Time Heals All

Chapter 39: Lay It Down

Ant's POV

"One week down, one week to go." Taylor marked off the date on her mini calendar.

In a week I'll officially be married. I can't believe it and I didn't think this moment would come so soon. The closer the day gets the more nervous I am. Taylor doesn't seem nervous not one bit, she's either mad about something not going her way or overly excited. She doesn't see it, but this wedding shit got her going crazy. Her and the wedding planner been getting on my nerves. They been buying all types of expensive shit.

I know I said I was done working for a few months, but it's hard for me to just sit around. The album that I put out on Mariah's birthday has some pretty good sales, but I need it all. Mariah's two months now and I've also put out two mixtapes because all I do is go to the studio. For the moment, I'm still not doing any out of town shows but performing in Houston is still a go. I actually have two shows to attend today. One's for Al's daughter, she's having a 16th birthday party. The other is just a club appearance that I'm getting paid for.

"You ready to see mommy walk down the aisle, princess? Me too." I talked to Mariah who wouldn't stop staring at me.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for the party?" Taylor asked me.

"I will in a minute. I'm tryna figure out why Mariah mugging like she want problems." I tickled her and smothered her with kisses.

"Maybe she wondering why you so ugly." Taylor laughed.

Mariah started kicking her feet and laughing like she knew what the joke was. I kissed on her some more then I stood up to put on some clothes. Taylor was also getting something to wear because she was about to leave. My mama was in town and Taylor is taking Mariah to meet her grandma for the first time. My mama will also be watching Mariah for the night because Tay is coming to my club appearance with me. We never go out with each other and plus she wants to make sure no hoes are in my face.

"Come here, fat girl." I picked Mariah up after I put my clothes on.

"Gimme kiss. Daddy love you." She left drool all over my mouth.

"Bye, baby. You gone be late." Taylor hugged me.

I sat Mariah down and she wouldn't take her eyes off of me. Since I was running behind I went ahead and left the house. As soon as I got in the car Al was hitting my phone. I ignored it and made my way to his house. I blasted my radio to drown out the constant ringing from my phone. I already know he's probably mad that I wasn't showing up early like I agreed to. I looked down at my phone to see it was passed the time I was supposed to be there. I try not to be late to any of my performances, but this isn't something new for me. As long as I show up and perform, that's all that matters.

Because of traffic I was now an hour late. I pulled up just knowing Al was going to curse me out. When I entered the house a bunch of teenage girls screamed and rushed me. I looked over them to find Al so they could get off of me.

"Alright, alright." He came to the rescue.

He sighed at me and pulled me to the side.

"What the fuck, Ant." He threw his hands out.

"It was a lot of traffic." I smiled, I can't take Al serious sometimes.

"Ain't shit funny, this my daughter nigga." He reached in his pocket and crumbled a check into my hand.

I took a deep breath and followed Al into his backyard where even more teenagers reside. Al's daughter wore a crown and a pink dress. She walked over to me and I gave her a hug.

"Sorry I'm late, but happy birthday." I looked down at her.

"As long as you're here. My friends were starting to believe I didn't know you." She pulled me towards her little group of friends.