by Anna Black
“Cherae, that is not true.”
“Leila, if it weren’t true, you’d be at that party celebrating his engagement.”
Leila turned and stared out the window. When they pulled into her driveway, she was sad to see that Rayshon wasn’t there.
“Thank you, Cherae, for the ride and the talk. You’re right. I still carry a part of Devon in my heart. We had Deja together, and there was a time that I would do anything for that man. But now, the greatest part of my heart is with Ray. The initial shock of Devon and Christa getting married has worn off. Now, I have to show my husband that I’m in the Johnsons’ marriage and over the Vampelt marriage,” she smiled.
“It will be all right, Leila, so don’t worry.”
“I know, Cherae, and thank you again.” Leila got out of the car and shut the door. She stood in her driveway until Cher left, and then she went inside.
Tabitha was on the couch with Rayven. “Hey, Mrs. J. How was your evening?” she asked.
“It was good,” Leila said, stepping out of her shoes.
“Where’s Mr. J?”
“Ummm, he just needed a little air, so he went for a drive.” She went over and took her 4-month-old out of Tabitha’s arms. “Hey, li’l Rave. How is Momma’s pumpkin?” She kissed her daughter’s little neck.
“She just ate, and she was trying to fall asleep, but you know Rayven is nosy. As soon as the door chimed, she opened her eyes,” Tabitha said, going for her jacket.
“It’s fine, Tab, and thank you. I’m so glad to have you back. The summer was crazy without you.”
“Well, I’m glad to be back,” Tabitha said. She made her way to the door and let herself out.
As soon as the door closed, Leila went for her phone and called Ray. He didn’t answer, so she texted him. After ten minutes passed and he had not replied, she began calling him back-to-back. When it went straight to voicemail, she knew he had powered off his phone.
Chapter Eighteen
Ray sat outside of the hospital and contemplated whether he should go in. He knew Karen was working the second shift that week because she mentioned it during their last session. After fifteen minutes of internal debate, he opened the door and went in. He wanted to see if she was done so they could talk. Then he had second thoughts and turned back around, but she saw him before he could make it out the door.
“Ray,” Karen called.
He stopped and turned around. “Hey,” he said as she approached.
“What’s up? What are you doing here?”
“Ummm, are you almost done? Because I really need to talk.”
She looked at her watch. “Yeah, I’m off in fifteen minutes. Can you wait?”
“Sure,” he said.
When she finally came out, he was leaning back in a chair with a hand over his face.
“Ray,” she said softly.
He looked up. “Hey. You’re done?”
“Yeah, I’m done. Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah.” He got up, and they walked out to his truck.
Karen threw her bag on the backseat, then climbed in. “So, where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care,” he said.
“Well, I don’t live far, and, honestly, when I get off work, I want to shower as quickly as possible. Sometimes, working in the ER has me smelling funny when my shift is over.”
“That’s fine,” he said and cranked the engine.
Karen gave him some quick and easy directions, and they were there less than five minutes. They got out and went inside, and she offered him a drink before she went to the shower, and he accepted.
She took a while to shower, so he helped himself to another drink when he finished the first one. When she came out, she wore a peach strapless sundress, and she smelled delicious. She went to get herself a drink, then joined him on the couch.
“So, are you ready to talk?” she asked.
When he took the last gulp of his drink, and she offered him a refill, he didn’t refuse. She refreshed his drink and sat on the other end of the couch, facing him with her knees up.
“So, my wife is still in love with her ex-husband, and no matter how hard she tries to fake it, I can see right through her,” he said.
“How do you know this for sure?” she asked with deep concern in her tone.
“Because a couple of months ago, I saw them damn near kissing in my kitchen, and then tonight, when he proposed to one of our mutual friends that he’s been dating for the past year or so, she freaked and ran off to the bathroom as if someone told her she was dying of a terminal illness. And that was after she dropped her glass of champagne. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”
“Okay, so what are you going to do?”
“To be honest, right now, I have no fucking clue. I just know that I’m too angry to even look at her right now. I mean, I feel so stupid because, over the years, I let her convince me that it was a done deal, and she was over him and their marriage. And these two motherfuckers just walk around like they are so fucking innocent, hiding behind their so-called friendship.” His eyes watered, and he rubbed his face and took another sip of his drink.
“I’m sorry, Ray,” Karen whispered and moved closer to him. “I wish I could make it better for you.”
He welcomed her onto his lap. She straddled him and kissed him softly. Then the kiss turned into a more passionate one. He kissed her neck and rubbed her breasts, and her nipples hardened. She leaned back a little, causing her strapless dress to drop underneath her breasts, exposing her dark, erect nipples, and Ray went for them, sucking on them the way he missed sucking on Leila’s breast before her milk had come in.
He licked all around her chest, taking in the scent of Very Sexy by Victoria’s Secret. She moaned and leaned forward to kiss him, her tongue reentering his mouth. He kissed her hard, trying to ease his pain.
“Come on,” she whispered, and he got up and followed her into her bedroom.
They kissed, and she began to pull off his clothes. He didn’t stop her. She let her dress drop to the floor, and he admired her toned body and wanted to lick her all over. When she squatted and took his erection into her mouth, he held her head and closed his eyes in pleasure. When he opened them to look down at her, he got a glimpse of his wedding ring and was jolted back to reality. His erection deflated.
“No, stop. Karen, stop, okay? Stop.”
She looked up at him with a small frown, and he stepped back, bent over, and grabbed his pants and boxers, then pulled them up.
“Why’d you stop?” she asked.
Ray sat down on the bed. “Because . . . I’m fucking up. I should not have come to your job, and I damn sure should not have come here.” He fell back onto her bed. He was angry at himself for what he was doing to Leila and Karen.
“Look, Ray, it’s okay. We don’t have to.”
“I gotta go, Karen.” Ray got up to leave.
She stood up and put a hand on his arm. “No, stay. We don’t have to do anything.”
“No, I got to go. Because if I stay, we might end up doing something, and I can’t let that happen. I am sorry for this, and I didn’t mean—”
Karen cut him off. “Listen, Ray, it’s . . . okay.”
He headed for the door with her right behind him. “You’re a great woman, Karen, and I’m not trying to fuck with your feelings.”
“I know,” she said, smiling at him. “I’m your friend, Ray.”
He hugged her. “I’ll see you,” he said and quickly exited.
He got into his truck and hit the steering wheel, wondering how he could have let what just happened to happen. He powered on his phone and heard several alerts back-to-back—all from Leila.
Chapter Nineteen
Leila paced the floor, not knowing what to think. She called Ray back-to-back for two days, and he had refused to talk to her. She didn’t want to bring their business to his workplace, but when Tabitha arrived, she was dressed and ready to find him. She went to gym three first an
d then headed to gym two. No one had seen him. Then she went to gym one, and when he wasn’t there, she didn’t know what else to do. She sat in her truck and called him back-to-back again, and he still didn’t answer.
She took a chance to drive back to gym three. He still wasn’t there, so she sat in her truck to wait for him. He had to come to work at some point, she thought. After almost an hour of waiting, she was going to leave, but suddenly, she spotted his truck. Instead of him coming into the gym parking lot, he turned into the hospital entrance. Leila hurried out of her parking stall to see where her husband was going. She pulled up just in time to see him dropping a woman off.
She parked a little ways off to watch him and gasped when she saw the woman lean across the seat and kiss Ray before getting out of the passenger’s seat.
Leila pulled up next to him and watched him watch the woman going into the hospital. He doesn’t even know I’m here, she thought. She opened her door and jumped out.
“What the fuck, Rayshon!” she blasted. “You leave for two days, and you’re fucking some nurse?”
The look on Ray’s face was of shock at first, but it quickly switched to anger. “Move, Leila. Get back in your truck and head over to Devon’s, because it’s obvious that’s where you wanna be!” he yelled. Then he got out of his truck and walked up to her.
Leila growled. “Ray, I am over and done with fucking Devon, and I’m so tired of trying to prove that shit to you. You leave the house and your fucking family, and I see you kissing some bitch after two days? How long have you been fucking her?”
“What? Me fucking her? How about you tell me how long you have been fucking Devon?” he spat back in her face.
“You know what, Rayshon? Fuck you. Fuck your whore and fuck this marriage. I have never, ever cheated on yo’ ass with Devon or with any man, and I catch you kissing some bitch.” She turned to go back to her truck. “I knew that I recognized that bitch. That fucking bitch-ass nurse is Karen that bitch who showed up at your place way back when. I’m not stupid. Fuck you,” she snarled. She snatched her truck door open and hopped in.
“I am not fucking her,” he yelled. He went to Leila’s window and tried to talk to her. “Leila, baby, I am not fucking her,” he said again.
Leila put her truck in gear and sped off. In her rearview mirror, she saw him run to his truck and try to follow her. She was relieved when the stoplight caught him and separated them. He called her several times, but she hit ignore on them. With tears streaming down her face, she called Devon.
He picked up on the second ring. “Hey, Lei.”
She was sobbing. “He left me, Devon. He’s gone, and he has another woman.”
“Hold on, Leila. Calm down and say it slow. What’s going on?”
“Rayshon left, and then I caught him with another woman,” she cried.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, Devon, I’m fucking serious. I saw him.”
“Leila, meet me at my house. I’m on my way.”
She hung up and headed toward his condo. She was trembling and couldn’t stop crying. All she could think of was seeing Ray and Karen kissing. It hurt her to the core.
When she got to Devon’s, he wasn’t there yet. She got his spare key out of her glove box and let herself in. She went straight to his wet bar and poured herself a vodka on the rocks, straight. She sat on the sofa and waited. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and some of her drink sloshed out of the glass. A few moments later, she heard him coming in the door.
As soon as he walked in, she raced into his arms. “Devon, I don’t know what to do,” she cried.
He led her over to the sofa and held her and let her cry. When she caught her breath, she unloaded on him.
“And how could you, Devon? How could you ask Christa to marry you? How could you?” she asked. She lay her head on his lap and sobbed. Devon just sat there and held her. Finally, she calmed down and stopped crying. “Everything is so messed up. I lost my business and my husband and now you.” She sat up. “You left me long before Rayshon, so I should be over this bullshit.”
“Leila, I’m sorry. I am so sorry for everything that you are going through, and you know I love you. I told you that before I got serious with Christa. I tried desperately to get you back before you married Rayshon. You know I want you back, and if we can get back together, that’s what I want. I didn’t want to move forward with Christa, babe. But what was I supposed to do? You were with Rayshon, and you told me to let this go—to let us go. And that’s what I did, and that’s why I proposed to Christa.”
“Do you love her?”
“I care for her, I do. But I love you,” he said and kissed her.
Leila leaned back and kissed him back and then stopped him. “No, Devon. This is wrong.” She stood. “I did love you, Devon, I did. And I’m sorry, but I love Rayshon. What you and I had is over. I want you to move on with Christa and be happy. I don’t know why I was upset with you for moving on with your life. I want my marriage, Devon. I want Rayshon.” She flopped back down on the sofa.
Devon grabbed her hands. “You just caught him with another woman, Leila. I want to take care of you. I miss you so much.”
Leila wished she had never called him. “I know. You have told me this so many times, but I love Ray, Devon, and I want him back,” she cried.
He pulled her into his arms and held her. “Okay, baby,” he said, rubbing her arm. “Shhhh, don’t cry, Leila. It’s going to be all right.” He kissed her on the side of her head.
“Do you have some aspirin? My head is about to explode,” she said.
He led her into the master bathroom and gave her two pills and a little cup of water. She swallowed the pills. Then he ran some cool water over a towel for her head and handed it to her.
“Look, you can stay here for a while and get yourself together.”
“I just need to lie down until my headache goes away,” she said.
“That’s fine. You’re welcome to lie in bed. The sheets are clean.” He laughed a little.
“Thanks,” she said.
He hugged her tightly. “I will always be here for you, Leila, no matter what. If you want Rayshon back, I accept that. Just always know where my heart is.”
She smiled. “I know, Devon.”
She went into the bedroom, took off her shoes, pulled back the comforter, and lay down with the towel on her head.
* * *
Devon loosened his tie and realized he had Leila’s makeup on his shirt, so he had to change and head back to work. He went into his closet, and when he took off his shirt, his doorbell chimed. He went to go check . . . and it was Rayshon.
“You motherfucker, where is she?” he yelled and pushed his way in. Devon tried to stop him, but Ray quickly moved by him and headed straight to Devon’s master bedroom and kicked the door open. “I knew it!” he yelled.
“Wait, Ray, it’s not what you think,” Devon said when he rushed in behind him. Leila was already moving quickly, trying to get out of Devon’s bed.
Ray pushed Devon out of the doorway and stormed out. “No, no, Rayshon. It’s not what you think,” Leila yelled, chasing after him.
He kept going. He flew out the front door, and Leila chased him into the hall.
* * *
Instead of going for the elevator, he snatched the stairwell door open and went through it. She went racing down the steps behind him, barefoot, trying to stop him.
She screamed his name, but he kept going. She finally caught up with him at the lobby doors and grabbed one of his arms.
“Baby, wait,” she said, out of breath. “It’s not . . . It’s not what—”
“I’m done with you, Leila. I don’t give a shit about you or Devon, and I’m taking my damn kids,” he yelled.
“Ray, please, baby. I swear on my life that nothing happened, and nothing is going on. Baby, please, wait,” she begged, still trying to catch her breath.
He snatched away from her. “Stop. Just stop lying to my fa
ce. Cut the bullshit, Leila. I’m so tired of your bullshit and this bullshit with Devon.”
She stood in front of him, trying to block the door. “Ray, I know you are, baby, and I’m sorry for hurting you over and over again. But please, believe me. Nothing happened.”
Ray’s jaws tightened, and his temples flared. “Leila, move,” he said.
Leila shook her head, crying. “Rayshon, please,” she begged again.
“Move out of my way,” he repeated.
“Baby, I love you,” she said.
He looked away from her. “Fine,” he said and walked away, going to the other set of doors. He walked out, leaving her there, sobbing. Devon came out of the elevators and approached her with an outstretched hand. She took his hand, and they went back up to his unit.
Chapter Twenty
“It’s going to be okay,” Christa said, rubbing Leila’s back.
Leila was tired of hearing it was going to be all right. “No, it isn’t, Christa.” She dried her tears with the baby’s cloth diaper. “Everybody keeps telling me that it’s going to be all right, but somehow, I don’t believe that.”
“Leila, Rayshon will come around. He’s just upset.”
“Upset with me over nothing. He’s the one having an affair, and then he leaves me because he thinks that I’m sleeping with Devon. After all these years, all this time, he thinks I would go back to Devon?”
“Well, I’m going to be honest. There were times when I felt that way, times when I felt that something more was going on between you two. You have to see it from his side.”
“I have, Christa, and the fact of the matter is nothing happened. I have never cheated on my husband with Devon. I admit that Devon and I have been closer, but we have not slept together since I have been with Rayshon.”
“I believe you, Leila, but I know for a fact that Devon still loves you.”
“No, he doesn’t, Christa. He’s marrying you,” Leila said.
Christa looked her in the face. “Because he can’t have you.” She stood up.
“No, Christa—”