How It All Happened

chapter fourty

"That's mommy's baby. You soooo cute." Jazmine coo'ed in her baby boy, Roman's face.

She thanked God everyday for a healthy baby, that was all she ever wanted. With little help from Shawn, who was still in school and lots of help from her parents, Jazmine was slowly getting the hang of parenthood.

Roman was a happy baby, so she was blessed that she didn't have to figure out what was making him cry all the time.

"Where's my grand-baby?" Her mom, Janine asked.

"In here smiling and blowing spit bubbles." Jazmine smiled, showing her mom where he was seated on the couch.

"Let's go eat, grandma got you some mashed potatoes and gravy." She headed to the kitchen.

Jazmine shook her head, because her mom would be the reason her baby would be walking around looking like a sumo wrestler. He had just had a bottle not even 20 minutes ago.

There was a knock on the door, and nobody was expecting company.

Swinging the door open, Jazmine was face to face with her baby's father.

Rolling her eyes, Jazmine let him inside. Shawn helped her with the baby money wise, but as far as being there for love and support, he was lacking. He had seen the baby only twice since he was born, not even including the day of birth, because he couldn't make it due to an exam. Jazmine couldn't be mad at the fact that he was taking school seriously, but a little money sent through the mail, would never amount to her son knowing who his father was.

"Where's my lil man?" Shawn walked past Jazmine, and into the kitchen, seeing Janine feeding his baby mashed potatoes.

"Man, he don't need all that starch." Shawn took the baby off Janine's lap, and into the living room without saying anything to her. He didn't like Jazmine's mom, and vice versa, so why even pretend to?

"Why you coming up in here like you run shit?" Jazmine questioned Shawn who was now sitting down with Roman in his arms.

Seeing Roman's face twist up into a frown after letting out a little cry, Jazmine made her way over to get him.

"That's okay baby, momma knows you don't like strangers." She rocked her body so he could relax while giving Shawn a mean mug for making her baby upset.

"Chill with that. He knows who I am." Shawn was hurt by the way his son was acting towards him. He knew babies could be funny acting sometimes, but no matter what, they always clung onto their parents, but right now, that wasn't the case. He was starting to think that maybe Roman was unfamiliar with him, which was his fault for not making more of an effort to see him.

As Roman drifted off to sleep, Jazmine laid him down in his bassinet that was in the living room at the moment.

"Can we go outside and talk?" Shawn asked Jazz, once the baby was down.

"Sure."

They walked out the door, giving each other stares. They both had a lot to say, but neither wanted to be the first to speak. Deciding that this was about the baby, and not their issues, Jazmine chose to be the bigger person and spoke up.

"Shawn, I know you weren't expecting another baby when you found out, but now that he's here, you have to step up to the plate. I didn't lay down and make this baby by myself, meaning I shouldn't be the only one taking care of him." She sighed.

"But I send you money. Why you acting ungrateful?" Shawn was missing the whole point, and it pissed her off.

"Did you not see how your son just acted in your arms? He doesn't need your money. He needs you." She put a finger in his chest.

"That boy in there, needs your time, love, and care. You can't buy that with your little money." She furrowed her eyebrows. Her son was beautiful in her eyes, so she wanted more for him from Shawn.

"Look man. I'm doing my best. With school, it's hard to do both parenting and passing at the same time. I got a lot of shit going on." Shawn shook his head. He wanted Jazmine to support his decision in staying in school to get his education. He knew with a degree, came better opportunities, and with that, he could provide much more for his son.

"I understand, but you could try to make an effort to at least face time us, or come see him on the weekends. The drive is only an hour away, hell, if you don't want to use your gas, I can start meeting you half way. I just really want you in your son's life. Is that too much to ask for?" A tear fell out of her eye. Never would she have expected to be having this conversation with Shawn. After the trip to the doctor's office, for finding out the gender, she expected Shawn to pull it together, but she was wrong.

"I can try. In the mean time, stop crying. I'ma do my best. I love you and Roman. I just gotta make you believe it." He pulled her into a hug.

After releasing from the hug, Shawn walked to his car.

"You leaving already?" Jazmine asked.

"No, I may have gotten something for Roman." He said grabbing 10 gift bags out of the trunk.

"Shawwwnn. He already has too much stuff to fit in his closet." Jazmine whined.

"You know how it get when you shopping for babies. You see one thing, then wind up buying the whole store. I couldn't help myself." He chuckled.

"Thank you." Jazmine said as they walked back into the house.

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"I may have gotten something for you too." Shawn reached into his pocket, pulling out a little bag.

Inside the bag, contained a rectangular velvet box. Opening it, Jazmine smiled pulling out the all gold
heart locket.

Pulling open the locket, inside there was a picture of the three of them ( Jazmine, Shawn and Roman ) from his last visit with them.

"Shawn." Jazmine said as her smile got bigger. This locket meant a lot to her.

"You like it?" He asked.

"I love it." She jumped into his arms.

"I meant what I said about us being a family one day. I deaded the situation with Camille. I wanna focus on graduating and until then, I promise to do better in Roman's life. I want him to grow up and think of me as more than just his father, but his best friend as well. Y'all mean the world to me." Shawn placed a kiss on Jazmines forehead. This was all she ever wanted.