Page 43 of More to Love

“My baby not about to suffer all because her mother isn’t wanted anymore. Stop being selfish for once!” I bellowed.

“Fuck you Hendrix. You made this bed bitch, so lay in it.”

She stormed out and the office floor was quiet as a mouse. My business was out in the streets, but I was cool with it. When Avi was no longer the woman on my arm, they would realize what was up anyway. Better to get this over with now than prolong it.

Dex made his way back to my office and I remained sitting on the sofa. Secrets were being revealed and I was too caught up in my own thoughts to make a move. Sorimah being pregnant made the situation worse because that child would be my first born and the emotions behind that were spiraling.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked, shutting the door.

“My kids. If Ri is pregnant, a nigga will be ecstatic, but I’m also pissed because you know how long I’ve been around her and she ain’t said a word? I mean was she thinking about getting an abortion? Hell, is that why she quit? Then Princess is about to go through hell because her mama too messed up in the head.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions, bro’.”

“How can I not? Sorimah ain’t told me a darn thing and when I ask her questions, she ignores me and changes the subject. I really don’t know what to do other than go over there and see what she got going on.”

“You need me to come with you in case things get out of hand?”

“I doubt it will, but I don’t mind. Let’s roll.”

I grabbed my keys and phone off the desk then was one way out the door. I caught the side eyes on my way out as well. Never really cared about what others thought of me and this situation didn’t change that. I was the one signing their checks, not the other way around. Dex joined me minutes later.

He was always going to be my support system and I loved him for that. One thing I wanted more information about was him mentioning his relationship with Sorimah’s sister. I had yet to meet EJ officially, so I was curious about how they even ran into each other. We pulled out with him driving. We had a distance before we hit Max Peeks so we could talk.

“You straight?” he asked.

“When did you start messing with EJ and why didn’t you tell me about y’all lil’ whatever?”

“When I saw her in the club, I wanted to get at her but that wasn’t the time or place. I figured she would be close to Sorimah, so when you ran a background check on Ri, I saw Erykah’s picture, and she was listed as her sister. I started sending her flowers and lunch on some secret admirer type shit and then went from there. We been at this shit for months.”

“You too sneaky for me. That whole time you saw me in my feelings about Ri and you were dating EJ. That’s foul.”

“Nigga I practically told you when I said I was anxious about her gold mine. Around that time, I had just revealed my face and she wasn’t on that shit Ri was. She made me wait.”

I didn’t pay attention to what he was saying because he was on some joking junk all the time. Plus, I was losing my marbles that day because she wasn’t supposed to be in my house. My thoughts wouldn’t let me process his responses correctly.

“What I’m supposed to do about all of this? Avi’s going to take Akeera if I don’t be with her. That’s something that’s going to mess with me every day until I can see her again.”

“That’s something you’re going to have to eat because the baby Sorimah’s carrying has your blood. Aviana ain’t your wife and you never had any intentions of marrying her either. Y’all were running up on five years and you hadn’t even thought about buying a ring.”

He was speaking facts. Aviana wasn’t a permanent partner for me. She didn’t behave like a woman who loved their man, and she damn sure didn’t cater to my needs. Loving Ri seemed easier to do than being with Aviana. It was sad because Sorimah had only been in my life for a matter of months while Aviana had years.

“Cause out of nowhere she changed, and I wasn’t rocking with it. My money somehow became her world.”

“If I was you, I’d snatch all that shit. I’d stop her shit right now, to be honest. Bitch you can get the fuck on but leave my money behind. She’s probably out there doing her any damn way. I don’t like that hoe for real.”

“I thought that at first too, but she told me about the shoe line she was trying to get started and was going to surprise me with some prototypes that I still haven’t seen.”

“Believe that shit if you want to. That bitch out here fuckin’ and you can’t tell me any different. What woman can go months and I’m talking months at a time without fuckin’ on they nigga? She already fucked and don’t want to bring you shit, plain and simple.”

His statement was causing me to look at the same things I was before. She was gone all day and the sex had pretty much become nonexistent between us. We didn’t show affection to one another, and she didn’t acknowledge me until I made her. My first thought was there was someone else but when I turned her cards off, she buttered up just like Dex said.

I was spending more time with Sorimah than I was her and I was cool with that because I enjoyed Ri’s company more than I did Avi’s. Nothing about us seemed forced and everything between us flowed at a pace where time always seemed to get away from us.

There were times where we’d be out on dates with Princess and people would complement us on how good we looked as a family. Those were comments that me and Aviana could never get because she was never around. She was in for a rude awakening if I found out she’d been on some creep junk.

“I hear you.”

I was in my head the entire ride to Max Peeks. I didn’t know what to do or what to think. I was wondering if it was just me tripping out about Sorimah or if it was mixed emotions. One thing that kept ringing out was Avi mentioning the baby. That sparked curiosity about how she found out about it. Hell, if she knew about the baby then she had to know we were messing around as well. It wasn’t hard to miss.