39. Changes made!

"Oh my sweet baby!" Mateo's mother cooed out as she took Kaiden from his hands. "How are you my baby?" She questioned as if he could respond.

Mateo smiled as he shook his head. He loved his mother's interaction with her grandson. He made his way into her kitchen where he smelled food, ready to make himself a plate as she followed behind him. "How are you mijo?" She asked finally focusing on her son.

He nodded, "I'm alright. How are you ma?" He grabbed a plate from her cabinet as he started putting food on it. His mother sat down with Kaiden in her arms. "I'm good, I talked to Jessica." She made known.

Mateo rolled his eyes, thankful that she couldn't see him. "Oh yeah? What she say?" He questioned, it'd been three weeks since the two had decided to take a step back and they had seriously taken a step back, they only talked in regards to Kaiden, nothing more, nothing less. But it also gave him plenty of time to think.

"She's good, told me you two are strictly co-parenting right now. Why is that?" She asked as he finished up making his plate. He turned around going to the table that she sat at and sat his plate down before turning back around to grab a fork and a drink. He wasn't really in the mood to have his mother all up in their business, but she had grown to love Jessica so he knew he wasn't about to get out of not talking about it easily.

He let out a hard breath, "we just weren't seeing eye to eye on some things. Our communication wasn't the strongest and we just weren't getting along as much."

"Why?" She questioned as he walked back over to the table taking a seat. He blessed his food before replying to her. "I don't know mama. But it's temporary, this isn't the end all, be all for us."

"It has nothing to do with your ex?" He looked up at her like she was crazy. "Why would she have anything to do with it?" He questioned as he took a bite of his food.

She shrugged, "seems like you and Jessica didn't have problems until she did something you didn't like. I just don't want you projecting things that Sofia did on Jessica. And you need to work on being more open."

At this point he knew Jessica had told her some things, his mother could get a magician to tell his tricks with her talking skills so he couldn't even blame her.

He didn't reply as he stuffed his face, and she didn't push for one as she talked and played with Kaiden instead. Once he finished up and was putting his dishes in the sink she made another comment in regards to it. "Talk to her today when you drop Kaiden back off."

"I already planned to ma." He let out slightly annoyed that she was so invested. She smiled, happy with his reply. She decided to change the subject as she sensed his energy and she knew she was being a little pushy, "now come show me to how to work this Netflix. I don't know why you got me these fancy new TVs, my other ones were just fine." She pointed out.

Mateo laughed, "some of your TV's still had the butt on them ma, I'm surprised they were still even working."

They made their way into her living room as he signed into his Netflix account and made her her on profile, though he was sure she probably wouldn't use it much.

Once he set it up they actually sat and watched a movie as Kaiden fell asleep in his grandmothers arms. Mateo looked at the time, he had an early morning training tomorrow and then practice that afternoon, he was still getting back into the groove of things so he needed to get going.

He stood up, "well ma, it's always nice to see you but we gotta get going." She stood up as well as she slowly passed off Kaiden to him, trying to be sure she didn't wake him.

Mateo adjusted him in his arms before bending down and placing a kiss on his mother's forehead. "Te amo." He said as he hugged her with the arm that didn't hold Kaiden, she said it back as she walked them to the door. She watched as he strapped Kaiden in his car seat and then made his way to the driver's side.

She opens her screen door, "talk to her!" She yelled out before he got in. He looked up at her as he shook his head and got in the car.

———

"Wait, so mom told you she actually wants us all to sit down?" Jessica questioned her sister Jackie. Jackie had all three of them on a three way call after she received a call from their mother.

"She must be sick or some shit, bout to die." Jazmin let out. "That's not funny Jaz." Jackie quickly countered.

Jazmin sucked her teeth, "look she never liked me so sorry if I don't feel how you feel Jackie, she made it clear she couldn't stand me and too easily has been fine without being in our lives. And let's not forget she cut you out for being gay Jack! Shit, Jess actually went to see her when she found out she was pregnant and mom gave a fuck less, so excuse me for returning that same fuck that she didn't give."

Jackie sighed, "somebody has the be the bigger person." She replied. "And it should've have been her! She's the parent!" Jaz yelled out.

"And she's trying to now!" Jackie yelled back matching her tone. "Look," she started in a much calmer tone. "Just come and see what she has to say, if you don't like it or feel like you still don't want to fuck with her then okay. But just hear her out."

"When?" Jaz questioned. "Next weekend." Jackie let out. "Next weekend?!" Jazmin and Jessica both said at the same time. "That's real short notice." Jessica spoke.

"Hell yeah! I don't live in Cali anymore." Jazmin let be known. "Okay and neither do I, look up flights tonight! And book one." Jackie said as if it was just that easy.

Luckily Jessica knew she would be able to find a flight that wouldn't be too pricey. "I'll see." Jazmin said with attitude.

A knock came through on Jessica's door, she knew it was Mateo so she ended the call with her sisters letting them know she would talk to them soon.

She got up as she went to the door opening it. Mateo stood their with a sleeping Kaiden in his car seat, he walked in as he sat him down. "Thanks." Jessica let out thinking this would be the end of the visit but she was surprised when he asked if they could talk.

"Sure," she let out as they headed to the living room, she was about to grab Kaiden too, but Mateo went ahead and picked the car seat back up to bring to where they were. She sat down on the longer couch as he sat down on the smaller one. "What's up?" She questioned with her eyes on him.

Mateo licked his lips as he looked down at his hands before looking back up at her. "We've taken some time apart, I just wanted to see where your head is at now."

Jessica was surprised he was bringing this up, she was under the assumption that they were just about to strictly co-parent with the way he had been moving lately. Though she still had feelings for him she had no problem pushing them to the back burner. "Well that depends, are you still stuck on Sofia?"

While taking some time apart he realized how Jessica could've thought he still had feelings for Sofia and he noticed that he indeed still had some type of feelings for her, however it wasn't a road he wanted to go down, and they were nothing like the feelings he had begun to get for Jessica. "No Jessica, I'm not still stuck on her."

"You sure?" She questioned as he nodded with his eyes on hers. "Well I'm good Mateo, whether you feel we should keep this time apart, let us go altogether, or try to work it out. I'm good."

Mateo chuckled lowly, "so in other words you don't really give a fuck." She shook her head, "I didn't say that."

"Your response did though. If I tell you I think we should just co-parent you don't care, if I say I want us to start trying to build a relationship you don't care. That doesn't make me feel too confident. Can you tell me how you really feel?" He asked. "Or what you're leaning towards more."

Jessica licked her lips, part of her didn't want to tell him because she didn't want to get burned if he felt differently and she didn't want it to be awkward afterwards because of it. "We have to be honest." He said after visibly being able to see that she was questioning what to say.

She sighed, "I mean, I still like you Mateo. If anything that's all these three weeks apart have done is remind me and it doesn't help when you come over here looking good as fuck to get Kaiden." She state honestly, maybe too honestly.

Mateo laughed, "and you think it helps me any when you coming to the door looking all pretty and shit?" He smiled out as Jessica let out a sigh of relief. "But at the same time I want our communication to be better, a lot better." She let out, "we clearly still have a lot of learning to do when it comes to one another."

Mateo nodded, agreeing with her completely. "Well, we feel the same." He informed, getting them back on a serious note. "So with that being said, I want us to do this the right way, I know it's already a little backwards because of Kaiden and shit, but I was wondering if maybe I could take you out on a date next weekend, you know just to get to know you a little better." He smiled. "Talk about our likes and dislikes, you know shit like that."

Jessica smiled, "yeah, I would love that."

"Cool, I'll find you a babysitter and everything." He spoke as if the child wasn't his causing Jessica to laugh, "oh so you one of them that take care of the girl and her baby?"

"Hell yeah." He smiled as he stood up, "but let me get out of here. I have an early practice. I'll hit you up tomorrow."

She stood up walking him to the door, she hoped this time around it would all be good. She was almost certain it would.

———

I'm on the show!" Sofia smiled as she spoke with X over the phone. "Word! That's what's up!" He could hear the excitement in her voice, he was happy for her, that meant she finally had a job and he hoped that she would possibly be able to get some offers from it leading her to more work.

"I know! And they're doing a baseball wives show, but they're going to let me be a main character on there! Even though Mateo and I aren't together! I'm so happy Xavier, thank you so much!" She gushed out. Things were finally starting to look up for her.

With the help of her cousin constantly on her ass about getting some business about herself, and the realization that she would be broke and homeless in a months time when X told her she would have to leave she realized she had to stop having a pity party for herself and realize that the next come up wasn't happening. She had to get her shit together.

She had found a decent cute little apartment and was able to pay up three months rent with the help of Xavier giving her some money to help her get on her feet, and with the help of him she got a job paying more than minimum wage that would also give her some exposure.

Xavier smiled as he pumped his gas. "I'm proud of you!"

"I seriously couldn't have done it without you! So I wanted to tell you first! Once I get my first check dinner is on me!" She rejoiced. "But I have to call my cousin, so I'll get at you later." They said bye and hung up the phone.

Xavier was happy that he could help Sofia get back on her feet, she just had to stop feeling bad for herself. He hadn't talked to Mateo since their blowout over the whole Sofia situation, and at this point he was questioning if the friendship was even worth salvaging. The two had been through quite a bit this year and he felt like he had already said sorry enough.

He loved Mateo like a brother, but unless he reached out to him Xavier wouldn't be talking to him. He had to move on with life, they all did.