“So it’s just a coincidence that you asked me to talk to him and then he suddenly calls me? After all these years?”
Tori sighs on the other end. “Raya. I love you with all my heart. But honey, you gotta stop being so paranoid.” She pauses for a moment. “Whatever his reason was for calling you, it’s his. Not mine. I want y’all to reconcile, but it’s not up to me, and I’ve made my peace with that.”
Fuck, it’s happening again. My eyes. The tears.
“I gotta go,” I mumble. “Love you.”
I just don’t know anymore. Lately, all the feelings and tears and uncertainty…it feels like something is bubbling up from deep inside me. Like life shook me and turned me upside down and all around and now everything in me is fizzing and trying to escape. And I don’t like it. Not one bit.
I sniffle, wiping a tear from my cheek.
I don’t know what to think or how to process this. Tori used to be my rock. She was the one person in this world who wason my side, and who I knew had my best interests at heart. Then Ace came along, and I thought I had two. It felt like such a blessing, like finally, life was on my side. God was on my side. The universe, or whatever.
And now?
I don’t know if I even trust them anymore, and that shithurts.
Fuck both of them for making me feel like this. I lowkey hate them for it, but I love them, too, and nothing makes sense.
It’s dark outside now.
Under the cover of that darkness, I pull Ace’s gun out of my glovebox. He probably doesn’t even realize he left it in here after he caught Sisco outside.
I run my finger over the cold black metal and feel myself calming a little.
Veronica has a ring camera, so I already know I’m not getting inside her house without being seen. I’ll have to settle for plan B.
A few minutes later, she passes me by without a care in the world, pulling into her driveway just as I lower the passenger side window of my car. I’m too far to get a good shot, but it doesn’t matter. I’m not trying to murder her. If she dies, cool, but I just wanna scare her.
I lift the gun and squeeze the trigger.
I don’t stick around to figure out if I hit anything. I drive out of her neighborhood, not too fast and not too slow, finally relaxing when I’m back on I-20.
I feel better.
Maybe I just needed an outlet for my feelings.
Ace is in a much better mood when I get home, which is odd. He even greets me at the door.
“My beautiful wife,” he says as he takes my purse off my shoulder. He brushes my lips with his before setting my bag on the hall table. “How was your day, my love?”
I’m a little weirded out by this shit, honestly, but I play along. “It was okay. I missed you,” I say, and it’s kinda true. I missed who he was before I found out he was hiding shit from me. “How was yours?”
He flashes that boyish grin that always makes me tingle between my thighs. “Same shit, different day. I’m glad your home. You hungry?”
He grabs my hand and leads me into the kitchen before I can tell him I’m more tired than hungry. And I see he’s brought me some tapas from Los Flores. One of my favorite spots.
“What’s going on, Ace?”
He leads me to a counter stool and helps me sit. “Why something gotta be going on? I can’t pamper my wife a little bit?”
He reaches under the counter and pulls out a bouquet of pink roses. Another favorite.
“For you, baby girl. I love you.”
I stare at the flowers, then at his handsome face, and my stomach flips. And not in a good way.
This is what niggas do when they’ve done something wrong.
