“No, girl, this is getting good. Look at him, he’s holding something back,” Synia said, shaking Aurora’s hold off.
“Synia,” Aurora hissed, watching with second-hand embarrassment for the couple. “Let’s go.”
“Bitch?” Khalif questioned, tired of hiding how he felt to make others around him feel good. “That ain’t me, sweetheart. Ain’t never been. Regardless of how I felt about all this bullshit,I never stepped out on her. And you and I both know I could have.”
Shenae’s sister gasped before trying to make a quick recovery. “I don’t what you’re talking about.”
“Shenae,” Khalif redirected his attention to the tearful bride-to-be. “We’re done. You want Khalil, you can have him.”
The guests gasped again at the reveal, and then everyone looked around for Khalil, Khalif’s twin. They weren’t going to find him, the two blows to his face had him knocked out in the groom’s suite.
“Synia, we are leaving now! Right now,” Aurora finalized, pulling Synia out of the pew and attempting to make a quick escape.
Shenae turned and continued to follow Khalif, despite the reveal and the embarrassment of being outed. “Where are you going to go? Huh? You love me too much.”
Khalif spotted the woman he knew as Aura. Those eyes, the shape of her lips, mask or not, he knew. Without much thought, he was fueled with pettiness. A point to prove. He’d been everything to her, and she took advantage of it for a twin that couldn’t stay out of trouble if he tried. Determined to hurt her, he grabbed Aurora’s hand and pulled her close. The attention was taking her off guard.
“Not at all,” Khalif rumbled before looking at Aurora. “Let’s go.”
“Let’s go?” she asked with as much confusion as anyone else in the building. With wild eyes, she looked up at him, finding the despair in his eyes. “Okay.”
“Shenae, I told you!” her sister, Brielle, shrieked as Aurora and Khalif walked out of the door. “I told you, the minute the nigga had a chance to play you, he would. You were right to sleep with his brother.”
The reasoning was off, and Aurora couldn’t make sense of any of it. But she didn’t say anything until they were in the parking lot of the church.
“Alright,” she huffed, letting his hand go and taking a step back. “You’re out of there, I’m going-”
“I don’t think I can be alone right now,” Khalif spoke, watching Aurora’s brows dip.
“I don’t think I’m equipped to help you with any of this. I shouldn’t even be here.”
“But you are,” he stated. “That can’t be by accident.”
“Actually,” she winced, pushing her hair from her face. “It is. I thought I was going to brunch, not sitting in on a soap opera. Like, you couldn’t have broken that news any other way?”
Khalif looked past her as both sets of parents started out of the church towards them. “You drove?”
“Yeah,” she responded, looking over her shoulder. With a huff, she added, “Come on.”
Khalif trailed her to the coupe sports car. “Shit, I can’t fit in this.”
“Either get in or stay and get cussed out. Either way, I’m leaving.”
Khalif folded his body into the car and was gone from the church with a woman he met in the strip club.
Almost five miles away from the church, Aurora pulled into a burger joint and cut the engine. “I’m starving and you smell like you need something to soak up that liquor.”
“I don’t have my wallet,” Khalif stated, patting his pockets.
“I didn’t ask you that,” Aurora spoke, as she got out of the car and started into the empty restaurant.
Khalif slowly trailed behind her in a swirl of mixed emotions. Anger with his brother. Hurt with his brother. Sadness with his brother. Nothing more for Shenae, andkismetmaybe?
“I’ll pay you back,” he commented after they ordered.
Aurora cut him a look that was loaded. “For burgers? No. I’m good.”
“Are you really?”
