Chapter 3
three
. . .
“Why are we here?” Aurora hissed in Synia’s ear as the usher sat them on the back row of the church for the overflow guests. “You told me we were going to brunch not to a wedding. We don’t know these people.”
“The groom invited me last night at the afterparty,” Synia whispered back.
Irritation covered Aurora’s face as she peered at her best friend. “The afterparty I told you not to go to. The one you promised you weren’t going to. Again, Syn, you don’t know these niggas. Anything could have happened to you.”
“I’m fine, it was fine,” Synia said, trying to cool Aurora’s growing frustration.
“I should have known you were on some bullshit when you told me to wear something nice.”
“Watch your mouth, we are in a church and the groom’s daddy is a pastor,” Synia whispered.
“Oh, the cussin’ is going to make a difference when we’re strippers in church?” Aurora hissed. “We danced for these niggas last night. I’m being struck by lightning off of that alone.”
“You’re being dramatic and you’re drawing attention to us,” Synia huffed, looking around at the people surrounding them giving them odd looks.
“I’m not being dramatic. You can’t dance for a man at his bachelor party and then show up to his wedding. That’s whore behavior 101 and I am not whore.”
“You may not be a whore but what were you going to do today? Huh? Study?”
Before Aurora could form her mouth to answer, a clash of noise from a group of people burst into the venue.
“Khalif, please don’t do this! Not here.” Rushing in behind Khalif’s pursuit to the alter, was the tearful bride. She could barely keep up with all the tulle of her eggshell wedding gown.
“Everyone, I’m sorry you came out here for a wedding that’s not going to happen,” Khalif spoke over the murmurs of the crowd.
“Khalif! Stop it!” Shenae shrieked. “It was a mistake. Baby, don’t do this.”
Behind Shenae, the bridesmaids were trying to stop this from becoming a complete disaster.
Khalif turned to her with absolutely nothing for her in his eyes. “I’m giving you what you want. Freedom. I don’t want this.”
“So you’re just going to leave her on her wedding day?” Shenae’s sister questioned. “You’re a bitch.”
“Synia,” Aurora tugged at her friend. “We need to go.”
“No, girl, this is getting good. Look at him, he’s holding something back,” Synia said, shaking Aurora’s hold off.
“Synia,” Aurora hissed, watching with second-hand embarrassment for the couple. “Let’s go.”
“Bitch?” Khalif questioned, tired of hiding how he felt to make others around him feel good. “That ain’t me, sweetheart. Ain’t never been. Regardless of how I felt about all this bullshit, I never stepped out on her. And you and I both know I could have.”
Shenae’s sister gasped before trying to make a quick recovery. “I don’t what you’re talking about.”
“Shenae,” Khalif redirected his attention to the tearful bride-to-be. “We’re done. You want Khalil, you can have him.”
The guests gasped again at the reveal, and then everyone looked around for Khalil, Khalif’s twin. They weren’t going to find him, the two blows to his face had him knocked out in the groom’s suite.
“Synia, we are leaving now! Right now,” Aurora finalized, pulling Synia out of the pew and attempting to make a quick escape.
Shenae turned and continued to follow Khalif, despite the reveal and the embarrassment of being outed. “Where are you going to go? Huh? You love me too much.”
Khalif spotted the woman he knew as Aura.
Those eyes, the shape of her lips, mask or not, he knew.
Without much thought, he was fueled with pettiness.
A point to prove. He’d been everything to her, and she took advantage of it for a twin that couldn’t stay out of trouble if he tried.
Determined to hurt her, he grabbed Aurora’s hand and pulled her close. The attention was taking her off guard.
“Not at all,” Khalif rumbled before looking at Aurora. “Let’s go.”
“Let’s go?” she asked with as much confusion as anyone else in the building. With wild eyes, she looked up at him, finding the despair in his eyes. “Okay.”
“Shenae, I told you!” her sister, Brielle, shrieked as Aurora and Khalif walked out of the door. “I told you, the minute the nigga had a chance to play you, he would. You were right to sleep with his brother.”
The reasoning was off, and Aurora couldn’t make sense of any of it. But she didn’t say anything until they were in the parking lot of the church.
“Alright,” she huffed, letting his hand go and taking a step back. “You’re out of there, I’m going-”
“I don’t think I can be alone right now,” Khalif spoke, watching Aurora’s brows dip.
“I don’t think I’m equipped to help you with any of this. I shouldn’t even be here.”
“But you are,” he stated. “That can’t be by accident.”
“Actually,” she winced, pushing her hair from her face. “It is. I thought I was going to brunch, not sitting in on a soap opera. Like, you couldn’t have broken that news any other way?”
Khalif looked past her as both sets of parents started out of the church towards them. “You drove?”
“Yeah,” she responded, looking over her shoulder. With a huff, she added, “Come on.”
Khalif trailed her to the coupe sports car. “Shit, I can’t fit in this.”
“Either get in or stay and get cussed out. Either way, I’m leaving.”
Khalif folded his body into the car and was gone from the church with a woman he met in the strip club.
Almost five miles away from the church, Aurora pulled into a burger joint and cut the engine. “I’m starving and you smell like you need something to soak up that liquor.”
“I don’t have my wallet,” Khalif stated, patting his pockets.
“I didn’t ask you that,” Aurora spoke, as she got out of the car and started into the empty restaurant.
Khalif slowly trailed behind her in a swirl of mixed emotions. Anger with his brother. Hurt with his brother. Sadness with his brother. Nothing more for Shenae, and kismet maybe?
“I’ll pay you back,” he commented after they ordered.
Aurora cut him a look that was loaded. “For burgers? No. I’m good.”
“Are you really?”
“I don’t know what that means, but I feel like I should slap you for asking me.”
“No offense. I’m just saying. You work at Splash.”
“And you were drooling over me at Splash, what’s the point?”
Khalif crossed his arms over his chest and recalibrated his words. “I assumed there was a reason. A story.”
“I could assume the same about you,” Aurora snipped before sighing. “I’m putting myself through law school. Dancing pays for school and the bills. That’s the story.”
“Damn, my bad,” Khalif grunted. “Forgive me, I’m-”
“Hurt,” Aurora spoke, looking up at him. “You’re hurt. From what I gathered, possibly heartbroken.”
“Not by her,” Khalif retorted.
“Oh, I caught that last night. You were never in love with her, so I can’t understand why you were about to go through a whole wedding. But that’s not the point or any of my business. It’s your brother.”
Khalif looked away and swallowed, swayed, and cleared his throat. “He’s done a lot of shit, but this takes the cake.”
“How do you move on from it?” Aurora asked.
Khalif shrugged his broad shoulders. “I don’t know, and I can’t give it much thought honestly. It’s embarrassing and I’m still in season. I’m going to be on the field with men who will use this to get under my skin.”
“Things can only get under your skin if you let them. Don’t let them. You’re too great of a player to crash out.”
Khalif looked down at her.
“Sports law. I’m supposed to know. That’s it, that’s all.”
Khalif nodded. “How’d you get into that?”
“Order up!” the cashier shouted as if there were people in the building other than them. Khalif stepped forward to grab the food and moved to a table in the corner.
He watched her for a moment while she whispered a quick prayer over her food and then picked her burger up to take a bite.
“Staring at me isn’t going to soak up that liquor in your stomach,” she pointed out, mid-chew.
Regardless of if he had an appetite, he grabbed his burger and took a bite. “Not going to tell me how you got into sports law?”
“I’d rather not. But maybe my sad life can distract you from yours.”
“Maybe.”
“My dad was Johnny Wilson.”
Khalif’s brows pinned. “Johnny Walker Wilson was your pops?”
“Yeah. Wondering how his daughter ended up dancing to pay for college?”
“Yeah. He’s a hall-of-famer, got endorsements still running.”
“None of that came to me. He had a shiesty manager who funneled all his money post-mortem to himself. Watching my father throw his body into men and ultimately die on the field, left me without my father and his legacy. Essentially forgotten. I decided to work my ass off so scholarships could pay for undergrad. I’d been dancing since a little girl and those lessons are getting me through this final leg. ”
“When do you graduate?”
“I got a year and a bar exam. And then, hopefully, I save players from getting screwed by their teams and management.”
“Who knew.”
“No one. I keep that to myself. Did it help you feel better?”
“Nah, but I appreciate the attempt. And your presence.”
“I don’t typically deal with patrons outside of the club, but you seem alright.”
Khalif smirked. “‘Preciate it.”