“Laila, I know you’re frustrated and I’m gonna let you have that, but in order for us to get anything resolved you’re going to have to let me explain. I promise you this not as bad you’re making it out to be. Let me make things clear for you so that we can go back to the statement you made earlier. Can you do that for me, Lai? Will you let me explain?”
Laila just stared at Aaron. She was going to let him speak but if she didn’t like what she heard, she couldn’t guarantee that things were going to play out the way Aaron hoped they would. “I’m waiting.”
“Could you at least sit down? This is difficult enough.”
Laila sat down only because she wanted to hear what he had to say. “Look I’m not interested in the play-by-play details. When did this happen?”
Aaron ignored Laila in order to regain control of the conversation. He began, “Michol and I dated at one time.”
“When? I never heard of you until Bryce introduced us to each other. Does he know about you and Michol? Is sharing women something you two do?”
“Laila. Let. Me. Speak. For the last time, let me speak,” he shouted.
Aaron’s tone got Laila’s attention. It was not threatening, but she thought it was in her best interest to be quiet for the moment. He started speaking again, this time in a more agreeable tone.
“Michol and I kicked it before Bryce, before you. It was a long time ago. When I met her and Bryce for dinner it was the first time I’d seen her in years. Bryce doesn’t know any of this because Michol asked me to let it go. She said that it was so long ago that it didn’t matter.”
She tried to hold it in, but she failed. “I’ve known every guy Michol has dated since she was sixteen. You’ve never been mentioned.”
“That’s because I knew Michol before she was sixteen.”
“Well, when the hell did you meet her because I know for a fact she dated Aiden’s father for two years before she moved here, so if the two of you dated it had to be when she was really young and if that’s the case, I’m really pissed that you interrupted my day with some puppy love B.S.”
“Laila,” he barked, “shut up and let me speak. I started dating Michol when she was fourteen. We were together for two years and I’m pretty sure that Aiden is my son.”
Laila was about to go off on Aaron for raising his voice at her, but his last words stopped her. Instead of speaking, her mouth just hung open. There was an awkward silence that felt like it lasted for hours, but in reality it didn’t last a full minute.
“Now, Laila, now is not the time to get quiet. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that I’m sleeping with my cousin’s baby daddy. Ain’t this about a…I can’t…this is too much.”
“Look, in your defense, you didn’t know. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
Laila laughed. It wasn’t a laugh that indicated she was amused; it was laugh that dripped with incredulity. “Let’s be clear, I don’t need you to defend me. You’re absolutely right. I…” she said while pointing to herself, “didn’t know anything. You, on the other hand, knew everything. So worry about defending yourself. I’m good.”
“So you don’t want to talk about this?”
“Talking isn’t going to make you any less trifling, so with that being said, I’m out.” She raised herself up from the couch, grabbed her purse and attempted to walk out the door.
Aaron grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “I wasn’t done talking.”
“Too bad because I was done listening.” She tried to jerk her arm away, but he pulled her back.
“I know you’re hurt and you need time to process this. I told you because I didn’t want to keep anything from you.”
“You’re about three months too late, buddy.” She succeeded in getting away from him and made her way to the door. She opened it, but quickly closed it again when she realized she had more to say. “Yes, Aaron, I’m hurt, but not for the reasons you think. There is nothing I can do about your past with my cousin, but I could have decided not to get involved. You took that choice away from me. Yes, the act happened before me, but the deception is new and that’s what hurts. You and my cousin allowed me to get close to you knowing full well that once the truth came out, I would look dumb as hell. But that thought never occurred to either of you, so no, I don’t have anything else to say to you. I’m done.”
Aaron tried to maintain eye contact with Laila because he knew that as a man that was the least he could do, but he felt like less of a man looking into her pain filled eyes. “Laila, I don’t want to be done. I…we…what about what you said earlier.”
“Forget what I said earlier.” She walked out and left him alone with his thoughts.
***
Once she was securely in her car, Laila took several deep breaths. After each one she exhaled slowly in an attempt to expel the hurt feelings and the shock. When she felt a tear forming in the corner of her eye, she scrunched up her face in order to keep it from falling. She would not cry. Not this time.
As soon as she put the car in reverse, her cell phone rang. She prayed it wasn’t Aaron. She wasn’t sure if she could continue to reject him if he persisted. Unfortunately, it was Aaron’s partner in crime, Michol.
“Yeah,” Laila answered dryly.
“Hello to you, too. I guess judging by your dry attitude you will not be joining the rest of us for dinner. Aaron really has you on lock, huh? I mean, what is so great about him that you ditch your family every chance you get?”
“I don’t know, Michol. You tell me.”
“What?”
“You tell me what’s so great about him. He was your man first, right?”
Laila heard a loud sigh before an overly dramatic Michol exclaimed, “I can’t believe he told you. Why did he tell you? Do you see, Laila? Do you see what kind of man you’re dealing with? He has only been in this city for four months and he’s already causing problems for me.”
“Seriously, Michol, you’re the victim? Is that what you’re saying to me?”
“That is exactly what I’m…”
Laila ended the call before Michol could finish her sentence. Aaron had invaded her world and became everything she never knew she needed and craved, but he was also her cousin’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her teenage son. She now shared an ex-love with the person she shared so many other sacred things with. She wanted so badly to erase the events of that night, but it was pointless. Family didn’t go behind family and family definitely didn’t go against family, so the decision was made for her. She had to let Aaron go and that thought brought her to cry the tears that she swore would not fall. As she pulled out of Aaron’s driveway, Laila reasoned that she should not be the only one crying tears that night. She drove until she found a place to stop and park. She picked up her cell phone that she had tossed onto the passenger’s seat when she hung up on Michol, and for one fleeting moment, guilt permeated her thoughts. What she was about to do could cause major damage to her cousin’s current relationship, but she swept that thought aside when she thought of the damage that had been done to her own. She scrolled through her contacts until she landed on Bryce’s name. Without hesitation she pressed the call button.
***
Michol calmed down once she heard the sound of the garage opening. Bryce was home. Her peace was home. She knew she would eventually have to deal with the can of worms opened by her ex, but for the moment she just wanted to seek solace in the arms of the man she had loved for almost a decade.
She went to embrace him as soon as he walked through the door. Michol was so consumed with her own thoughts that she initially failed to notice the sadness in Bryce’s eyes. His failure to respond to her embrace is what caused Michol to finally step back and study Bryce’s face. The look in his eyes told Michol that he knew about Aaron, but she refused to be the first to speak on the subject.
Bryce watched Michol. He saw the uncertainty in her eyes, and he waited for her to say something. After a few minutes of silence, it was e
vident to Bryce that Michol wasn’t going to confront the issue and he knew that if given the opportunity, she would ignore it all together. This revelation fueled his emotions and he began to speak. “I’m a simple man, Mich. I love you, I provide for you. I treat your son as if he’s mine. I’ve done everything I could have possibly done to make you feel secure in this relationship. I only asked one thing of you. Do you remember what that was?”
He was only met with Michol’s silence and her pensive gaze.
He nodded as if he was agreeing to something only he could hear. “Of course you don’t remember. Because if you remembered you would have made sure that you carried out the one thing I ever asked you to do for me. I asked that you always be honest with me, but you have been lying to me since day one.”
Michol shook her head while tears fell. “Bryce, I…”
“No, Michol. You don’t get to speak. You had ten years to speak, Mich. Ten. You chose to say nothing, so I think you should do what you’ve been doing. Don’t say anything.”
“I haven’t been lying to you the whole time. I didn’t know that I would ever see him again. When he showed up here, I panicked.”
“Why? Why panic about a relationship that happened sixteen years ago?” He prodded her with his eyes. “I’m waiting. Nobody cares what you did when you were sixteen, Mich. So why keep this a secret?”
“I…”
“Math was never my strong suit, but I can handle the simple stuff. You know, stuff like basic arithmetic. I know the answer to this next question, but I’m going to give you an opportunity to come clean. Is Aaron Aiden’s father?”
“Aiden’s father is the man that has been raising him for the last ten years. You are his father, Bryce.”
“Wrong answer, Michol.” For the first time since encountering Michol that evening, Bryce stopped talking. He looked at his love of ten years and dropped his head. “We have a lot of things to discuss Mich, but it’s not going to happen tonight.”
She breathed a sigh of relief believing that his willingness to discuss anything was a sign that their relationship would remain intact. “So we’re gonna work through this, right?”
Bryce closed his eyes and rubbed his hand over his face as if he were trying to erase the thoughts going through his mind. “Michol, when I walked through the door, I thought that we could work this out. I thought that you would confront the issue and we would work through it. When I realized you weren’t going to say anything, I realized I can’t trust you. On our first date, you told me that Aiden’s father was dead. From day one, you have been lying to me and you’re still doing it. If I hadn’t said anything, you would still be acting like everything is good with us. To answer your question, no we are not going to work this out. What we will do is sit down and untangle all these webs that we’ve created. We are tied together because of the house, the cars, the accounts, and most importantly, Aiden. These are the things we have to discuss. Our joke of a relationship is over.” Bryce walked out of the house in a defeated manner, and Michol cringed with every step he took. She stood in her kitchen for a while allowing the events of the evening to register. Her sadness gave way to anger in a matter of minutes. She walked to her bedroom to retrieve her cell phone and once she crossed the threshold, Bryce’s scent overwhelmed her. She never realized how strong his presence was until she was forced to deal with his absence. Shaking off the sadness once again, she grabbed her cell phone and called Aaron. Bryce had programmed the number into her phone shortly after Aaron moved to town.
“What?” He answered with an apparent attitude.
“Why couldn’t you keep your mouth shut?”
“I warned you, Michol. When I realized Aiden was my son, I told you to fix this.”
“You didn’t give me time.”
“You had weeks to do this. It’s bad enough that I don’t have a relationship with my son because of you, but now my relationship with Laila is over because of you.”
“Your relationship with Laila should have never happened in the first place. I told you to stay away from my cousin. By the way, if your relationship is over it’s because you caused it by being impatient. I told you I would handle it, but no, you had to tell Laila and Bryce.”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything to Bryce.”
“Cut the games, Aaron. If you didn’t say anything, who did?” In her mind, Michol answered the question before she even got it out of her mouth. “I can’t believe Laila would do this.”
Aaron sighed. “I can believe it. She was pretty hurt when she left my house.”
“She didn’t have to be. If you had just…”
“If I had just what, Michol? Look, the damage has been done and the reality of the situation is that both of our relationships are in a dangerous place. The only thing that will help is time. Right now, I’m more concerned with getting to know my son, so you need to tell me how you’re going to fix this.”
“First of all, your little fling with my cousin does not compare to the years that I have put in with Bryce. Our situations are not the same. You waltzed into town and managed to hurt me, Bryce, and Laila. Do you really think I’m going to give you an opportunity to the same thing to Aiden?”
Aaron had had enough of Michol’s theatrics. “You really are delusional Michol. This is all because of you and your lies and your secrets. I have run out of patience and I’m not about to play games with you. I want to build a relationship with my son. If you are determined to keep him away from me then I have to tell you that things are going to get a hell of a lot worse for you before they get better or did you forget about this law degree that I hold?”
“I don’t care how many degrees you hold. You are still the same thug who left me alone and pregnant when I was 15…”
“I didn’t leave you alone. I was arrested and you left. If you had stuck around long enough, you would’ve known that those charges were dropped. You left me, Michol. You are NOT the victim in any of this.”
“Aaron, I can’t do this with you right now. My world has been turned upside down over the last few months and I need to regroup. I will talk to you another day, and you can miss me with the threats. Your introduction to Aiden will be on my terms and you can bet your degree on that.” She abruptly ended the call and laid on her bed. As much as she wanted to close her eyes, she knew that sleep would have to wait. She needed to get a handle on the events of the day. Laila was the least of her worries, not because she didn’t love her cousin but because she knew that in time, they would get back to a good place. They always did. She wasn’t even mad that Laila told Bryce. She wasn’t sure how Aiden would react to the news of Aaron being his father, but she was confident that her bond with her son was strong enough to weather hurricane Aaron. Her final thoughts before she allowed sleep to overtake her were of Bryce. She had never seen him as hurt or angry as he had been that evening, but she had hope that ten years of love would be enough to repair their relationship. It was this hope that sustained her at that moment and allowed her to rest. She missed dinner with her family that night, but it was probably for the best because Laila, refusing to wallow in self-pity, made sure she was in attendance and she also made sure she gave her family an earful regarding Michol. Aaron had been right about one thing. Things for Michol would definitely get worse before they got any better.
Elle Jaye currently resides in Savannah, Georgia with her two children. She is currently working on both her first full length novel and her Master’s thesis which she hopes to finish by year’s end. Follow her @ElleDJaye on Twitter.
MEMORY FULL
By Princis Lewis
It rained throughout the day and into the late evening hours, but Erika didn’t mind… especially after the crazy disastrous blind date she’d had last night.
The date had started off great, and they’d actually had a good time, dancing and drinking at Le Bain, one New York City’s most popular night clubs.
But the minute they left the club, they bumped right into a g
uy in skinny jeans, a skin-tight tank top, and hair that was laid better than her Keratin-treated shoulder length mane. Erika could tell by the way he was glaring at her date, things were about to get ugly.
“So you ignore all my calls to hang out with this yellow bitch?” the man yelled, his neck wiggling as he jabbed a finger in her direction.
“I-I… I don’t even know this chick,” her date had stammered.
Erika was about to give him the serious side eye, but the skinny jeans guy hauled off and slapped her date in the face and that was Erika’s cue. She made her way through the gathering crowd – many of whom already had their cell phones out to capture the fight – hailed a cab, and headed home.
Whatever happened to good ol’ fashion honesty? Erika thought as she leaned back in the cab. All she wanted was a man of her own. A feat, that at thirty-four, she’d yet to accomplish.
Erika made her way back to the high-rise she shared with her friend, Paige. As a real estate broker, Erika was always coming across good real estate deals. When she’d found this place, she just had to have it. The only problem was she couldn’t afford it alone. That’s why she’d been ecstatic when Paige had stepped in.
Paige and Erika met three years earlier at a social gathering with mutual friends. They immediately connected and their friendship grew from casual to hanging out at the clubs, to traveling and having fun. Paige had become the sister she never had.
While Erika was still loving for love, Paige had found it. Her fiancé, Evan Pryce, had it all – a successful career as an attorney, an esteemed family (his father was a superior court judge) and looks that would put Idris Elba to shame.
With just a touch of envy, Erika found herself gravitating toward Paige’s never-ending love story… how Evan first met Paige at a business meeting and how he couldn’t take his eyes off her. How he later asked her out for drinks, and then again the following week for dinner. He made her feel special. After they started dating, they occasionally traveled to exotic islands for the weekends. They’d visited Jamaica and Aruba. Evan flew her to Toronto for lunch at Kayoto’s and Chicago for soul food at Pearl’s. Paige once shared with Erika that she loved Evan more than she ever thought she could love “another” man.
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