by B. M. Hardin
My mind was playing tricks on me again.
One minute he cared the next minute he didn’t.
One minute he was getting a divorce the next minute they were having a baby.
It was nothing but a big ball of confusion.
But yet some of the things that he said to me, or sometimes the way that he acted with or towards me, convinced me that there was real love in his heart for me.
I just wasn’t sure what the reasons behind it all were.
Maybe he was just in a bad situation.
Maybe this so called “business deal” was the reason why he was still married to her.
Maybe.
But at the end of the day, I knew that loving him just wasn’t good for me.
Loving Drake controlled me.
It consumed me and it even made me a little bit crazy.
If I couldn’t be his main chick, I just couldn’t be anything at all.
And from now on, that’s just how it had to be.
~***~
“Drake what’s all this?”
I looked at the box that he was holding and then back at him.
He’d asked me to come by his office, which surprised me, since we were never actually seen together in public together; at least not in town that is.
He’d shut his office door behind me, and took a seat behind the desk.
He’d had me sign a few things for the condo that I’d picked out and hopefully I would be moving into it soon.
Once I’d signed everything that he’d needed me to, he then reached me a box.
I looked at it for a second and then I opened it.
It was a gold charm bracelet.
The charms were blinged out with diamonds and I smiled as I touched them.
I looked back at Drake, who was also smiling, which immediately made me frown.
I didn’t need any more gifts from him.
What I needed wasn’t a material thing.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said to him and sat the box in front of him.
Drake picked up the box and then he stood up.
I watched him glance at the door to make sure that he’d locked it.
He walked around to me and tugged at my hand.
“What Drake?”
He was getting on my nerves, but I got up and followed him to a couch on the other side of his office.
He waited until I was comfortable and then he opened the box and pulled out the bracelet.
“Your favorite color is orange,” he said pointing at the first charm on the bracelet, which appeared to be an orange, and it even had orange diamonds in the center.
“It’s also your favorite fruit. Remember how happy you would get when I would bring you a basket of oranges every weekend from going to help out my uncle at the Farmer’s market? The smile on your face was always so priceless,” Drake said.
Who the hell was he supposed to be…The Memory Master or something?
He wasn’t going to suck me back into his little web of deceit.
Not this time.
I wasn’t about to go down memory lane with him because back then was when he’d loved me the most and I didn’t want to remember how good it felt.
He pointed at the next charm.
“Book. You loved a good book. You would get lost in them for hours and remember what we would do every time you would finish a new one? You would make me watch you act out parts of it from the beginning to the end. You would tell me everything that I needed to know and by the end of it, hell I’d feel like I’d read the book too. But you did it every single time and with every single book, just because you’d said that you wanted to share those moments with me,” Drake paused.
I’d forgotten all about that.
Those were the days when we were very best friends and during the time that I’d started falling in love with him.
“Remember how jealous I would get over your so called “book boo’s”? They weren’t real but you would talk about them for hours and I would get mad because I wanted to be the only man on your mind.”
I nodded my head.
I remembered.
Drake would hate to hear about the male characters that I fell in love with in a good story. I would go on and on about them and he would whine and remind me that they weren’t real.
They were real enough to me.
I smiled as I thought about a few of them.
“Oh and look at this one. The bike. We were what, seventeen and no one had ever taken the time to teach me how to ride a bike. But you did. It took the whole day for me to get it right, but you didn’t pick on me. You didn’t laugh at me, not even once. Even when I would fall, and even though I would laugh at myself. You didn’t. You would help me up and tell me to try again. Do you remember once I finally got it with no help at all? Do you remember what you said to me? You said: Whether in a car or now on a bike, no matter what, I will ride with you forever. That’s what you said to me.”
I was crying at this point and I was so mad at him for making me remember.
I’d loved him for as long as I could remember and I knew in my heart that it was going to be hell for me to try to stop.
What was I supposed to do?
“Even if I don’t act like it, I remember everything you have ever said and everything you have ever done for me. And one day, I will be the man that you need me to be. I promise you I will.”
Drake leaned in to kiss me and though I wanted to stop him, I didn’t.
But I didn’t have to.
The knock at the door did.
“Drake open up the door,” she said.
Automatically I recognized his wife’s voice.
I looked at him and he looked at me.
I wanted to know what his next move was going to be.
His wife continued to knock and Drake stood up and so did I.
“Moe can you do me a huge favor?”
I looked at him.
“Do you mind jumping out the window?” Drake said.
What?
I wanted to smack him into the middle of next week!
I was about to curse him out so bad that even the Devil would cover his ears, but then he started to laugh.
“Moet, I’m kidding, girl.”
He handed me the box, waited for me to get my purse and then followed me to the door.
He opened it and at the sight of me, his wife smacked her lips.
Before I was even out of sight, she started in on him, and just as I headed outside, I heard his office door slam shut behind me.
It never fails.
Just when it seems like something could be different, reality shows up and reminds me to stop living a fairytale.
Drake was married.
And from the looks of it, he always would be.
I looked at the box that carried the charm bracelet and tossed in in the trash can outside.
The past was history; it was the present that mattered.
And presently, a future with Drake was out of the question.
I just had to force myself to accept it.
********************************
Chapter FIVE
“What floor?”
“Fifth,” I said and stared at the man.
I knew him from somewhere.
I couldn’t quite put his face to a name, but I knew that he looked familiar.
With his fine self!
“Visiting or do you live here?” he asked.
“Live. I moved in not too long ago.”
“Me too. Everybody calls me Kane,” he said and he waited for me to tell him my name.
Kane?
Kane…
And then it hit me.
I looked at him.
Yep, that was him.
The man that Drake had killed, Mario, the murder that I went to prison for, he had a little brother…named Kane.
They actually somewhat looked alike, now that I thought about it.
He was younger than Mario that I remembered.
> I wasn’t sure how old he was, and I wasn’t sure if he remembered me.
I had gone to a family gathering or two with Mario, while I was screwing him like Drake had told me to.
Drake said that things might look a little more believable if they all were aware that we’d had some kind of relationship, and if things with his death didn’t go as planned.
To be honest, Mario was definitely into me.
He was mean and cruel to everyone but me, despite how I’d made him look.
To be honest, he’d treated me like a princess.
I did everything just right.
I was independent. I was smart. Yet, I was over the top freaky and I could even roll a blunt for him when he needed me to, although I didn’t smoke or drink.
My good girl, bad girl character drove him wild.
I’d made him trust me in no time.
His family was aware that we had something going on and they were all very aware of what Mario did for a living and they especially knew how bad his temper was.
My story really was believable.
I was truly surprised that I’d gotten any time at all and maybe if I had taken it to trial, I probably wouldn’t have. But I was shook and didn’t want to take any chances so I took the plea.
But of course Mario’s family hadn’t appreciated the fact that I had “murdered” him, despite how bad of a person he was, so of course they’d wanted me to see me punished for the crime.
A crime that I didn’t even commit.
But maybe Kane didn’t remember me.
I’d changed a little in appearance over the last few years.
Not much, but some.
And he’d only seen me maybe twice.
But my goodness, he surely hadn’t looked a thing like this back then.
He stood there and waited for me to say my name.
“Oh, nice to meet you Kane. I’m Keisha.”
Keisha was the first name that popped into my head.
Everybody knew a black girl named Keisha, so it seemed like a good name to go with.
“No you’re not. You’re Moet,” he said.
Shit!
So he did remember me.
“You don’t have to lie. You’re the woman that killed my brother. I know exactly who you are.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.
“It’s all good. If you hadn’t done it, someone else was bound to do it anyway. Who knows, that someone could have been me,” he said.
The elevator stopped.
He smiled, and got off and the doors closed behind him.
Okay, what the heck just happened?
That could have definitely gone a lot worse.
He could have wanted revenge or something, but it seemed as though he hadn’t been too fond of his brother at all.
I wondered what the issues had been between the two.
With such an age gap, there couldn’t have been many.
But his comment assured me that there had been some.
I got off on my floor, to find that Drake was waiting for me at the front door.
Of course I hadn’t stuck by my word and I’d started sleeping with him again, but it was only when I wanted to.
I’d made it clear to him that he wasn’t running the show anymore and that I was calling all of the shots; especially when it came to Ms. Kitty.
After that day at the office, I really wanted to be done with him, in that way, but of course my love for Dray overpowered my will to walk away.
But at least my mindset was different.
Though I loved him, I knew that whether or not he admitted it, he loved her too and maybe he loved her more than me.
I knew that it was more to the situation then what he was trying to make me believe.
And I had to try to accept that maybe she’d stolen his heart from me, no matter how hard it was.
If he didn’t love her, in some way, he would have never married her in the first place and to this day, she still wouldn’t be the one carrying his last name.
Slowly but surely, I was getting my feelings intact, and as sure as a bear took a shit in the woods, sooner than later, there was going to be no more Moet and Drake; or Dray and Moe.
I could feel myself letting go inside little by little, and so for the time being, I was just going with the flow until I was able to fully let go.
But Dray had definitely been in some crazy sweet, loving mood lately.
I had no idea what that was all about.
But he called more.
I saw him all the time, and for long periods at a time.
He was always trying to reminisce or saying all of the things that a woman wanted to hear.
I often questioned his motives, but he would always claim that he just wanted to express himself and tell me how much he loved me.
It was a load a bull crap to me, but whatever.
Drake smiled at me as I approached him.
He took the bags out of my hands and he puckered up to kiss me.
I wasn’t in the mood to fuss, so I kissed him and walked inside of my condo.
I’d found the most expensive condo that I could, and just as he’d said that he would, Drake paid it up for an entire year.
I’d moved all of my belongings out of his wife’s house and to be honest, the huge luxury condo felt a lot more like home.
It was perfect.
Of course Drake had to go on the lease with me, but for the time being, I didn’t have much of a choice.
He’d helped me decorate it and of course what I didn’t already have, he’d purchased it for me.
I looked around.
Drake had candles lit, dinner on the table and rose petals leading down the hall to the bedroom.
“What’s this?”
“This is a celebration.”
“Of what?”
Drake smiled.
He sat down the bags and disappeared down the hallway.
I didn’t move.
I just stood there and waited for him to come back.
He came back with papers in his hand.
Was those divorce papers?
Yes!
He was finally divorced!
I grinned as big and as wide as a four line highway.
Finally, we could be together again.
Finally things could go back to being what they used to be and I could finally claim my rightful place; by his side and as his wife.
He reached me the papers.
I read them quickly, but my smile disappeared and turned into a frown.
Ugh!
I should have known that it was too good to be true.
But I guess in a way it was something to celebrate about. It just wasn’t the news that I was hoping for.
The papers said that the little girl, Drake’s daughter, by his wife…wasn’t his.
What?
I must say that I was definitely surprised.
So his wife had been cheating on him too?
Now, that was hard to believe.
And to me, the baby looked somewhat like Drake, but the blood test that I was holding said otherwise.
“The baby isn’t mine, which means that she was having an affair too. I knew it. I couldn’t prove it, but I’d always known it. The prenup is void and we both can leave with what we came in with. She can’t touch my company. And I can’t touch hers. Everything is all good. Now, we can work towards getting a divorce,” Drake said.
I’d heard him say that so many times, that I didn’t know whether to believe him this time or not, so I didn’t even respond to it.
And they had a prenup?
He’d never said that before.
There must have been a lot more money in between the two of them.
More than I’d thought there was.
I couldn’t help but wonder if she was only cheating on him because she knew or felt like he was cheating on her. She didn’t strike me as that type but a man could push you to do and be
the unthinkable.
I knew that first hand.
Drake immediately felt my vibe and addressed it.
“Ay big head. This is good news. I mean I guess not all good news because I’d thought that the baby was mine, but at least this is good for us. I meant everything that I have ever said, I just had to play my cards right. But you’re finally gonna have your Dray all to yourself again,” Drake joked, but I wasn’t exactly in a joking mood.
I was done believing him, so it was just whatever.
I guess because I failed to comment to him in a timely fashion, out of nowhere, Drake smacked me across the face, playfully, and took off running down the hall.
I chased him and once I’d finally caught him, I tried to get my lick back, and somehow, we started wrestle.
We used to play fight and wrestle with each other all the time. He had actually taught me how to fight during the midst of it all.
I could whoop a bitch ass, easily, on any given day.
And if I didn’t win, well, she was definitely going to know that I had been there.
And trust me, it all worked to my advantage while I was in prison too.
It wasn’t as bad as you seen on TV, but you definitely needed to know how to defend yourself.
Drake and I had been in a few physical altercations before. Usually I started them, but most of the time he’d finished them.
Drake got the best of me, and I went down, and once on the floor, he got on top of me.
He held my arms down, high above my head and he looked at me.
He looked at me as though he really did love me.
I was starting to think that he probably did.
But he still had to choose.
It was either me or her.
He couldn’t have both.
Drake leaned down to kiss me but I started to blow spit bubbles with my mouth and he stopped mid-stride.
“Stop being stupid, and kiss me,” he said.
I shook my head no.
Kissing was for couples, and we were not a couple.
We were butt buddies.
“Who are you telling no Moe?”
“You.”
Drake smirked and he started to tickle me.
I hated to be tickled!
And he knew that.
Unlike most people, it didn’t make me laugh, it made me fart and want to vomit all at the same time.
“Stop Drake!”
“Kiss me then.”
I glared at him and poked my lips out with an attitude.
He came closer again, wiped my lips off with his hand, and then he kissed me.
