I exhaled deeply, “Misty, what night was this?”
“The night before y’all left to go to Miami.” Misty watched me damn near choke from inhaling too much smoke. She patted my back, “Girl, you a’ight? This shit is too strong to take to the head like that!”
I shook my head, standing up from the bench, just when Jamie made his way outside. It was about 11:00, and after hearing that bit of information from Misty, I was definitely ready to go home.
“Shawty, y’all can’t smoke that shit out here.” Jamie shook his head at the both of us.
Misty rolled her eyes. “Boy, bye. My dad is the one sponsoring this banquet. He owns this hotel, remember? And hello to you, too, Mr. Star Quarterback. How you been?” She hugged Jamie around his neck.
Jamie hugged her back, looking at me over her shoulder. “I’m good. Yo, let me holla at shawty alone real quick.”
Misty grinned at me. “Okay. See you later, Charlie. It was really nice seeing you again, boo. Don’t be a stranger! You got my new number now, girl, so dial it!” She winked at me before walking back into the hotel.
I looked up at Jamie. My heart pounded in my chest. Ashton’s dreams were a reality. We did go to Misty’s party back in 2014, and the worst part about it all is that it was right before the day we went to Miami. Right before I spent that week with Jamie in that beach house. I was fucked.
Jamie’s eyes searched my face. He sensed something was wrong. “Shawty, you good?”
I faked a smile, shaking off my guilt. “Oh, yeah, I’m good. Just a little buzzed.”
Jamie laughed a little. “I know you got somethin’ from her for a nigga.”
I grinned, “Oh, you know I did. I got you.” I patted my purse.
“Seriously though, I never got the chance to thank you for that contract. I’m not saying that I agree with the way you went about getting it, but,” Jamie’s eyes searched mine. “I appreciate ya. No one has ever done anything like that for me.”
I shook my head at him, really not trying to get emotional that night. “It was no big deal, Jamie. I did it for my son.”
Jamie nodded. “You did it for me, too, shawty. I never got the chance to tell you how sorry I am for the way I treated you for almost two years. You didn’t deserve that. I blamed you for losing that girl when I was the one to blame. You and me, we’ve been cool all my life. You know I never meant to hurt you, Charlene.”
I nodded, fixing the collar of his shirt, trying to distract myself from crying. “I know, boo. You don’t have to apologize, okay? It’s obvious that I forgive you, or we wouldn’t be standing here talking to each other tonight.”
“So, you comin’ home with me tonight, shawty?” Jamie held my waist, pulling my body closer to his.
I sighed, thinking about Ashton and the number of times he’d texted me that night. I had lied to him, telling him that I was staying over my cousin’s crib because I had a photo shoot in the morning. I knew from the moment I slid into that dress that I was going to Jamie’s place just so he could take it off.
“I don’t know, Jamie.” That bit of information Misty gave me had me feeling some type of way. “I should go back home. Ashton has been calling and texting me. He got off at seven. I forgot we were supposed to be going to dinner and a movie tonight. He actually wants to spend time with me. Meanwhile”—I looked Jamie up and down as he laughed—“your smooth-talkin’ ass just wants to take me home and remove some clothing. You don’t love anyone but yourself, Jamie. Ashton loves me regardless of what everyone else thinks about me. Maybe I should give this boy a chance.”
“Maybe you should.” Jamie’s brown eyes searched my body. “But not tonight.”
I looked into Jamie’s face. “Why you always wanna take my clothes off, Jamie?”
Jamie grinned lookin’ back into my face. “Shit, we can do it with the dress on if you want to. C’mon, let’s get out of here. I haven’t seen you in two months. I’m sure the nigga can spare you for one night. Just for an hour. You don’t live that far from me. I’ll get you home by one o’clock, I promise.”
Boy, did he lie. From the moment we stepped inside of his mansion, panties were coming off. He just couldn’t wait. He fucked me up against the wall, in the corridor. The first words out of Jamie’s mouth after he came were, “Spend the night with me.” I hadn’t heard him ask me that since we spent the night on that beach. I don’t know if it was the loneliness that was talking, but whatever it was, I wish he’d felt that way before Ashton got a hold of me. Damn. Fuck. Shit.
* * *
“Charlie, get your ass up!” I awoke to someone shaking the hell out of my arm.
“Lilia, bitch, you’re fired,” I muttered, burying my head under the pillow.
“No, dummy, it’s not Lilia. This is Jamie’s house, fool.” It finally registered in my brain that the sound of the woman’s voice was my damn sister’s.
“Heather?” I sat straight up in the bed, hair covering my face. “What the fuck? What are you doing here?” I pushed my hair from my face, covering up with the blanket.
Heather shook her head at me, standing there in her purple and black workout shorts and a tank top. Her dirty-blond hair was pulled up into my messy ponytail. “Girl, it’s ten o’clock. I told your ass when I picked August up yesterday that I would be droppin’ him off over here at ten today. What the fuck are you doing here?”
I looked over to my left, where Jamie had been sleeping the night before. I looked up at Heather. I didn’t have to ask how she got to Jamie’s place; I already knew whose broomstick she’d rode in on. “Where is Jamie?” I was reluctant to ask.
“Downstairs with mama.” She nodded, watching me hop my naked ass out of the bed, rushing over to the chair in the corner of the room where my clothes were laid. She shook her head at me. “I thought you were seeing Ashton. How the fuck did you end up over here last night?”
“Girl, why don’t you just concentrate on how to eat your girl’s pussy and stay the fuck out of my business? Damn, you’re just like mama, always in my shit when your shit doesn’t smell any better than mine.” I slid into my panties and threw on my dress.
Heather laughed a little. “Me and my girl are engaged. At least I have only been with one girl in my entire life. How many dicks been up in you? You got Ashton’s nose wide the fuck open, and you’re still chasing after Jamie’s ass? This dude will never love you like he loves Ne’Vaeh, so you might as well stop fooling yourself.”
I picked up my shoes, pushing past her. “Bitch, move. I don’t have time for your shit today.” I hurried out of Jamie’s room and down the steps to see my mother standing there, already with her finger in Jamie’s face, little August on her hip.
Mother looked up at me, watching me walk down the steps, bra and heels in my hand. She handed August to Jamie as I reached the bottom of the steps. She looked at Jamie and then back at me, shaking her head. “Charlie here has been dating Ashton for the past two months. Has she told you that?” Mama looked back at Jamie.
I sighed. “Mama, me and Ashton are just friends.”
Mother rolled her eyes from Jamie over to me. “Does he know that? He may be just your ‘friend,’ but you’re definitely not just his. That boy has worshipped the ground you walk on since you were like two years old, Charlene! He is too fragile for this shit! You’re really still seeing Jamie knowing how that boy feels about you?”
“Mama, please, stay the fuck out of my business this time. I don’t need you to do any more damage than you already have. Let me handle things my way this time, okay?” I slipped into my heels.
Mother shook her head at me. “Ya know, I was supposed to keep this a secret, but I thought you should know. I went with Ashton two weeks ago to help him pick out an engagement ring.”
I gasped, looking at Jamie.
Jamie grinned, shaking his head to himself, “I told you so” written all over his face.
“He was going to propose to you last night over dinner.” Mother shook her head at me,
her blue eyes shimmering. “Baby, that boy loves you. Despite all that you are and all the bullshit that you do, he loves you! But instead of love, your ass seems to want to feel pain. You want some more pain?” Mother dug through her purse to pull out a beige envelope wrapped in a purple bow. She shoved it at me. “Here! Feel this!”
I looked at her, holding the envelope in my hands. “What is this?”
“An invitation to Ne’Vaeh and Aaron’s wedding reception. It’s next week, you know, at the same place where your wedding reception was supposed to be.” Mother smirked a little before kissing her grandson on the forehead. “Bye, baby. Come on, Heather. Let’s leave the foolish couple alone.”
* * *
Watching Ne’Vaeh and Aaron shoving cake into one another’s face at their extended wedding was heartbreaking, I must admit. You should have seen him kissing and licking the cake off her face, while she giggled and cried at the same time. She wore the most beautiful tight, backless pearl-colored dress, covered in tiny pearls from her tiny little waist, to the end of her eight-foot train. I sat at a table in the far corner of the room with Ashton, his brother Trenton, his cousin Korel, Kelissa, Danita, Dana, Lailah, and Tyra. I didn’t want to sit with those bitches, but I had to sit far enough away from everyone so no one would see me crying. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head of what Misty had told me the night before. All I kept thinking was maybe little August wasn’t Jamie’s baby after all.
I couldn’t bear to watch them dancing together to Ne’Vaeh’s favorite R & B song entitled “Ah Yeah.” From the moment she heard that song, she told everyone that she was going to dance with her husband to that song. And there she was, face pressed against Aaron’s chest, dancing in his arms. They looked so cute together, they had damn near everyone, even Aaron’s mother, in tears. I couldn’t watch. I had to sneak away to the ladies’ room.
I sat on a bench in the bathroom, blowing my nose when Kelissa, Danita, Dana, Tyra, and Lailah made their way into the bathroom.
I rolled my eyes, drying my face. “Really? How the fuck is damn near our whole table gonna get up and walk the fuck out in the middle of a dance?”
“Girl, shut up.” Tyra went over to the mirror to blot her face. “Girl, that song had me in my feelings. I had to walk the fuck out before I grabbed some random dude and started kissin’ on him. Did you see those men in Aaron’s family? Every last one of them muthafuckas—white, black, Senegalese, Arabian—were fine as fuck!”
“For real!” Danita high-fived my cousin, standing alongside her at the mirror.
I had to clear my head. I had to ask them about Misty’s party. “Ummm,” I ran my fingers through my hair. “Y’all remember Misty’s party back in 2014, right?”
Lailah giggled. “Shit, barely! All I know is when I woke up, I was at the airport with you chicas, ready to board our flight to Miami.”
“What about the rest of y’all?” I looked at Kelissa, then Dana and Danita.
Kelissa rolled her eyes. “Well, I was the fuckin’ designated driver, so I didn’t drink shit. I spent most of my night making sure none of y’all ended up fuckin’ some random nigga at Misty’s crib.”
“And what about me?” I hesitated to ask.
Dana and Danita just looked at one another, and then at me.
Tyra looked at their reflection in the mirror, then turned around and looked at them. “What was that look for?”
“You don’t remember anything about the night before our trip to Miami? You really don’t remember going home with Ashton?” Dana looked at me.
Kelissa damn near tripped over her heels, falling down on the stool next to mine. “Say what?” She looked at me.
Tyra’s eyes were big as hell. “What are they talking about?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Then why are you asking about Misty’s party? And Dana, what the fuck do you mean she went home with Ashton?” Kelissa exclaimed.
Danita sighed. “When it was getting late, we were trying to round up all the girls that we knew had to be on the plane the next morning, headed to Miami. Like Lailah said, just about half of the squad was drunk as fuck. Alisha rounded up all the girls we could find, and we helped her put them in Kelissa’s Tahoe, and Alisha rode with her to take them back to the hotel. When we asked around if anyone had seen you, they said you had left with Ashton. Girl, me and Danita did a high-speed chase down that highway to make it to you before Alisha did! Good thing Aaron was out of town with his cousins. You were high as fuck, knowing good and damn well you can’t drink anything Misty’s brothers put together! They’re always trying to get them young bitches drunk at their parties so they can do whatever to them. You know Ashton’s square ass didn’t know there was anything put in that punch. Anyway, we got to Ashton’s crib, used Alisha’s key and went inside. We found you and Ashton naked on the bathroom floor!”
Tyra looked at the clueless expression on my face.
“It took me, Dana, and that chick Tisha who used to dance with us to get you up off of Ashton, dressed, and back to Dana’s apartment.” Danita shook her head at me.
“And the reason y’all never mentioned this shit to Charlene is because?” Kelissa took the words right out of my mouth.
Dana looked at me, her hazel eyes searching my face. “Alisha was already on Charlie’s ass enough as it was. She had suspected something happened between y’all years before, ya know? Why would we wanna cause more drama than was necessary?”
I just sat there in shock, letting Kelissa and my cousin Tyra do the arguing for me.
“The fuck you mean? Bitch, look at the damage that has been done!” Kelissa exclaimed. “Have you seen little August? I’m not saying he looks like Ashton, ’cause he looks like Charlie, but come on now, there’s not much a resemblance to Jamie, and now I see why!”
All five women in the bathroom looked at me, watching my chest heave in and out. I hadn’t had a DNA test done when I had the baby because I just knew that Jamie was his father. Aaron and I weren’t having sex during that time, and I found out that I was pregnant a few weeks after returning home from Miami. It wasn’t until the day Ashton kissed me that the memories started to come back. And if I hadn’t mentioned anything to Dana or Danita, they would have never mentioned it to me.
“Y’all could have told me this shit.” I shook my head at the both of them.
“What difference does it all make now? The damage has already been done.” Dana shook her head back at me. “You made this bed for yourself, Charlie, now you gotta be a woman and lay in that bitch.”
I stood from the bench, stepping up to her, getting in her face so she could hear me loud and clear. “Y’all bitches just like drama, that’s all this is! You knew I was too high and faded to know what the fuck I was doing, let alone remember it! Y’all had plenty of time to tell me what I had done!”
Dana shoved me, pushing me out of her personal space. “Are you serious? We didn’t even go on that Miami trip with you girls. How the fuck were we supposed to know that you’d end up sleeping with Jamie? As soon as we found out that you slept with Jamie during that retreat, we stayed out of your business.”
“Do you know what I’ve done? Ne’Vaeh was in love with Jamie!” I exclaimed.
Danita laughed a little. “Did you not just see that girl crying while Aaron recited his wedding vows to her? She couldn’t even say hers back to him, she was crying so much! Did she look like she was even thinking about Jamie to you?”
“Li’l Ne’Vaeh was like ‘Jamie, who?’” Lailah laughed.
“Exactly.” Danita shook her head at me.
I was so irritated with everyone’s thinking. “Are y’all serious? Y’all must not remember my baby shower, when that girl hit me in the face with that key, splitting my face the fuck in half! Y’all don’t remember that bullshit? Well, I do, because I had to pay thousands to get rid of that scar! I can barely chew on that side of my mouth! I pushed her to Aaron because I fucked up what she had with Jamie! And Jamie lov
es my son! And my son hasn’t woken up once not asking for Jamie!”
They all started to see my point then.
“Oh my goodness, what have I done?” I moaned.
“Charlie, you have to get a DNA test!” Tyra shook her head at me, her light eyes glistening. “If you don’t wanna tell Jamie, you can at least talk with Ashton. Or did you sleep with some more niggas that I don’t know about during that time?”
I looked at her. “Tyra, you’re my cousin, but don’t get fucked up. This shit isn’t funny.”
Tyra shook her head at me. “Who’s laughing?”
Kelissa looked at me. “Word on the street is you actually started dating Ashton.”
Danita gasped. “But I heard you were still fuckin’ with Jamie!”
Tyra was disgusted with me. “See, that’s the shit I’m talkin’ about! Charlie, I told you not to fuck with Ashton, so what are you doing?”
“I–I don’t know,” I whispered.
Kelissa threw her hands up, not sure what else she could say that would make a difference in my situation. “Girl, I don’t even know what to say to you that will help your situation. All I know is that boy Ashton has been in love with you since we were kids. And drunk, high, gone, faded or not, I’m sure that nigga has some sort of memory of what happened that night. You need to go ahead and get a DNA test. And if the baby is Ashton’s, you need to tell him. And if he’s not the man you wanna be with, you need to tell him that, too. The whole while Jamie was on the road, doing his acting thing, I’m sure you were fuckin’ Ashton. Now am I wrong?”
They all looked at me.
I sat back down on the bench, not answering the question.
Kelissa exhaled deeply, really not in the mood to lecture me or to start another fight like the one we had less than two years ago. “Yes, you hurt that girl when she found out the baby was Jamie’s. And yes, you’ll hurt Jamie if he finds out this baby is not his. You’re playing with Ashton’s heart when you know he loves you. You are his crutch now that Alisha is gone. If you don’t wanna be with him, you need to let him know and stop fuckin’ with his head. Dana’s right, the damage has already been done. From this point on, people are gonna get hurt. There’s no way around that, so stop lookin’ for it, shit. Just get the damn DNA test done, Charlie.”
It's Wrong for Me to Love You, Part 3 Page 20