9. Myome
MYOME
Idiscreetly checked my phone for what felt like the hundredth time to text Charm back while Emmett was just talking and talking and talking, rambling about his recent game and the new car he planned on buying and the new house he’d gotten for his parents.
I was genuinely happy for him. I was glad he got to live his dream and do something he loved, but the more he talked about the money he was making, the more I had to physically refrain from rolling my eyes.
I didn’t care about his money and it was annoying me that he seemed so sure I did, like I was some kind of gold digger.
“What about dessert?” the waitress asked.
I blinked several times because I hadn’t even realized she was standing beside us.
“I think I’m good,” I said. “I couldn’t eat another bite.”
“You barely ate that.” Emmett chuckled as he gestured to my mostly full plate.
“Yeah. I’m just not really hungry.”
“So, we’re good on the dessert?” the waitress asked.
“Yeah. We’re good.”
“Can we get the check?” I added.
“Sure. I’ll get that for you right now.”
“Thanks.”
I glanced down as Charm responded to my message and saw she’d sent me a link instead.
I tapped it and was immediately irritated when I saw a BB post. I just knew she had another think piece on my life.
Her post was of a black screen and it took a minute for me to realize it was a screenshot from Niecy’s page.
I read her statement once, then twice. She admitted it was a secret photo taken and she and Drix hadn’t kissed since our marriage let alone had sex.
Me: I should go stomp that bitch out.
Charm: Correct. Whoop that trick.
I made a mental note to slap the taste out of her mouth as soon as I saw her.
“Are you okay?” Emmett asked and my head snapped up.
“Huh?”
“You’ve been in your phone a lot tonight.”
“Sorry. It’s Charm.”
“She good?”
“Yeah. She’s okay. She’s just having some issues with a verse,” I lied.
“Damn. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Me too. She has a good foundation, so I’m just giving her advice.”
“Damn. Well, I hope it works out for her.”
“Me too.”
Emmett exhaled and glanced off briefly before looking at me again.
“Soooo”—he dragged the word out—“Are you hoping to work shit out with your complicated marriage?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “It’s still complicated.”
He grinned at that. “It doesn’t have to be.”
“Says the divorcee.”
“Damn.” Emmett grabbed his chest with feigned pain and I chuckled.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know.” He licked his lips and clasped his hands on the table. “Can I ask you something though?”
“Sure.”
“How’d you end up married?”
“One drunken night of fun. Haven’t you seen the video?” I joked and picked my glass up to take a drink.
“But even then, I’ve been drunk off my ass and never thought to just go off and get married. There had to be something there beforehand and I don’t know. I guess I’m asking what about Drix made you want to be with him?”
I froze for a moment. I’d never been asked that question before and genuinely never thought of it that way. He was right. I’d been drunk before too with plenty of people, both inside the industry and out, and I hadn’t walked out of a blackout married before.
Maybe it was because we were crossfaded and not just drunk.
I swallowed anyway, nervousness creeping up inside me. I shifted in my seat while I thought carefully about my answer, Emmett’s eyes trained on me.
“Drix is… interesting,” I finished lamely.
“He’s not just this big, violent and grumpy man people see all over social media or in interviews.
He’s funny and caring and family oriented, very family oriented," I stressed. “Seeing him with his nieces is like seeing an entirely new person. I mean, him with any of his family members really, but his nieces in specific light something different inside him. And the same attention to detail he uses to craft timeless music is the same attention to detail he uses for pretty much everything in his life. He’s good at reading people and picking up on cues and noticing what you need before you’re sure that you need it. ”
Emmett lifted an eyebrow and nodded once.
“So, you’re on the way to reconciliation? Got it.”
I chuckled but didn’t tell him he was wrong.
Fuck.
Why didn’t I tell him he was wrong?
It was a contract marriage and the contract was becoming more detrimental than helpful. I’d already told him it was done and he hadn’t vetoed that. Niecy admitting she was a loser didn’t change that.
I didn’t circle back to that statement though.
We got the check then headed out of the restaurant. Emmett played music while he drove me home, neither of us really attempting to make polite conversation. He parked behind my car and hopped out to open my door.
“Thank you.”
“Of course. Come on. Let me walk you to the door.”
“Okay.”
I led us to my door and popped it open.
“So, this is it, huh?” Emmett shifted on his feet.
“What does that mean?”
“That it’s real obvious you want to work shit out in your lil complicated situation.” He chuckled lightly. “If you decide that’s not true though, hit me up.”
“Nah, nigga. She good.” Berlin’s voice had my head flying around.
I opened my mouth but no sound came out due to me being in shock while he stood in my doorway, his hand on top of the frame. How had he ended up inside my house?
“What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you to get home from your date.”
“It wasn’t a date.”
“You just was at dinner with another man who just told yo’ ass he praying on the downfall of our matrimony.”
“Listen—”
Drix cut Emmett off. “Bitch, don’t speak to me when I’m talking to my wife. You need to be glad I haven’t knocked yo’ ass out. I know you know she’s married.”
“Barely!” I hissed.
“Look, man. She told me it was complicated.”
“And I’m telling you it’s not, so who you gon’ listen to? Because only one of us gon’ beat yo’ ass for the wrong answer.”
Emmett took a step backward and my eyes widened when I saw Drix’s friend stand up in my bushes and put a gun to the back of Emmett’s head.
“Where the fuck you think you going?” he asked.
“I don’t want no trouble,” Emmett said quickly.
“What the fuck, Berlin?” I elbowed him in his stomach.
“Tell that nigga you want to fix yo’ marriage,” he demanded.
I cut my eyes at him.
“She doesn’t have to tell me. I know now.” Emmett lifted his hands in surrender.
“See, Myome. This nigga don’t even like you for real. He ready to tuck tail on your ass,” Drix said smugly and looked Emmett up and down. “This yo’ type?”
“Maybe.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at Drix. “He’s not embarrassing me in front of the world.”
“You sure about that?” Drix pulled his gun and sent a shot that made me and Emmett both scream.
I clutched my chest and looked around to make sure nobody had actually gotten shot. Emmett slammed his eyes shut and I saw a wet spot form on the front of his pants. Drix had made him pee on himself.
“That’s embarrassing enough for you?” Drix didn’t wait for a response.
“Ay, don’t call yourself trying to take Myome out again.
Whether she say we happy or not, we’re still married.
So when you see her, you need to turn around and head the other way unless you’re ready to press me behind her or get pressed, bitch.
Get off our front steps.” Drix looked down at me then nudged his head toward the inside of my place.
“Get in the house and try to make this marriage shit work.”
Drix’s friend stepped to the side and Emmett made a quick dash to his car, quickly peeling out of my driveway.
I sucked my teeth but shoulder checked Drix and walked inside.
“You and Rome can head out,” he told his friend. “Myome will get me to my whip later.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
“A’ight.”
“Thanks for the backup though, man.”
They dapped each other and I walked over to my couch and collapsed, immediately kicking my shoes off while he locked the front door.
Drix met me on the couch. He threw an arm over the back and looked at me.
I became self-conscious almost immediately.
I’d worn a black dress to dinner that went below my knees with sheer sleeves and flowers embroidered on them.
His eyes trailed from my now bare feet, over my body, to the slicked back ponytail I’d spent too long trying to perfect.
He nodded three times then scoffed and shook his head.
“You smoke in here?” he asked.
“Not often.”
“Can I smoke in here?”
“Sure.”
He grabbed a magazine from my coffee table and immediately started rolling up. I sat in silence. Then, he lit up, took a long drag of his joint, and offered it to me.
“I’m good.”
“A’ight.” He took another couple hits while we sat in silence.
“Berlin, what are you doing here?”
“You didn’t see Niecy’s post?”
“Yeah. I saw it.” I picked my leg up on the couch to tuck it beneath me. Drix’s gaze bored into me. “What are you doing here?” I repeated.
He shrugged.
“I missed you,” he confessed. “You my dog.”
I scoffed. “I missed you too,” I admitted.
“Then why you screening my calls?”
“Because you hurt me, Berlin.”
“Because you got embarrassed?” he clarified.
“No. Because the night I fought Niecy you told me there was nothing there but you’re not the type of man to let people touch you unless you want to be touched.
You’ve proven time and time again that you don’t play about your space and your boundaries.
The picture leaked and my first thought wasn’t about my brand.
It was ‘damn. I thought we were friends or at least cool and he lied to me’. ”
“You think I would do that?”
“I think when we discussed this whole staying married thing you said you wouldn’t be embarrassed, and when I asked if that was mutual, you shrugged me off.”