Chapter 21 #3
Keep the recipe to yourself. You hand out ingredients, don’t be surprised when another woman’s cooking your dish.
“Be myself,” I half shrugged, catching Sloane’s smile from my peripheral, “A man who wants to will.”
Yassah clapped her hands like I’d just delivered the sermon of the century.
“I have to admit I’m shocked. All of Madison Pointe thought Tre and Dani would be married with kids by now,” Michelle spat, sticking the proverbial knife in deeper.
“Now you’re just being messy bitch,” Yassah scolded.
“Everybody thought it,” Michelle claimed, waving Yassah off, “It’s not personal, but I know how social climbers can be. Looking to score their next big fish, and because my man is a Langston , he’s automatically on the list.”
“That’s not why your husband is on the list,” Sloane mumbled, sipping her wine.
“You know all about lists , don’t you?” Michelle asked, wearing a mischievous grin, not realizing she walked into a trap.
Sloane’s razor-sharp lips added another point, “So does your husband!”
“Let’s go! Right fuckin’ now!” Michelle jumped out of her seat, rolling her shoulders while Sloane laughed, calling Jaleb to get his wife .
“Chelle calm down!” Yassah reasoned.
“She’s been coming for me all night. I tried to do the right thing, but-.”
Sloane’s manicured hand scoffed at the idea, “You wouldn’t know the right thing to do if it put its dick in your mouth. That’s how your husband ended up in my bed.”
Jaleb almost fell, running to Michelle as she sprang to her feet. Wherever the line was drawn, Sloane’s comment crossed it. She reveled in watching Jaleb hold Michelle back while she twirled her ankle.
“If tonight is about your daughter, act like it!” Josephine scolded Sloane before turning to Michelle with a strict gaze.
No words were spoken, but the message was received loud and clear.
Jaleb and Michelle were two sides of the same coin, married to the image more than each other.
There was nothing she could say to hurt my feelings because I didn’t want anything she had.
Yassah’s bubbly personality steered the conversation far beyond Michelle and Sloane’s beef, rambling about everybody’s business and how she hated the Women’s League.
Treason saw something that made him cross the room and pull me to my feet, “Can I have my baby for a minute?”
“You have her to yourself all the time! Let us have fun,” Yassah stammered.
“You’ve had too much fun . Put that glass down,” Jaleb complained.
I was able to deliver a warning to Sloane just before he whisked me away for a private moment. He didn’t speak immediately, he just watched me sit on the arm of the chair.
“You good?”
“If you don’t trust me to do my job, fire me,” I taunted, my playful smirk making Treason smile.
“You looked like you needed a break, asshole. I was being nice.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
“If it makes you wet, hell yeah,” he replied, getting on my nerves like he did so well.
“I think something happened between Sloane and Jaleb,” I shared.
“I figured that shit out ten minutes after being here.”
I shook my head, “She made it seem like she came here for me. As usual, it’s about a man. It’s always a man at the scene of her crimes.”
“I didn’t bring you over here to talk about Sloane,” Treason’s direct way of changing the subject, “Despite Sloane’s bullshit, Josephine loves you.”
“I don’t know if I should be flattered or alarmed.”
“Flattered because you’re aite , when you’re not giving the world your ass to kiss,” he complimented.
“Michelle doesn’t think so.”
“Would you be so nice sitting with the woman that might’ve fucked your husband?”
“I wouldn’t be sitting here but that’s just me. Yassah thinks I’m aite after the history lesson she gave me about you and Danielle, but I’m sure that’s because she wants to fuck you.”
“You don’t need tipsy second-hand information when you have the source eating out of the palm of your hands.”
“Why did you and Danielle break up?”
His silence made me bite down hard on my lip. Treason was armed with three rebuttals and a possible at all times. Now his fangs gleamed, kissing his teeth at me, questioning his past relationship.
Then, after weighing all the options, he replied, “She wanted kids.”
Treason didn’t share anything I didn’t already know, but given the current situation, there was a gravity to it that stung.
“Did you love her?”
“I did.”
“You sure? Because I know what your love feels like. An intoxicating magnetic force that disarms me even when I don’t want it to. Most of all, it’s relentless. There are no dead ends, just opportunities to find another solution.”
“Why are you campaigning for my ex? I thought women didn’t like sharing.”
“You would’ve made her rethink kids and believe it was her idea because when you want something, you’ll break leases and falsify police records to get it. Why wasn’t Danielle worthy of your magic?”
“Believe it or not, I know when to keep going and when to bow out.” His gaze lazily appraised me, the smile on his face dying as he stepped into my space. I tried to look away, but Treason didn’t let me, using his index finger to hook my chin, “Ask me.”
“Can we talk about it at home?”
“We could, but that cuts into the time I planned to do other shit. So, ask now.”
The softness behind his fingertips, tucking my hair behind my ear, stirred my confusion. I tried to steady my voice, but it came out thinner than I wanted.
“If you really didn’t want kids, why are you so calm now that I’m pregnant?”
He didn’t care enough about the past to address that part of my question. All that mattered was standing in front of him.
“I don’t know what I want, Blue. That’s the truth.” Three words I had never heard him utter. Treason always knew, and even when he didn’t, he wouldn’t admit it. “Keeping it or killing it doesn’t change shit between me and you.”
His response had to sound better in his head, because as it floated through my ears, I was mortified, snatching away from his hands and rubbing my arms.
“Killing or keeping this baby changes everything! Nothing will be the same. You not understanding that is blowing the fuck out of me.”
“What the fuck do you want me to say! It’s been,” he turned his wrist assessing the time, “eight hours since we found out. No, I don’t have all the fuckin’ answers, but you’re not in this shit by yourself.”
“You’re walking around like everything is normal, and it’s not! This baby is already inside of me. I’m already different!”
“If I tell you what to do, I’m a fucked up nigga. I’m supporting whatever you want, and you’re still mad. It’s no fuckin’ winning.”
“This isn’t a game. There’s no prize at the end, Treason. It’s just honesty, but you’re taking the easy road because you don’t want to make a decision. I don’t have that luxury.”
Treason grabbed my arm, trying to stop me from leaving, but I was over him and this conversation. Snatching away, I wiped my tears with the back of my hand, pulling myself together.
Masking was a lot harder with the weight I was carrying, literally and figuratively.
When asked why I was so quiet, I blamed it on being tired.
Treason carried most of the conversations until I tugged my earring, signaling I was out of gas and ready to go.
After a round of goodbyes, we left the restaurant.
Sloane tried to slip away, walking in the opposite direction, but I needed answers.
“I don’t think so.”
“You think I have to listen to you.”
“You have nothing else lined up, or you wouldn’t be here. Plus, you love causing chaos too much to leave just yet, so yeah, you do.”
Sloane called my bluff, but I didn’t budge. Tired of standing on the pavement, Treason opened the car door. She complied but mumbled under her breath about me being dramatic as she climbed inside, and I followed.
“What was that?”
“I wasn’t sending you in there alone with those people,” Sloane’s response triggered Treason’s jaw.
“A fuckin’ joke from the mother who left her with Lorenzo. Where the fuck was that concern then?” Treason asked.
Sloane’s neck whipped to the side. “When the smell of her pussy wears off, then you can talk to me.”
“I’m too deep in it for that to happen.” The memories of it curving a weak smile on my face that made Sloane laugh.
“We’ll see when that baby gets here.”
“Both of you stop!” I yelled, massaging my temples. “What happened with Jaleb, and don’t bullshit me. I’m not in the mood.”
“He thinks I sent you to finish the job.”
“What job?”
Sloane shrugged, avoiding eye contact as Ward pulled into the street.
“Sloane!”
“It started as a job, but then I got to know him. Jaleb was everything I didn’t know a man could be, and that made me feel special.” Her nostrils flared, as her eyes watered. “We didn’t mean to, but we fell in love. Most men don’t leave their wives, but Jaleb was.”
“You know this how? Because he told you he would?”
She had drilled in my head never to trust a man’s actions, let alone his words, yet she’d fallen for the oldest trick of them all.
“Because he told his parents he was leaving Chelle,” she stated in a matter-of-fact tone that made me wonder if she was still in love with him, too.
“They didn’t have a pre-nup, so Josephine panicked and paid me to leave Jaleb.
I took it because I loved him enough not to make him choose between me and his family.
That’s how I show people I love them- by leaving them alone. ”
Sloane allowed me to hold her gaze for a moment before sniveling back the tears in her eyes, “He doesn’t know they paid me, and I’d like to keep it that way. I told him it was all fake, and he needed to fix his marriage. That’s why he’s against this .”
“Keep it that way?” I leaned in laughing, “You still love him. Otherwise, you’d be blackmailing them for more money.”
“What else do you need to know, little girl?”