Chapter 12
REINA
A Week Later
“Look at Mrs. Nerd Boy yallllll,” Joyy teased. I walked into Kelli’s for a slight girls’ night we were having because, despite our busy schedules, I still needed to have time with my girls.
I couldn’t do nothing but cheese at her greeting.
“Soooo. How is dating going? Is he really a good guy?” Rae asked. I smiled at my best friend and observed how wifehood looked on her. I never saw myself getting married before, but now that Vasiah was in the picture, I wouldn’t mind spending a couple of forevers with him.
“He’s… he’s… he’s everything, y’all, like seriously.
I can’t even put it into words,” I sighed and sipped on my lavender lemon drop.
The last time I was impressed by a nigga was when I was eighteen years old, and that was because I didn’t know any better.
At thirty-one, Vasiah was everything I didn’t know I wanted… maybe even needed.
Ping.
Vasiah had texted me, and right before I could grab my phone and respond, I heard a voice that escaped from the pits of hell, clearly.
“LaReina? LaLa, that’s you?”
I glanced up at the dustiest nigga I’d seen in a while and almost snarled at him; that’s how hard I was twisting my lips up.
Words couldn’t even form; I was so damn mad.
I pretended as if I was deaf, eyes looking straight at Rae and Cherrice, who were sitting across from me.
Dusty ass Donovan eventually caught the hint and shuffled his slew foot ass away from our table while I signaled for the waitress.
“Lemme get another lemon drop but this time with a triple shot in it.”
“Reina, who was that?” Rae asked.
“Abortion baby daddies are the most annoying niggas in the world,” I quipped.
Three pairs of eyes stared quizzically at me, and I stared back at them like they were the slow ones.
“Reina… what —“ Rae started to ask, but Cherrice shook her head.
“Please, don’t get her started. She’ll get herself riled up and try to pistol whip him and his mama again, and I’m just not in the mood.”
Rae’s eyes widened in horror. “What do you mean again?!” Reina —”
“Another story, for another day,” I dismissed, my eyes following this fuck ass nigga and his little lopsided head ass family.
It’d been over ten years, and while I’ve definitely moved on, I wasn’t sure why my stomach twisted in knots at the sight of him or why my hands felt clammy.
Maybe because deep down inside, it felt like I was getting a glimpse of what life could’ve been like, had we been together.
Donovan’s dusty ass broke my heart when I was nineteen.
The funny thing is, Reign warned me not to fuck with him because he was nothing but a worker for him and Shawn, but my ass didn’t listen.
I thought I could take that tarnished nigga and turn him into gold.
Lost my virginity to him, ended up pregnant by him, and ended up catching chlamydia.
I pulled up to his house and pistol-whipped him and his big back ass mama.
That day was the first time that Reign had to bail me outta jail, and the next day, I took my ass to Planned Parenthood and got that fetus sucked right outta me.
I don’t regret my decision, but I do regret ever letting a nigga catch me slipping like that, and I promised myself I would never let it happen again.
I’ve kept that promise to myself, even though I could feel my walls crumbling more and more when it came to Vasiah.
But seeing Donovan’s dusty ass made me want to build a new wall, bitch ass nigga.
Vasiah is different; the angel on my shoulder tried to reason with me.
Rae’s eyes widened again as she put two and two together. “Oh, wait, is that? –”
“Not now, Rae,” I said firmly. Evil thoughts ran through my head, because how dare Donovan’s dirty dick ass have the audacity to open his ass kissers and speak to me? He should pretend I died bitch, because that’s what I surely did when it came to him.
“Well … Rei, don’t let whoever that is ruin your night. You’ve moved on just like I’m sure he has. So fuck ‘em,” Rae rubbed my hand, trying to make me feel better. But it was too late. My mood was already ruined, and now it would be hell to pay.
All these niggas are the same, the devil on my other shoulder declared. And I believed it, because when had there ever been a time when I was shown any different?