Fabe
I walked out of Rah’s bar disgusted that I was related to a cornball like him.
Rah was my brother, but he was a snake. He was conniving, selfish, and always moving with a hidden agenda. Still, he was my blood. And I’d never be the type of nigga to snitch on my own family. Especially not over a woman, even if that woman was Aaliyah.
I never planned on falling for my brother’s girl.
It was never supposed to happen. I always told myself family came first. Blood over everything.
But love doesn’t listen to rules, and lust doesn’t wait for permission.
It crept in on me, real slow at first, like smoke filling a room.
Before I knew it, I was choking on feelings I had no business having.
Aaliyah looked at Rah like he was her world, like he was everything a man was supposed to be. And it burned me up inside because I knew the truth. I knew she wasn’t the only one. I knew Rah had Solae at home while he whispered the same sweet lies into Aaliyah’s ear.
I wanted to tell her everything. But that would’ve made me the kind of man I hated.
I would be a snitch, a man who stabbed his own blood in the back.
And no matter how badly I wanted her, I couldn’t cross that line.
So, I said just enough for her to feel that itch in her spirit that maybe she deserved better. But I never gave her the full truth.
Standing on the sidelines, I watched Rah finesse her and play her like she was another trophy on his shelf.
And the more I saw him use her, the more my feelings grew.
I’d catch myself staring too long, memorizing her smile, her laugh, the way her perfume lingered when she walked past. She didn’t belong to me, but in my heart she did.
The night I caught her in the parking lot of Rah’s club, I only wanted a few minutes to talk to her, to be close without Rah hovering around. But chemistry don’t lie. It pulled us together like magnets. One kiss turned into me finally having her, finally feeling everything I’d been starving for.
That night ruined me.
But, even after that night, she chose him. I’d fumbled my chances by letting my guilt keep me away. So, I respectfully fell back.
Ten months later, I was still ruined. I was completely in love with a woman who was never mine to begin with.
I never judged her for sleeping with me because I knew what Rah truly was. Her fucking me was the bare minimum of what Rah deserved.
The city lights were bleeding through the blinds in my living room late at night, while Jackie drifted around my condo in a silk robe and furry slides, “fixing” things that weren’t broken.
She’d lined my whiskey by height, color-sorted my coffee-table books, and slid the remotes into a marble tray like we were staging the place. Her perfume had already moved in.
“Babe,” she said, posing on the loveseat. “Take me to Moses’s party. I know it’ll be full of hood boogers, but I can…adjust. I’ll wear sneakers.”
I had to laugh. “You don’t have sneakers.”
“I have Louboutin sneakers.”
I shook my head. Jackie was a beautiful woman.
She was intelligent and had her shit together.
She worked at the firm where I invested my money.
That’s how we’d met. But I was very much a hood nigga.
The kind of boujee, uptight woman Jackie was didn’t do it for me.
She was a good look, but I wanted a woman I could take to Paris or the projects, a woman that was a little rough around the edges and told me to shut the fuck up when I was doing too much.
That wasn’t Jackie. That was Aaliyah. But I couldn’t have Aaliyah, so I settled for good enough, which was Jackie.
“You’re not going,” I told her without taking my eyes off of the football game.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You’re not going. I’m not dragging you somewhere you’ll hate, then listen to you roast outfits, plastic cups, and the DJ.”
“I can be lowkey.”
“Your lowkey like glitter, baby,” I laughed, while taking a sip of my whiskey.
She squinted. “I’m your girlfriend, and it’s a big party. I should be there.”
My head tilted towards her. “You’re my what?”
She didn’t flinch. “I sleep here more than I sleep at my place. That’s a relationship.”
“That’s proximity,” I said. “Don’t add chapters I didn’t write.”
She exhaled through her nose, then pivoted like I hadn’t said a word.
“I’m going, and that’s that. You should wear the cream Amiri fit, the clean Forces, and that subtle Louis belt.
I’ll book us a driver. A black Escalade, not the cheap stuff.
We’ll do a quick walk-through, shake hands, then hit RPM Seafood for a midnight res. I’ll text Tony.”
I had to close my eyes before I ruined this consistent good pussy and immaculate head.
She was already thumbing through her phone as she said, “Also, do not let anyone post us on stories from the party. I don’t want to be tagged next to… the ghetto.”
Breathing slowly through my nose, I told her cooly, “Put the phone down, Jackie. You’re not going.”
She set the phone down, glaring at me. When I didn’t back down, she groaned. “Fine. I’ll just come by after.” Then she smiled. “I just want to be where you are.”
She was always relentless. Every time I blinked, she’d left a new claim somewhere in my home. She was trying to subtly lock me down, but I wasn’t going to let it happen.
But the way her tongue made love to my dick made up for it.
“Baby, you cool. But you’re merging into a lane that ain’t open.”
Her glossed mouth curved, undeterred. “Then make it open. You need a woman who elevates you.”
I just shook my head and put my attention back on the game. The only woman I wanted would be at that party. She was the only woman I’d ever felt in my bones. I wasn’t walking in with a stand-in while Aaliyah was in the room.
“You won’t keep me on the sidelines forever, Fabe,” she replied with a giggle, like she was loving this chase.
“We’ll see.”