by Untamed
“Do you have any available rooms for immediate check-in? I only need single occupancy,” I asked the reservationist once I was connected. “That’s fine. Here is my card.” After I reserved my room, I called a cab, and I told them I’d pay them double if they made it here quickly.
“You shouldn’t leave here at night like this. Just because we’re not together doesn’t mean I’m not concerned about your well-being. Come on now,” Lincoln pleaded once I was done.
I chuckled in disbelief. “You have some king-size balls.” I shook my head as tears found their way to my eyes again. “How the hell can you break off an engagement and a relationship, then with a straight face have the nerve to tell me you’re concerned about my well-being? News flash! My well-being is no longer your concern. In fact, don’t even act as if you’re concerned now.” My heart fought between loving him and hating him, and I couldn’t wait to get away from him.
Lincoln sat on the stairs. “Please stay until the morning.”
I scoffed. “For what? You want some exit cutty? Sorry, I don’t give out farewell fucks, nor do I want any. Please leave me the hell alone. I want to go in peace.”
“You’ll have a clearer mind, and what if you forget something?”
“If I have some shit here, mail it to me. You can even COD it,” I said angrily. “Oh yeah, by the way, here are your house keys, car keys, and foundation keys.” I threw them at him one by one, then reached into my wallet and snatched out his credit cards. “Here is your money,” I said as the cab pulled up.
As I began to leave, I thought about one last thing and snapped my fingers. I pulled off my engagement ring and held it out for him.
“You can keep that.” Lincoln held up his hands, refusing it.
“I don’t need any reminders of you. Since you don’t want to take my hand in marriage, I don’t need the symbol of something that was never meant to be,” I said, throwing his ring to the floor. “I will send you a check to pay for the Range Rover so I don’t owe you shit.”
“That’s a gift. I’d never charge you—”
“I don’t care. I don’t need it or you. Go to hell. Don’t call me, worry about me, or ask about me. If I never see your face again, it still won’t be long enough.” I swung the door open to leave.
My exit was suddenly halted by the strength of Lincoln’s grasp on my arm. I faced him, ready to knock his block off for putting his deceitful hands on me, but the tears that streamed down his face briefly stopped me. “Charice, I’m so sorry things didn’t work out for us.”
“Don’t be. I’m not,” I said, seething.
With that, I snatched my arm out of his grasp and stalked away to my cab. Even as I settled in the cab, Lincoln stood watching in the doorway, but I refused to acknowledge his presence. The bottom line was that Lincoln had ripped my heart out and stomped on it, so now I had to take care of Charice.
As soon as the cab driver pulled off, though, the floodgates opened, and tears began to pour again.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” the cabbie asked.
“I’m fine. Just get me to the Courtyard Marriott as fast as possible. Thank you.”
As soon as I said that, my cell rang. It was Ryan. “Did you find your fiancé?” he asked with a blasé attitude. All I could do was break down even more. “Wait. Charice, what’s wrong? Did something really happen to Lincoln?” he asked, panicked.
“No. I wish it had though,” I said as I cried. “Let’s just say everything you ever wanted happened.”
He paused. “He broke up with you?” he asked slowly.
“Yep, so you and all the other critics should be happy now.”
“Charice—”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“No, I was just gonna say that I’m sorry. I don’t like to see you hurt.” He sighed. “Where are you now?”
“Heading to the Courtyard Marriott downtown.”
“Just come over here.”
“No, I’m going to the hotel,” I said bluntly. “I want to be alone.”
“Fine, go, but I refuse to let you be alone. I’ll meet you there.”
Once I got to the hotel, I left a message at the front desk to give Ryan my room number. There was no fighting him coming, and I didn’t have the energy to argue about it. In my room, I fell onto the bed and cried my eyes out. A little while later, Ryan arrived armed with a box of Kleenex, a bottle of Moscato, and some ice cream.
“I figured I’d bring the works,” he said, showing the items.
Though my eyes were bloodshot, my nose puffy and runny, and my lips quivering, I cracked a little smile as I let him in. He set the items on the table, and when he turned back to face me, I fell into his embrace and released a gut-wrenching wail.
“He left me. I can’t believe he left me,” I repeated. “Oh God, it hurts so bad.”
Ryan walked me over to the bed and rocked me as he stroked my hair. “Shh, it’s okay. I know you love him. You’re going to be fine. He’s a fool just like I was. You’ll bounce back. Just wait.”
“I thought you’d hate me,” I whimpered. “I thought you’d be happy to see my pain.”
Ryan cupped my face, forcing me to stare into his eyes. “First off, I could never hate you. You’re the mother of my three beautiful children and still the greatest love of my life. Secondly, I never want to see you in pain. I’ll admit that part of me is happy, but that happiness is only because of the breakup and not the pain behind it. I wish I could say I wasn’t happy about any of it, but I can’t deny that. But whatever happiness I feel is overshadowed by your pain. The last thing on earth I want to see is you like this,” he said sweetly, gently wiping away my tears.
“Please hold me and don’t let me go.”
As we lay back on the bed, I continued to cry while he held me. Soon all that could be heard were the sounds of raindrops as they fell. They matched my tears. Even when I had cried all I could cry, I just lay there and let Ryan hold me. I needed his strength to get me through this turmoil. Listening to one another’s heartbeat and the rise and fall of our breathing, we didn’t say a word as he continued to console me. After having a glass of Moscato, my body relaxed, and sleep invaded me despite myself. As I faded off, the smell of Ryan’s cologne reminded me that I wasn’t alone. For once, I had someone to help me pull the pieces back together.
Chapter Twelve
Trinity
Life as I knew it had suddenly become a cake walk. Pooch was really on a mission to prove he could be a good man and father. He’d stayed true to his word and tried to change. When he was at home, he helped with the kids and even cooked dinner for us one night. Granted, it was only fried egg and bologna sandwiches with French fries, but it was a meal. And boy, did I ever laugh at this fool’s attempt to wash his own clothes. He ruined a slew of white tees and designer shirts by mixing colors and whites. With my direction, he got it right the next time, but I kept his crazy ass away from my designer duds.
The funniest thing of all came when he changed Princess’s diaper for the first time. She had a slight case of diarrhea, so her diaper was fully loaded, and he got some poop on his hand. Then as he tried to change her, my baby knocked everything off the changing table, and by the time Pooch got it together, boom, she exploded another stinky load all over his shirt. That was one time when I volunteered to relieve him. I could tell he was happy, because he nearly threw her in my lap.
It was such a shame that it took this pregnancy for him to try to act right. Even with all he did, my feelings remained the same. I loved Terrence. Though I knew Terrence was being low-key so as not to draw suspicion from Pooch, I was beyond ready for him to make good on his plan to get me away from this muthasucka for more reasons than one.
And one of those reasons, which was beginning to get on my last damn nerve, was Pooch’s need for sex. I’d managed not to give it up, claiming the illness from the pregnancy was what hindered us. The truth of the matter was that I wasn’t going to have sex with him while I carried anothe
r man’s baby. To me, that was beyond fucking nasty. He bought into it for a minute, but that was getting old real quick.
“Babe,” Pooch said, rubbing on my ass in the bed. “You up?”
“No,” I lied. Even though I wasn’t in a deep sleep, I had drifted before he started calling me.
“Then how you answer me if you ain’t up?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. “’Cause you woke me up by calling me.”
“Well, since you up now, let me g’on and hit that shit right quick. I’m hurting like a sumbitch over here,” he whined.
“Pooch, I was asleep,” I whined back.
“Man, I’ma get the fuckin’ blue balls and shit,” he fussed. “Come on. I promise it’s gonna be quick. I’m so fuckin’ backed up right now I’ll explode fast.”
“We got some Vaseline in the bathroom. I’m not stopping you from handling ya business.”
“I need to feel some of that gushy stuff. This fuckin’ jacking off ain’t working. It’s only releasing pressure. It ain’t killing the urge. Come on, babe,” he whined, kissing my neck. “I need to feel you.”
“You already know I’m battling with my blood pressure. All this increased activity is not going to be good for me or the baby.” I flipped to my back and looked over at him.
“Let me get on top. You don’t have to move or nothing.”
“So just let you put your weight on me and the baby?”
He rubbed on his dick. “Well, ride it like only you can.”
Pursing my lips, I smarted off, “Hello? Increased heart rate and high blood pressure do not go hand in hand.”
Pooch fell back on the bed in frustration. Then he snapped his fingers. “Let me eat you out. I can pull on myself as I do it, and then we both can get off. Maybe that will dead some of this urge,” he said, smiling over at me as if he’d made an offer I couldn’t refuse. “I know how much you like that tongue action.”
“I’m really not in the mood. I don’t know if it’s the medication or what. I wish I were, though,” I lied.
Shiiiiiit. I loved tongue action, and this pregnancy had me in the mood every other day. But the only person who gave me tongue action was Terrence, every chance I got. I refrained from intercourse since I still lived with Pooch, but trust me when I say I was getting so much tongue action my pussy probably smelled like Terrence’s breath. As a matter of fact, I had a 9:00 a.m. appointment for that when I went over to comb Brittany’s hair in the morning.
“Can you suck on it or something?” he begged.
“You know these iron pills make me sick. You really want me to shove your dong down my throat?”
“Please, babe.” He paused and looked around strangely. “Wait a minute. Why am I begging for my own woman to please me?” he asked himself. “I’ve been real patient with you, Trin, but you gon’ have to do something around here. Now we was supposed to be working on us and shit, and I’m trying real fuckin’ hard not to lose it. So I’ma try this again. Just suck on it a little bit so I can get the fuck off,” Pooch said tensely.
I scoffed. “What you saying? You gon’ make me suck it, or are you going out there and be dirty if I don’t?”
“Dirty is as dirty does, meeting ma’fuckas in the park and shit,” Pooch said cynically.
“Nice way to work on us, Pooch.”
“A’ight then,” he said, and I could tell he was upset. The next thing I knew, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed a number. “What’s up, Chocolate Flava? I’m cool. Nah, this ain’t no business call. I wanted to see if you was free to roll by my house right about now.”
Now I knew this muthasucka wasn’t inviting one of his strippers to our house. I couldn’t care less if he went out in the street and did dirt, but to my house in front of my baby? Hell to the no!
“What the fuck is you doing?” I asked angrily as I sat up.
“Hold up a minute, sweetie,” he said into the phone before placing the phone on mute. “Doing my dirt. That’s what you want me to do, right?”
“Not at this house with the baby in here, you ain’t.”
“It’s my house, and it ain’t gon’ be in front of the baby. It’s gon’ be in here with the door locked. I’ma let her suck the rock right quick while you sleep and send her on her way,” he said as if I were gonna sit by while some bitch rolled through here and got him off in front of me.
“Nigga, please. Have you lost your damn mind? I know damn well you ain’t ’bout to disrespect me like that. And you ain’t ’bout to disrespect Princess either,” I said angrily.
He shrugged. “So what you gonna do?”
I rolled my eyes. Even though I knew he was doing this shit to get next to me, I didn’t have a choice. I wasn’t going to let him do some nasty shit like that to me. I wished that Terrence would hurry up with his plan to get me away from this rotten bastard. In the meantime, I had to do what I had to do to survive, even if that meant sucking his pipe.
I nodded. “A’ight,” I conceded.
He smiled and unmuted the phone. “Yo, Chocolate. Sorry to keep you up. You ain’t got to roll through. Yeah, I’m positive. Yeah, I know you don’t mind being down for me, but you know I’m a one-woman man, so we can kill this noise for real yo, ’cause my lady is waiting. Make sure y’all catch that party tomorrow. A’ight. Peace.”
Pouting with my arms crossed, I asked, “Are you done talking to your hoes?”
He slid his cell back onto the nightstand before looking over at me. “Them bitches don’t mean shit to me, and I’on even fuck wit’ none of ’em like that, and you know it, but you better quit trippin’ around this bitch. ’Cause as you can see, not one of them hoes gives a damn about replacing yo’ ass,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Not one of them gave you a baby or will be loyal to your ass like me either. They just looking for a fucking come-up,” I shot back.
“Oh, and you wasn’t?” he asked.
“I didn’t come looking for you. You brought your ass where I was, so miss me with that shit for real, yo.” I fanned him off.
He brought me to him so fast I didn’t know what was happening. He held my face in his hands. “Don’t be talking to me foolish like that. Do you hear me?”
“A’ight,” I said nervously.
He had the nerve to smile at me after that with his evil ass. “Don’t be nervous. I ain’t gon’ hurt you. That shit is kinda sexy though.” He rubbed my cheek with one hand and eased his boxers down with the other. “Handle that shit, babe.”
That sadistic muthasucka. Who does shit like that? Only a crazy-ass nigga like Pooch. Who would want to have any type of sexual intimacy after the stunt he just pulled? Not just with calling Chocolate Flava’s thirsty ass, but also snatching me as if he’d never laid hands on me before while I was pregnant. I should bite his shit clean off. But as long as I was stuck here in this ruse of a relationship, I had to put up my pretenses. That meant I had to pleasure my so-called man. Holding his dick in my hands, I lowered my head and went to work.
“Ooh shit, babe. That’s it right there,” he moaned, stroking my hair. “Get at him.”
Fortunately, it didn’t take long. I was only down there for two minutes tops before his toes curled and balls tightened up. I pulled up just in time as he erupted like a volcano. He gripped the hell out of the headboard and convulsed.
“Ooh yeah. That’s that good-good,” he said after he relaxed. “I told you it wasn’t gon’ be but a minute,” he added before we got up to clean ourselves.
I finished up in the bathroom before him and hurriedly jumped into bed to go to sleep before he had the bright idea to ask me for some more sexual favors. That one horrendous experience was enough.
However, when he snuggled against me, he woke me again. “I’m sleepy now—”
“Nah, I’m good. Believe me, I’m real good. But I was just holding you and shit. I thought you might like that,” he whispered.
I did, but not from his ass.
“Before you go to sleep, I just w
anted to tell you I’ll be gone most of the day tomorrow. Tot got these brothers he want me to meet with so I can begin expanding my organization.”
“Oh yeah?” I said nonchalantly. “Who?”
“Umm, some cats from out West. I think he said they name was the Crown brothers. One of the top connections.”
“Crown brothers, huh?” I said. For some reason, the name sounded familiar to me. “You heard of ’em?”
“I heard of some of their clients, and them niggas is big time for real. When you start fuckin’ wit’ cats who keep they name off the grid, that’s when you really on some king shit,” Pooch confided in me.
Not that I should have cared, but I did. I wasn’t heartless, and he was still Princess’s father. I faced him and questioned, “Don’t you be scared of doing this shit sometimes?”
In a rare sweet move, he lifted my chin so that we were looking directly into each other’s eyes. Surprisingly, he gave me a soft and tender kiss on the lips. “No. You know what scares me the most?”
“What?” I asked him as we continued to lock eyes.
“Losing you,” he said nervously. “Real talk. I’d go insane without you.”
I guessed it was the pregnancy that had my emotions all over the place, but I felt giddy on the inside when he said that to me. It reminded me of the Pooch I fell in love with a few years ago, back when he was always so sweet to me. For the first time in a long time, I saw the old Pooch from when we were teenagers, the sweet and vulnerable Pooch.
“Aww, baby,” I said, pulling him into a passionate kiss. My reaction to him shocked me.
He smiled lovingly at me after the kiss. “Yeah, that’s the Trin I remember.” He lightly brushed my hair, then caressed my face. The stare he donned for me made my heart flutter in a way that it hadn’t in years. “It feels good to be back here at this place. I love you, girl. I love you for real,” he said tenderly and hugged me.
Pooch had touched my soft spot, and it was the first time I questioned my true feelings for him. That was, until he said the one infamous thing that reminded me that the flash of the old him was only temporary.
