8. Belle
I was all kinds of pissed when Gunner casually told me that we were going to dinner to catch up with Carson.
Like I said, I planned to tell him at some point after my shower.
I aimed for after we got in the bed and fucked.
Another reason I was upset was I didn’t know that Gunner knew the damn code to get into my phone.
One thing that I picked up on about him was that he was observant.
I just didn’t realize he was that observant.
He pulled a trump card when he gave me the code to his phone.
I casually looked through it while he stood in front of me.
Nadine told me that he wasn’t a social media person and that she was his social media manager.
It didn’t surprise me that I didn’t see any social media apps on his phone when I grazed through it.
Later that night, after we came back from our separate nights out, I fucked his ass to sleep.
Once he was asleep, that was when I took the time to gingerly go through his phone.
For an hour, I went through every piece of that phone and found nothing.
Today was another winning day in the books for my baby and Toolie.
Those sour cream folks were not happy.
Their faces were so red with anger and envy.
The groupie hos were ready to be chosen.
I was ready to chop them in their fucking necks.
The pussyfish girl was the boldest of them all.
I could tell that many of the other anglers took her up on her offer, regardless of their marriage.
After the competition, Gunner told me that he needed a suit for dinner.
I knew then that he was serious about this catching up thing.
We found a suit shop where he was able to buy his suit and get it tailored in an hour.
I was sure that the owner probably didn’t want us to come back because of the way I disrespectfully let Gunner fuck me in the fitting room.
I had to admit after we left that I was loud as hell when we had sex.
Gabrielle and Toolie being here was both comforting and funny.
It was funny because Gabrielle came up with the bright idea to disguise herself so that Carson wouldn’t recognize her.
Once she put on a wig and did her makeup, she looked like a different person.
It was comforting because Toolie had a damn armory on his person.
That man was crazy.
Carson looked good, but I didn’t expect anything less.
He’d always been a dapper man.
The backhanded compliments that he gave out wasn’t expected.
He acted like I did him dirty when it was the other way around.
When Gunner stood up for me in the most toxic of ways, I wanted to drop to my knees to suck the pigment off his dick right there in the restaurant, and not under the damn table.
All these folks could witness me suck his dick with the power of a vortex.
There was nothing better than a man who didn’t play about you.
This man was everything.
I was so happy that I got over myself to see it.
“Kimberly, what are you doing here?” Carson asked with a tremble in his voice.
My neck snapped in the direction of the woman that stood next to our table with a mean mug and crossed arms. For a second, I thought she was about to show her ass, but she didn’t.
She took a seat at the empty chair at the table.
“What do you mean, honey? I want to catch up too. Your little Instagram messages notified your iPad, dummy.”
Oh, shit.
Gunner tittered. “Damn, my boy. Everybody just here on their catch up shit.” He stuck his hand out to Kimberly.
“I’m Gunner, and I think you might know my girl, his ex, Belle.”
Kimberly’s eyes bounced between Gunner, her husband, and me.
“Actually, no, I don’t. I mean, I knew he cheated, but I never bothered to get the full details of who the woman was. I actually came here because I thought he was meeting with Daphanie.”
“Oh hell, who is Daphanie?” In all of this, we hadn’t noticed that Toolie and Gabrielle moved to the table next to us.
I swear both of them were meant for each other.
They were nosy as hell.
Carson looked like he was about to have a heart attack, stroke, panic attack, or something.
I wasn’t sure who Daphanie was, but it was clear that he did.
“Kimberly, what are you talking about? This is just an old friend.”
I choked on my own spit.
“Nigga, don’t play with me.” Gunner’s hand squeezed my thigh.
I took a breath. “Kimberly, I was with Carson for fifteen years. I found out over a year ago that we were fake married, and he was really married to you. He left me so that he could be with you and your family.”
“Aye, thank you for that too,” Gunner blurted.
“If you’d never done that, her mean ass would have never come back home. I wouldn’t have been able to break her pretty ass down.”
Toolie held his hand up.
“Cuz, now is not the time. We’re trying to find out who Daphanie is. Send that nigga a Black Expressions card later.” Why is he like this?
Kimberly readjusted herself in her seat.
Before she could talk, the waitress came over to get us started with drinks.
I needed a glass of wine.
Kimberly ordered one as well, and Gunner ordered a whisky straight.
My laughter couldn’t be held when Toolie tried to order, and the waitress told him that it wasn’t her table.
This fool told Gunner and Gabrielle to get up, which they did.
He then pulled his table to ours.
“Now we are your table. Like I said, I want a rum straight. Baby, what you want?” Why must he cut up in this high-class restaurant?
Kimberly tittered before she put her attention back on me.
She sat back in her seat.
“Explain to me what you mean when you say that you were fake married, or Carson, would you like to explain?”
My stare landed on him.
He could explain the shit to his wife.
“Um, the day we got married, I put the marriage license in my tuxedo inside pocket. I accidentally forgot to file it.” He turned his body toward his wife.
“Kimberly, let’s go home so we can talk.”
“No, absolutely not. Belle, like I said earlier, I thought you would be Daphanie, his side bitch. I found out about her a little over five months ago,” she confessed with dipped brows.
Gabrielle leaned on the table.
“Girl, how did you find out? Oh, I’m Gabrielle, Belle’s best friend. Yeah, but how did you find out about Miss Daphanie?”
Kimberly leaned on the table too.
“Hey, Gabrielle, it’s nice to meet you. Let’s have a story time.”
“Kimberly! This is completely inappropriate and not the right place for this bullshit,” Carson quipped.
“Let’s go home.”
The slow turn of her head in his direction was movie worthy.
“Nigga, who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” Her voice wasn’t loud.
“You know what’s inappropriate? You having another family in Arizona. See, when you started acting suspicious with the suddenly long business trips, I knew something was up. That’s what you did the last time when I found out about her, apparently.”
My eyelids were stuck on open wide mode.
What the hell did she mean he had another family in Arizona?
This could not be life right now.
“Carson, you’re not too good at being a dog ass nigga. I don’t know if I should tell you to work on that or leave that shit alone to walk the straight and narrow,” Gunner joked.
When Toolie told Carson to leave it alone, my baby laughed heartedly.
“Kimberly, I can explain. Can we please just go home, baby?” Carson begged.
He was pathetic.
She shook her head.
“No, we can’t go anywhere. I’m going home, and you can carry your ass somewhere else. Today, I visited a divorce attorney, and I found out that we weren’t married either.”
This was like some Days of Our Lives shit.
I clutched my pearls that I really had on.
Gabrielle’s gasp was loud.
Gunner shook his head with a laugh while Toolie’s head fell back when he flailed his arms in the air.
We all took a pause when the waitress brought over our drinks.
Toolie told her that we wanted every appetizer on the menu and not to come back until they were ready.
“Wait, what do you mean y’all aren’t married? He told me that he married you four, well five now, years ago,” I said incredulously.
“So, y’all didn’t get married?”
Kimberly tittered, then said, “Oh, we had a beautiful wedding. Apparently, our marriage license was never filed. Can you guess who took on the responsibility of filing it?”
“This shit is wild. You just go around fake marrying bitches?” Toolie’s hand went up in mock surrender.
“No offense, ladies.”
Carson just sat there like a deer in headlights.
Kimberly told him to explain himself.
“Man, look, I just got overwhelmed when you told me you were pregnant. I wanted to marry you, but I wanted more time. I couldn’t break your heart. I figured that when we renewed our vows that I could make it official.”
“You’re really an idiot. How the hell was you going to make it official when she would have had to sign the new marriage license?” Gunner’s arm was on the back of my chair.
With a huff, Carson responded.
“I hadn’t got that far yet. I would have figured something out.”
“Let me ask you this, Carson. Did you really forget to file our marriage license or was it intentional?” I had to know.
His silence gave me all the answers I needed.
Carson’s head fell. Kimberly used her index finger to put under his chin and lift his head.
“No need to lower your head now. You’re out here with three whole fake wives. Does Daphanie know that y’all marriage is bullshit too?”
“Yeah, that will do it for me.” I pushed my seat back, then stood up.
“Kimberly, I’m sorry we had to meet under these circumstances, and I’m sorry you have to go through this with your kids. You seem like a cool female. Carson, don’t ever reach out to me again. I don’t communicate with bitches.”
She gave me a soft smile.
“No need to be sorry. Count it a blessing that you weren’t stupid enough to have babies with him. Out of me, you, and Daphanie you came out on top. I hope you have a great life.”
Gunner stood, then grabbed my hand.
“Carson, you better stop playing with people’s daughters before you catch an express bullet to hell. You’re going to fuck around and find out.”
“Oh, he is,” Kimberly asserted.
“I have three brothers and a crazy ass daddy. I just wanted to know what was what before I broke the news to them.”
The fear that flashed in Carson’s eyes was real.
Toolie laughed as he got up.
“What’s the news station here?” After Kimberly told him, he said, “I’ll make sure I stay tuned in just in case this nigga turns up missing. You know they not putting Black, grown niggas on milk no more.”
“Toolie, let’s go. They don’t put missing people on milk period.” Gabrielle laughed at her silly ass man.
Gunner and I led the way with Toolie and Gabrielle behind us.
Although the drama was entertaining, I didn’t want to be a part of it anymore.
I would not let the work that I had and was still putting in to be a better person to myself and the people around me be faltered by this encounter with a fuck boy.
I peeked over at Gunner.
His head was high, shoulders back, and chest out.
The confidence that my man had was unmatched.
Yes, he was country as fuck, but he was also educated.
He was a tad bit crazy, and I never knew I liked that.
He made me want to be a better person.
There was a time that I thought Carson was everything because he was able to monetarily take care of me.
I ate that shit up and let it make me think that I was on a higher level than everyone else.
It took me coming home to my country ass hometown, a lot of self-reflection, my dog babies, and the care of a country boy to realize that I was the problem and had always been.
Yesterday, he asked me whether I truly fell from grace or was I elevated to where I was supposed to be all along.
After the debacle of a dinner, the answer was clear.
My elevation required me to be separated from everything that was a false reality in my life.
My real reality was right where I was, with my fine ass, angler, hunting, dog breeding, country boy.
Gunner had been making big catches all weekend during the angler competition.
Little did I know that I would be making a catch too.
He was the biggest catch of the weekend, and he was all mine.