“Hey, sweet thang.” Mary didn’t have to turn around to know who that voice belonged to. She couldn’t believe he would have the nerve to show up at her apartment.
“Craig, what are you doing here?” she said, turning to face him. He must’ve been waiting outside her apartment complex while she’d taken her baby for a walk.
“Well, since you won’t return my phone calls and you want to act all high society on me now, well, you didn’t leave me much choice, now, did you?” He reached out and stroked her cheek. His touch gave her goose bumps, but not in a good way. She wrenched away from him like he disgusted her.
“Oh, so it’s like that now?” he said, watching her reaction. He looked the same, wearing sagging blue jeans and a skimpy muscle shirt, which exposed his sculpted biceps. He’d cut off his signature braids, but it looked like he was trying to let them grow back out.
“Craig, I’ll ask you again, why are you here?”
He pointed at her apartment and frowned. “This isn’t what I expected. Since you bagged a big-time preacher, well,” he looked around the apartment complex, “I thought he would’ve set you up better than this.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I don’t need anyone to set me up. I can take care of myself.”
Craig stared at her, then burst out laughing. “Girl, you can still act.” He motioned toward her door. “Come on, aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because I want to talk to you. And I want to see your precious little boy. I heard he was super cute.”
“He is and I wouldn’t let you anywhere near my son.” She scooted the stroller behind her.
His eyes bugged out in pretend awe. “Your son, huh?”
“Yes, mine and Lester Adams’s, Reverend Lester Adams.”
Craig doubled over in laughter. “I never pictured you to be a preacher’s woman.” He let the laugh work its way out. “But wait, you’re not,” he added with a wry smile.
“Shut up, Craig.” She tried to push her way past him and go inside.
He shifted more in front of her. “Now, you know I did my homework.”
“A good crook always does.”
“You didn’t call me a crook when you were running game with me.” He smiled at her slyly. “We were so good together. Bonnie and Clyde.”
Mary groaned in exasperation. They’d run all kinds of scams, from identity theft to check scams to insurance fraud. But that was then. This was now.
“Well, that was before you took crime to another level. Besides, those days are long gone,” Mary said. She pointed to her stroller. “As you can see, I’m a changed woman.”
He gave the baby an arched eyebrow. “Naw, girl, it looks to me like you just got a new game,” he said coolly.
“Whatever, Craig. This isn’t a game.”
“So, do you really think you stand a chance with preacher man?”
“For your information, I do.”
“And what about his wife and kids?”
“A mere formality.” She wondered how Craig knew all of her business, but then again, this was Craig she was talking about. He could find out anything about anyone.
He leaned against the doorway, his expression turning serious.
“Mary, what do you want with a preacher?”
“Stability, a real life. Not to have to worry about how I’m gonna keep the lights on or how I’m gonna send my kid to college. I don’t want to be scared to open the front door because I’m afraid the cops are coming to bust me and my man. You know, all the things you couldn’t give me.”
“Let’s just say for argument’s sake that you were even able to weasel preacher man away from his family. Do you really think you’d be happy in the boring, humdrum life as a First Lady in a black church?”
“What difference does color make?”
He shook his head in pity. “My poor Mary, always so naive. Sweetheart, just ’cause you want a color-blind world doesn’t mean it exists. Just like white folks can be racist against blacks, blacks can be racist against whites, especially when you start messing with their religion.”
She had already experienced some of that, but she wouldn’t admit it. “Craig, I’m through talking to you.” She opened the door and navigated the stroller inside.
He put his foot in the door to keep her from closing it. “You didn’t even ask me what I wanted.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Let me hold a couple of dollars.”
She stopped and cocked her head. “You are the brokest con man I’ve ever seen.”
“Hey, times are hard, haven’t you heard? Besides, I have a plan that’s about to set me on easy street. I just need a few hundred dollars to hold me over until then.”
“A couple of dollars and a few hundred dollars are two different things,” she said with an edge. “But it doesn’t matter anyway, because I don’t have any money.”
“But you got a so-called baby by a preacher. That ought to be worth something.”
“What the hell do you mean so-called baby by a preacher?”
“Okay, that came out wrong.”
Mary cut him off. She wasn’t about to go tit for tat with Craig. It was bad enough her mom had come begging, now Craig was doing the same thing.
“Look, I don’t have any money. Lester isn’t paying me any child support yet. I have to take him to court, which I’m trying to avoid because I know he’ll do right. I just have to give him time. And when he does pay, it’s for my son and my son only.”
“Your son,” he said again with a laugh.
“Yes, my son,” she stressed, pushing the stroller behind her.
“All right, baby.” He paused, licking his lips. “You sure I can’t come in? You know, a romp for old times’ sake?”
“I’m positive. Bye, Craig.”
He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Bye, babe. Until next time.” He leaned down and looked into the stroller. Lester was sound asleep. “Bye, lil man.” Craig turned his attention back to Mary. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do,” she said, her face stony.
“All right.” He broke out in a big smile again. “I’ll be in touch.”
As Mary watched him walk away, she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Whenever Craig was around, trouble wasn’t too far behind.