“Fuck,” she whispered, remembering the mistake she had made repeatedly the night before. The condom had broken by the time they were done.
I’ve got to get to CVS.
Her head felt like someone was taking a hammer to it, and as she rolled over, her eyes fell on him. She screamed, caught off guard as she pulled the sheet over her naked body from instinct alone. It was pointless. He knew every inch of her body by heart, but still, she clung to the sheet. Demi sat in the accent chair in the corner of the room, staring at her. He was so still that his presence sent chills down her spine.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” she shouted in exasperation. Just like a woman to lash out when someone scared her. Fear turned to instant anger when a motherfucker snuck up on her.
He didn’t respond. He just sat there staring while rubbing his chin and nodding, his eyes blank, but on her.
It wasn’t until Demi’s goon walked into the room with moving boxes did she realize they weren’t alone. She was both enraged and relieved. Embarrassment filled her as she covered her body better with the sheet, although she knew that Demi’s goons knew better than to look.
“You got ten minutes to grab what you need and go,” he said.
Charlie’s eyes welled with tears and her heart sank. She was caught. Caught cheating. But it couldn’t count if he had been caught first, right? He was married. So, he was the foul one at play, right? She honestly didn’t even know anymore. It all just felt so wrong. She was staring at the man she loved with the scent of another man on her skin. She wondered if he could smell it, her night of passion...from the look of contempt on his face she was sure he could.
“Go where, Demi? Huh? Where am I supposed to go? You made me give up my apartment. I’m not even talking to my dad or sister. So, where exactly do you suggest I go?” she asked.
“I don’t really give a fuck where you go. Better have that other nigga save you,” Demi said.
It was a punch to the gut. It hurt, eventhough she saw it coming a mile away.
“You know, when my lil’ nigga hit me and told me you had a nigga over here, I ain’t rush to get here. I was handling business. I knew he had to be mistaken,” Demi said, scoffing. “Guess God knew what I would have done had I pulled up while that nigga was still here. When he sent me a pic of the nigga leaving out the crib I bought you, I snapped. I don’t even know how I got here. You lucky I don’t hurt you in this bitch, Bird. I sat here, thinking about it all night. So, you might want to get your shit and get out.”
“You have a lot of fucking nerve,” she said, coming up on her knees. “I found out you were married days ago. Do you know what I’ve been through?” It was rhetorical because she knew hecouldn’t possibly know. She hadn’t told him. He was adding pain to years of expired hurt that had been sitting on her emotional shelf. “You looked me in my face and told me you loved me, knowing you had a wife at home, but I’m the bad guy?”
The cave in Demi’s chest was dark. Deep and wet with pathways so intricate that even the most experienced lover would get lost in them. She had no idea how much he loved her, how much it damaged him to see her lying there all night with the remnants of another man all over her. Was it hypocritical? Yes, but he couldn’t help it.
“It’s not a conversation,” he said. Charlie recoiled. Dismissive was something he had never been and his coldness stunned her. Conversation meant there was room to fix things. A conversation left her with a voice. This wasn’t that and as Demi stood to walk out of the room, hopelessness settled over Charlie.
“Demi, please just listen to me. Last night was a mistake. I’m just confused, and I’m hurt,” she cried out. Clinging to the sheet that covered her indiscretion, bunching it at her heart as her eyes followed him out the room first and then her feet followed when he didn’t stop. He was fleeing. Leaving. She was chasing. How the hell had they gotten here?
“Yo, get all her shit out of here. I want it to feel like she ain’t never been in this bitch,” he said. When she discovered two more men in her living room, Charlie lost it. The lump in her throat spilled out of her as she cried.
“I’m not leaving,” she said. “I’m in love with you.”
Demi laughed and her blood ran cold.
“Say, man,” he snickered as she shook his head. “You hear this shit, man?” he asked, pointing at Malachi, his young gunner. “Bitches be on that bullshit.”
He was embarrassing her, reducing her to someone unimportant in his life. Demoting her, or perhaps she had never occupied a place of significance at all. His wife had to be hispriority, right? So, what did that make her? Number two? Damn. Charlie was a pencil ass bitch — #2 might as well have been etched on her forehead. She was sick.
“Get over here,” he said. His tone didn’t leave room for anything other than compliance.
She stood before him at his mercy. He was wrong. He was married. Yet, she was the one on trial.
“You led us here,” she said, her words breaking under emotion as she lowered her eyes to the floor, taking a break from his scrutiny. “I was in it until I found out you weren’t, Demi. You at least owe me a conversation.”
“I don’t owe you shit,” he said. “You fucked a nigga in my bed, in my crib. Ain’t no love after that.”
“So you being married is okay? You’re going to pretend like I’m the bad guy? You’re destroying me!” She sobbed, tears of resentment ruined her pretty face, causing her cheeks to stain in red as a migraine built from the pressure. “What am I supposed to do? Be faithful to a married man? You got me out here looking stupid.”
“I was gonna tell you,” he said.
“When?” she shouted. “Huh? After you made me fall for you? Fuck you! Fuck your wife! And fuck your son!”
Demi grabbed her throat so abruptly that Charlie gasped.
“Nah, fuck you,” Demi said with a nonchalance that cut deep. He wasn’t even bothered by the fact that this was ending. It had run its course. Charlie had proven disloyal, and for Demi, there was no coming back from that. He had cut people off for less.
