by B. M. Hardin
I was going to make him be the man that I needed him to be, even if I had to take away something that he loved to do it.
Drake started to back out of the driveway and just before he could get out of it completely, her Lexus zoomed behind him and parked.
Aw hell…
His wife got out of the car, and I could tell that she was as mad as a wet hen.
Maybe she did care.
But whether she did or she didn’t, obviously in some way, Drake did too.
And how did she know where he was anyway?
I got out of the car with an attitude, even though legally and morally she was the only one that had the right to be angry.
“Drake really? You told me that you weren’t going to see her anymore,” she said.
Oh he did, did he?
Yeah right.
As long as I made myself to available to Drake, he was going to keep on coming to get what he thought was his.
He’d been sprung off of this ass for years.
And even though I wasn’t giving him some at the moment, he was hopeful enough that I might give in and he didn’t mind coming over every single day to see if I did.
But he was lying to her about me?
And lying to me about her?
Drake was up to no good.
“What are you doing here? How did you know I was here?” Drake asked.
“I located your phone duh. I added it to our plan the other day and looks like it works like a charm.”
“You stupid,” he said to her.
“No, you’re stupid. And you got the bitch living in my house?”
Wait a minute…what?
What the hell was she talking about?
“Excuse me, but he bought this house for me, and I have the papers to prove it,” I said to her, slowly approaching them.
“No sweetie, this is my house. Or at least it still better be. I lived here before we got married. Once we married, I moved in with him, and since he is a realtor, and owns his own company, I put the house in his hands to put it up for sale. He’d told me that he hadn’t been able to sell it yet, but that a couple wanted to rent it. He hands me “rent money” every month, as though the house had tenants that were paying him. And you mean to tell me that you’ve had your whore living here the whole time?”
She was now all up in Drake’s face.
I was stuck.
Though I wanted to go off on her because of her comment, or maybe I wanted to go off on Drake because of her comments, I was frozen in place.
You mean to tell me that this fool really had me living in his wife’s house?
The same house that he’d said that he’d bought just for me?
You have got to be kidding me!
He’d even given me fake paperwork and everything!
This was the side that I hated about him.
The side where he just didn’t give a damn about anybody but himself.
Do you know how cruel and ignorant a person has to be to move his side chick in a house that belonged to his main chick…his wife?
I just didn’t know what to say to such nonsense.
From being lost in my thoughts, I wasn’t sure who swung first, but by the time I’d come to, Drake and his wife were literally, physically, going at it.
She was swinging her fists at him, and he was pushing, and occasionally mushing her.
Had it been us, we would have been rumbling, but he was trying to show some restraint.
But it wasn’t working.
She was letting him have it.
I looked on for a little while, and when Drake took his eyes off of her, for just a second to look at me, she rocked his whole world with one hell of a right hook.
But tell me why I got mad though?
I should have been over there getting a few licks in myself, but for some reason seeing her hit Drake set something loose inside of me.
And before I could stop myself, I had come to Drake’s defense.
Before she could even realize what was happening, I was on top of her.
No one could hit Drake like that but me.
And at heart, I really felt as though I was defending my man.
I couldn’t be more stupid even if I tried.
And check this out, Drake didn’t even try to break us up.
Instead, he jumped into her car and pulled off.
Realizing what had just happened we stopped fighting each other and looked after the car.
It was as though we both instantly felt ridiculous.
I got off of her and she stood up.
She didn’t say a word.
As people were starting to stop and stare, she got herself together, glanced at me and then at the house.
She shook her head and headed to Drake’s car.
She reached under the back of his car, near the trunk, and pulled out a spare key.
Still silent, she got into his Lexus and sped away.
A neighbor or two headed for me but I headed into the house and locked the door behind me.
I’d taken so much from Drake before, but this time, was the last time.
That first love, can’t live without him mess was out the window.
The whole Drake and Moet hood love story, had finally reached an end.
I was absolutely, positively, definitely, and completely through with his no-good, lying married ass!
This story was officially over.
The end!
********************************
Chapter FOUR
“But I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Well, you can’t stay here, Moet,” Mama said to me as she tried to close the door in my face, but I stopped her.
“I’m still your daughter Mama. I can’t help who I love. The decisions that I’d made all of those years ago, may have been dumb, they might have even been stupid but they were all out of love. I loved him. And he loved me.”
“Then where is he now?”
And with that, Mama forced the door closed, letting it slam shut in my face.
Where was Drake now?
Somewhere looking for me most likely.
After the big brawl, I was just too fed up.
I didn’t know if Drake’s wife was the calling the police type, but I didn’t want to take any chances, and since I was living in her house, I loaded my car with what I could and I took off.
Drake called and tried to explain at least a hundred times, but I wasn’t trying to hear it.
How dare he have me living in another woman’s house?
Scratch that, how dare he have me living in his wife’s house?
And for well over two years!
He just couldn’t be that damn stupid!
And to tell me that it was my own home and to pretend as though he’d loved me enough to buy it for me, so that I would always, no matter what have a place that I could call home, but to have been lying to me the entire time.
Now that was just cruel.
The damn house wasn’t mine.
And just like everything else in the equation, it was hers.
I’d literally almost had a heart attack and my head felt as though it wanted to explode.
Drake was just evil and for the first time, ever, I was really ready to walk away from him and lock the door to the past behind me.
What he felt for me just couldn’t be love and the more I sat around lying to myself, the more and more he would continue to hurt me.
It was time that I started doing what was best for me.
It was time that Moet looked out for Moet, and finally it was time to say goodbye to Drake.
I didn’t have a job, but I had a car that was paid for so that was a start.
Though Drake paid for it, I was there when he bought it and everything was in my name.
So, at least I had transportation.
I’d had a good bit of cash too.
Of course Drake gave me money, often, and usually it was more than enough, so I had be
en saving some of it here and there.
But after staying at a hotel for almost four weeks, buying food three times a day, and putting in gas to go job hunting almost every day of the week, my funds had started to get low, and with nowhere else to turn, I’d thought that I would try my parents.
But I’d thought wrong.
My parents, Mama especially, still hated me, so I was all on my own.
Unless I turned back to Drake.
Drake called me all day, every day.
Literally, he’d been calling non-stop for four weeks straight.
I’d even gotten the notification that he’d paid my phone bill, and right after that, he called again.
But I didn’t have anything else to say to him.
I’d driven by his house a few times and he was still there and so was she.
So basically, nothing had changed.
And so I hadn’t changed my mind.
I hated him and loved him all at the same time.
Despite all of the things that he’d done to me, I still managed to have love in my heart for him.
When would it all just go away?
Here I was, pretty much homeless, and for what?
All because of him.
Whether it was referring to the past, present, and probably the future, it was all because of him.
I pulled out of my parent’s driveway, and told myself that I would never reach out to any of them again.
I was done trying to make amends.
From that moment on, they were all dead to me; after all, I was already dead to them.
I drove around for a while and tried to figure out my next move.
I could probably afford a few more days at the hotel, but after that, I would definitely need a plan or somewhere else to go.
I was going to have to do something.
I was starting to stress, but I tried to remain hopeful.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t been homeless before.
The only difference was that back then Drake had been with me.
Once I came out of college to keep a closer eye on Drake and before I’d decided to go for a certification in medical assistant, my parents and I had a huge disagreement.
Dray had been in some trouble once again and they were giving me hell about quitting school and about keeping ties with him.
I was forbidden to see him at their home or really at all for that matter, but I did it anyway.
They were trying to make me stop loving him, but I just couldn’t help myself.
I loved him too much.
Mama caught Drake in my room one night and she put us both out in the middle of the night as though it was nothing.
She didn’t hate me just yet, but at that time she was merely trying to prove a point.
And I had a point to prove too.
I loved Drake and there was nothing that she could do about it.
So, I stayed away from home for a while and Drake made ways out of no way in order to make sure that we ate and had somewhere to sleep.
He took care of us.
The only reason I’d decided to go back home was because I figured that I needed to get a job and I needed a trade so I lied and told my parents that I wasn’t going to see Drake anymore, got certified, found a job, and after two months of working, I was out of my parent’s house again.
And Drake moved in with me.
He’d only moved out once he’d started to sell drugs, in order to make sure that I was safe as he’d said.
For as long as I could remember Drake had been causing problems in my life, and I was more than tired of it.
But at the moment, Drake was the only person that I could think of that would help me.
He was the only one calling to see about me.
Since I’d been out of prison, he was the only one who had been around to help me and see about me.
Despite everything else, he had been the only one somewhat there for me.
I didn’t have anyone else to turn to.
I’d been out for over two years, almost three, I could have surely found another man by now.
But I had been so stuck on Dray, that now I only had him to depend on and whether I wanted to or not, from the looks of it I was going to have to.
But maybe this time it could be on my own terms.
Since Drake was always using me, maybe it was time that I started using him.
After all, he was already taken, and since he always got what he wanted out of the deal, maybe it was time for me to have my own agenda when it came to Dray.
Maybe talking to him, in order to get some more money was the only option that I had.
Then he could go to hell for all I care.
I knew that Drake wouldn’t mind giving me money.
I just hated the fact that I had to ask him.
Drake called my phone again, and even though I didn’t really want to answer it, I knew that I had to.
He was the only person somewhat in my corner.
My rock and my enemy.
Who knew that a person could be one in the same?
“Where are you Moe? I could kill you! I’ve been looking for you everywhere! For all I knew, you could have been dead! I thought something had happened to you!”
“I’ll tell you where I’m not. I’m not at your wife’s house I tell you that!” I screamed at Drake.
Drake was breathing hard and slow as though he was trying to stabilize his breathing and slow down the pace of his heartbeat.
Was he really that worried about me?
I found that hard to believe.
“I love you Moe”
“Go to hell.”
“I haven’t been able to sleep or do anything but think about you. I’ve been driving around, looking for you non-stop. I was going to file a missing person’s report. I’m sorry Moe, I’m so sorry.”
“Whatever. And yeah you are sorry. A sorry piece of sh—,”
“Meet me,” Drake said cutting me off.
“Hell no. Meet you for what?”
In all honesty, that was exactly what I’d wanted him to say so that I could ask him for some money.
But he didn’t need to know that.
“Please just meet me Moet. Do you have money? Have you been eating? You don’t have a job. Where have you been staying? How have you been getting by? I told you that as long as I’m living, I’ll always take care of you didn’t I? Let me keep my word. Meet me.”
It behooved me as to how he could portray to love me so much, yet he treated me like dirt.
He wanted me to be his other woman for the rest of my life, but yet he wanted to take care of me.
I just didn’t understand.
One minute he was the most caring man on earth and the next minute, he was just like all of the rest of them.
Maybe it was all out of obligation or pity, and maybe love had nothing to do with it.
But at this point, I needed whatever he was offering so after going back and forth with him, I agreed to meet him, which I had planned to do all along.
I pulled up at the restaurant, to see him already sitting there and he got out of the car before I could even park.
He approached the car and immediately touched my face.
“Are you okay Moe? Where have you been?”
I didn’t have time for him to play concerned.
Just give me the money so that I could go.
“Does it matter? You have been with her.”
“Moe, come on now, it wasn’t like I tried to hide it from you. You knew I had a wife.”
Was he serious?
“Hide it from me? So you didn’t hide it from me? You got married while I was in prison, doing time for your stupid ass!”
It seemed like every time I was in his presence, I was either in a rage or heartbroken, and I was tired of feeling either way.
“And I told you. The marriage was a business deal. At least for me it was. But it’s going to get better. You just have to stop acting crazy a
nd be patient.”
I rolled my eyes.
I guess almost three years wasn’t being patient enough.
“Dray, I’m done with you. If I can’t have all of you, then I don’t want any of you. I’m done Drake. My feelings for you are too strong. I don’t know what I was thinking ever trying to be your chick on the side. You should have never even asked me to.”
Drake looked at me.
“You’re right.”
What?
“You’re right I should have never asked you to be the other woman.”
I didn’t quite know where this whole thing was going. But for the most part I didn’t care.
“Not seeing or hearing from you for what, a month, really made me think. I went without you in prison because I had to, but I don’t know if I can do it without you Moet. Believe it or not, I love you. I always have. The situation isn’t the best but it’s my fault for putting us all in something like this in the first place. You. Me. and Her.”
I rolled my eyes again.
I just wished that he would stop talking already and just give me some money.
I no longer cared what his reasons were.
The damage was already done.
“Look, let’s find you an apartment, condo or something. You pick it out. I’ll pay it up for a year, and we will see what happens after that. No matter what, I got your back, you know that right? I’ll always have your back just like you had mine,” Drake said.
He was definitely in his feelings and maybe my absence had pulled at the strings of his heart more than I thought it would.
But nevertheless, to me, and from the way that he talked, it was as though he already knew that he wasn’t going to leave his wife.
It was as though he’d just felt as though he actually did owe me something.
But if that was the case, why had he been leading me on for the past few years?
Why didn’t he just let me go a long time ago?
He could have picked me up from prison, told me the truth and then just let me go.
“You can give me the money. I’ll find one,” I said to him.
“You don’t have a job Moet. You need a job to rent a place. Find it. And let me know. Here. Here’s some money,” Drake said and handed me a bank envelope full of cash.
“Answer that damn phone when I call Moet,” he said, rubbed the side of my face and he got back into his car.