial."

She rolled her eyes. "I know how to be cordial, Blake. I can respect her as the mother of your child, but you need to make sure she can do the same."

Blake knew when the time came, he would have to talk to Brynn. Even though, according to Vivian, they weren't getting back together, he felt like she was giving him a second chance. This time, he wasn't gonna let anyone or anything ruin it.