by Yoshe
India agreed with Kane. “You’re right. I do have a lot of growing up to do.” She sighed. “Damn, I really like you, Kane. And I’m sorry that I portrayed myself like that to you. It’s probably too late for us.”
“Nah, it’s not too late, babe. But I’m not gonna front, this is not something that gonna happen overnight.”
“So, can I ask you another question? What’s really good with you and that Brandi chick? Do you still fuck around with her?”
Kane hesitated to answer India, careful not to divulge any information about his and Brandi’s relationship status. “Brandi and I are just friends,” was all that Kane said. “And by the way, I didn’t appreciate you telling her that you and I were seeing each other. That wasn’t cool.”
India rolled her eyes at Kane’s statement. Once again, she fell right back into her messy routine. “So what? Fuck that bitch! I don’t even know why you was fighting over her anyway!”
Kane shook his head and pointed his finger at her. “See? That’s exactly what I’m talking about, India. You do too much. Press that chill button and relax, yo.”
The slightly embarrassed India quickly apologized to Kane and insisted they finish up dinner. After dinner, they took another bottle of the chilled Moscato with them into the living room where India found a good movie on Netflix for them to watch. Just as the movie began, she cuddled up to Kane and surprisingly enough, he didn’t object to that. He wrapped his arm around India, pulling her closer to him and even kissed her on the forehead. India relished the moment and didn’t say one word. From the looks of things, she finally took Kane’s advice: her chill button was definitely on.
Chapter 28
It was almost 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning and Brandi was still sitting in the waiting area of Kings County Hospital. She wanted to get word on Dollar’s condition and wasn’t leaving until someone told her something. Then, Brandi realized that she had no other choice but to stay.
Brandi began experiencing a myriad of emotions, blaming herself for Dollar’s incident. She didn’t know exactly who wanted to kill Dollar; it could have been someone from his past or someone from her present. Kane could have easily been a person of interest, especially after he accused Dollar of setting his house on fire. But Brandi was going to keep that to herself. Dollar would definitely have Kane’s head if she revealed that information.
Brandi leaned her head against the wall. Just she was starting to doze off the surgeon appeared in front of her, still wearing his scrubs.
“Hello,” he said, greeting the exhausted Brandi with a genuine smile. She quickly stood up and shook the doctor’s hand. “I’m Dr. Hanover.”
“Hello, Doctor,” she replied. “How is Gregory doing?”
Dr. Hanover rubbed his chin. “Well, Gregory is a very lucky man. One bullet just grazed the left side of his neck, barely missing a major artery.”
Brandi covered her mouth in shock.
“The other bullet was lodged in his shoulder. We were able to remove that bullet with no problem. But don’t worry. Gregory is doing fine now. He’s in stable condition.”
Brandi breathed a sigh of relief and shook the doctor’s hand again. “Thanks for everything, Doctor. Thank you so much!”
Dr. Hanover smiled at the relieved Brandi. “You’re very welcome. Good luck to the both of you!”
Brandi watched as the doctor walked down the corridor toward the operating rooms. She sat back in her seat, ecstatic over the good news about Dollar’s condition. After some minutes passed, she walked over to the nurses’ station to ask what room Dollar was going to be in.
“He’ll be ready in a minute, dear,” the RN at the desk told her. “He’s going into the room right now.”
It was almost two hours before Dollar was wheeled out of recovery and into a private room. By this time, it was a little after three in the morning and way past visiting hours. But with the permission of the kindhearted nurses, Brandi was allowed to see him.
Brandi practically tiptoed over to his bed and gently rubbed his hand, as he slept. After feeling her tender touch, Dollar’s eyes didn’t stay closed for long. He gave Brandi direct eye contact and attempted to smile.
“Hi, baby,” Brandi whispered, giving him a soft peck on the cheek. “I’m so happy to see you.” Dollar tried to move but she stopped him. She made sure the bandages on his neck were in place and tucked him in. “You have to relax, Dollar.”
Dollar sighed. “Who did this to me, Bee?” he asked, wincing in pain. “Please find out who did this shit to me!”
Brandi shook her head. “Look, Dollar, this is not back in the day, okay? We’re older now. You have to let the police handle this matter.”
Dollar cut her off. “Fuck that,” he whispered. “Somebody tried to fucking kill me and I want that motherfucker’s blood!”
Brandi was silent. Dollar was a firm believer in street justice. At that point, she knew there wasn’t anything that she could say or do to change his mind about avenging the shooting. “Just focus on getting better and worry about that other shit later, Dollar,” she replied with a sigh. “There’s no need for you to get yourself all hyped up right now.”
Dollar took Brandi’s advice and instantly calmed down. She sat in the chair on the side of his bed and watched closely as he dozed back off to sleep.
As the sounds of Dollar’s snores echoed throughout the room, Brandi silently prayed that the cops found the shooter before he did. If they didn’t, there would be hell to pay.
It was the wee hours of Saturday morning when an intoxicated Sean called Brandi’s phone. He dialed her number several times but didn’t get an answer.
“Shit!” he said.
Sean’s biggest fear was that Brandi had moved on. He’d been so busy worrying about Milan that he hadn’t had the time to call her or anyone else. He put his iPhone down on the bar and gestured for the female bartender to come over to him.
“Give me another Henny on the rocks,” he said, slamming his money down on the bar. “This is my last one, I promise.”
The bartender shook her head and reluctantly poured Sean another glass of Hennessy. After serving him the drink, she grabbed his hand.
“Look, honey, I don’t usually say this to my custies but it’s no more alcohol for you,” she advised, practically yelling at him over the loud music. “Do you have anyone who can come and pick you up?”
Sean picked up his cell phone and handed it to the woman. “Call Brandi,” he slurred.
She took the phone from him and went into his recent calls. She found Brandi’s number and pressed redial.
“Hello?” Brandi answered, in an annoyed tone.
“Um, hi, Brandi, this is Tasha, a bartender at the Hive Lounge. So sorry to bother you at this time of the morning but I have your friend here—”
“Who? Sean?” Brandi yelled into the phone.
“Yes! Sean! He’s like pissy drunk and he asked me to call you, just to see if there’s any way that you can take him home.”
Brandi paused. “Thanks for calling me, Tasha, and this is nothing against you, sweetie, but please do me a fave? Tell Sean to call his fucking wife to come and pick his drunk ass up.”
Tasha looked at the phone then glanced back at Sean. “Oh, okay, I’ll do that. So sorry to bother you, Brandi.”
“It’s no problem, Tasha. Take care.”
Tasha disconnected the call and gave the phone back to Sean. He raised his head, still in a drunken stupor. “What she say?” he asked.
Tasha gave Sean a nasty look. “She said for you to call your fucking wife,” she replied, walking away from him with an attitude.
Sean looked down at the phone and shook his head. Then he dropped his head down on the bar and blacked out.
It was 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning when Sean opened his eyes again. This time, he was inside of his bedroom and lying in the bed with only his boxer briefs on. He looked around the room, trying to figure out how he got there. But for some reason, he couldn’t remember a thin
g. Sean sat up. His head immediately started pounding, causing him to lie back down for a few minutes. It wasn’t until he heard a sound in his house that he jumped up again.
Sean reached into the nightstand drawer for his gun. He slowly walked out of his bedroom and looked in every room upstairs to see where the sound was coming from. Then he heard a muffled voice coming from the living room. Sean frowned and walked down the stairs, careful not to make any noise.
When he got to the living room, he was more than surprised to see who was standing there.
“Milan?”
Milan hung up the phone and smiled at him. “Hey, Sean.”
Sean put the gun on the living room coffee table and sat on the couch. “What are you doing here?” he asked, with an attitude.
“I just wanted to talk to you.” Sean didn’t respond so she continued. “I realized that the way things ended between us was very messed up. Everything was happening so fast that I didn’t get the opportunity to tell you my side of the story.”
Sean stopped her. “Tell your side of the story about what?” He waved her off. “What are you doing here, Milan?”
“Well, after I picked you up from the Hive Lounge—”
“Picked me up?” he said, with a confused look on his face.
“Yeah. Tasha, the bartender, called me from your phone and told me that you were in no condition to drive home. She asked if I could pick you up.”
Sean breathed a sigh of relief. He remembered being really drunk last night and he was glad that Tasha looked out for him. “Oh, okay. Surprised that you came to get me after what happened the other night.”
Milan sat next to him. “I’m not upset with you, Sean. I really do love you.” She paused for a moment, as if she had something else on her mind. “But I want to ask you something. Why didn’t you tell me that you and Brandi were seeing each other before we got together?”
It was Sean’s turn to be stuck. “Who told you that?”
“That’s not important. But what is important is you need to practice what you preach about being honest and faithful.”
Sean didn’t say a word. He was too busy trying to figure out who told Milan his business.
After a brief silence between them, Milan started talking again. “Look, Sean. I come to the realization that maybe I did misrepresent myself. But it wasn’t like I was being dishonest; it’s just that I wasn’t too sure of which direction I was headed in. I was confused and ashamed of my attraction to the same sex.”
Milan continued. “You deserve to be with someone who is going to give you a hundred percent of themselves, babe. I can’t do that with anyone right now because I still got some shit to figure out about Milan. I’m an addict and I’m bisexual. There I said it. I gotta start keeping it real with myself before I can keep it real with anyone else.”
Sean took Milan’s hand into his. As he sat there and listened to Milan pleading her case, he realized that he was no better. He had cheated with Brandi before he even found about Milan’s sexuality. But naturally, he wasn’t going to admit to that.
“I apologize for not telling you that Brandi and I were involved with each other,” Sean said, nonchalantly. “But that was a long time ago,” he added, still refusing to be upfront about his connection with her.
Milan put her hands on her hips. “You really don’t give a fuck if I’m hurt, do you?”
“Do you love her?” he asked, ignoring her question.
Milan paused, as if she was looking for the right answer. “She’s okay. I mean, she’s beautiful and rich but the way I feel about her could be more of an infatuation than anything.”
“And this drug problem of yours. When the hell did that start?”
Milan got up from the couch and started walking back and forth. “Well, that started when I was involved with this female, a well-known heavy hitter in the music industry,” she confessed. “Me and her used to party, get high together, and have sex for hours. Six months later, she left me with a broken heart and a cocaine habit. So it’s been about six years now and I’ve really tried to stop doing it but it’s so hard, especially when everyone I hang out with does the same thing.”
Sean shook his head. “I can’t believe what you’re telling me, Milan. Here I thought that you were this . . . this innocent chick from Long Island and now I’m hearing about lesbian sex, cocaine, partying; this shit is crazy! But this lesbo shit . . .”
Milan started to get angry. “What the fuck are you, Sean, some homophobe? You don’t like gay people or something?”
Sean stood up. “No, I ain’t no fucking homophobe, man! What people do in their private lives, whether they be gay or straight, don’t make me shit! But you? You’re my fucking wife! You was supposed to have kept it real with me from the gate and you didn’t. Got me out here looking like a fucking fool in front of everybody!”
Milan got frustrated with Sean’s negative attitude. “I’m moving to Atlanta!” she blurted out.
Sean turned around and looked at her. “What you mean, you’re moving to Atlanta?”
Milan ran her hands through her hair. “I want out of New York, Sean. I’m moving down to ATL, the second week in January. Right after the holidays.”
Sadness and anger swept through Sean’s body. “So you are in love with that gay bitch! You’re moving down there to be with her!”
“I’m not moving to Atlanta for no chick!” she screamed at him. “I got a job offer with Universal.” Milan plopped down in the armchair, calming herself down. “I’ve been meaning to tell you about it for a while; I just didn’t know how to do it.”
“So you had plans on leaving me anyway, huh?”
Milan shrugged. “I guess so, Sean. The truth is that I’m not really happy with this marriage. With marriage, in general.”
“Damn,” Sean said. “This shit is just fucked up all around the board! You’re not happy with me, you’re not happy living in New York . . . You’re just not happy at all, huh?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
Sean sat back down and stared at Milan. Why do I always fall for the crazy bitches? They both didn’t say a word. After some minutes of silence passed, Sean spoke first.
“Look, Milan, I can sit up here and act like a bitter nigga about this whole situation. But the truth of the matter is that we got married for all of the wrong reasons.”
“That we did,” Milan agreed.
Sean sighed. “I think its best that we go through with that divorce, man. This ain’t gonna work. And thanks for coming to get me from that bar. I appreciate that.”
Milan smiled at him. “No problem.” She grabbed her bag and car keys. “I’m glad that we were able to have this talk, Sean, you know, clear the air on some things. Anyway, I’m headed out to my parents’ house now. I’m going to be staying there until I leave for Atlanta. I’ll have my stuff outta here by the end of the week.”
“You’re going to your parents’ house?”
Milan walked to the front door. “Yeah. I just said that.”
Sean stopped her from leaving. “Nah, Milan. You don’t have to do that. You can stay here until you move to Atlanta.”
“Thanks, Sean, but I wouldn’t—”
He cut her off. “It’s damn near three extra rooms in this house. Pick one,” he said.
Milan stood there, contemplating Sean’s offer. Then he wrapped his arms around her. As soon as he did that, Milan began to cry. Sean held her tightly, thinking about what life was going to be like without her. It was only a week ago that he and his wife were in the bed together, making love and reminiscing about the events that had occurred in their lives. It was definitely a sad situation.
Sean wiped her tears and kissed her on the lips. Naturally, she reciprocated. While they kissed, Sean began massaging Milan’s ample breasts then moved his large hands down to her butt, pulling her even closer to him. Then he lifted her up, carrying her up the stairs to the bedroom that they once shared.
Chapter 29
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br /> Tuki was extremely upset. She had been looking forward to her and Milan starting their new lives together that day. But unfortunately, it didn’t look like that was going to happen and of course, that didn’t sit too well with Tuki.
During their stay at the Aloft hotel, Milan told Tuki that there was a new job waiting for her in Universal Music Group’s Atlanta offices. She was so ecstatic about the news that when she arrived back in Georgia that Thursday, she made airline reservations for Milan to fly down there Saturday morning.
“Well, baby,” Tuki said, on the phone that Friday evening while Milan was still staying in their room at the Aloft. “Everything seems to be working in our favor. You’re gonna be starting this new position in Atlanta and we can begin our new lives together. I can’t wait!”
Milan smiled. “Yeah, it’s gonna be some major changes,” she replied.
“And that money I gave you,” Tuki began, “is on me. You don’t have to pay it back. Consider that your start up money.”
“I appreciate the five thousand dollars, Tuki, but I’m going to pay you back. I promise.”
“Please, honey! That’s yours to keep. It’s plenty more where that came from.”
They talked for a little while longer until Milan called it a night. “Listen, sweetie,” Milan said with a yawn, “I have to work in the a.m. I don’t have all my clothes here so I need to get up extra early and get myself together. Staying in this hotel for the last couple of days has really thrown me off.”
“Aw! Okay, baby, I understand. But make sure you call me tomorrow, okay? Sweet dreams.”
Tuki hadn’t heard from Milan since that Friday evening. She made several attempts to call Milan’s phone, even leaving some nasty messages on her voice mail. But there still was no response. That was when the love-struck Tuki realized that Milan had definitely played her like a fiddle. She had taken the money that Tuki had given her to pay for that cocaine habit of hers, stayed at the Aloft for the extra days on Tuki’s dime, and, most likely, went right back home to be with her husband. At least, that’s what Tuki assumed she did.
