When we made it home, Simone went to shower in my bathroom inside of my room and I tried to follow her inside. She placed her hand on my chest and stopped me in my tracks.
“No sir. You not off the hook Deon. I’m still feeling a way about that text and I hope you don’t think you finna come rub me down and manipulate me to forget all of that. People don’t ever play on my phone and especially not about no nigga. Use the other bathroom and I’ll meet you back in the room for the movie.” shestepped away from me and closed the door in my face. I stood there holding my clothes, looking a damn fool.
Now, this shit was going too far. Now I was being deprived and all I wanted to slide in Simone from behind in that shower and make her ass forget all of what happened today. Whatever and whoever that was. I ain’t wanna believe that it was Sandra, but the timing was all making sense. Just when I went into the bathroom in the hall, I got a private call, again.
“Deon. Time is running out and as easy as it is to get to you, I can get to anybody you love. You saw that tonight.” The voice on the other end said. This was the same nigga that called last time, so it couldn’t be Sandra.
“Mane, what the fuck do you want? Nobody has time for games. Calling, texting and playing with the people that I love is only going to make shit worse when I find out who you are. If you did your research, then you know that I’m the last nigga you wanna try.” I barked into the phone and the caller laughed.
“Yeah, you’ll see soon enough what I want. Just make sure you watch your surroundings. The bullet grazed lil cousin on purpose. It won’t miss you on accident.” The call ended after that.
Whoever this was basically just said that they were responsible for what happened to Mazi. Now, I really had to sit down and figure out what the fuck was going on. We didn’t do the same shit or run in the same circles. I would make it my business to pull up on his ass tomorrow.
I got in the shower with so much on my mind. I needed to meet with Sandra and figure out if I was the father of her daughter, I needed to know who tried to shoot Mazi and that would lead me to the muthafucka playing with my life right now. I couldn’t loseSimone to this bullshit. The only secret for them to expose was the baby. Anything else, she already knew about.
Ileft that dinner feeling better than I had in a long time.
Not because of the food, the company or any of the political small talk I had been forcing myself to have all night. It was the ten texts sitting in my phone from Brielle that had me in a good mood while we were pulling out of that parking lot.
I didn’t even read them. I just saw the notifications stacking up and smiled to myself. I put my phone back in my jacket pocket and let Kyla finish telling me about the city council race while I sat with that feeling for a minute. Rubbing elbows tonight was really good for her and she was excited about how the nighthad gone. She had no idea that my mind was on a whole other woman. It always was.
Kyla talked but my mind was heavy on Bri and how I played her ass to the left tonight. She’d seen a woman like Kyla on my arms and underneath me all night, so I knew that she had to have been jealous. After years of being the nigga she treated less than. Years of showing up every time she reached out and waiting by doors she never walked through. Years of being the man she only wanted when it was convenient for her, all that ended tonight.
That shit never felt good, no matter how much I loved her. She’d been abusing that shit for years, and I was finally at the point where I didn’t want her love no more. It required too much and I didn’t know if I had shit else to give to that situation. Especially now when I was about to fight for this title. She was a distraction that I couldn’t afford. She never gave anything but always came around to take from me.
Tonight I had sat twenty feet away from her with another woman in her face and not looked in her direction once, it was clear now that she had fallen apart about it. That felt good to see. I wasn’t going to pretend it didn’t.
Legal had been pushing the Kyla situation for a few months and I had gone along with it because Legal had never steered me wrong and the logic behind it all made sense. A fighter at my level going into a world title eliminator needed a clean public image. Sponsors, networks, the boxing commission — they all paid attention to what you looked like outside the ring. Kyla was running for city council, she needed more visibility outside of politics, and being seen publicly with an undefeated top ten heavyweight contender wasn’t bad for her campaign either. It worked for both of us.
What I hadn’t expected was for it to actually work this fast.
The blogs had been running with me and Kyla for weeks. Every time we were spotted together the speculation went up another level. We’d always wake up to stories written about us, and pictures posted. Tonight with all the cameras, the mayor’s event and us posted up together all night, I knew that by morning it was going to be everywhere. I had a few notifications sitting on my phone already.
Legal was going to call me first thing and tell me this was exactly what he had been talking about. He wanted for me and Kyla to go beyond this fake dating and make things real. I didn’t want that because no matter how hard I acted or how much I fought it. I knew that my heart was somewhere else.
I just had to sit back and play my part. Brielle was going to see all of it and feel even worse than her confused ass does now. She couldn’t even enjoy her night with her lame ass nigga without worrying about me and blowing me up. This wasn’t like her at all. I was always the one chasing and I knew first hand that the shit wasn’t a good feeling.
My driver finally pulled up to Kyla’s place and I looked up, took it in for a second. Since the first time I’ve picked her up, I had been amazed at a young black woman doing so well for herself, by herself. The house was something serious. It was gated, huge enough to fit a family of ten, the kind of property that said she hadn’t been playing around with her career. I respected it. She had built something real from the ground up and she did it on her own terms and that was a big ass deal.
She looked at me when the car stopped. She opened her mouth to speak, and then stopped. After a few seconds, she went ahead and spoke.
“Come in for a little while. I really enjoyed your company tonight and I don’t want it to end. We never get to sit and have real conversations while spending real time. I need to know who Xavier really is. Let me pick your brain and further enjoy your company, Mr. Hendrix.”
I looked at the house, then back at her. Her eyes was glistening and she was looking good as hell. A lil quality time wasn’t gone hurt. I had no plans for the night. I told the driver I’d call when I was ready for him to come back through and grab me.
—
Inside she poured wine without asking if I wanted any and handed me a glass, then she walked into one of her rooms and kicked her heels off. The house was spotless and smelled good as hell. I could see that she took pride in herself and in her home.
Kyla moved through her own space with the kind of comfort that told you she had worked hard to have something that was completely hers. I sat on the couch, loosened my tie and took a sip of the wine. I let the night decompress for a minute. Doing those political events always drained a nigga.
She sat across from me and looked at me straight in the face.
“Your mood changed at the dinner. One minute you were mingling and laughing, then you got real tight. Something happened.” she said. “Don’t tell me it didn’t because I was standing right next to you when it did. What’s up?”
“I’m good, nothing changed,” I lied, wondering if I was that easy for her to read.
“Street. Come on now. That’s not what we finna do. I said let me pick your brain. Don’t lie to me and we’re supposed to be building a friendship here.”
