Game of Chance

 

Chapter 27

“Contessa, baby!” her mother greeted as she opened the large front door.

“Hey, Mom,” Contessa replied sweetly and embraced her mother easily.

“Oh, and this handsome fella’ must be the boyfriend you just told me about,” she stated pointedly.

Marshall tried to grin sheepishly.  “Hello, Mrs. Summers,” he said warmly.  “I’m—”

“Is she here?” a deep voice bellowed as a bulky man stalked towards the open door.

“Sure is, honey,” Mrs. Summers answered as she stepped further inside.  “Come on, it’s a little cool outside.  The hors d'oeuvres are already on the table.”

Praying, Marshall followed Contessa’s swaying hips into her parents’ home; he rarely prayed, but he was about ready to start sweating bullets and he’d only just met her mother.

//

Hugging, Contessa’s father swung her up into the air, as if she were weightless, and smiled brightly at her.  “It’s been too long, sweetheart.”

“I know, Daddy.  Even if I did see you less than a month ago!” she teased.

“Holy shit, Tessa, that’s Eminem!” one of her older brothers shouted as he came down the stairs.

“Language,” Mrs. Summers warned.

“Sorry,” he replied with a grin.  “But you’re only so calm because you don’t know who he is.”

“Um, hey,” Marshall said as he stepped into the living room.

“Derrick, this is Marshall,” Contessa introduced the blonde to her oldest brother.  “And the less loud one is Brandon,” she said and pointed towards the stocky man on the couch.

“Nice to meet everyone,” Marshall replied politely.

“Damn,” Derrick swore again.  “I wanna know how you two met.”

“He has the dirtiest mouth, excuse him,” Mrs. Summers laughed lightly.

“Mom,” Contessa whined.

“Fine, all right.  How about we all sit down?” she suggested with a sweeping gesture to the living room couches.

“Sounds good,” Contessa murmured and sat on the edge of one of the armchairs.

Awkwardly, Marshall looked for a place to sit and ended up sitting in the armchair Contessa was perched upon.

//

“So how did you and my little girl meet?” Mr. Summers asked.

“Um,” Marshall began hesitantly.  “Tessa tells it better than I do.”

“Stella won tickets to go to this CD release party for 50 Cent’s album, so we went and guess who was there?  Yep, sure enough, Mr. Eminem himself.  I somehow ended up talking to Curtis—I mean, 50 Cent—and he took me back to where he was sitting.  One thing led to another and soon enough, I got Marshall’s number.”

“Just like that?” Brandon asked skeptically and eyed her suspiciously.

“Uh huh,” she assured him with a wink.

“My little girl’s dating a celebrity,” her dad gushed.

“Dad!”

“So, what do we call you?” Mrs. Summers asked.

“Marshall.  My friends call me Marshall,” he replied.

“Welcome to our home, Marshall.  If I could just steal Contessa away for a moment…”

Sighing, Contessa leaned back and whispered, “Good luck,” before jumping off her seat and following her mother.

//

“So, Marshall, how long have you and my daughter been…dating?”

“Four months or so.”

“I thought you lived in Detroit,” Derrick stated.

“I do.”

“So, you guys have been doing it long distance?”

“Yeah, I guess.  I try and visit her as often as I can…  Or fly her out when she’s not working.”

“She’s a workaholic, so that much be never!” Brandon laughed as he began to warm up to the blonde.

“You’re telling me!  She nearly bit my head off when I asked her to come out for a few days…”

“That’s Tessa for you,” Derrick teased.

“Well, she’s very independent,” Mr. Summers said diplomatically.

“I admire her for that.  Her sense of independence was very attractive.  Someone who, well, wasn’t looking at how many zeros were in my bank account, is always someone special.”

“That’s my girl,” Mr. Summers smiled proudly.

“Oh, but don’t get her wrong—she loves to spend when she can!” Derrick added.

“All I know is she eats more than I’ve ever seen a woman eat!” Marshall eased into the conversation.

“That’s Tessa, all right.  She eats and eats, and where does she put it all?  Nowhere.  Damn girl can’t gain a pound!”

“Not that I’m complainin’,” Marshall grinned slightly.

“Eh?” Mr. Summers huffed.  “I do say…my wife and I do breed well!”

“Yes, Tessa’s beautiful, Mr. Summers.”

“Damn straight.  Prettiest thing you’ll ever see.”

“I have no doubt that’s true,” Marshall replied genuinely.

//

“I hope you guys didn’t terrify him,” Contessa commented as she walked back into the living room.

“Oh, of course not, sweetheart.”

“If that was meant to reassure me, it didn’t work.”

“Nah, we were just making fun of you,” Brandon confessed.

“Oh, even better,” she replied dryly and slid onto the arm of the chair again.

//

“Now I know why your cooking is so good, Tessa,” Marshall murmured.  “This is delicious, Mrs. Summers.”

“Why, thank you,” Mrs. Summers blushed.  “So, Tessa’s cooked for you?”

“Yeah,” he nodded.  “Best food I’ve ever had.  Home-cooked and all.  Absolutely great.  Although, this is better,” he shot a risky glance at Contessa.

“Watch it, Marsh,” she said predictably.  “You’re spoiling him, Mom.  I’ll never be able to top you!”

Her mom just smiled.

//

“I’m not sure how to say this, but…”

“Say what, sweetie?” Mrs. Summers asked.

“I’m moving to Detroit in a few days.”

“Detroit?” her father boomed.

“Yes,” she replied weakly.  She felt like a little girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Why?” her mother asked.

“Promise me you won’t get mad, first,” she began.

“Oh, god,” Mr. Summers paled and leaned back in his chair.

“I’m—I’m pregnant.”

Marshall winced as her father looked wildly at him.

“Wait,” Mr. Summers said and turned to face his daughter.  “I thought you couldn’t get pregnant.”

“Apparently we had a small miracle.”

“Oh, my,” her mother sighed.

“Because I’m not supposed to be able to get pregnant, I’m also not supposed to be able to carry the child to term.  I—I would like to try, though.  My doctor advised that if I ever wanted children of my own, that this might be my only chance.”

“Damn, Tessa,” Derrick whispered.

“The reason I’m moving to Detroit is, well, firstly because Marshall asked me.”

“I didn’t ask her.  I demanded she move,” he amended.

“That’s right,” she said tightly.  “He promised to get the very best doctors once we’re in Detroit to increase the chances that I can give birth.”

“He better,” Mr. Summers ground out.

“I’ve already lined up the top prenatal doctors in the world for interviews the moment I get back to Detroit.  I’m flying them all in.  They’ve all already agreed to relocate.”

“It must be nice to have that kind of power,” Brandon said quietly.

“Mr. Summers, Mrs. Summers,” he said looking at Contessa’s parents.  “I don’t want you to think that I’m power hungry or that I like to throw my weight around or whatever.  I’m doing this because I want this baby—our baby—to have the very best.  I want to know that it was given everything before, after, and during.”

Contessa smiled at him with tears in her eyes.  “Damn it,” she swore.  “I know this isn’t what you expected.  It wasn’t something I thought was going to happen, I assure you.  I would just…like your support,” she said looking at her mother only.

“And you know I won’t give it,” Mrs. Summers said tartly.

“I didn’t think you would, but I wanted to try anyway.” Contessa sighed.

“Well, you wasted our time and spoiled the evening for everyone.”

Shaking her head, Contessa pushed her chair out and stood up.  “Thanks for dinner, Daddy.  Brandon, Derrick, I’ll call you in a few days.”

“Baby—” Mr. Summers started.

“Marshall, I think it’s time to go,” she suggested firmly.

//

“Contessa,” her father called as he ran down the front yard’s path.  “Please, wait.”

“Yes?” she sighed.  “Marshall, go ahead, I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Do you love him?”

“Marshall?”

“Yes.”

“I—I—I guess I do,” she stuttered.  “I’ve tried not to think about it.  He’s not a very…emotional person.”

“He makes you happy?”

“Sometimes we fight, but he’s good to me, Dad.  He’ll take good care of me and the baby.  You should see him with Hailie—that’s his daughter—they’re amazing together.  He’s amazing with her.  He…he reminds me of you when I was a little girl.”

Her father nodded.  “Then that’s it.”

“I guess so.”

“And Tessa?”

“I wanted to let you know you have my support.  You have your brothers’ support, too.  We’ll work on your mom.  We love you so much, sweetheart.  You know how your mother can be, she’ll accept it.”

“I don’t want her to just accept it.  I don’t need her to accept it, damn it.  This is her fucking grand child!  Doesn’t she care?” she cried brokenly.

Her father hugged her tightly and stroked her hair.  “It’s gonna be okay, baby.  Just hang in there.  I’d ask you to call me as soon as you got to Detroit, but…”

“Mom.”

“Remind one of your brothers to call and give me your new number, okay?  And tell that man of yours that he better treat you right or there’ll be hell to pay.”

“I will,” she laughed with tears running down her face.  “I love you, Daddy.”

Chapter 28

Author: zines@aol.com

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These stories are for entertainment purposes only.  They are completely fictitious, and the authors mean no harm to EMINEM, his family, friends, or anyone else that may have been depicted as a 'real life' character.  No money was made on the fiction here, either directly or indirectly, i.e. paid advertising. In other words - it's just a bunch of shit we wrote for fun. Please don't take it seriously.