I didn’t notice her eyes watering before the tears started to fall. It crushed me to see her like that, but my pain was valid. I wasn’t about to let her break me so easily.
“Eat or don’t eat, but I’m not untying you until your ankle heals.”
“Kannon,” she whined as I turned to walk out of the room. “Don’t leave me like this, Kannon. Come on. This is crazy.”
She wasn’t ready yet. Maybe when her three days were up, I would feel comfortable to release her. Right now, I needed to make her understand how things would go.
I smirked. “I’ma teach your ass about running away.”
“Kannon, I promise I’m not going anywhere.”
“You want to be a brat. I don’t have a problem with punishing you.”
“I’m not going to run, Kannon. Please just come lay with me. You don’t have to untie me. Just stay. We need to talk.”
“We needed to talk eight weeks ago. We’re past that. We were past that when you decided to take your ass, my heart, and my fucking pussy back to those fucking people without consulting with me, Carteay.”
“Kannon, I only left to protect you. I need you right now. You being angry with me isn’t going to help either of us.”
“You don’t have to worry about anything happening to you, but we don’t need to talk aboutanything. We’ll always be friends, but I can’t let you in my head again, Carrie. You’re not responsible enough to have access to my heart. I can’t trust you. You can stop crying because I can’t worry about your feelings. I’m worried about your life. I don’t see how you don’t get that.”
“Just sit down and listen to what I have to say.”
“Are you ready to discuss why you took my pussy way the fuck to God knows where without so much as giving me a chance to taste it for the road? Do you know how that shit made me feel, Carteay? Do you know how much I missed that shit? Do you know how fucking furious that made me? To know that even though you fucking left me, I still yearned for you from the bottom of my soul? Do you know how that shit feels, Carteay? I’m asking you a direct question.”
“No.”
“It feels like I’m consumed by constant fire, burning up from the inside out. Like I want to run until I pass out. It feels like I’m having a heart attack, but no amount of medicine can heal me. It’s only you. You’re the only thing that makes it better. The minute I heard your voice, the headache that I’ve had for seventy days straight faded away. Do you know how you destroyed me? Do you even care?”
“Of course I care, Kannon.”
“So, you knew what kind of hold you had on me, and you still snuck out on me like a thief in the night. What should I do about that?”
“Kannon, I had to leave.”
“What the fuck do you think I should do about that, Carteay?” I repeated.
“Understand that I did what I thought was best.”
“For who?”
“For us!” she said, lifting her chin defiantly.
“Not for me.” I shook my head. “You should have trusted me, Carrie. You should have let me help you.”
“I didn’t want to bring you in on my mess, Kannon. You had already done enough for me.”
“There’s no such thing as enough. There’s no limit or set amount to what I would do for you, Carteay. I love you, baby. I care about what happens to you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered. “That’s why I can’t do this to you.”
“You’re not doing anything to me. I’m doing somethingforyou.”
“What if something happens to you, Kannon?”
“Then so be it.”
“I’m not letting you get hurt. Promise me you won’t do anything that will get you killed.”
