Chapter 5 #2
“Yeah, plus Chris was talking to Jabari some weeks ago, and he told him you weren’t accepting any new projects. Is everything okay?”
Kwinn’s smile dropped as she cut her eyes at Jabari. He didn’t make a move to look her way.
“He said what?” Kwinn wondered, hoping she'd misheard or that Sasha had mixed up the conversation.
“They were on the phone, and I asked what your schedule looked like. He let us know you weren’t taking on anything new. I figured you were backed up and didn’t want to assume anything, so I gave it a few weeks before reaching out.”
Kwinn’s pulse quickened as she forced herself to remain calm. “Oh, he must’ve just meant for the week. You know men don’t be paying attention sometimes.”
She was trying to lighten the mood and not throw Jabari completely under the bus.
“Trust me, I know.” Sasha chuckled.
“But I’m still working. I have a couple of projects underway right now, but I’m definitely taking on new ones.”
“Oh, good. I was going to be pissed if I had to hire someone else and they messed up the vision.”
Kwinn laughed lightly even though her chest was tight. “No, we’re not having any of that. Shoot me an email with what you have so far, and I’ll take a look at everything, including my availability.”
“Okay, perfect. I’ll send everything over to you in a few hours. If not, then for sure by tomorrow. The kids are still on summer break and have me on the go, girl.”
“Aww, I know they love that. It’s the perfect way to get accustomed to the city,” Kwinn said.
Sasha sighed. “They’re having the time of their life while I’m fighting for mine.”
The two shared a laugh.
“But I’ma let you go. I’ll have my ideas over to you soon,” Sasha reiterated.
“Sounds good. Talk to you later,” Kwinn said and hung up.
Placing her phone in her lap, Kwinn said nothing for several seconds.
Over the years, she’d come to realize that not everything required an immediate reaction.
Given how she was feeling right now, she was liable to smack fire from Jabari’s ass.
She’d never want to be the cause of a wreck or a domestic violence case, so instead of going with her first impulse, Kwinn exhaled and, as calmly as she could, asked him the number one question.
“Why would you tell them I wasn’t taking on any new projects?”
Jabari sighed. “Kwinn?—”
“No. Answer the question.”
“You weren’t taking as many when he asked me.”
Kwinn drew her head back. “You don’t know that. Why the fuck would you interfere with a client of mine as if that’s cool?”
“Is all the cussing necessary? It’s not that serious.”
Unable to process what she was hearing, Kwinn’s eyes widened. “It’s not that serious? Boy”—she laughed, beyond pissed— “you so lucky we’re in this car right now.”
“You getting all riled up for no reason. You weren’t taking as many and had slowed down a bit. I didn’t lie completely,” Jabari weakly explained.
“That doesn’t mean I wasn’t accepting any new projects. I slowed down some because I was making sure you were good.”
“But I didn’t ask you to do that.”
The words slipped from his lips before Jabari could stop them.
Evident hurt filled Kwinn’s eyes, but she refused to let him see it.
Giving him any satisfaction of witnessing the pain he’d just caused wasn’t happening.
Turning toward the window, Kwinn blinked quickly, swallowing the ache in her throat.
For a moment, she couldn’t believe his response, and then she had to be honest with herself.
Some people, especially men, weren’t comfortable seeing anyone else succeed, whether their own lives were in limbo or not.
They couldn’t even support it. Their nasty hatred always shone through at some point.
Kwinn wasn’t about to be around anyone who clearly didn’t even like her.
No matter how much she’d been there for him and undoubtedly supported him, Jabari hadn’t done the same.
The loser didn’t even have the decency to say he appreciated everything she’d done.
He went straight to using her love for him against her, unwilling to acknowledge that she’d rearranged her life for him more times than he realized.
There wouldn’t be another time after today.
A bitter smile tugged at Kwinn’s lips as she nodded slowly. “Right. You didn’t ask for shit because you didn’t need to.”
“Kwinn… that’s not what I meant,” Jabari said, glancing her way.
“No, it is,” she replied coolly. “You meant everything that you said. That’s exactly why instead of trying to make this work, we should just go our separate ways.”
She wasn’t about to sit there and argue with him to understand why what he’d done was wrong. If he couldn’t see the problem without her spelling it out, she damn sure wasn’t about to keep wasting her breath or her time.
“Nah. How we go from talking about long distance to being completely done? You acting as if a nigga doesn’t care about you at all.”
“The problem is that you think caring about someone and actually showing up for them are the same thing. I was fine with trying a long-distance relationship. We could’ve figured that out.
But for you to play with my business because you’re going through something is malicious as hell.
I would’ve never done that to you, and that’s where we’re different. ”
Her words shut him up, but only for some seconds.
“You’re right, and that was wrong of me, so I apologize. A nigga was moving selfishly. No need for us to break up, though. We’re just going through a rough patch. Shit’ll be all good once we get settled in New York. Just watch.”
Kwinn wasn’t sure if he’d become hard of hearing, but she was done explaining herself.
There’d be no moving to New York for her.
Annoyed, she looked out the window, trying to settle the emotions flowing through her.
She’d spent so long convincing herself that what they were going through was temporary that she never stopped to consider what it would mean if it wasn’t.
She was getting a glimpse of what it looked like when a relationship ran its course.
It wasn’t always about arguments or cheating.
Sometimes it was just one person fed up with reaching while the other person never gave them their hand to grip.
Kwinn was tired of pouring from her cup to give to an ungrateful mothafucka who couldn’t even refill hers without her asking.
In her mind, their relationship was over, and she was single. Jabari could think what he wanted, and he’d be a fool. The irony hit when SiriusXM suddenly switched songs, and the familiar sound of Melo’s voice flowed smoothly over the beat through the speakers.
Jabari reached over and turned up the volume, nodding his head as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Kwinn slowly looked over at him. Of all the songs that could’ve come on the radio, it had to be his.
Kwinn pressed her lips together, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.
Jabari had no idea he was sitting there, vibing to the same man who’d occupied Kwinn’s thoughts for the past three days.
The funniest part was that he still hadn’t accepted that she was no longer his.