Sweet in the Middle

by TaugJaye Crawford

  “Yeah, my name is Emery Donatella. I’m at the Cheesecake Factory in the Galleria Mall and it’s a woman here that I have a restraining order on, violating her orders.”

  “Bitch, hang up the phone.”

  She dropped her iPhone when Harlem walked up on their table holding a gun at her baby cousin’s, Shayla, back. Shayla was only sixteen. She was on her way back from the restroom when Harlem grabbed her to execute her little plan. Emery knew she was scared out her mind. Tears streamed down baby girl’s rosy cheeks like a raging waterfall, and now the family was really about to turn this restaurant up.

  “Bitch, I’m packing, too! Wassup?! Get yo’ hands off my fucking daughter!” Cousin Anya screamed and jumped up with her Tiffany Blue nine millimeter aimed.

  “Mommy, please?!” Shayla cried.

  Her heart was running a mile a minute, and by now, people were evacuating the building and screaming.

  Like a light switch, pandemonium transpired.

  “What the fuck is wrong wit’ yo’ ass, Harlem?! Now I know you sick in the fucking head!”

  Emery’s voice had switched pitches, hitting an octave that projected throughout the restaurant in a provoking/terrifying manner.

  “Bitch, you made this shit more than what it was! A fucking restraining order?! I knew you was out here in St. Louis showing yo’ ass! And for some fat bitch?! Yeah, social media going up on that shit! You forgot I had the password to yo’ Google Photos, didn’t you? Pull another fucking strap out on me and this lil’ ho gon’ be six-feet under! Leave wit’ me now, and all this shit will go away!”

  Emery’s heart was pounding. Her Desert Eagle was now aimed, Anya was eager to pull her trigger, and Summer was holding a Magnum revolver.

  Don’t let the bougie-ness fool ya’. Black women ain’t never been scared to hold it down. They had a whole family full of Keisha’s from New Jack City.

  A few warning shots went off in the air, causing things to really get crazy. Ms. Janet and Granny Donatella were pulled away by the sisters who were the closest for protection. Summer snatched Shayla when Harlem turned around and took her eyes off them for even the slightest second, (she was the closest to her niece), and Emery fired off a dummy magnet when Harlem pulled the trigger, grazing the side of her arm.

  The dummy magnet hit Harlem in her chest, but it was the bullet from the police officer behind her that made her body jerk forward and hit the ground.

  Blood seeped onto the floor from the bullet that went through her neck, killing her instantly.

  “Still finding myself, let alone a soulmate,”

  -Drake

  7

  “Get the fuck out my face! I’m tired of answering questions! I’m tired of y’all muthafuckas steadily grilling me! At this point, this shit is harassment, and I just wanna go home!”

  Emery was a mess.

  Her left arm was wrapped in gauze where the bullet had grazed her.

  She was tired, irritated, and wanted to be left alone.

  Her face was surfing all over social media in connection to a well-known Atlanta promoter, and native, aka her ex, and she was at her wits end with this shit.

  She’d been at the police station for hours.

  She’d given a declaration page worth of statements, and more.

  Yet no matter how much she tried to plead her case, she was still the one who appeared to be the bad guy in the face of the public.

  “Ms. Donatella.” Both Emery and the detective on her case turned their attention towards the door when they heard the female voice project into the interrogation room. “You’re free to go. I’m Candice Freeman: the lawyer who will representing you during this case. You’ve said enough. Don’t let these people waste any more of your time. Come on, love. Let’s go.”

  Candice Freeman’s appearance had her mama’s name written all over it, and Emery was thankful. How in the hell her mama managed to get in touch with her, in the first place, she had no clue. Candice was a well-respected and popular, twenty-eight-year-old Black attorney. She graduated from law school when she was only eighteen-years-old. Her wisdom was beyond her years, and as you can see, she’d been doing this law shit with her eyes closed for the last decade.

  The tears rushed to the surface of Emery’s irises when they landed on her family. They’d been waiting on her release since her arrival. All except for Granny Donatella and little cousin Shayla, but that was understandable.

  What did it for Emery and forced the tears to saturate her pretty face was when her swollen orbs landed on her boo.

  They literally ran into each other’s arms.

  Eri held her lady tight as Em cried in the crook of her neck.

  Her anxiety was through the roof.

  She didn’t know what would happen from here. But aside from all of the negatives, she was truly touched to see her lady present.

  “Are you okay?” Eris’ voice was low. Tears were trickling down her rosy cheeks as she held Em by the sides of her face and looked deeply into her eyes.

  Her boo was distraught.

  “Nooo.”

  Emery’s voice cracked.

  She was devastated.

  Petrified about her future.

  Had the worse thoughts in regards to her business and clients—Just knew that the world, the press, and Harlem’s family was gonna blame the death on her.

  She was not okay and would be damned if she lied about it.

  This wasn’t a dream; this was her life, and the shit had gone up in flames quicker than she could keep up with it.

  “Come on. Let’s go.”

  Emery nodded her head in agreement and took Eris’ hand as they headed towards the exit.

  Everything was such a blur.

  The night.

  The car ride home.

  Her mind.

  Emery didn’t want to think.

  She didn’t want to explain not another got damn detail.

  For the first time in hours, she was at peace, laying up on the couch wrapped inside of Eris’ arms.

  She felt so safe.

  She felt like no matter what was going on in the outside world, as long as she had her boo by her side through it all, then she could take it. Eri’s support gave her the strength to be optimistic about there being a light at the end of the tunnel.

  Sleep came over them both in minutes. Emery’s body was exhausted. They could’ve stayed laid up on the couch for days to come if it wasn’t for Eris’ phone ringing off the hook.

  Climbing over Em, who was two seconds away from throwing the phone at the got damn wall, Eris let out an exasperated breath when she saw all of the missed calls from P.

  “Bitch, sit you’ still-drunk ass the fuck down before I say fuck it to the fact that I’m a man and whoop yo’ ass!”

  “P, what’s wrong?!”

  Eris didn’t mean to yell, but all she could hear was screaming and shattering in the background.

  “This bitch woke up on some bullshit, Eris, and I’m ‘bout to rock her shit! She over here on a drunk and jealous ass rampage, straight destroying yo’ house, and if I handle it, I’m going to jail!”

  “Fuck that bitch, Eris! And fuck yo’ gay ass too! Fuck both of y’all gay asses! She would fucking leave me to go check up on that bitch?! Oh, I really see what the fuck it is now! Gimmie my damn keys, nigga!”

  “Bucky, you ain’t going no fucking where! You can barely stand on yo’ own! Ho, sit down!”

  Eris wanted to crawl up under a rock and fucking die.

  This. Was not. Happening!

  Her heart was racing as she quickly stuffed her feet inside of her UGG boots, but what stopped her dead in her tracks was Emery’s diabolical voice saying, “If you leave, then don’t bother coming back.”

  Eris was so astounded that she dropped her phone and turned to face Emery with her mouth agape.

  “What?”

  Her response was lathered in an equal saturation of confusion and attitude.

  “What? You didn’t hear me?
” Emery snapped. “If you leave, Eris, then don’t fucking come back. ‘Cause what you not gon’ do is this shit. Bucky cries wolf and you run to her side, but the minute she leaves, you wanna be back in my face? Nah, ma, this ain’t that.”

  Eris was so fucking shocked by the words that were coming out of Emery’s mouth that she couldn’t respond right away.

  “Are you serious right now?” she finally found the words to express.

  “Don’t I fucking look serious right now?! I’m fighting a got damn murder charge for Christ’s sake and you standing here about to go run and pacify the same manipulative ass bitch that will continue to pull this shit as long as we’re together!”

  “Am I yelling at you, Emery? No, so show me that same fucking respect and calm the hell down. This ain’t even that. You don’t even know what’s going on, so don’t take your anger out on me when I haven’t even explained myself!”

  “You know what?!” Emery hopped up to her feet and stomped the entire way to the front door. She swung it open and yelled, “Go be with that bitch, then! I knew this shit was too good to be true! You’d rather deal with that secretive, ‘I only fuck with bitches undercover,’ bullshit anyway, and I ain’t got time for it! I got enough going on, and dealing with a confused and coward ass woman who can’t get her emotions in check because of the toxic ass relationship she should’ve been fixed with her quote-unquote ‘best friend’ ain’t it!”

  A long dramatic silence stood between them until Eris finally came back down to reality.

  To her surprise, she didn’t blow up.

  To her surprise, instead of catching an attitude, she grabbed her things, slid her coat on, and fucking laughed when she stood face to face with Emery.

  “So…fuck the fact that I just tussled with this bitch in the rain and basically cut our friendship off over you because she couldn’t handle/respect what we were building, huh? You would really say some shit like to me?” Eris scoffed. “I get that you’re mad. I get that this situation has your head all over the place, and you have the right to feel that way, but let me tell you something, Emery. Don’t ever in yo’ got damn life come at me like again. Never is you gon’ try to son me when for one, you ain’t even got all yo’ damn facts straight! And two, you just jumping to conclusions! You’re right! I don’t need this shit from you or her, either!

  Y’all both got me fucked up tryna pull on my arm like that when I’m trying to handle this shit the best that I know how! I’ll be a coward! I’ll own up to the fact that it’s still taking me some time to come out to the fucking universe about what I feel for you, but one thing I’m not is confused! I thought we were better than that, but obviously, we’re not! So guess what? I’mma give yo’ mad ass just what the fuck you want, and go! Out this door and this damn relationship since that’s how you fucking feel, Emery!”

  Eris didn’t bother to pull her hood over her head to protect herself from the monsoon that continued to pour down over the St. Louis streets. She just ran to her car, not bothering to look back. She had a lot on her plate too, and being accused of not knowing where Emery stood in her life when she was honestly falling in love with her, was an assumption that she couldn’t look pass.

  She wouldn’t allow Royce to treat her like that, so like hell she’d allow a woman to try and make her feel that low, either.

  That’s where she drew the fucking line. In spite of how much she newly and prematurely had grown to love Emery, one thing she’d never allow to happen to her ever again was to be disrespected and stretched thin, just to have a voice to say that she was loved.

  *SITM*

  Eris thought she felt empty during she and Royce’s first big break up…

  Lord, that ain’t have shit on what she’d been feeling since she and Em decided that it was best for them to go their separate ways. People kept inboxing her about the pictures of she and Em that Harlem posted.

  Where she’d gotten them from, who fucking knows. Did it really matter now that they were posted?

  The…

  “You gay?”

  “So you like girls?”

  “Wanna fuck me and my nigga?”

  …DMs were getting ridiculous. And to make matters worse, her mama and sister had been calling her nonstop for three days now.

  It was just too much, and Eris wanted to disappear.

  She’d been crying her eyes out in P’s arms for the last thirty minutes. When she showed up on his doorstep unannounced, Paris knew that his Er Bear could no longer put up a front.

  A lot of her tears were triggered from the stress and being overwhelmed.

  A lot of her tears were from the fear of being rejected by her family, but most importantly, her son.

  Would he still love her the same?

  Would he view her differently?

  Was Royce going to feed their baby boy with a bunch of malicious thoughts about her and tear them apart?

  Then there was Emery.

  Things went left and so quick that both of their tempers had gotten the best of them.

  Eris was a coward.

  She did think too much about how other people perceived her, but it didn’t mean that she didn’t care about Emery.

  It didn’t mean that she didn’t want to be with her.

  It didn’t mean that she wasn’t starting to fall in love with her.

  These last three months of her life had been filled with bliss and a sense of happiness that she’d never experienced before.

  Reciprocation was the glue that kept them bonded together.

  Knowing that the companion she chose valued and appreciated her just as much, gave Eris hope about love and relationships.

  She restored her faith in believing that it was possible to receive love without a catch, a consequence, or selling her soul outside of the unconditional love she’d gotten from her son.

  Let’s just be honest. Royce pulled Eris apart piece by piece with all of the toxicity and back and forth.

  Then left her out to dry.

  She had to repair that damage—alone.

  She had to learn to love herself—alone.

  Seek validation in her own happiness and in God—a-fucking-lone!

  Royce turned around and married Malika without as much as an apology, and that honestly did something to her psyche that she’d yet to confess.

  Eris had always been the type of woman to sweep shit under the rug. She’d easily forget how that same baggage was still waiting on her to unpack it.

  She’d caught amnesia because it was easier to forget than to argue and protest.

  And now, that very dilemma was charging back at her like a boomerang…

  One she couldn’t catch.

  One she couldn’t dodge.

  One she couldn’t ignore.

  And she had no one to blame but herself.

  You see, at the end of the day, she couldn’t place all of the blame on Royce.

  She couldn’t fault her family.

  She couldn’t place everything that transpired on Emery.

  Eris was the person responsible for this karma, and she had to deal with it.

  Okay, we’ll give her a hand-clap for finally taking the initiative to stand up for herself through these last few trials and tribulations, but the damage had already been done.

  The bridges had already been burned, and now it was up to her to repair this shit since she was too reluctant and such a damn chicken shit to conquer the fear of crossing—of doing.

  Of no longer allowing herself to be so damn passive and accepting when inside, it was tearing her apart.

  “P, I don’t know what to do at this point,” she sobbed while wiping the tears from her face.

  “You gotta do what’s best for you, Eris. It’s that damn simple. And stop running from shit. Check yo’ baby daddy, chop shit up wit’ yo’ son, put yo’ peoples in they place, and when the time is right, smooth things over with Emery. You love that girl and everybody can see that. Why you think Bucky been so fucking pressed? It’
s cool to be a laid back person, Er Bear, but at the same time, you gotta put yo’ foot down.

  And not in a bitter or mad at the world kind of way, either. Just in general. You gotta put yo’ big girl panties on and face this shit. Turning yo’ back on everything dun’ got you here, and this don’t feel good. You gotta make some changes. And real shit, I can’t hold yo’ hand through it no more either—Be there to support you? Twenty-four fucking seven, but you gotta handle this.”

  He ran the pad of his thumb down her cheek and gently stroked her face while looking into her eyes.

  “I swear I wouldn’t know what to do without you, P. Through everything, you always have my back; tenfold. I’m so grateful, and I pray that I’m just as good as a friend to you that you are to me.”

  Paris smiled, flashing his perfectly installed veneers.

  “You keep me in my place too, Er Bear. I know you remember driving down to COMO to come bond me out with yo’ refund check back when I first started college at UMSL. Bali had my ass getting all kinda charges ‘cause he was down there being a damn ho.”

  Eris broke out in laughter.

  “Just for us to drive over to the frat house and not only get into a fight with the captain, who nobody knew was gay, but then we both got locked up for vandalism and my daddy had to come get us.”

  “Giiiiirl, Mr. Costello was too pissed! Maaaaaan, he ain’t even wanna bail me back out ‘cause I was the reason why you got caught up in the first place. Yo’ car ended up getting towed, and he had to pay for the damages in the frat house. I know he only put up with me because we thicker than Tammy Rivera. I’m hella chill now, though.”

  A good laugh was exactly what the doctor ordered. P always had this gift to see shit from each perspective, no matter how crazy he could be. Instead of just adding fuel to her fire, he helped his best friend get through her every obstacle, and Eris appreciated that.

  “You talk to yo’ mama, yet?” he asked as they transitioned from the living room to the kitchen.

  Paris was in the mood for something sweet, so he decided to whip up some of his famous pineapple dip. His days of being vegan were officially over. Sour cream and cream cheese were too hard to stay away from, but that was about it. He’d never revert back to whole milk, nor butter.