The Lies We Tell for Love (The Love, Lies & Lust Series)

by Mz. Robinson

  “Damon, you and I both know that’s not all there was to it. Don’t lie.” Nadia laughed.

  “You don’t know shit,” I said angrily.

  “Hmm. I don’t? Are you sure about that?” she taunted. “Tell me, Damon, is that a chance you’re really willing to take?”

  “I’ve been taking chances all my life, Nadia,” I said. “What’s one more? If I were you, I’d be very careful when it came to picking my battles,” I warned. “And I’d be even more careful about who I started a war with.” continued, “Money doesn’t make all the bad shit disappear, but the right amount of it can get rid of the wrong people.”

  Silence.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I said, breaking the pregnant pause.

  “Soon?” Nadia’s tone changed. The arrogance and sarcasm had been replaced with what sounded a lot like fear.

  “Yes,” I said. “Soon. I’m coming to get my son,” I added.

  Click.

  I hung up before she could respond simply because there was nothing left for the two of us to discuss. Nadia felt the ball was in her court, and truth be told, she was right because she had my son and my secret in her arsenal. It was time for me to gain control of our situation and put the ball back in my own damn hands.

  “Hello?” Octavia answered.

  “Hey, baby,” I said, looking at my watch. “I’m going to have to cancel our lunch date.”

  “Aw!”

  “I know. I’m sorry, sweetheart,” I said. “Something came up, and I have to take care of an issue with a client, but I’ll definitely be home in time for dinner.”

  “Mm-hmm,” she said, smacking her lips. “You owe me…and Jazz.”

  “I know,” I said. “How about I treat my two favorite girls to Ruth’s Chris?” I asked.

  “Let me think,” she said. It took her less than three seconds to come back with an excited “Okay!”

  “I love you, baby.”

  “I love you too,” I said before ending the call.

  ***

  Lawrence stared at me from the other side of my desk. Smiling, he erupted in laughter. I had just brought him up to speed on everything that had been going on with Nadia and the fact that she and I had a son together. I had completely forgotten about Kelly, for at that moment, I had bigger issues to contend with. “I just want to know how you expected to pull this off?” Lawrence asked, shaking his head.

  “Pull what off?”

  “Keeping wifey from finding out about your illegitimate child,” he said, leaning forward in his chair. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, ‘cause you’re good, but damn, man!”

  I knew Lawrence was right, but I didn’t have the time nor the patience to dwell on where I’d gone wrong with the situation with Nadia. The only thing I was concerned about was keeping my family together. I knew telling Octavia about Donovan was going to be a chore all its own, and though I was sure she was going to pop completely off, I felt in my heart that she would ultimately forgive me. I had bigger problems to worry about. If Nadia really did know more than I thought she knew and decided to get brave and start running her mouth, things were going to come out about me that I was sure Octavia would be unable to forgive. “Can you handle this or not?” I asked impatiently.

  Lawrence stood and adjusted his jacket. He offered me a small smirk and a nod. “Have you ever known me to turn down an assignment?” he asked as he walked to the door. “Consider this shit done,” he said before exiting.

  Chapter 24

  Octavia

  It was “pamper me day,” which included my mid-month trip to the Hair Tip to see my stylist, Mona. She was the salon owner and had been doing my hair for almost nine years. She had several other qualified stylists working for her, but I refused to allow another stylist to touch my hair. Mona did a great job, never overbooked herself, and never kept me waiting. As long as she continued that kind of customer service, I would always remain one of her most loyal customers. I sat in Mona’s styling chair flipping through the latest edition of Black Hair magazine while Mona trimmed the ends of my dripping wet hair.

  “So Shontay’s still out gallivanting around the globe?” Mona asked.

  “Yes, ma’am.” I laughed lightly. “And she’s loving every minute of it.”

  “Good for her.”

  “I know that girl deserves it,” I said, thinking about my bestie. I hadn’t talk to her in weeks, and I was sure she would have been back in town by now. I made a mental note to give her a call just to see how things were going. “Oh, I wanted to ask you about some products,” I said, suddenly remembering the items I had in my bag. I reached into my purse and pulled out the bag where I had placed the shampoo and oils in from Déjà Vu Salon. “I received these as a gift,” I told Mona. “Are they really all natural?” I needed to know before I used the items. The last thing I wanted was to wake up with my hair all over my damn pillowcase.

  Mona removed one of the bottles from my hand and nodded her head. “Oh, this is the new top-of-the-line stuff,” she said happily. She opened the bottle and took a big whiff of it. “Damn, girl, this smells good.”

  “So it’s on the up and up?” I asked.

  “Hell, yeah!” Mona exclaimed. “You are looking at fifty bucks a bottle right there.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” she confirmed. “Hubby knows how to spend,” she said.

  “Well, these didn’t come from my hubby,” I informed her. I told Mona that the basket was sent anonymously and that I assumed the salon owner was just looking to do some marketing.

  “Girl, the chick behind these products is the next Paul Mitchell,” she said. “She is banking. I seriously doubt she would send her products to anyone for free. And if she is doing that, where in the hell is my gift basket?”

  “Who is she?” I asked.

  “Name’s Lena Jasper,” she said. I watched her as she dug through a stack of magazines that were lying next to her station. “I hate when these broads borrow my ish and don’t return it!” she huffed. “Who has my copy of Today’s Black Woman?” Mona yelled Standing with her hands on her wide hips, she scanned the room with her eyes.

  “My bad, Ms. Mona,” said Jade, Mona’s nail technician. I watched as Jade walked across the wooden floor, swinging her lean hips from side to side, until she reached the station where Mona and I were.

  Jade was a beautiful Latino woman with emerald-green eyes and something I could only refer to as a J-Lo ass. She always wore her silky black hair in cornrows, straight to the back. She licked her lips and winked at me. Jade had been making passes at me on the low every since Mona had hired her three years earlier. Mona kept her around because she was the best nail tech in the city and could do nails by hand or with a drill. Plus, she was the bomb when it came down to designs. I had to give her credit for her work, but the trick worked my last nerve with her lesbian come-ons. I have no problem with how people choose to float their boats, as long as they don’t try to put their tongue on mine uninvited. For the longest time, Jade claimed to have a live-in boyfriend, but she finally came out of the closet eight months before this. I just so happened to be in the salon the day she made her big announcement.

  “Excuse me, excuse me,” she said, standing in the middle of the room. “I have a confession to make.”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing to focus on Jade and her big confession.

  “I’m a lesbian,” she said proudly.

  We all looked at her like we were waiting for her to say something else. When she didn’t, everyone continued working, back to business as usual. There were no comments, whispers, or even gasps of shock. Why? Because people don’t stop to make news out of shit they already know!

  She handed Mona the magazine then looked at me through the glass. “Looking good, Ms. O,” she said, shamelessly licking her lips again.

  Cutting my eyes at her, I gave her a smirk. “Keep on with that, and I’ll tell your wife,” I said.

  “What my wife and your husband don�
�t know won’t hurt them,” she said with a coy smile.

  “When Hell freezes over, Jade,” I said.

  “So you say, O…so you say.” Jade laughed, then strutted off.

  “Leave Octavia alone!” Mona snapped, flipping through the magazine, “and stop borrowing my books if you’re not going to return them.” Mona chuckled and looked at me. “That girl is determined to get at you.”

  “She is determined to get her ass kicked then,” I said.

  Mona found the page she was looking for and handed it to me. “See? Lena Jasper,” she said, crossing her arms across her breast. There was an article in the beauty section of the publication, featuring an up-and-coming stylist in Los Angeles who was taking the West Coast by storm. “That heifer is getting paid,” Mona said, tapping the page with her fingernail. “She is so hot she refuses to be photographed.”

  According to the article, Déjà Vu was a full-service salon, offering everything from hair and nail care to skincare and makeup. The salon was the biggest of its kind, rated number one in the area since its opening a little over a year ago. In less than a year, the salon had already doubled what it took to open. In addition to her salon, Lena planned to open a boutique within the next year.

  I sat there trying to remember where I had heard her name before. I thought maybe Mona had mentioned her before and I had forgotten, but I still couldn’t understand why anyone would send me a gift that was valued over $500, according to Mona. It made no sense, but I was going to enjoy the freebies anyway. I planned to use each of the products, and if I really enjoyed them, I would be sure to order more.

  ***

  Damon seemed incredibly tense that night as the two of us lay in bed. When I inquired about his day, he simply advised me that it had been a little rough. “Is there something I can do to help alleviate the stress?” I asked, running my hand across his bare chest.

  “Not tonight, bay,” he said. “Let’s just lie here.”

  I agreed, but I was extremely concerned. Whenever Damon and I were in the same city, with the exception of one of us being under the weather, there was only one week out of each month when we didn’t indulge in something sexual. Other than that, making love or engaging in oral sex was something we did on a daily basis. Daily! It didn’t matter if one of us was snoring with one eye open. We enjoyed each other every single day. “Are you feeling okay?” I asked, worried about him.

  “Yeah, baby,” he said. “I’m fine.”

  What the hell? I touched his forehead nonchalantly just to see if he had a fever. He felt fine to me. Damon wasn’t sick, and Mother Nature hadn’t come calling on me yet, so I had no idea what could possibly have had my hubby so distracted that he wasn’t in the mood to touch me. It wasn’t like him at all. Flashbacks of my moment in the guesthouse with Kelly invaded my mind. Is it possible that Damon knows something? Certainly, he would have said something to me by now. Oh, God…if he knows, maybe he’s so hurt that he’s just speechless? Confess, Octavia, the little voice in my head whispered to me. Shut the hell up! I whispered back to that bitch. She was trying to get both of our asses in hot water! I decided to leave well enough alone. I was 100 percent certain that Kelly was not going to rat either of us out. Besides, it wouldn’t be much longer before he’d move on to live and work elsewhere. I planned to ride it out. After all, he’ll be out of our lives soon enough, right?

  Chapter 25

  Damon

  I hadn’t heard from Nadia, nor had I been able to get in contact with her since the last time we’d talked. I decided one sure way to get her to contact me was to cut her credit card off. I had yet to tell Octavia about Donovan, and I didn’t have a damn clue what I was waiting for. Maybe there was a small part of me that was hoping Nadia would break the news and take some of the pressure I felt off me. It was a straight bitch move, but I’m man enough to admit that. I knew there was no way the information would sound better coming from the other woman, but at the same time, I had held the secret inside for far too long. My mind was set on what I had to do, but then Lawrence came to see me unannounced.

  For the first time since I had been doing business with him, he wasn’t dressed in a suit. Instead, it was a khakis that were creased to the tee and a money-green Ralph Lauren polo shirt with white and green Air Max. I was going to joke with him about finally tricking some unsuspecting woman into going out with him, but the look on his face told me the news he had for me was no joking matter. “What you got for me?” I asked.

  He handed me a large manila envelope then reclined in his chair. “First of all, your baby-mama doesn’t reside in L.A.,” he informed me bluntly.

  “What?”

  “Nadia relocated to Atlanta more than a year ago,” Lawrence advised me.

  I could understand her wanting to move, especially with the direction her career was going. What I couldn’t figure out was why she lied about it. “What else you got?” I asked. I was anxious to see what else Nadia had been up to, but I was completely unprepared for what Lawrence had to tell me.

  He opened the envelope and slid out some documents and several photographs. He handed them to me and shook his head. “I would have gotten back to you sooner,” Lawrence advised me, “however, I wasted two days in L.A. looking for the bitch, only to discover her ass moved across the country.”

  I could feel my anger boiling inside of me as I read over the papers Lawrence provided, everything from copies of Nadia’s petition for child support to records of another paternity test. Of course the paternity test showed that the other man was not the father.

  “Look at the pictures,” Lawrence urged. “I have a name and address for the blonde in the first photograph.”

  “I don’t need her name,” I said angrily. “I already know the bitch.” Staring at the pretty blonde female in the picture with Nadia, I reminisced about the day we’d meet. Her words echoed through my head, “Right this way, Mr. Whitmore.” Lawrence had captured pictures of her having lunch with Nadia and the two of them shopping. They looked like they were having a wonderful time—all at my expense, I was sure. “Give me her address,” I demanded. “I’m going to go pay her a visit.”

  “Which one?” Lawrence asked. “Baby-mama or ol’ girl.”

  “Both,” I said. As I glanced through the last three photographs and clenched my fist. The other pictures showed her in what appeared to be a heated argument with a woman. For a moment, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but the pictures were vivid and clear.

  “I told you shit don’t just happen, D,” Lawrence said lowly.

  “I see that,” I said, running my hand over my head.

  “You need some help handling this?” he offered. “I got a new client I’m meeting up with in the A this week anyway. I’d be more than happy to help you clean this up.”

  I shook my head. “No, just get me a car,” I said, “nothing flashy. That’s all I need.” As I stared at the pictures, I began planning my next move. “I got this,” I said, “Yeah, I got this.”

  ***

  I was in my own zone for the entire drive home. I had so many questions that needed to be answered, and I was overcome with emotions after what I’d learned from Lawrence. The biggest emotion of all was anger.

  I was almost finished packing when Octavia walked through the door. The smile on her face quickly dissipated when she saw my open bag lying on the bed. I was expecting her to throw me some attitude at any moment about having to go out of town again, but she didn’t. Instead, she stood with an unreadable expression on her face. “Damon,” she said slowly, “where are you going?”

  “I have to go Atlanta for a few days,” I explained. “There is a major problem at the office.”

  There was something in Octavia’s eyes that looked like relief. “Oh,” she said. “Okay,”

  “Baby, what’s wrong?” I asked, extending my arms to her.

  She walked over into my embrace; wrapping her arms tightly around my waist. “It’s just…well…after the other night, when
you didn’t want to have sex,” she said, “I thought something was wrong between us. And now I come home and find you packing your bags,” she rambled.

  Cradling her face in between my hands, I looked into her eyes. “Babe, I was tired and stressed out the other night,” I reassured her. “That’s all it was. We are going to have those moments, but that doesn’t mean I want you any less.”

  Her honey-brown eyes were wide and clear as she looked at me, not uttering a word.

  “I love you, Octavia,” I said. “Leaving you is the one thing you never have to worry about from me.”

  She smiled the smile I had grown to love. “I love you more,” she whispered to me.

  Lowering my head, I kissed her lips slowly. I wanted to treasure every second of the moment the two of us were sharing because I knew in my heart that once I returned from Atlanta, the life we knew and shared would never be the same.

  Chapter 26

  Octavia

  When I came home and saw Damon packing his bags, I wanted to throw myself at his feet and beg him not to leave! Okay, maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but it felt like my heart was going to drop to my toes. There was a look of anger that I had only seen once before, the day I came home and found him watching the video of me and Beau. When I saw that expression, I immediately thought he knew about Kelly. Maybe I should have known better, but it takes a lot of brain power to keep a secret from your spouse. Add that to all my day-to-day work and responsibilities, and it’s easy to panic at the first sign of anything. I was feeling so guilty about Kelly that I didn’t even bother to trip when Damon advised me he was going out of town—yet again. Now that I think about it, I was somewhat relieved that I would have a few days to get my mind right and some time to sit down with Kelly.

  The garden Kelly had created was breathtaking. There were trellises covered with ivy and jasmine and beautiful green shrubs and azalea plants. Kelly had planted two flowering cherry trees and even a Japanese maple. There was a small pond in the middle of the garden that would later be home to some koi fish. A few minor details still had to be handled, like the koi pond and the stone path leading from the main house to the garden, but for the most part, the overall condition of the place was beautiful. There was a bench made of solid oak that you could sit on and watch the fish in the pond, as well as a small watering fountain. Kelly was on his hands and knees arranging stones around the pond when I approached him. “It looks absolutely wonderful,” I said, standing behind him.