“Listen, I need y’all to leave. I have company.”
“I am not going anywhere until you get that woman out of your house right now.”
His mother crossed one arm over the other as she awaited his response. It wasn’t long before he came back into the room, and before he could even get a word out of his mouth, I already saw the look on his face.
He was going to do exactly what his mother said. She’d come in there judging me for everything that I was, and she revealed so many secrets that I didn’t know. I held one finger up to him, shook my head, and marched toward the door. Not making eye contact with either of the women, I let myself out. I didn’t know what the hell just happened, but I knew it would be the last time something like that ever happened to me.
I was nobody’s side chick or secret, and had I known Ramel’s current situation, I never would have gotten involved with him romantically. I was a big girl, and I knew how to keep things professional, but he hid the facts of this whole thing from me. He didn’t even give me a chance to make my own decision, and that was what pissed me off more than anything.
Chapter
Sixteen
Ramel
“Lacy, honey, I am so sorry you were subjected to such embarrassment. I promise you, this is not something you have to look forward to in this marriage. I raised a stand-up and faithful man. I have no idea what has gotten into him.”
My mother was trying her best to comfort Lacy, who had now started to cry. I knew damn well she was forcing every last tear, but she obviously had my mama fooled because she was going on and on about how she raised me right and didn’t know what had come over me.
Why everybody around me was hellbent on living in delusion was beyond me. The only thing I knew was that I couldn’t live there with them, not when I had a woman like Gina right in front of me. She was exactly the kind of girl I wanted to give my last name to, and there was no way in hell I was about to pretend to give it to anybody else.
“I know you did the best you could, Mrs. Method. I just wasn’t expecting this. If I had known your son would be here with another woman, I would have never come.”
“Ramel, you get over here and apologize to your fiancée right this instant. You are about to let the best thing that ever happened to you get away. Is that what you want?”
It wasn’t until she said those words that I was able to form a thought fully. I’d let Gina walk out the door without even trying to stop her. I was about to let the best thing that ever happened to me get away, and that was not what I wanted at all. I’d found my perfect match, and that person wasn’t Lacy.
Watching Regina walk out that door felt like watching a part of me walk out with her, so no matter what my mama was saying to me, I couldn’t hear her. As a matter of fact, I tuned out of the whole conversation. She was pacing back and forth in my living room, going on and on about what Lacy and I needed to do to secure our future, and the more she talked, the more irritated I got.
Lacy was sitting across from me on the short sofa, still crying like this was a real ass relationship, and she had just caught me cheating. I was sitting on the lounge, staring out into space because while Lacy was crying and my mother was ranting, I was trying to figure out what the fuck I was about to say to my girl the next time I talked to her.
Before she started to pace, my mother had refused to sit until the entire house was cleaned thoroughly. This fit of hers would have been funny if I didn’t actually care about the girl who caused it. Since I did care about Regina, this shit was annoying, so annoying that I was getting ready to kick my mama the fuck out of my house. I would listen to her rant because I’d never disrespect her, but once it was over, she had to get out of there so I could go fix whatever this was that she had just broken. The way I felt further let me know that I couldn’t marry Lacy. Gina had found a place inside my heart that I could never fill with anything or anyone else.
She’d buried herself so deeply in me that there was nothing that my mama could say in this moment or any moment in the future that would change my mind. I wanted Regina. I wanted all of her. I wanted everything to do with her. She was mine, and I was hers. We didn’t have to declare anything. I knew that before I even went up inside of her. But now that I’d touched the inside of her, I knew she was mine. My mark was all over her, and she was all over me, so I wanted to end this conversation as quickly as possible.
“Ma, I am trying my hardest not to be disrespectful when I say this, but using a key to come inside my house when it’s not an emergency is the ultimate disrespect. And then, not only do you use your key when you know we never do that, but you also bring Lacy along with you, even though I told you how I feel about this whole marriage situation.
“That lets me know that you don’t respect me as a man, and that, I cannot tolerate ever again. So let that be your first and last time walking in here without permission. If you don’t get a phone call from somebody telling you that I’m on the floor, dead, then don’t you ever use that key again, not unless you want me to take it right here, right now.”
“But—”
She started to speak, but I held my hand up to stop her. I didn’t want to hear shit she had to say. She had said enough to last a fucking lifetime. If it were anybody else speaking on the woman I loved the way my mama did, that would have been their last day talking, but this was the woman who brought me into the world; she could get away with a lot more than the average person, but still, I had to draw a clear motherfucking line. That was the problem with letting people slide. Eventually, they would try to roller skate, and that was something I couldn’t tolerate, not even from her.
“I told you I’m not going through with this wedding. I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but it’s getting real old. The other night, I sat down and gave you the courtesy of letting you know first because I love you, and I didn’t want you to be caught off guard. But this is fucked up, Mama. You being real disrespectful right now, and I can’t have that. I’m not your husband. I’m your son, and I have my own life to live.”
“You know what, son? Tensions are high right now. Neither one of us are in our right minds to continue this conversation. Come over to the house for dinner tomorrow night. Lacy and her parents will be there. We can discuss all of this together as a family, not with you making decisions and walking out, not with you yelling at your father and walking out of his office, not with you or I being in a state that we are in right now.”
I didn’t care how the conversation ended as long as it ended. I didn’t want Regina sitting with this on her mind overnight. I wanted to get to her before she had time to form her own conclusions about what the fuck was truly going on. I didn’t want her to think the engagement was something I walked into willingly, because that couldn’t have been further from the truth, so if I had to agree with my mama at the present moment, then that was what had to be done.
“I’ll see you at dinner tomorrow.”
I kissed my mother on the forehead before ushering her and Lacy toward the front door. I didn’t say too much to Lacy, because she already knew where she stood, and honestly, I knew she didn’t want to do this either. She was putting on a good show, and I couldn’t blame her for wanting to keep down the drama, but I wasn’t about to fake this shit with her.
As soon as my mama and Lacy were on the other side of the door, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Gina. I knew she wouldn’t answer, so after the phone rang three times, I hung up and headed to find her ass. Once I made it to my car, Iremembered the most important thing. I had no idea where Gina lived.
As a matter of fact, I was starting to believe she was avoiding telling me because she thought I would be on some stalker type shit. Granted, that was exactly what I was about to do if she didn’t answer the phone, but that wasn’t my usual vibe. It hadn’t dawned on me until just then that we always met at the diner or hung out at my place. Her place was never an option.
Before today, it didn’t bother me, but now that I needed to pull up on her ass, it pissed me off that I didn’t have an address to pull up to. That was well played on her part, but it wouldn’t take me long to track her ass down. She had until the morning to call me back, or I’d find out where the fuck she was.
