She shook her head, and then a small smile formed on her lips. “I didn’t think you still cared as much.”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“Because you’ve been so dismissive of me lately.”
“Do you know why?”
She shook her head no and followed it with, “It hurts.” She reached out and took my hand in hers and squeezed it.
“It hurt me that you kept pushing me away. It felt like you didn’t want me anymore, or us. I don’t do well with rejection, Kenni, and that’s no fault of yours; it’s just the way that it is.”
“Is it because your dad refused to allow you to see him in prison, and then he died without you ever seeing him again?”
I bobbed my head as my throat thickened. That shit was hard to talk about. I could barely handle the memories.
“All I see is me trying to make us a priority the way that we were the past three years, and all I get is rebuffed. If it’s not work meetings, photo shoots, campaigns, or work travel, then it’s needing to work late for some other reason. I started thinking that you found someone else, and clearly, you were looking for someone, because we met online.”
“And so were you, Bryse. Don’t make this all about me. We were both wrong in how we handled ourselves.”
I nodded, conceding her point. “How did you get an invitation anyway?”
She sighed. “I was at the bar a few weeks ago, that Saturday night that you had a meeting with that client. Anyway, the girls and I were talking, and they were trying to lift my spirits. I was sharing my concerns with them about how I felt like our relationship was heading in the same direction that mine and Brent’s had. You were always complaining and forcing me to choose between you and my career rather than supporting me.
“I walked to the restroom and met an older lady in there who told me that she overheard my concerns. She handed me the invitation and said that it was exactly what I needed to make things better.”
“And did it?”
“Only you and I can determine that, Bryse. But I have to tell you a secret. At first, I thought that she was coming on to me. I turned her down in the worst way. That woman checked me so fast and so hard.”
I chuckled with her, loving to see the gleam in her eyes again. It had been a long time since I had seen it, but it disappeared quickly.
“What about you? How did you get your invitation?”
I sighed because I definitely didn’t want to share this story, but I refused to go back to a place of dishonesty and mistrust. Before we left that rock, I wanted us to be fully committed to being together or completely sever our bond. Being together didn’t start with lies or omissions.
“That client you mentioned that I met on that Saturday night?”
She bobbed her head. “Was it him?”
“No. He wanted to go to a strip club after our meeting, so we did. I got a private dance, and she approached me afterwardwhen I was leaving the restroom. She was waiting in the hallway for me, and she handed me a card.”
Kennedi’s face scrunched up. “Was that all she handed you?”
“Look at ya ass getting jealous for ya boy. I didn’t think you had it in you anymore. I was starting to think that I was a distant memory in your life,” I confessed, dragging the backs of my fingers down the side of her face.
“Where do we go from here, Bryse?”
“You already know what I want, Kenni.”
“Do I?”
It fucked with me when tears pricked those beautiful brown eyes, and she pressed those thick lips together. I reached out and wiped her tears before they could fall, and then pulled her lips apart.
“I want you, baby. I want the woman who jumped out of her car in the middle of the street and cussed me out over a parking spot that I crept into while she was backing up because I was late for court. The woman who sat on those court steps and waited for me, demanding that I cover the cost of the scratch on the side of her car. The woman who made me want to know her little fiery ass, and who I had to work hard to convince to go on a date with me after meeting up at the autobody shop where I willingly paid for the scratch in your old rust bucket. The woman I first fell in love with six months after knowing her, and then again here recently online when I thought she was a stranger.”
Tears sparkled in her eyes and then fell in rivulets down her face. I reached out to her, and she turned her head away from me, swiping her eyes. It hurt that she wouldn’t let me comfort her.
“Talk to me, baby. Where did I go wrong?”
