14. Alisha #4
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Shante shrugged and said she wasn’t ready to talk about it.
That bothered me, not because she owed me every detail of her relationship, but because this was us. Shante knew every ugly part of what I was dealing with when it came to Deuce. I would’ve never wanted her sitting alone in an empty apartment pretending everything was okay.
“So what happened?”
She hesitated. Then she told me she’d found out Malik was cheating. Everything in me went hot. “Cheating?”
She nodded and looked away. I stared at her stomach.
This nigga had lost his damn mind. Shante was walking around carrying two babies, uncomfortable as hell, barely able to get off the couch without rocking herself forward…
Well, when she had a fucking couch. And Malik had been out cheating and then he left her?
Then took damn near everything with him?
The more I thought about it, the madder I got. “That don’t even sound like Malik.”
Shante looked at me. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” I replied, but it did, I had known Malik long enough to know he loved Shante.
Hell, I’d run into him recently and asked about the babies.
He hadn’t given me any indication that him and Shante weren’t together.
Then again, hadn’t I learned enough lately about thinking I knew what a man was capable of?
I thought I knew Deuce too, look where that got my ass.
Maybe Malik was just another nigga who knew how to look solid while doing bullshit behind closed doors.
Shante told me she caught him talking to another woman and things got ugly from there.
According to her, Malik packed his shit and left.
I looked around the apartment again. “He packed his shit and everybody else’s too, apparently. ”
Shante sucked her teeth. “Can you not?”
I wanted to laugh, but I was too pissed.
What kind of man left a pregnant woman like this?
I noticed she had a few new kitchen things and some towels.
When I asked, she told me Grandma Lorraine had helped her get some necessities.
That pissed me off even more. Grandma shouldn’t have had to do that.
Malik should’ve made sure Shante was straight whether they were together or not, especially with twins coming.
“Call him.”
Shante immediately shook her head, she didn’t want to. She kept talking about not wanting any more drama and how she was done arguing with him, but I wasn’t. “Call his ass.”
“No, Alisha.”
I pulled out my own phone. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
That made her nervous I could see it. She started telling me to leave it alone, but I had already found Malik’s number. I called but no answer. Now I was really irritated. Shante stood there rubbing her stomach, telling me it wasn’t worth it. Maybe not to her but that was my best friend.
I had been dealing with my own marriage falling apart while Shante had apparently been going through all this shit without saying anything to me, that didn’t sit right.
I looked at her standing there in that empty ass apartment and felt guilty that I hadn’t noticed.
Maybe I’d been so wrapped up in Deuce’s bullshit that I hadn’t been paying enough attention to what was happening with her.
I walked over and hugged her, at first she stiffened, then she wrapped her arms around me.
“I got you,” I told her.
Her grip tightened. Then I felt her shoulders start shaking. “Girl, don’t cry.”
She blamed it on hormones. I rubbed her back. “Fuck Malik.”
That made her cry harder. I didn’t know why.
I thought she was heartbroken because the man she loved had cheated and left her.
I had no idea the real reason she was falling apart in my arms was because I was standing there loving her while she was lying straight in my face.
When we finally pulled apart, I grabbed my purse.
Shante immediately asked where I was going.
“Home.”
She stared at me. Neither one of us believed that shit. “Alisha, leave Malik alone.”
I slipped my purse over my shoulder. “I’m not about to do nothing.”
That was technically true, I wasn’t planning on putting my hands on him. I just wanted to talk. Well…cuss his ass out first then talk. Shante followed me toward the door, still trying to convince me to stay out of it. I kissed her cheek. “Eat your food before it gets cold.”
“Alisha.”
“I’ll call you later.”
I walked out before she could stop me. By the time I reached my car, my mind was already working.
I didn’t know where Malik was staying now.
His old spots were the only places I knew to look.
But one thing about Detroit somebody always knew somebody.
And I wasn’t going home until I found his ass.
Because if Malik thought he was going to cheat on my best friend while she was carrying his twins, leave her a month before she gave birth, and clean out their apartment like he was repossessing some Rent-A-Center furniture. He had the wrong fucking best friend.