“Don’t defend him,” Justin said.
“What? I’m not!” Charlie pulled back.
“I went there for you and you acting like I’m just supposed to let this shit ride.” Justin was deflecting, taking his anger out on Charlie.
“I didn’t ask you to check Demi about shit. I didn’t ask you to save me. It’s not my fault that you confronted him, and bit off more than you could chew!” Charlie knew she had said too much when she saw his ego flare.
“Fuck you, Charlie,” Justin said. She was speechless as he pushed by her. “I’ma take the couch. You can take the bedroom, if you’re still staying.”
“Do you want me to stay?” Charlie asked.
Justin turned to her. “Do what you want, Charlie.”
“What happened?” Lauren’s voice came over his shoulder as Demi sat in the darkened living room. “You were arrested in Flint. What were you doing in Flint? Who is this man you assaulted?”
Demi didn’t turn. Instead, he sipped his cognac and flexed his swollen hand. His hand looked bad. Justin’s face looked worse. Bails laid at his feet. A man and his dog. What a lonely existence.
“You shouldn’t be out of bed,” Demi said.
“I’ve been with you forever and the only time I’ve ever seen you lose your shit like that was when I cheated on you in college.”
“Don’t bring that shit up, Lo,” he said, voice revealing his disdain at the mere mention of that indiscretion in their relationship. Demi had hustled back then, hard, on the block, moving major weight across the Pennsylvania turnpike. He had taken care of her every need, including her six-figure tuition, and in return, she had cheated on him. While he was consumed with proving that he could take care of the young college girl who had her heart set on taking over the world, she was investing in someone else... a ball player that was slated to go pro, his roommate at that. Demi had never felt a betrayal so cold. Demi would have never found out if one of his runs hadn’t been rescheduled. Demi had doubled back to her apartment the same night he was set to leave for Philly. Finding her in bed with another man had sent him into a rage he couldn’t control. He ended an NBA career that night. He ended a life that night. It had taken them a long time to come back from that. It was one of the reasons why he had never grown accustomed to her touch. She was covered in disloyalty. He had never quite let it go, no matter how much he claimed it to be “old shit.”
“I’m just saying, Demi. You don’t fly off the handle. I know you have your business to attend to. You’re disciplined with that... calculating. You’ve only ever popped off over me. When you caught me cheating, so I can’t help but ask what caused all this tonight?”
“What I’m hiring the nurses and chefs and shit for if you up on your feet, Lo? It’s not the time to have this conversation. I just want to make sure you’re straight,” he said.
“There was a woman at the hospital. Who was she, Demi?”
The sigh that left his soul unlocked the door to the truth. He stood and faced Lauren. It wasn’t the time to have thisdiscussion, but if he knew her, she wouldn’t let it go. There would be no getting her back in bed.
“This yo’ payback?” she asked in confusion. He would be a cruel nigga to go tit for tat with her after all these years... to get her comfortable in their bliss only to purposely do her harm. This wasn’t that. This was a case of the universe handing Demi something he couldn’t keep and him being too selfish to release it.
“I ain’t on no bullshit like that. What I did had nothing to do with getting back at you for some old shit,” Demi said.
“So, you did cheat?” she pressed. “Oh my God...”
“There was a girl, Lo. It’s over now. I don’t know what that mean for us, but I’m tired of covering shit up. I was fucking with somebody.”
It was like someone deflated her. He saw her reach for the back of the couch to give her some stability, but it wasn’t enough. She came to her knees, wailing. It was the sound someone made when they found out someone they loved had died. That someone, was their existence as they had known It. Their normal was now abnormal and it ached so bad.
“How does a man who hates to be touched, cheat with another woman?” she asked.
“I fucked up, Lo,” he admitted.
“What was I not doing?” Lauren asked.
“It was never about you. Women like to make it about them. Internalize the shit. I was selfish. It was about me, not you, and it’s over,” Demi said.
“When did it start? How many times?” Lauren asked. “Do you love her? Has she been in this house?”
Demi groaned and shook his head as he swiped both hands down his face. “We not doing that. The torture shit. None of that shit matters, man,” Demi said. Her self-deprecating ways would only make a bad situation worse.
“It doesn’t matter because she’s been here? Because you love her?” Lauren asked.
“It don’t matter cuz it don’t change shit. I ain’t trying to punish you with the details. I’m wrong, Lo. That’s all you need to know. I did some fuck shit and you ain’t to blame. A nigga just get shit wrong sometimes.”
Demi’s chest tightened because he wasn’t sure if he believed that. Charlie had felt too right to devalue her in this way. Nothing about her felt wrong but the way that they had concluded. The fight. The lies. The cheating. All of that was wrong. It was the opposite of what they stood for. Still, Lauren didn’t deserve that part. The intimacy. The exceptions Demi had made for Charlie. It was those things that would hurt Lauren most. So, he omitted those parts. For the sanity of his wife, he reduced Charlie to a fling.
