Chapter 14 Kairo #2
“It looked like you were enjoying that shit,” Khloe snapped. “Because if it was me, I would’ve pushed her ass down immediately.”
“I didn’t even know what the fuck was going on,” I shot back. “I walked in and froze. I was two seconds away from bending her damn wrist back before you came in.”
“Kairo, don’t piss me off,” she warned, stepping closer. “So this what happens at your little viewings? Because you schedule plenty every week.”
I rubbed my hand down my face. That was a conversation I didn’t feel like having. Especially not with her yelling in a neighborhood so quiet you could hear birds moving in the trees.
“Baby,” I said, lowering my voice, “please. Not right now.”
She laughed. “Nah. Your old ass auntie bitch wanna fuck you right now, so let’s do it right now.”
“That’s enough,” I snapped. I was getting more pissed at the fact that she was acting like she didn’t know me.
“And technically, she’s your auntie too. Both our moms had us calling her that shit.”
Her face turned red so fast I thought she might actually swing on me. For a second, I wished I hadn’t said it. But then again, I didn’t give a damn because she was grilling me like I’d already been convicted.
She turned toward her car, yanking the door open before I grabbed it to keep her from slamming it shit.
“Look,” I said, trying to de-escalate the situation. “Honestly, do women come on to me at work? Yes.”
Her head snapped up. “How much?”
“Huh?”
“How much,” she demanded. “How often do these women come on to you while you’re working?”
I exhaled sharply. “Why does that even matter?”
“How many times, Kairo?”
I dragged my hands down my face again unsure on how to even answer that.
“Once or twice a week,” I admitted. “At most.”
The look on her turned to heartbreak. You would’ve thought I said I touched them or I wanted them. Tears filled her eyes, but her anger didn’t fade.
“And as a married man,” she said, voice trembling, “you never thought to mention that to me?”
“For what?” I yelled back. “So you can do this? I don’t pay those bitches no mind. I show them the fucking house and I leave.”
She yanked the door shut.
“Goodbye, Kairo.”
The car backed up fast.
“Khloe!” I shouted, chasing it. “Khloe, stop—”
She put it in drive and took off.
I stood there, chest heaving, feeling like shit when I hadn’t even done shit.
Behind me, I heard heels clicking fast.
“Wait,” Mrs. Nikki called out. “Kairo, let me explain—”
I didn’t even turn around. I got in my truck and slammed the door in her face. She didn’t have shit to explain to me. Whatever conversation she thought we were about to have, wasn’t happening. She already knew I was gone let my mama handle her nasty ass.
When Khloe first pulled off, my first instinct told me to follow her and stay on her ass until she heard me out.
I wanted to force her to slow down and actually look at what happened instead of what her mind decided it meant.
But my second instinct, the one that had learned Khloe after decades, told me to let her go.
I felt it was best to just let her cool off and allow the adrenaline to burn itself out.
Right then, anything I said would’ve sounded like a lie, no matter how true it was.
I understood Khloe being mad. I really did.
Walking in on that shit, I would’ve lost my damn mind too.
In that moment, if she’d decided to wear Mrs. Nikki’s ass out, I wouldn’t have stopped her.
The only reason I hadn’t reacted more aggressively was because I respected that woman especially after the horrible divorce she went through.
I really was about to bend her wrist back when Khloe walked in.
I know Khloe wondered why I didn’t push her off me, but my mind flashed to all that glass, the marble counters, the sharp edges.
One wrong push and she could’ve cracked her head open.
I wasn’t about to catch a charge or worse over some reckless, lonely, delusional shit.
The forty-five minute drive back to the office felt like hell.
I spent the whole ride on the phone trying to calm myself down.
I started with Kemi telling her everything.
At first, she laughed because it sounded so unreal it almost had to be.
Then when I told her Khloe walked in, the laughter stopped.
“Oh… nah,” she said slowly. “Okay, I see why you’re mad now.”
She asked if she still planned on continuing the paperwork for the house.
“Absolutely. She the fuck better,” I snapped. “She caused chaos in my house. I need my percentage off that sale, if not more.”
After that, I called my mom. That was the last thing I wanted to do, but I needed her to hear it from me before someone else twisted it.
She was already dealing with my dad and his dad being in the hospital, so I tried to ease into it.
It honestly didn’t matter because by the time I finished explaining, my mama was heated.
“Oh, I’m going to handle her,” she said, whispering since she was at the hospital. “That so-called friend of mine.”
Turns out, my mama had been clocking her bullshit for years.
She told me how Mrs. Nikki used to throw little comments when we were kids.
Slick shit about my dad, about how lucky my mom was.
How she always focused on the house, the money, the lifestyle…
but never paid attention to how, for a long time, my dad had been absent as a husband and father.
“She’s been watching what I had,” my mama said, “but not what it cost me.”
And the fact that the woman watched me grow up, then thought it was okay to come on to me as an adult? My mama was livid.
I hung up the phone feeling drained as hell, like the whole situation had aged me ten years in one morning. By the time I walked back into the office, I was exhausted mentally and emotionally.
As soon as Kemi saw my face, she burst out laughing. I shook my head, half mad and half amused by how ridiculous my life felt at that moment.
“This shit is not even funny,” I said, laughing and sitting in the chair near her desk. “But damn… what the fuck?”
She slid a coffee across her desk toward me.
“Relax and drink,” she said. “You look like you’ve been through war.”
I took the cup, exhaled hard, and leaned back in the chair. Kemi gave me that look. The one that meant I was about to get read.
“What?” I asked, glancing at her over the rim of the cup. “What did I do wrong this time?”
She took a slow sip of her coffee, unbothered, eyes still locked on me. “Oh, I see both sides.”
I scratched the back of my head. “Alright then. Tell me what you see, Kemi.”
She sat up straighter, elbows resting on the desk like only a woman who’s lived through some shit could do.
“I understand where Khloe is coming from,” she said. “And as a woman, I’m not even looking at the big picture right now. I’m looking at one very specific moment. I walk into a closet and see the old bitch who’s been my ‘aunt’ my whole damn life naked and touching my husband.”
She paused, then gave me a death stare. “I don’t care how confused you were. You could’ve put her ass in a headlock or some shit.”
I closed my eyes and laughed, rubbing my face. “A headlock is crazy.”
She laughed too, shaking her head. “I’m just saying.”
“I know you were frustrated,” she continued. “Because you’ve never given Khloe a reason to question your loyalty. And if that scene happened the way you described it, I can see that you were genuinely confused and trying to think of other ways to get her off you.”
“Exactly,” I said quickly. “That’s all it was.”
She nodded once. “And I also get why, after hearing about that fucked up divorce and how your ‘uncle’ did her. I mean after thirty years married and finding out about outside kids, years of betrayal, and no children of her own does a lot to a person mentally. I understand that you didn’t want to knock her ass down when it was obvious she was at her lowest.”
I sighed. “That’s what I was thinking.”
Kemi shook her head slowly. “And that’s where you fucked up.”
I frowned. “How?”
“Because in that moment,” she said plainly, “you were more concerned about Mrs. Nikki’s feelings than Khloe’s. And that’s y’all biggest issue.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” I started.
“But that’s what you said,” she cut in gently but firmly. “Intent doesn’t matter when impact is already done. She can’t read your mind, Kairo. All she can do is listen to what comes out your mouth and make sense of it the best way she knows how.”
I lifted my hands in surrender, letting out a breath. “You know what? Fuck it. I’m wrong. She’s right.”
Kemi leaned back, satisfied she’d cracked me open enough to keep going.
“Now we are getting somewhere,” she said, slipping fully into therapist mode.
“If you always lead with that defensive attitude, it’s always gonna end the same way.
I’m not saying you were completely wrong because she had some wrong in it too.
But marriage isn’t about keeping score. It’s about learning how to step out of what you think should happen and really sitting in how it ALSO feels on the other side. ”
I ran a hand down my face. “I just don’t get why she assumed I’m out here giving out dick at work. Like that’s the reason I’m tired when I get home. I work my ass off all day. She loves to throw sex in there like it's nonexistent. That shit pisses me off.”
Kemi laughed. “I get it because once I leave here, I tap straight into mom mode. My sex life is nonexistent and I’m not even mad about it.
By the time my son’s in bed, I’m too damn tired to think about that.
And when he’s with his dad, sex is the last thing on my mind. I just enjoy doing absolutely nothing.”
She smirked. “But Kairo, I’m single, and that’s part of marriage. You just happen to be married to a woman with a high sex drive. Figure it out.”
I laughed because women didn’t give a damn. “Lucky me.”
“You might need some honey or one of those supplements,” she teased.
“I am not taking that bullshit,” I shot back, laughing. “I just gotta figure some shit out.”
“You are,” she said looking at her computer. “Because if that means less clients a week so your home is taken care of, then that’s what it means. We’re doing great here. Financially, it won’t hurt.”
She didn’t wait for me to respond.
“Finish this month with what you have scheduled,” she continued. “Next month, I’m slowing you down. Period.”
Then she looked at me—not as my employee, not as my friend, but as a mother.
“I know your daughter’s older, but don’t give her a broken home. I know sometimes walking away is the healthiest option but your situation is fixable.”
My chest tightened.
“I wanted a healthy two parent home for my son,” she went on. “But with his father, it wasn’t possible. If nothing else, do this for Kennedi. Sixteen is hard enough. Hormones, identity, and pressure so please don’t add this to her load.”
I didn’t say anything. I just sat there, realizing that with all the deals I closed and houses I sold… My marriage was the one thing I couldn’t afford to lose.