Chapter 18
“It’s a shame I have to book an appointment to spend time with my friend,” Nova huffed.
“You are being so dramatic. We talk on the phone every day and every night. You act like I’ve abandoned you or something.”
“You have! Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you and the kids are enjoying your time with your baby daddy, but damn. I feel like he took you away from me, and I don’t like it,” she whined.
I shook my head as I walked over to check the temperature of the wax. She was getting her brows done and her chin waxed. Nova was one of my regulars, but it never felt like I was working whenever she was on my table, because we laughed and talked shit the whole time.
“Girl, you are ridiculous. Now, I will admit we have been gone a lot lately, but I think things are finally calming down. Keynauri tried to see the kids every day because he felt so guilty about missing time with them. I think he has finally realized that he needs to find a better way to balance them both.”
“Where is he now? I know you mentioned he was taking a trip yesterday.”
“Yeah, he had to go to Cali. It honestly surprised me that he didn’t invite us, but I’m sure it was because he was gonna be so busy.
When we went to Atlanta, we barely saw him except in the morning and at night, when it was time for bed,” I explained.
The kids didn’t seem to mind, but I could tell it bothered him that he still wasn’t able to spend time with them the way he wanted to.
“Well, I’m glad he has been making such a great effort, but I want my friend back. Are you at least getting some good dick out of the deal since he has been dragging you all over the world?” Nova pressed. I dropped my head to hide the guilty expression on my face.
“You sneaky ho! You’ve been over there getting put through the mattress, and you’ve been keeping me in the dark!” She squealed.
“It wasn’t like that. We hadn’t done anything until the day before yesterday. Up until then, we were strictly co-parenting,” I admitted, failing to hide the smile on my face.
“Bitch, I know you’re lying. I need all the details, and don’t you leave a thing out.”
Putting on a new pair of gloves, I got the items I needed and began prepping her skin as I recalled our night together.
“I don’t know whether to cuss you out or be proud of you. You have been faking the funk about your feelings for him since he stepped back into the picture. It’s about time you stopped playing and popped your pussy for a real one.” She teased me.
“Fuck you, trick. It wasn’t like I was doing it on purpose. Keynauri and I had a lot of things we needed to figure out first before I could even think about sex.”
“How are you feeling about him now? Sex changes things.”
I sighed, twirling the wax on the wooden stick before I applied it to her skin.
“I have a lot of feelings. We sat down and talked about the past, but I won’t pretend the pain isn’t still there.
I went through so much when he got locked up, and I’m still trying to get over it.
All Keynauri wants to talk about is the future, and while I can appreciate it, it scares me.
The last time we tried to plan for the future, it was stripped away from us.
I’m not tryna get ahead of myself.” I confided in my best friend because I knew she would understand where I was coming from.
“Does this mean the two of you are together now? Do you even want to be with him?”
Before I answered, I pulled the strip back, revealing the hair I pulled from her chin.
“He said that I was his, but we haven’t put an official title on things.
I’m not expecting a proposal tomorrow, but I definitely plan to get clarity when he comes home.
We’re two completely different people from the ones we were back in the day, so we have to relearn each other all over again.
Plus, we have the kids, and they are the main priority.
As much as I want to explore whatever this is with Keynauri, I want to make sure we are thinking about the kids in the process.
They are still getting to know their daddy, and I don’t want them to feel a way about the two of us being together.
It probably sounds crazy, but I don’t want to infringe on their time with him. ”
“You don’t sound crazy, but I think you’re being a little hard on yourself.
Kiaya and Keyaire are still young, so I can guarantee they aren’t thinking too deeply about this.
They love both of you, and I don’t think they will care about their parents being together.
If anything, they will more than likely be excited to have you both together,” Nova reasoned.
Maybe I was overthinking things, but it was so hard not to. We were cheated out of so much time, and I found myself trying to make up for it.
“You’re probably right, but I’m also considering Keyami’s feelings. She just got him back as well, and I don’t want her to feel slighted. Lord knows, her momma acts as if I’m a home-wrecker who broke up her family.” I rolled my eyes, thinking about the way Tiana was carrying on.
She found both my business and personal pages on IG and had been stalking me ever since.
She was making weird, disrespectful comments under my posts, so I blocked her.
I thought it would be enough, but she created fake profiles and began to harass me from those.
She created at least four fake profiles in the last forty-eight hours, and it was getting ridiculous.
“Fuck that botched built bitch. She has been jealous of you for years, and I know it’s eating her up to know you both have kids with Nauri.
If I were you, I would add her to my close friends and post a bunch of pictures of y’all lying up together.
If she wants to hurt her own feelings, that’s on her. ”
I shook my head because Tiana was crazy, and the last thing I wanted to do was invite drama into my life.
“I am not thinking about her ass. She can be mad all she wants, but she won’t get attention from me, because the only attention I have for her is an ass whupping. I’m trying to avoid it out of respect for her child,” I rationalized.
“I haven’t seen her ass in a few months, but I didn’t even know she lived out here.
Let me see what her cereal box-shaped ass has been posting on her page.
Keynauri needs his ass beat for fucking with that crypt keeper as a troll.
She has been under the knife so many times, she is starting to look like a science experiment. ”
I finished up her brows and then handed her a mirror so she could make sure they were to her satisfaction.
“What the fuck?” Nova whispered, sitting up on the bed. Her face twisted in dissatisfaction as she continued to scroll and press buttons on her phone.
“What is going on? You look like you’re ready to cuss someone out.” I giggled, moving over to my station to clean up my tools.
“Umm, bestie. What did Nauri tell you he was going to Cali for?” Nova asked. A sick feeling washed over me.
“He never told me the reason. I assumed he was going to a show or something. I never bothered to press him about it, though. Why? What’s wrong?” A part of me didn’t want to know out of fear of how it would make me feel.
“Look at this shit. I wouldn’t even be bringing this to your attention, but it’s literally on every blog and tea page right now.” She handed me her phone, and I was sick with anticipation. When I read the first caption, I wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.
The headlines caused me to pause, but the photos of them together only added to my pain.
They weren’t kissing or anything, but it was obvious Keynauri was being protective of her as he walked with his hand on the small of her back.
When I swiped to the next photo, I wanted to cry.
They were holding hands and laughing as they left the restaurant.
The two of them were matching in all black Diomora outfits.
He looked like he could have been a model himself, and I hated how good he looked.
“Wow. I guess this explains why we weren’t invited,” I mumbled, clicking on the hashtag #goldenkeyz.
I rolled my eyes so hard as I scrolled through all the posts.
I hadn’t bothered to follow Keynauri on social media, because he rarely posted anything.
He hadn’t even posted the kids on his page, yet he possessed hundreds of videos and photos of them.
He had always been private in that way, so it wasn’t surprising that nothing had changed.
The blogs had been speculating a possible love connection for weeks, and there were several pictures of them being spotted in public. Being a glutton for punishment, I clicked on her page to see if she posted any pictures of him.
The first thing I noticed was that she was a beautiful woman.
Her features were very prominent, and her body was thin and model-like.
Confidence radiated from her as she posed in every photo.
There wasn’t much on her page, so I decided to click on her story.
At first, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary until I clicked on the fourth slide.
She was recording herself in the back seat of a car, but then she panned the camera down to her hand, intertwined with a familiar chocolate-tattoo-covered hand. I immediately recognized the snake with the words "Slime City," which was the name of the old gang Keynauri had been affiliated with.
My stomach turned sick when it settled in that this was real.
In all the time we had been around each other, he never mentioned he was seeing someone.
It wasn’t necessarily any of my business, but he carried himself like a single man.
Hell, he spent his last night home, eating my pussy until I begged him to stop.
That didn’t sound like a man who was in a committed relationship with someone else.
My mind instantly went to the conversation with my mother when she said he was going to hurt me. We hadn’t even gotten the chance to fully rekindle anything, and he was already showing me that he wasn’t the person I fell in love with.
“Are you okay, friend?”
I shrugged my shoulders, handing her phone back.
If I were being honest, I couldn’t be too upset with him because we never established what we were.
At the same time, I was disappointed that he chose to sleep with me and whisper all those sweet nothings in my ear when he had a whole woman on his arm.
He knew my feelings were already raw due to our past, so I expected him not to play with my heart. I guess I gave him too much credit.
“I don’t know how to feel. I’m hurt, but I’m not sure if I’m more disappointed in him or me.
After all of the shit I went through with him, I was a fool to even believe we could get back together.
I’m okay, though. As I told you earlier, my main focus is on the kids.
This was just a reminder of why I need to keep it strictly about co-parenting.
Keynauri is a household name and is experiencing fame and freedom at the same time.
I can’t even blame him for wanting to juggle it all. ”
“Don’t make excuses for him, Ari. The two of you might not have put a title on things, but he still should have been up front and honest about what was going on.
You deserved that much from him. He spent the whole night fucking you senseless, then hopped on a plane to see another woman with your pussy juice still on his lips. What kind of bullshit is that?”
The more we talked, the more upset I became.
No, we weren’t in a relationship, but it was still disrespectful.
If he had told me he was dating someone, I would never have slept with him.
I didn’t like the idea of my choices being taken away from me, because I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to be a side chick to anyone.
“What are you gonna do?” Nova asked after several moments of silence.
“Nothing.”
“What do you mean, nothing? You’re gonna let him get away with what he did?”
“There’s nothing for him to get away with. I saw what I needed to see, and now I’m gonna step back. We weren’t together, so it’s not like he cheated. I’m gonna make the boundaries clear and move around. It’s simple.”
Nova eyed me for a few seconds before a grin spread across her face.
“Alright, bitch. I can see it in your eyes that you’re up to something. I’m behind you one hundred percent.”
I snickered, then shook my head. I wasn’t about to be on any bullshit, but he wouldn’t be the only person dating other people.