That's Just My Baby Daddy...THE BOOK

This is a series. It was a book at first. Here is some background information: Wade is my oldest daughter's dad. We grew up on the same block. We met when I was 6 and he was 7. He had stolen my brothers bike. I went to confront him and that is how we met. We became friends later in life, our teenage years. He helped me study for my permit test...

I successfully obtained my license. Wade was becoming progressively more involved in my life. Like I said, that night started it, then the flood gates opened. Whenever I was outside, Wade saw me. I would go across the street to the mailbox, sitting on the porch reading or talking on the phone, he would make his way over.

"Hey Toya!" he'd say with a huge smile.

He started paying closer attention to me. He had noticed that I started getting my nails done. As always, I'm minding my business, right? He walks up behind me and shoves something in my pocket, then walked away without saying anything.

"What in the world?" I said out loud but low as if In was talking to myself. I checked my pocket. He had given me $25. Even though he walked away, he didn't go far. He just went back across the street to his favorite spot.

"What's this for?" I yelled as i waved the money in the air.

"Get your nails done yo!" He yelled back.

Don't forget y'all, this was in the late 90's/early 2000's. A full set was as low as $18, so I had enough to get my nails AND eyebrows done!

"Oh. OK! Thank you!" I yelled back, then went in the house.

I was working at a Popeye's restaurant during the day and going to technical school at night. My original life plan was to be a psychiatric nurse practitioner. I settled on a nurse practitioner instead of a doctor because it takes too long. I wasn't trying to be in school for no 8 to 10 years. I initially went to Coppin State University for nursing. Like my high school, the college was on the west side of Baltimore City. I had to get up around 5:30am to have time to get dressed and walk to the bus stop. My first class of the day was English. It started at 8am. I was lucky to only have to take one bus the whole way, but I was let out at the very top of a big hill and the school was all the way at the bottom. Me and my best friend at the time went to school there together. We would get off the bus in the freezing cold Baltimore winter air and walk what felt like a mile to get to our classroom. Together, we decided to leave Coppin and go to Tesst College of Technology to get certified as medical assistants and phlebotomist's.

The new plan was to become certified medical assistants to earn more money. We made $8.12 an hour at Popeye's. A certified medical assistant started off at an average of $12.00 an hour. While working as medical assistants, we go back to college for nursing. It seemed like a pretty sound plan to us.

The plan goes into effect: we enroll at Tesst and change our schedules to fit our school schedule. It worked out that we were at Popeye's in the morning and school in the evening. Work typically started for us at 8 am. Our shifts usually ended at 4:30 pm. Class started at like 6 pm and ended at 10:45 pm. They was some long days, but we did it!

Wade must've been watching me again because he started meeting me at the bus stop at the top of our street. He'd be waiting there when I got off. He would take my books and carry them as we walked to my house. He never missed a night. One night, it was raining kinda hard, so I thought he wouldn't be there. Well, the bus pulls up to the stop. I was right in that he wasn't standing there. He was actually parked and waiting for me in his car. When I stepped off the bus, he got out of his car and took my books as usual. He opened the passenger side door and told me to get in. He drove me down the street so I wouldn't get wet. He was growing on me. I no longer got annoyed by him. I actually started to look forward to seeing him. I gave him my phone number that night. Cell phones were still evolving. Cell phone carriers didn't offer unlimited anything at first. Text messages were 35 cents each. My plan had 1500 messages free. You had a plan with a certain amount of minutes and it would be free after 9 pm and on weekends. People still had house phones. That's what we talked on when I was at home.

He ended up walking me home every night for the entire year I was in school. He would still put money in my bag or pocket or hiding in my textbooks.

"Use this for your nails", he would say. Or, "get your hair done."

My best friend (the one I went to school with and worked with) and I went to get our nails done one day on our break from Popeye's. There was a nail salon within walking distance. We are sitting there getting our nails done and my little flip phone rang. Music ringtones had just come out. Every phone that rang was music. Nobody used traditional tones unless they were old. So anyway, my little flip phone is ringing from my purse. Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" is blaring. Without realizing, I looked at my purse and smiled. My friend caught it.

"You love him!" She said.

I just kept smiling because I knew it was true. He had won me over. All that was left was for us to make it official. We did just that on Halloween of that year. We had sex for the first time the next day, November 1st. We did it in his bed at his parents house. I liked his room. I wanted to make my room like his. All the walls were painted black. He had black curtains that kept the sun completely out when they were closed. He had the middle room in his house like I did at mine. He took the doors off the closet and put a dresser in there. I thought that was so neat lol. It wasn't long after we were official that I started spending nights there. We were young, so y'all know good and well we was bumping on the regular. He smoked weed real heavy so our young and dumb asses thought I couldn't get pregnant because weed lowers the sperm count and slowed them down. We just KNEW we was safe so we stopped using condoms and I wasn't on birth control. Life seemed good, I had no idea though...