“This what the fuck you been doin, bitch?! Huh?” He yelled, throwing another punch, I dodged it, hit him with a couple and backed up. “This how you do me?! While I’m tryna keep this... fuckin... family together!”
He tried to wrap his arms around me, I hit him in the face, stopping him. He stumbled a little and I got the upper hand.I wrapped my arms around him and yelled in his ear, “Aight nigga. Chill!”
He jerked his head back, trying to head butt me. “Let me go, bitch ass nigga!” He screamed. “Let me the fuck go! You lucky I ain’t got my fuckin’ blick on me! I’ll end yo ass nigga! Fuck off me!”
I looked toward Mahogany with pleading eyes. I didn’t want to take it to murder with this nigga. In the position we were in, I could easily choke him out, killing him. Could easily end him how he’d threatened to end me. But I didn’t. At the end of the day, he was her husband… the father of her kids. Killing him wouldn’t do anything but bring heartbreak and turmoil to her. I didn’t want to kill the nigga. Under different circumstances, if he did have his gun on him and he was trying to kill me, I would have for sure. But that wasn’t the case. So, I just wanted to calm the nigga down.
I put him in the sleeper hold. That was the only way I saw either of us getting out of this shit without spilling more blood. He tapped on my arm, squirmed, tried to head butt me and shit. But after a couple of seconds, he was sleep. I let him go and let his body rest on the floor.
With heavy breathing I pushed myself up from the floor.
My eyes met Mahogany’s as she adjusted her shirt and bent down to grab her pants. Taking a deep breath, she looked away and pulled them on. I looked over my shoulder at her husband and shook my head, dabbing at the cut on my lip.
When I turned back to face her, she was pacing. I walked over and tried to grab her, but she stopped me by putting her hands up. “I’m—I’m okay,” she said, looking over at her husband. “You should go before he gets up.”
“Man... I’m not comfortable leaving you with him like this,” I said, with my eyes glued on him, laid out unconscious.
“You don’t have a choice. You being here when he wakes up won’t do anything but restart the whole thing.” She shook her head. “This ismyshit. I have to clean it up. Alone. I’m sorry—sorry for?—”
“You ain’t got shit to apologize about. I knew what I was doing before I got involved with you, Mo,” I cut in, stepping towards her.
With my arms out, I asked for an embrace. She was hesitant—very hesitant— but I let her know we had a good five minutes or so before he’d regain consciousness. Still, she shook her head, pulling her lips into her mouth.
“You should leave.”
I stared into her eyes for a moment, the fear of finality creeping up the nape of my neck. This was done. It felt final. Like him coming in when he did shut a door that had been partially closed since we started. Shaking my head, I dismissed those thoughts and clenched down on my jaw.
I ran my tongue over the cut, tasting blood, and shook my head. “Hit me as soon as you can, Mo. If I don’t hear from you, I’m going to assume the worst and?—”
“I’m going to be okay,” she interrupted, wrapping her arms around her body. “I will text you when I can.”
I walked over to the desk, grabbed my phone and hoodie and headed out of the office. Before I did, I looked over my shoulder at her. She gave me a sad look and chewed on the side of her bottom lip. And like always, I felt a pull in her direction. She needed a hug. She needed my body against hers. But because she rejected me before, I stood there, conflicted. Was I just supposed to walk away, knowing what I knew? Feeling what I felt? I should have. It was in my best interest to just leave but damn…
Instead of walking out of the office, I turned and headed in her direction. She didn’t move or put her hands up. And when I wrapped my arms around her, she didn’t protest. She wrappedher arms around my neck, hugging me back. The hug didn’t last nearly as long as I would have liked for it to before I pulled away, kissed her on the forehead and reminded her to hit me up.
“I will.”
With that, I looked over at her husband one last time, shook my head, and walked out of the office.
20
MAHOGANY
I saton the couch watching him, waiting for him to wake up. Duke. Crescent put him to sleep. They got into a fight. Yep. Walked in while Crescent had his dick buried in my pussy. Walked in while I was in the middle of twisting my nipples, moaning Crescent’s name. It was horrifying. Neither of us saw it coming. Both of us were caught off guard when Duke snatched Crescent from between my legs and started to pound on him.
It was frightening to a point that I was damn near paralyzed with fear. I was so shocked that for the first couple of seconds I didn’t move. Didn’t say a word. Just laid there watching with wide eyes and a heavy beating heart. Crazy part about it was, before everything, I thought I heard something. But I was so wrapped up in what was happening that I barely paid it any mind. I should have. Should have followed my gut and stopped. But there was no room forshoulda coulda woulda’sat this point. The damage was fucking done.
My heart pounded against my chest, as fear coursed through my veins. What would happen when he woke up? Would he kill me? I thought about running. Thought about leaving him right where he was, unconscious. But I couldn’t. We were at Coutureand I couldn’t justleavehim here. Couldn’t just leave the building unlocked. But I really, really wanted to. I did not want to face what just happened.
I didn’t feel good about him finding us. Didn’t feel victorious. Didn’t feel anything like how I thought I would if Duke caught me in the middle of fucking. I didn’t feel like a bad bitch. In fact, I didn’t feel anything but disgust. Not disgust for myself; disgust for him. Because why was he even here? How did he even get here? Did he catch a fucking Uber to harass me?
I shifted my eyes away from him to the manilla envelope laying a few feet away from him, on the floor. He got them. The divorce papers.
Yes, I filed.
Finished the paperwork up and filed a few days ago. I had Sienna serve him. That was bold right? Who else was going to do it? I couldn’t. She felt indifferent about it but ultimately didn’t give a fuck because I was her sister and he’d had a baby on me.
“What the fuck,” Duke mumbled, sitting up. He pulled his knees up to his chest and looked around the room before his eyes landed on me. With a squint, I noticed how his eyes shifted from confused to knowing within a couple of seconds. They glossed over with tears and he said, “Damn Mahogany.”
