You Needed Me: A Love Story

by Shvonne Latrice

  I ended up passing my car, so I turned around to go back. As I walked, some girl switched up into the parking lot holding a baby.

  “Here Juanita, he’s wet.” She handed the baby to the girl I’d just fought who was massaging her sore boob. “You out here actin’ crazy over that nigga when you know he ain’t shit!” she added as they walked to their car. They didn’t notice me staring nor eavesdropping.

  “I got his baby, so I mean more to him than these bitches, aight Aisha?” Juanita snapped before climbing into the car.

  The mention of her having Ethan’s baby was like a dagger to my heart. Although my love for him had dwindled severely over time, that bit of information still hurt. I loved him, at one point deeply, but he clearly didn’t feel the same and he never would.

  When I got into my car, my phone rang and I saw it was him. I decided to answer because I wanted to see if he knew what happened, and what he had to say about it.

  “Hello,” I picked up.

  “Hey baby, I was thinking we could go to the movies tonight.”

  “I met Juanita,” I stated dryly.

  “Hello? Goldie? Hello?” he responded after a few moments of silence, and I just scoffed and hung up. That was the best he could come up with? Pretending the phone was going out?

  Right when I dropped my phone into the passenger seat, I spotted Britain walking out of Tasty Burger with that girl whose hand he was holding. She was all over him like white on rice, yet he seemed to not be as interested as she was in whatever they had. He glanced over and caught me looking, so I promptly turned away and cranked my car. I was better off staying my ass in the house.

  Chapter Four: Kimberlyn

  A couple days later…

  TQ and I had just left The Paramount on Charles Street where we had a nice big lunch. He promised to take me to the mall, but he got a call and had to tend to some business. I really liked being with him, but I just hated that he was like a doctor on call or something. He was always answering his phone, sighing, and having to leave.

  “You promise you’re gonna come back to get me?” I looked over at him with my arms folded across my chest. I hadn’t even known him that long, yet I felt so needy.

  “I promise. Have I lied to you yet?”

  “No,” I smiled and tousled my hair from one side to the other.

  “Aight then, I’m gonna be back. Pack clothes for the week.”

  I nodded as I hit the seat belt release button. I then leaned across the center console, letting my lips meet his. Once they did, I gripped his face lightly in my hands to introduce our tongues. I couldn’t help but to close my eyes as we kissed one another like we’d just been pronounced man and wife.

  “Go on, ma,” he chuckled and nudged me back lightly. I pecked him once more, before grabbing my duffle bag and getting out.

  Rushing up my grandmother’s porch steps, I turned around to watch him speed down my street, and hook a right on Columbia Road.

  “Well, well, well,” Matikah came out onto the porch, and when I turned around I saw Goldie standing behind her. I knew she was about to get in my ass about spending all my time with TQ. I hadn’t been home since our date, and they’d both contacted me but got no response.

  “Excuse me, ladies,” I half smiled and walked past them.

  “Kimberlyn, I thought your little ass had died or something!” my grandma came out wearing her favorite apron.

  “Nope, just had a very nice date. Excuse me, Grandma, I’m gonna take a nap.” I rushed to my room, and I could hear Goldie and Matikah right on my heels. I tried to close my door behind me, but Matikah put her foot there before she and Goldie slipped in, shutting my door behind them.

  “I want every fucking detail, hoe.” Matikah sat in the chair in my room while Goldie sat on my bed with me.

  “He flew me to his big ass house in Bridgeport, and he had a professional chef serve us a full course meal, dessert included. After that, we drank champagne and we talked. The days after that have been just as good.”

  “Kimberlyn, did you fuck him? That’s what the fuck we really wanna know,” Goldie looked at me with a semi happy face. I chuckled lightly at her excitement.

  I glanced from her to Matikah a couple times, and then nodded my head ‘yes’ making she and Matikah squeal loudly.

  “Did it hurt?” Goldie frowned.

  “Yeah, a lot, and he’s so freaky,” I replied while laughing. I looked over at Goldie, and she was laughing but her jaw was on the floor.

  “I can’t believe you let him play you, Kimberlyn. I thought you were smarter than that, boo.” Goldie shook her head, coming down from her temporary joy.

  “How exactly did he play me?”

  “He got in your pants and you haven’t even known him for two weeks! This is TQ, all he wants is sex, and once he gets it he’s done with you, I told you that!”

  “He took her out though, Goldie. That should mean something,” Matikah chimed in, defending me.

  “He took her out, in another state and inside a home. He wouldn’t dare take you out around Boston, and you should be happy he didn’t. If word gets out that you have any connection to Tarenz Quinton, these hoes will make your life hell.”

  “He took me to lunch this afternoon in Boston, aight? So he ain’t hiding shit. And I don’t care about these bitches. That’s my man and ain’t nobody gonna get me away from him.”

  “Your man? Really?” Matikah bucked her eyes as she played with one of my fuzzy chair pillows.

  “Yeah, he told me we were together. He said I needed to be strong, and that I had to be his rider,” I stuck my tongue out and playfully popped my ass, making Matikah giggle.

  “You have to be strong because of all the bitches he’s gonna smash,” Goldie scoffed and sighed, but I just rolled my eyes.

  “No, he meant because of the business that he’s in. He didn’t say shit about me turning a blind eye. And if that is what he meant, we would not be together.”

  “You already gave him your v-card, you can’t just leave,” Goldie frowned.

  “Oh yes I can.”

  “Both of you are gonna give me a heart attack. The Quinton brothers are only good for one thing, and that’s getting some dick. Trying to be in a relationship with them, is like trying to stir oil and water together,” Goldie attempted to explain.

  She was gonna give herself gray hair if she kept worrying about us the way she did. I loved her though, and although she was annoying sometimes, I caught her drift.

  “Both of us? What do you mean?” I turned my attention to Matikah.

  “I went to Lendsey’s condo a couple days ago to chill. It was cool until some bitch called his phone, so I asked him to take me home.”

  “Why did you get mad? He’s not even your man, Matikah?”

  “Because I already know how he is. Why would I even dabble with that?”

  Matikah was right. TQ, Rhys, Britain, and Lendsey all had reputations with the ladies, but Lendsey and Britain were notorious. They’d smashed so many girls, that it was a surprise that they didn’t have any children. I didn’t blame Matikah for stopping while she was ahead. I’d even heard that Lendsey had a girlfriend who claimed him, but he only claimed her behind closed doors. To make a long story short, he was just a mess.

  “So I have something to tell you guys, but you can’t get mad,” Goldie glanced back and forth between Matikah and I.

  “No promises,” I said as we waited for her to spill.

  “Ethan showed up and I agreed to give him a second chance.”

  “Why—”

  “Wait, let me finish. So we were doing okay, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling it like usual. Then one day while I was getting some food from Tasty’s, some hoe walks in and presses me. We got to fighting, but the Tasty employee broke it up. But get this, he has a son with that bitch, and worst of all, Britain Quinton witnessed me acting like a Jerry Springer guest,” she exhaled heavily and shook her head at herself.

  “This nigga has a k
id? You know what, I’m not even surprised about that shit. He was always a slut, and I hope you got an STD test,” Matikah scoffed.

  “I didn’t let him fuck me,” Goldie turned her lip up as if the mere thought disgusted her.

  “Good. Fuck Ethan, Goldie. I know you loved him, but it’s time to move on. Even you said yourself that this short lived hundredth chance you gave him didn’t feel the same,” I said.

  “Yeah,” she nodded slowly.

  “Kimberlyn, you have a visitor,” my grandmother peeked into my bedroom.

  “Who?” I frowned.

  “Saadiq,” she responded, using Gang’s real name.

  “Ooooh shit!” Goldie and Matikah said in unison once my grandmother left out.

  I stood up, but slowly, because I was still in pain from TQ fucking the shit out of me all night. I walked out of my room, through the living room, and then out the door to see Gang sitting on the large porch steps with his back to the door. I crept up behind him, and then sat down next to him.

  After staring straight ahead for a couple moments, he looked to his right at me and said, “You look nice.”

  I was wearing some blue skinny jeans, with a heather gray crop top and sandals. My long dark hair was hanging down my back, and I had on some gold hoop earrings.

  “Thank you.”

  “Where have you been, Kimberlyn? I haven’t seen you since you left my VIP to hang with umm, them Quintons.” I could hear the anger in his tone even though he was trying to mask it.

  “That was just two weeks ago.”

  “I know, but I’ve dropped by a handful of times since then and you were gone every time. I came by the night of the party, a couple times after that, and then I came by yesterday evening,” he looked at me and then back out into the street. I felt so bad every time we made eye contact.

  “Gang, I—”

  “Don’t lie, Kimberlyn.”

  “I was with TQ those times you came over.” Before I’d even finished, Gang was laughing and shaking his head.

  “With TQ, huh? You know he’s just fucking with you to piss me off, he don’t really want you like that, Kimberlyn.” I felt him look at me, but I just stared into the street.

  “I thought you guys worked together, why would he do something like that to you?”

  “I don’t know, but he saw you and I were kicking it, and now all of a sudden he wants you? Come on now.”

  “Gang, it wasn’t like that, he likes me for real and he and I are together. You have to go because I don’t want people telling him I was talking to you.” I stood to my feet. TQ made it clear that I needed to cease all contact with Gang.

  “Wooooow Kimberlyn, are you fucking serious? Do you know who the fuck I am? Boston is my muthafuckin’ city! You need to be thankful that I even wanted your hoe ass!” he barked and stood up as well.

  “Then as the King, you should have no problem getting a new girl to fuck with, Gang.” I turned around and he grabbed my arm, but not roughly.

  “Kimberlyn—”

  “Gang, you have to go, I told you I don’t want anyone to see us. I’m sorry, I really am, but I wanna be with him.”

  “Aight,” he nodded and bit down on his lip roughly. “Did you fuck him?” he asked, causing me to stop in my tracks.

  “See you around,” I said before slipping back into the house, and closing the door despite him still standing there. I didn’t want to answer that because it’d be like squeezing lemon juice onto an open wound.

  Gang was right, he was the king of this city, which is why him finding someone else would be as easy as pie. I just wanted him to stay away from me, because I was sure TQ would not have that shit at all. I hadn’t known this dude a month, and he already had me gone.

  Chapter Five: Saadiq “Gang” Ronson

  I sat back down on Kimberlyn’s grandmother’s porch for a few, before finally standing back up and walking to my car. When I made it to the back seat of the black customized Chevy Suburban, my driver hopped out and opened the door for me. I slid into the back seat, and just let out a huge sigh, expressing my disappointment.

  “I can’t believe I sat in the car while you did that shit,” Monica snapped.

  I’d been fucking her for much longer than I knew Kimberlyn, so I really couldn’t blame her for being salty. She thought she was gonna be the one, and so did I, but when I met Kimberlyn it seemed like no one else mattered, including Monica.

  “My bad, ma, you know how I feel about shorty, and I just had to see what was up with her,” I explained.

  I loved Monica because she was like my best friend, but I just didn’t want her like that. I racked my brain on the daily trying to figure out why she didn’t satisfy me enough, and I always came up empty. She was cute, had her own money, was smart, great in the bedroom, and she wasn’t with me because I was Gang, she was with me for Saadiq. She had her moments where she got out of line, but what woman didn’t? Every woman every now and then became overwhelmed with emotion and back talked, so that wasn’t a negative about her in my opinion.

  And then there is Kimberlyn, someone I have strong ass feelings for, and planned to marry and make the Queen of my throne. I’d never met a bitch who didn’t want me, let alone one who would dis me to be with another man. I wasn’t sure who I was madder at, TQ or Kimberlyn. I mean TQ and I weren’t homies, but I worked for him so I thought we had some sort of loyalty to one another, but I guess not. Then Kimberlyn, we were good, we really were, and it’s like the nigga snapped his fingers and she’d forgotten all about me.

  I met Kimberlyn in a liquor store almost a year ago. We were in it at the same time, and she was so damn pretty. I loved women who had at least one imperfect feature on their face, and she had that. Kimberlyn had the prettiest dark brown eyes, the perfect nose, long dark hair, and a slim thick body. Her imperfection, if you will, was her mouth. She had a huge ass Kool-Aid mouth like Aaliyah. It made her smile very captivating. Her home girl Goldie was fine too, and funny enough, her big ass nose made her bomb. I tried smashing her on the low, but she shut me down so badly I almost had her killed for embarrassing me. To keep her from running her mouth to Kimberlyn, I had to pay her five grand. Matikah was cool too, but she looked too perfect and pretty like a doll. All her features were flawless, and for some reason I didn’t like that. We all had our own little things that we liked, I guess.

  Anyway, I got Kimberlyn’s number and we got to know each other for a little over a year. We would hang out a lot, but she would only let me kiss her. I didn’t mind because I knew I had her in my pocket. Little did I know, her little ass was gonna leave me high and dry. Me, Gang, the king of Boston, got ditched by some regular bitch from Roxbury. But damn was she pretty.

  “Does she know that I’ve basically been your girl, even before you knew her? Does she know you haven’t stopped fucking with me?” Monica quizzed as she stared out the window with a lone tear traveling down her light cheek.

  “Nah, she don’t. Of course she don’t, and I appreciate you keeping quiet about that shit, shorty. Don’t cry,” I pulled her over to me, in which she hesitated at first, but finally gave in. “I love you, don’t even trip. You know you gon’ be my wife, especially now that she’s out of the picture.”

  “For real, Saa? Or are you just blowing smoke?” She looked up into my eyes with her hazel ones.

  “I’m for real. I just need to get out this funk. I don’t even think it’s necessarily her that got me tweakin’, it’s that my ego is a little bruised.”

  “To be honest, I think it was karma.”

  “Karma? How?”

  “She did what you did to me.”

  “Get off me, man.” I moved my arm from around her, and she sucked her teeth before scooting back over to her side. “I ain’t even really leave you like that. I explained that I just wanted to fuck, and that I did have love for her but I didn’t love her like I love you,” I lied. “So how is it that it’s karma? You knew once I fucked I was gonna be right back to you.”


  “It’s still fucked up, Saa, I should be enough for you.”

  “And I told you I was a nigga with needs, and you said it was cool as long as you were the main.”

  “Well I don’t know if I feel like that anymore. We’re twenty-eight years old, Saa, it’s time to progress or just separate.”

  “Well if you keep trying to come at me sideways and change who I am, we’re gonna fuckin’ separate and that’s on everything I love. Moose, take Ms. Jordan home, please.”

  “Really, Saa?” she snapped her neck to look at me after hearing what I’d instructed my driver to do.

  I declined to respond, and we didn’t say shit to one another the whole ride to her house. I didn’t feel like hearing all the bullshit she was talking about. Like I said, I would love to give Monica the world because she deserved it, but something was keeping me from feeling that for her. I couldn’t move forward with her until I figured it out, and that was the end of it.

  After dropping Monica off, I had my driver pick Peel up because he said he had some shit to tell me. We made it to his crib in Backbay, and pulled over. I text him to let him know I was outside, and he promptly came out and jogged to the car.

  “What’s good?” he dapped me up and shook his head once he got inside.

  “Same shit, gettin’ money and dealing with this TQ and Kimberlyn shit. But what’s up with you? What did you have to tell me?”

  “Man, I think Hayden is fuckin’ around on me.”

  “What, nigga? Why?”

  “Well I think she wants to. A couple of times I caught her checking social media for TQ.”

  “That nigga don’t have social media.”

  “Yeah, but bitches that’s on his dick do, and they be posting shit about him, even Kimberlyn posted once or twice. Anyway, she be searching his name in the tags. I caught her three times, and both times she was stammering over her words.”

  “Damn, did you ever take the time to see exactly what she looks at? Or you just saw her searching and said something?”

  “I saw her searching so I said something. One time I did see her on Kimberlyn’s page, and she was reading the comments under a picture Kimberlyn posted of this fancy ass dinner. TQ wasn’t in the picture though.”