I let Treasure say whatever she needed to say. I avoided confrontation, especially with Tara. She was a Negative Nancy and required too much attention. Listening to her and Treasure was comical. Tara was tripping as always, acting like she was better than both of us.
Tara rolled her eyes. “Okay, I will go.” She didn’t look fully convinced, but she agreed anyway. “Just for a few days. But Sibley, you need to-”
“Mind my business.” I cut her off. “I’m going to mind my business, Tara, and I want you to do the same. That’s the only way we will all have a good time. Deal?”
Tara playfully rolled her eyes and agreed. “Deal.”
“Yesssss! Cheers to the summer, bitches!” Treasure screamed as we all clinked our margarita glasses together.
Packing started that night.I pulled dresses from my closet and tossed them onto the bed without much of a system. Every time I thought I had it figured out, I’d stop and second-guess it. The Vegas Heat wasn’t the problem. It was everything else. I was excited, nervous, and a little unsettled because this wasn’t like me. I planned things, dotting all of my I’s and crossing my T’s. I couldn’t do that this time since I wasn’t in control. That was the part I kept coming back to. It bothered me, and still somehow, I’d agreed to spend the summer with a man I barely knew.
Another thing that plagued me was breaking up with Damien. It had to happen, and Kier was not the deciding factor. Damien had shown me too many times that I wasn’t a priority, and my birthday was my final straw. I didn’t owe him an explanation, but I did want to tell him to his face. I’d called him a few times since my birthday and sent a text too. As expected, Damien moved when he wanted to, and whatever guilt he felt clearly wore off. When he finally showed up, he caught me packing for the trip.
“Are you going somewhere?” He asked, sitting on my bed, which he knew would piss me off.
“Damien, sit on the chair, please.”
Shrugging, he got up and plopped himself onto the chair by the floor lamp. “I asked you a question.”
“Damien, listen, we need to talk.”
“Yeah, let’s talk about that nigga I heard you was with.”
I said nothing as I perused my closet trying to figure out what to wear. I was also trying to figure out how Tara could once again betray me and tell Damien about Kier. I mean, how else would he have found out? I continued to toss clothes from my closet to my bed. The plan was to choose the sexiest dresses and tiniest shorts to match the vibe that Vegas had to offer. Then again, I didn’t really know what to bring since I was supposed to spend the whole summer with this man. The closer it came, the more excited I got. I ignored Damien’s question as my mind was consumed with finally deciding to live on the edge a little.
“I asked who the fuck you been with, Sibley?”
“Man. Gone man,” I muttered, still flipping through hangers. Before I knew it, he was towering over me, standing in my closet.
“You don’t hear me talking to you?” Damien asked, yanking my arm and turning me towards him.
Immediately, I yanked away. “Have you lost your mind, grabbing on me like that?”
“I needed some way to get your attention, so who was he?”
“Tara loves to tell you everything, huh? That’s crazy.” I smiled, continuing to avoid his question, which added to his aggravation.
“Oh, so she knew too? She didn’t tell me. Rod saw you. He said he saw you at the club in the VIP section!”
“Now how would he do that if he was in the tournament with you? Somebody lying.” I laughed, shaking my head. “You lied to cover up for Tara, or you weren’t really at the tournament. Which one is it?”
“Naw, bae. You got my head fucked up. What I’m saying is-”
“I’m done, Damien.” I cut him off. “You walked in my apartment trying to find out who I was with. Did it ever dawn on you that, had you shown up, I wouldn’t have been with somebody else? I waited for you for hours and didn’t hear a peep from you.”
“Look Sibley, I ju-”
“Then the next day you show up with a balloon and a fuckin teddy bear like I’m a teenager on Valentine’s Day? I don’t deserve half-ass effort. The only person I’ll ever let play in my face is a makeup artist.”
“Look baby, can we please just be done with this? I promise I’mma start putting you first. I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry too. But um, give me my keys, Damien.” I requested, gesturing to him. Without hesitation, he took my two keys off his keyring, scoffing as he set them on my dresser.
“So, this is it? Over one birthday? A year and some change gone down the drain over a little mistake?”
“It’s been a long, lonely, frustrating year, Damien. The fact that you going ghost on my birthday is a ‘little mistake’ to you is crazy. So yeah, this is it.”
“Sibley, I’m not about to beg you.”
