“Where are you going?”
“A hotel for now. I’ll figure everything else out once I stop crying and get my whole life together.”My life without him.
“You’re welcome to stay with us,” Darisha offers.
“I appreciate that, but I need to be alone. Besides, I look exactly how I feel,” she says and laughs wryly. Her hand swipes across her tear stained face. “Maybe I do need a margarita. Make me one, please.”
“I gotcha. One shot or two?”
Ano, D-Low, and Preach are no longer breathing, and while Akeem is pleased with that, he’s still uneasy. Sunjiya’s abusers are exactly where they belong but that’s the only thing resolved in their situation. Everything else is fucked up. Her lie, her reasons for lying, and his brother’s words all float in his head as he takes the stairs two at a time to the condo.
His flight landed three hours ago but he couldn’t bring himself to go home. After spending an hour in Second Bar + Kitchen in the airport, he took an iDrive to the place he’d proposed, Melanin Voyages.
Sunjiya had too many opportunities to fess up and tell him the truth but she didn’t. She let him believe he’d failed Tanjaya and didn’t save her, when in fact, he’s been with Tanjaya this entire time. He fell in love with Tanjaya and asked Tanjaya to marry him. The real Sunjiya is in Conyers and she tricked him into going there.
Everything about this whole situation is fucked up and he doesn’t know what he’s going to do or say when he walks inside. His anger has subsided but his disappointment hasn’t. He can’t process what she did and how she did it. For weeks, months, she’s been lying to him over and over.
After inhaling deeply and exhaling loud enough for his neighbors to hear, he unlocks the door and walks in. Sunjiya’s definitely here because he hears music and voices coming from down the hall. As he gets closer to the room, he recognizes the voice. It’s Sunjiya’s friend Darisha.
She’s socializing and shit and I’m stressing?he thinks before turning into the room.
Seeing what’s going on in their bedroom causes his feet to stop moving. Sunjiya’s luggage is on the bed, her clothes piled on the chairs in their seating area and her shoes stacked at the end of the bed.
She’s leaving me.
He’s absolutely mad at her for lying. He’s furious at himself for not realizing he was being lied to again by another woman but he’s even more angry that she’s leaving.
“What you doing?” he asks and his deep baritone startles both ladies.
Darisha actually jumps then laughs nervously. Sunjiya merely stares at him. Tears instantly fill her eyes when their gazes meet but she refuses to let them fall. He said nothing when she pleaded with him in that rental car and ghosted her for the last forty-something hours. She’s not going to give him the benefit of seeing her cry again. It’s clear that her tears mean nothing to him. She inhales then turns back to Darisha. Instead of answering him, she speaks to her friend.
“We should take the clothes off the hangers,” she tells Darisha and Darisha tilts her head confusedly and squints. “It’ll be easier, right?” Sunjiya continues, missing her friend’s blank stare, discomfort, and confusion.
“Why do you need the hangers off?” Akeem asks and Darisha’s level of discomfort rises.
“I think I should let you two talk,” Darisha utters to Sunjiya.
“He doesn’t talk to me,” Sunjiya fires back loudly, so he can hear her.
“But he is now,” Darisha utters, then steps closer to Sunjiya at the end of the bed. From behind, Darisha hugs her friend tightly. “Talk to him and call me later. I love you,” she whispers before ending her embrace. She walks over to the door. “Hey,” she greets Akeem and he nods and steps aside to allow her to leave. He follows her to let her out.
When he leaves the door frame, Sunjiya buries her face into the stack of clothes in her suitcase. In the clothes, she screams, lets her tears fall, then quickly wipes them before he returns.
He’s here.
And talking…
To me.
Her anxiety makes the hairs on her arm stand at attention. What’s left of her heart pounds in her chest and the butterflies in her belly flutter frantically as she awaits his return. She doesn’t wait long. In less than five minutes, he’s back. Instead of standing in the doorway, he walks into the room and stands directly behind her. Her breath hitches in her throat and she swallows hard. He grabs the shirt at the top of the stack beside her.
“You going somewhere?” he asks.
“I can’t stay here,” she responds.
“Why? I didn’t say you have to leave,” he says before dropping the shirt.
“The problem is you haven’t said shit to me,” she fires back but the anger she tries to display doesn’t land because her voice betrays her and cracks mid-sentence.
