The Dirty Divorce Part 2

by Miss KP

  “Umm…no. It’s a long story.”

  “I’ve been worried about you. I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter. I was thankful that Juan told me.”

  “Thanks. My father passed away too, so I’m a mess.”

  “Damn, I didn’t know all that.”

  I’m sure he thought everybody around me died at some point. “It’s cool.”

  “Baby, you need a vacation. I’m in Miami for a couple of days because we play the Heat. What if I flew you down here? You know...to help you unwind and get some things off of your mind.”

  “No, I think I just need some time alone.” I didn’t want him to see me this way.

  “Lisa, that’s the last thing you need. I’m not taking no for an answer. Get some rest tonight. I’m booking you a morning flight. The sooner you get out of DC the better.”

  I finally gave in. “Okay, Cornell. I’ll come down there. Maybe I do need to get away before I lose my mind.”

  “I’m about to call my travel agent right now. Thanks for allowing me to be there for you. I’ll see n the morning.”

  “Thanks for caring. Goodnight.”

  Something about Cornell’s voice felt soothing. He made me feel a little better, and it seemed as though he’d called at the right time. Maybe I didn’t realize that I just needed to hear that someone cared. Closing my eyes, I fell asleep laying across the bed and drifted to another place. However, it wasn’t long before I woke up from a nightmare about Denie coming into my room with a knife and trying to kill me. No matter how much I tried to escape the problems that surrounded me, the devil was always working.

  *****

  By the time I woke up the next morning, Cornell had already sent my itinerary. A part of me had second thoughts about going, but after I talked to Juan I figured I would go and get away. Since I didn’t know what Cornell had planned for us, I packed my small Louis Vuitton roller bag with just a jacket, two outfits, and a swimsuit. Hopefully when I got there, he would be a real gentleman and take me shopping at Bal Harbour anyway.

  Juan called me once he was outside and met me at the door to carry my luggage. Once we got on the road, he wanted to know how I was holding up. I knew that was just his slick way of asking, if I was still using. Like I was going to admit that shit to him. But little did he know, I had a little stash hiding in my bra.

  “Juan I’ve been chilling out. Even though I got a lot on my mind, I’m trying to keep my head above water.”

  “I’m happy to hear that. I see your eye has cleared up.”

  “No, you’re wrong. It’s called make-up,” I said, in a sarcastic tone.

  “Well shit, I didn’t know. Anyway, have you talked to Rich?”

  “For what?”

  “Well, he had the baby cremated, so I thought you all would’ve at least spoken about that.”

  “I told that asshole I didn’t want any parts of whatever he did with Carlie.”

  “Damn Ma, that was rude. What has gotten into you? You don’t care about what happened to the baby?”

  “I do care Juan, but I just didn’t feel like going back and forth with Rich, I’m tired of dealing with his bullshit. It’s just best that we don’t communicate. Speaking of him, why do you all seem so damn buddy-buddy lately? Like you all have this newfound bond. You didn’t even want me to press charges. Is there something I need to know?”

  He looked like I’d struck a nerve “No, Ma. Let’s just drop it.”

  Juan was quiet for the rest of the ride to the airport. I didn’t want to leave with him being upset with me, but I also didn’t want to hear anything else about Rich or Carlie. I wanted to be done with that entire situation. He might’ve even thought I was being inhumane, but it wasn’t u? st didn’t care anymore.

  When we pulled up to the departure gate for United Airlines, I knew I had to break the silence. Turning to my son, I grabbed his face and told him to look at me.

  “Juan, I just want you to know that I’m going through a lot right now and I need you by my side more than ever. With my father passing, it has taken all the fight that I had. I wasn’t even able to say goodbye and it hurts. The reason why I’m going to Miami to see Cornell is to escape all of my problems and get a clear head. I need that right now.”

  “I’ll always be by your side, Ma. I just don’t ever want you going back to your old selfish ways. It hurts me to see you destroy your life that way. I just want my mother back. You haven’t been the same since you got mixed up with Carlos. You are a drug addict, Ma!”

  “Is that what you think of me? You know what…you don’t have to worry about me anymore.” When I got out of the car and slammed the door, Juan got out and tried to help me with my luggage.

  “I don’t need your help. Fuck it, I don’t need you!”

  “Ma, you can’t get mad and blame me for your faults. I’m only trying to help. The fact that you don’t even care how Carlie was put to rest is crazy. Why wouldn’t you be concerned about that? Maybe you’re gone more than I thought. It might be hurtful to hear me say that, but it’s the truth!”

  His words stung. “Fuck you, Juan! Now that you’re all up Rich’s ass, it’s fuck me, huh? Well, remember who has always been there for you!”

  I stormed off into the airport. This was the first time my son and I had ever had a fight where there were words thrown that hurt. My boarding pass was already printed so I went straight to security. The closer I got to placing my belongings on the belt, the more nervous I became. Remembering my stash was in my bra, I suddenly got nervous. I made sure every piece of jewelry was removed because I didn’t want to give them a reason to have to search me. Right before I walked up to the metal detector, the butch looking TSA agent eyed me up and down, making me even more worried. I just knew she was looking for a reason to frisk me. As soon as I walked through, the alarm beeped. My heart dropped instantly.

  “Ma’am you need to take your sunglasses off your head. Are you wearing a belt?” the agent asked.

  “Oh, thank you, yes I am wearing a belt, I forgot.”

  Taking them both off, I went through a second time with no problem. Now more than ever, I was ready to be the hell out of DC.

  *****

  When we landed two and a half hours later, I didn’t waste any time calling Cornell.

  “Hello.”

  3">“Are you at the airport? I just landed,” I said in an excited tone.

  “No, I had something to do. But I have a driver there for you. He’ll have a sign with your name on it.”

  “Alright, I’ll see you soon.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  I was a little disappointed that Cornell wasn’t picking me up since I really needed a hug right now. As bad as I wanted to call Juan to let him know I’d made it, I was sticking to my guns. He needed to know that his disrespect wouldn’t be tolerated.

  Putting my Bvlgari sunglasses on, I made my way through the crowd until I finally saw a Hispanic gentleman holding my name up on a sign.

  “Hello sir, I’m Lisa Sanchez.”

  “Good afternoon, Ms. Sanchez. I’m Roberto and I’ll be your driver. How was your flight?” he asked, taking my carry-on luggage.

  “It wasn’t too bad.”

  “That’s great. Follow me. We’re right here in the garage.”

  When we got to the car, it was more than I expected. A Hummer limo. I was wowed. Before he put my luggage in the truck, Roberto stopped and leaned on the door.

  “Ma’am, I’ve been given instructions by Mr. Willis that you have to put on this blindfold before entering the limo.”

  “What? I’m not wearing a blindfold. I don’t even know you.”

  “Ma’am, you don’t want to ruin his surprise, do you?”

  I hesitated for a few seconds. “Okay, but as soon as I feel uncomfortable it’s coming off.”

  I didn’t want to seem confrontational so I thought it was best to comply with what Cornell wanted. After Roberto blindfolded then helped me into the car, the smell of fresh flowers in
vaded my nose. I didn’t even have a chance to get excited because as soon as the car pulled off, all of a sudden I felt somebody kissing me on my neck.

  I let out a bashful smile. “Cornell, this better be you.”

  When I removed the blindfold, Cornell was sitting beside me along with several dozen of white and pink roses.

  “Oh my goodness Cornell, I can’t believe you did this.”

  “Do you know the symbolic meaning of white and pink roses?”

  “No. What are they?”

  “White roses are a symbol of purity and pink roses are a symbol of admiration. I admire your courage as a woman and from this day forward I want you to be pure for me. In my line of work it’s hard for me to trust a woman, but there’s somethin’ about you that always had me comin’ back. No matter how much you tried to push me away, it was something about you that made me feel like I wanted to be a part of your life. You need to be loved and I wanna do that for you.”

  “Cornell, no one has ever done anything like this for me. I have a hard time trusting anyone, so you have to be patient with me. I can’t promise you anything. All I can do is be myself and see where this goes.”

  “All I ask is for you to let me be there for you.”

  “I can do that,” I said, kissing him on his cheek. He kissed me back but I pulled away. “I’m sorry, Cornell.” I didn’t get a chance to move my stash from my bra, so I didn’t want to get something started and he found out about my habit.

  “It’s okay. I’m just happy you were able to make it.”

  “What time is your game?”

  “The game isn’t until tomorrow. We have practice today in a couple of hours then I figured we could go out afterwards to dinner at Prime 112. For now we’re gonna do a little shopping. How would you like that?”

  “I love that!” I said, giving him a huge hug.

  The feeling I had at that moment was something I hadn’t felt since Carlos, but for some reason it was still different. I knew I was vulnerable right now which is what caused me to fall for Carlos, but with Cornell it was different. We had never slept together, so it wasn’t about how he made me feel sexually. It was about how he made me feel emotionally. My motive in the beginning was getting what I could from him during the divorce, but now it was about having a friend. Someone I could count on.

  Bal Harbour was still the same fabulous place since the last time I was in Miami. We went to the Louis Vuitton boutique first to get me a couple of new bags from the cruise line that just launched. I picked up a couple of shoes and boots from Neiman’s as well. Cornell even had all the packages shipped to my house so I didn’t have to worry about lugging it on the plane. This was the life I could get used to minus being stopped every five minutes with people asking for an autograph or girls flirting.

  Once we got to the Chanel boutique, I was reminded very quickly that I was dating a high profile basketball star. As soon as we walked in, some girl let out a loud laugh before whispering to her friend. It took all my patience to keep it together, but she was the poster child of a groupie bitch. She was a cute girl, long weave, brand clothes from head to toe, but still had a whorish twist to her style. When she and Cornell finally made eye contact, I could tell how he all of a sudden got uncomfortable. It was obvious that he knew her, but I didn’t know to what degree. Trying my best to block the chick out, I walked around the store and was immediately drawn to the ice pearl colored bag behind the glasst>

  “Oh my goodness. I love this one,” I gloated.

  The girl must’ve heard me because she immediately sashayed her groupie-ass over and asked to see it.

  “Good choice,” her sales lady stated. “There are only three of these in the United States.”

  The bitch cut her eye at me before saying, “I’ll take it.”

  I was pissed. And to add salt to my wound, she finally decided to walk over and say something to Cornell when the sales lady went to ring it up.

  “Cornell, you weren’t gonna speak to me?”

  “What’s up Raven?”he replied dryly.

  “Aren’t you gonna introduce me? Is this your mom?” she asked with a smirk.

  “No bitch, I’m his girl,” I said in a calm, but stern tone.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. You just look a little older than what I’m used to seeing him with. You do look familiar though.”

  “I bet.”

  “So, you’re the woman who was on Mediatakeout.com. Cornell, remember when I called and asked you who the woman was on the internet with you. Remember you said that you didn’t fuck with her like that. You said it was your man’s mom…right?”

  “Raven, why you always like starting shit? This is my girl. Please leave us alone so we can enjoy the rest of our day together,” Cornell blurted out.

  “Sure, no problem, and thanks for the bag. I put it on your tab like I always do. Now, I see why you had something to do today. You could’ve just told me you flew somebody else in, too,” Raven informed.

  Cornell shook his head. “Man, whatever.”

  “I hope you’ll get a moment to make it to my room before practice.” As if she had the shit timed, as soon as Raven walked away the sales lady came back out with a shopping bag and a receipt. “Bye, Mr. Three,” Raven taunted, before she and her friend laughed and walked out.

  I was furious and embarrassed. My age showed because I wasn’t in the loop of what was going on with internet gossip, but as soon as I could I was going to pull up that website she was talking about.

  “I’m ready to go,” I said with an attitude.

  I didn’t even wait for his response before I walked out the store and back to the car. Not knowing what was taking him so long, Cornell finally made his way back a few minutes later with a defeated look on his face./font>

  “So, you’re gonna let what that groupie bitch said bother you and fuck up our day?”

  “Cornell, I knew this was a bad idea. Maybe I shouldn’t have come. This is what y’all athletes do, but I guess I thought you were different.”

  “I am different.”

  “I can’t tell. Why should I feel special? This is routine, this is what you do.”

  “This is not what I do. But this is what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna send you to the spa while I go to practice and then we’re gonna meet back up and have dinner tonight. We can talk about this later. I’ll meet you around seven. Does that work?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

  We both rode in silence until the limo pulled up to the Viceroy Hotel. Cornell stayed inside the car while a representative from the hotel whisked me away to the spa for a full day of relaxation. No matter how disappointed I was with him, I needed that spa treatment. Once I got back to the room a few hours later, there was a teddy bear on the bed surrounded by more white roses, a Chanel shopping bag and a card. I opened the card first.

  Lisa,

  I’m sorry that I made an ass of myself today. However, I’m not sorry that I made the choice to be with you. You make me happy and making you upset was never my intentions. Can we please leave the past in the past and work on the future?

  Cornell

  Opening the box that was inside the shopping bag, my eyes almost popped out of my head. I had never seen a Chanel bag like this before. It was pearl in color with double C’s all over it encrusted with crystals. It was absolutely stunning.

  Regardless of how amazing the bag was, my excitement quickly faded as thoughts about what Raven said earlier entered my mind. Desperate to see if she was telling the truth, I grabbed my phone and went directly to the website. I didn’t even have to scroll down that far before the embarrassing headline Cornell Willis’ Cheap Date appeared. After clicking the link, the small article went on to say that Cornell Willis loved cougars because they didn’t want much more than a dinner at Chipotle. After scrolling down a little more, there I was walking out of the restaurant with Cornell. I was completely humiliated.

  Pulling out the stash that I’d transferred to my purse, I needed a qui
ck fix to get my mind off of things. I needed instant relief. After opening up the small package, I laid the powder out on my compact and began to sniff away. I was so focused on getting high that I didn’t even realize that Cornell had walked into the room.

  “What the hell are you doing, Lisa?”

  When I looked up, I still had a small amount of powder on my nose. “I didn’t hear you come in. Umm.”

  “Umm, what? So, you’re a dope head? Oh hell no…you gotta go. I can’t fuck with you like that! I thought I could help you and be there for you, but I didn’t sign up for this shit.”

  “Wait Cornell, just listen…”

  “Man, get the fuck out. You can’t stay here. I can’t fuck up my career messing with you.”

  Snatching my suitcase off the bed, he opened the door and threw it out before grabbing my arm.

  “Let me go!” I said, just before he shoved me out and slammed the door in the face.

  Instantly, I screamed and dropped to the floor before crying my eyes out. I was this close to a new life and had thrown it all away that fast.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  JUAN

  In all of my twenty-three years, I never thought I would say that I was thankful for Rich being there for me. So much that I felt an obligation to somehow fix what I’d started with the Feds. They were definitely on his heels, so it was crucial that my plan to get him off the hook worked. On my way to meet Agent Patterson, I constantly thought about the fight that I’d had with my mother. I really hadn’t been in the mood to talk to her since she left for Miami, and obviously she felt the same way. I didn’t even know when she was due to come home, and to alleviate any further drama I’d been staying at the Gaylord Hotel. Even though I felt bad about the fight, a part of me knew I’d been too much of a crutch for her. It took a lot for me to speak my mind, but she needed to hear it. As I made my way into Virginia, my phone rang. It was Marisol.

  “Hello.”

  “Hey, nephew, you good? I haven’t heard from you in about a week.”