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Back in my apartment, I pulled out my phone to call Alicia, again.
“I should kill him I think,” I said, as soon as she answered the phone.
“That was a fast honeymoon period,” she said. “What happened?”
“He…shit, I don’t know how to explain it,” I admitted. “But I hate how I feel right now. I hate it. So I should kill him.”
“Killing him wouldn’t solve anything,” Alicia countered.
“It would solve literallyeverything.”
“Tempest… stop, okay? Just tell me what’s wrong?”
I blew out a big sigh, dropping to the edge of the bed with my eyes closed. “His ex. Well…hisexes.He has a kid, and obviously she has a mother. She’s not really the problem though.”
“Okay… So what is then?”
“The more recent ex. And the fact that he’s still involved enough with her that she feels comfortable making slick comments that he won’t check. And not just that - he was tattooing her, and she does his locs for him, and openly flirts, and he doesn’t see a problem with any of it. He expects me to be okay with it. And since I’mnotokay with it, he’s acting like I’m… like I’m overreacting for not accepting this bullshit.”
Alicia pushed out a sigh. “Yeah, sounds about right, based on… damn near everything I know, have read, have heard, haveseenfrom men. It’s common. So… welcome to normalcy.”
“Cree wouldn’t do this type of shit.”
“Cree is a grown ass man. He’s got a decade on your little friend over there,” Alicia laughed. “He was probably doing the same shit at twenty and thirty - and let’s not overlook the fact that he literally has a child with my friend.”
“But you all handle it like adults, which makes it work.”
“True. But I thought you said his daughter’s motherisn’tthe problem?”
I sighed. “She’s not. It’s this other bitch. Who...I may or may not have choked?”
“Tempest!”
“I’m sick of her mouth!” I defended, even though I knew it was weak. “And I… don’t like that Tristan seems so attached to her. Or that he didn’t seem to have a problem with her talking shit to me, but the moment I openedmymouth, it was a problem.”
“That would piss me off too.”
“Right?! So I just… I don’t know. I feel like this is already over, before it even really started. Just this morning, I was so enthralled, so…”
“Dick whipped?”
I laughed. “Yeah, if you wanna call it that. But now… It’s like I’ve seen too much to be willing to accept this Nya woman as part of some package deal when it’s not like she’s this great friend to him or something.”
“And you don’t have to!” A new voice chimed, making me sit straight up. “Temp, it’s Loren. Alicia stepped out to take this call but I’m nosy and her phone is up loud.”
I chuckled.
Loren wasthe friendCree had a child with -a bubbly, straightforward doctor who Cree knew before he and Alicia were a thing.
Yeah, I was all in their business.
So it didn’t bother me for Loren to be in mine, especially if she was about to give me something useful.
“Listen honey - you’re new to this relationship stuff, right? I know it feels like a drawback, but it’s not -cause you’re not jaded and worn down yet. So many of us have been subjected to men’s manipulations and gaslighting to the point that it feels normal. As if we shouldexpectour feelings not to matter, so we swallow them to seem cool or unbothered, but fuck that.Having a manis not the only good thing in life. It’s barely top fucking five. Or hell, ten. He wants to grin in another bitch’s face, cool. Find one who won’t. Or don’t. Whichever way, you’ll be fine.”
“Yeah,” Alicia said, after a moment had passed to absorb Loren’s words. “What she said.”
I pushed out another sigh. “I get it. I just… Was really into him. But I guess it would’ve been silly to think my first…thingmight be the only one.”
