11. Stoney
CHAPTER ELEVEN
STONEY
“ T ell the truth, I look better under you. I can’t lose when I’m with you. How can I snooze and miss the moment?” I swayed and sang the lyrics to SZA’s “Snooze” as I watched Schizo from the other side of the yacht. He was standing there talking to some guy. He looked handsome as fuck in his all-white. His hair was pulled back in a curly ponytail at the nape of his neck. When he turned and chuckled, I saw a lips tattoo on the side of his neck. That man was too fucking fine for his own good.
I can’t lie, I was a lil salty to know that he was ’bout to marry someone like Kaylan. Why the fuck that couldn’t be me? I could have treated him a whole lot better than she was. I placed my cup to my lips and took a sip from it. Ever since I stepped foot on the yacht, I had been drinking my ass off.
Thoughts of being in Schizo’s arms the other night had been torturing me. I tried to do everything possible to get it out my mind, but he wasn’t going anywhere. Is it bad that I desperately wanted to kiss him? Fuck…
He chuckled again, displaying his Colgate smile, and all I could think ’bout was running over there and shoving my tongue down his throat.
“You OK?” Doll appeared at my side. She had been missing for some time now. I figured she had probably slipped off somewhere. It wasn’t too many places she could have been seeing how we were in the middle of the ocean.
I stepped to the rail and saw nothing but darkness. The shit was lowkey scary. “Yeah. Why you asked me that?”
“How long you’ve been staring at him.” She didn’t even have to say his name.
“I feel like we had a moment.”
“You probably did. If I were you, I’d go for it.”
“Now you’re tryna get my feelings hurt.”
“Stoney, you’ll never know unless you try.”
I downed the rest of my drink and said, “I have to pee. I’ll be right back.” Handing her the glass, I strutted off toward the stairs. It was roped off, but I didn’t care. I was certain there was a bathroom down there, one that probably didn’t have a line.
I made it to the bottom step and saw Kaylan emerge from a room. She stood there with her hand still resting on the doorknob and her face turned white as if she’d just seen a ghost. “Oh, hey, Stoney.” She smoothed out the wrinkles in her white dress as she approached me. “What are you doing down here?”
I could ask you the same fucking thing.
“I was looking for a restroom.”
“You do know that there are some upstairs, right?”
“I know, but I was tryna find one where I didn’t have to linger ’round to use it.”
“Oh, try down the—” Her words caught in her throat when the door opened and some guy exited behind her. He was handsome as hell. A lil too light and short to be Schizo. He stepped ’round us and eyed her as he headed upstairs.
“Yeah… the bathroom is just that way.” She pointed to the opposite side of the hallway.
So you really gon’ act like you and this nigga ain’t just come out this room?
“I’ll see you back upstairs.” She patted me on the forearm and jetted from down here.
Yup. She was gon’ pretend like they weren’t just in that room together doing only God knows what. I wanted to say something to Schizo ’bout it but felt like it wasn’t my place. She was a damn fool if she was walking ’round here cheating on that man. Schizo was a damn good provider. He was handsome as fuck and wealthy as hell. Kaylan didn’t have to lift a finger if she really didn’t want to. These bitches be snatching up all the good men and turning ’em against women, causing us to have a damn hard time with ’em when we finally get our hands on ’em.
“Sneaky bitch,” I said, mumbling and made my way to the bathroom.
I quickly used it and got back upstairs. Doll was standing there having a conversation with Kaylan’s mama. Not wanting to intrude, I grabbed a champagne glass and found myself wandering to the opposite side of the deck. When I got there, I saw Schizo standing there looking out at the darkness with a blunt tucked between his lips. My heart banged against my chest. I should tell him ’bout Kaylan, but then what if I’m wrong? What if she wasn’t in there fucking that man and I said something and ruined everything? Then there was the possibility that she was and he married a lying, cheating bitch. Fuck!
I spun on my heels and tried to creep away, where I didn’t have to say anything to him at all, but I heard his voice. “You don’t have to run from me, Stoney.” My pussy drenched my panties ’cause why he always had to say my name like that?
I froze in place. My shoulders tensed but quickly relaxed when the cloud of smoke circled my head, letting me know that he was in close proximity. His fingertips trailed my forearm and goosebumps washed over my entire body. My eyes cut in that direction and my breathing labored. I observed his tattooed fingers as they stopped at my hand and he gripped it, turning me to face him. Schizo knew what the fuck he was doing.
“I just needed to get away from everyone for a bit,” he told me and took a drag from his blunt. He extended it in my direction, and I shook my head.
“I promise it won’t do any harm. I won’t drug test you when we get back.” His free hand went up in surrender and he chortled.
Taking the blunt from him, I placed it between my lips and inhaled deeply. Too deep if you ask me, ’cause I immediately began choking.
“You gotta ease yourself into it.” He chuckled. “If you know you’re not a smoker, don’t take big puffs.”
Noted.
I took a another pull from the blunt and instantly felt the sensation washing over my frame. I released the smoke and handed him back the blunt.
“See, just like that.” I chased it with some of my champagne and eased over toward the railing.
Schizo stepped next to me and I faced him. “Why her?” I asked without thinking. Kaylan’s infidelities were beating me up inside and I had to know exactly why he wanted to marry her in the first place. It was gon’ help me make the decision if I wanted to tell him what I saw or not.
“Kaylan just gets me.”
I get you too. I’on see no ring on my finger.
“And that’s the only reason that you want to marry her?”
I swirled my drink around in the glass, anticipating on his response.
“Of course, I love her.” His eyes shifted from mine. I don’t know why I expected some drawn-out explanation on why he wanted to meet her at the altar.
“I—” I gazed at him and couldn’t complete my sentence. Everything in me was screaming at me for me to tell him how I really felt, but I just couldn’t muster up the strength to do so.
“I don’t want to talk ’bout all that no more. I came over here to get away from it, remember?”
I nodded and faced the ocean. I hated that it was so fucking hard for me to express how I truly felt. It was a chance that I was giving up on my soulmate all ’cause I was too afraid to break up a happy home. Well, after what I experienced today, the home wasn’t too sturdy.
Schizo leaned his face mere inches away from my neck and my heart stopped. “You smell good. What are you wearing?”
“Burberry Goddess. Why? You gon’ buy some for Kaylan?” There I go again bringing her into the conversation when he just said he didn’t want to discuss her. “Don’t answer that.”
“You always smell good. It be like the highlight of my day.” My face turned red as tomato paste, I was certain.
I chugged the remainder of my drink to take my mind off the thoughts that were seeping in. From the mixture of the weed and liquor, I was really feeling myself. Schizo finished off his blunt, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small bottle. It wasn’t ’til I saw him spray himself in the mouth that I realized it was Listerine.
I tittered on my tippy toes as I admired the beautiful ass man before me. Fuck it. I cupped his face and brought my lips to his. My tongue slipped into his mouth. My hair blew as the wind picked up as well as a loud noise that pierced my ears. Schizo pushed me back by the shoulders and that was when I noticed that a whole fucking helicopter was landing on the yacht. His phone began to ring and he pulled it from his pocket.
“I gotta go,” he said as he placed the phone to his ear and disappeared.