I thought about Aiden’s and I child that I lost because of the stress from him dying, and I closed my eyes. Today wasn’t supposed to be this emotional but the moment I pulled into the cemetery I knew that it would be. Celine cleared her throat and I looked up. Elijah stood in front of us with Aiden’s daughter that wasn’t biologically his but he had raised. I stood up and smiled, wiping my tear-stained face.
“Hey,” I spoke to both of them. Eden ran over to me and started crying incredibly hard. Her mother, Aiden’s ex-wife, walked up wearing dark shades with a black sundress on. She grabbed Eden and they cried together. The whole scene was entirely too much for me. I rubbed her back, even though when Aiden was alive I wanted to kick her in it, and I walked off with Celine and Elijah following after me. Elijah helped Celine and my nephew get into her truck then he climbed into the car with me. I pulled away once I saw Celine pull off. Elijah rubbed my leg as I drove.
“Damn, I miss his crazy ass,” he said shaking his head. I nodded feeling a little weird discussing Aiden with him. I was originally with Elijah. I went to college in New York and came back home to a married Elijah. I stayed with him for months thinking he would leave his wife and he didn’t. That led to me leaving him for Aiden, his best friend. They were more like brothers so our betrayal was a shock to Elijah. I went on to marry Aiden, only to see that he was crazy as hell with mental problems that I knew nothing about. I knew that I had made a mistake but by then I wasn’t sure how I could leave Aiden without having to kill his ass. Aiden was later gunned down, with Elijah and their friend, Lloyd. Aiden and Lloyd were killed and Elijah survived the car shooting. It was by far one of the worst days of my life because I was carrying Aiden’s child. I hated Aiden for doing the things he did to me, but I didn’t wanna see him go out like that either. I mourned the loss of his life to the point that I ended up having a miscarriage. Elijah was now divorced from his wife that was living in Florida with his kids, and we are now living together. We are happy but I feel like another storm is headed our way. I prayed that it isn’t, but I could just feel that something was about to happen so I had been doubling up on prayer.
“Yeah,” I replied quietly. Elijah looked over at me. He was still as sexy as he was when I first fell in love with him. His dreads still stopped at his shoulder and they were pulled away from his face. His dark skin was still flaw free, with a smooth, chocolatey finish to it. His slanted eyes still pulled me in when I looked at him, and then there was his soft lips that felt heavenly against my skin. Elijah rocked a mustache and goatee and had the whitest teeth I had seen on a man. They were straight and just made you wonder how he turned out so perfect. He was on the taller side with a stocky build, and he also had a few tattoos. I wished that we didn’t have to go through hell and high water to get to where we are right now, but what’s done is done. I was happy with him and I hoped he was happy with me because I didn’t plan on letting him go again.
“So how is your girls doing?” he asked. I thought about the fight between Inga and Tegan at my beauty bar, and shook my head. That shit was crazy. Then Harlow ass goes missing because her twins pissed her off and had them blowing up my cell phone. My girls were all over the fucking place. That’s how they were doing.
“Um shit, I don’t know. They all going through some shit and I haven’t even talked to Inga,” I replied.
“Why not? Tell me you not still mad at her about that Hayden thing,” he said looking over at me. I pulled up to a stop sign and looked at him.
“Yes the hell I am. Did you forget she is married to your fucking cousin? I’m not with that shit,” I said angrily.
“Go to that Mexican restaurant that I like,” Elijah said chuckling. Elijah laughing only pissed me off more. I went to turn left and we were damn near shoved off of the road by this old ass lady in this big ass Cadillac. I hated how older people always seemed to drive the biggest fucking cars. That made it easy for them to fuck you up while they stayed safe.
“What’s so funny Elijah?”
“I’m just saying, you mad at Inga for marrying Hayden when you left me for my best friend, married the nigga, was even carrying his child at one point and I forgave you. Life is about forgiveness, Elsie. I don’t think any of us are in the position to judge people but instead what we do is act like our shit don’t stink and judge the next motherfucka for what they doing,” he replied. I opened my mouth to respond and shut my shit. He had me on that but I still wasn’t fucking with Inga. What she did was wrong and I wasn’t about to allow her up in my home not knowing if she’s looking at my damn man like he could be next on her list. Lee was crazy as fuck for having her around the twins, especially when she knew Marcos’ ass didn’t know how to keep his dick to himself. She was better than me because I would be in jail fucking around with Inga’s ass.
Once we arrived to Elijah’s favorite Mexican restaurant, we were immediately seated. It still felt so surreal that we were finally together again. We had been through hell and back and we were finally happy. I wanted it to last this time. I was actually entertaining the idea of us getting married and maybe having a kid together. Elijah already had kids with his ex-wife, Corrine, but I would like to see what our kid would be like. I don’t know… maybe a brown-skinned girl with curly hair and slanted eyes like her father. That might be cool.
“So I need to...”
“Elijah, what up nigga?” Marcos asked walking up to the table with three big ass niggas behind him. Elijah sat back in his seat. His handsome face hardened as he looked at Marcos. I looked between the two wondering what the fuck was going on. We were all family; at least I thought we were.
“Hey Marcos, what’s up?” I asked breaking the silence. Marcos looked at me and his lips upturned into a smile. He was looking like he always did with his olive colored skin, tall, stocky body and low cut, curly hair. He looked back at his boys and then down at me.
“You good mami?” he asked licking his lips while looking me over. Damn that voice…I see why Lee had a hard time saying fuck him. He was not your average nigga. He screamed money and power.
“Yeah nigga, she good,” Elijah said standing up. I stood up with him not wanting anything to escalate.
“Hey, Elijah. What’s going on baby? I thought we were all family?” I said walking over to him.
“Nah, this nigga ain’t family Elsie, go to the car,” Elijah snapped. Marcos took a step towards us and Elijah pushed me behind him.
“Oh I’m not? Shit, I wish I would have known that. I would have been pulled up on you nigga. Let’s go have a talk then Elijah,” Marcos said. I grabbed Elijah’s arm and hugged it tightly.
“Marcos, I just came back from my ex-husband’s grave. No matter what you’re going through with Elijah you know me. I’m your son’s tia. Don’t do this,” I pleaded and could feel Elijah’s body tense. Marcos looked down at me and nodded.
“You right Elsie. I apologize for even putting you in this situation. Forgive me. Elijah, I’ll be seeing you around. Enjoy y’all lunch.” Marcos placed five, one-hundred dollar bills onto the table and walked away with the big niggas following behind him. Elijah pulled me to his chest and looked down at me.
“Baby you gotta let me talk. Damn, I don’t need my fucking woman speaking for me,” he said pulling me into a hug.
“Elijah, what the fuck is going on? Now you beefing with Marcos?” Elijah chuckled.
“Baby, I been going at it with them niggas for damn near a year now. I know Harlow is your girl but if it comes down to it, I’ma need for you to stay away from them. I don’t trust their ass so don’t have her coming out to our new place and don’t tell her any of our damn business,” he said. I looked at him and shook my head. Was he for real? This was just too much.
“Elijah. Damn, this is some bullshit. Harlow and I might not agree on Inga but we are friends. We shouldn’t have to put our friendship on hold because of our men. That’s fucking dumb. You are really pissing me off right now,” I said pulling away from him. I grabbed my purse as
he tossed the napkin container against the wall, getting everyone’s attention in the restaurant. I glared at his ass hoping he was not about to do what I thought he was going to do. Elijah had a silly side to him that only I got to see.
“So it’s like that huh! You just gone fuck me and tell me it’s over? After you said that was the best dick you ever had!” he yelled at my back without a hint of humor in his voice. I could hear the older women in the restaurant gasp. I shook my head holding in my smile. He was a stupid ass.
“You told me I was your nigga! I guess you was just gaming me so that I could suck on that sweet pu...”
“Elijah!” I yelled cutting his ass off. He grinned walking up on me. He grabbed my face and kissed me hard. I laughed as he picked me up and carried me out of the restaurant bridal style. “Something is wrong with your ass Elijah, and I’m still upset at you,” I said as he carried me to the car.
“That’s what you saying now. You know the minute I slide in that you’re going to be singing a different tune,” he laughed and put me in the car.
****
“So what the fuck is going on with Elijah and the twins?” I asked Harlow over the phone as I sat inside of my beauty bar. Today was a slow day so I was going to clean my station, but I needed to know why Marcos felt the need to threaten Elijah yesterday. It had been on my mind all night. I couldn’t lose another man or another friend.
“I don’t know Elsie. Shit, I didn’t even know that they were beefing. You know how men can be and I’m not in their personal shit so who knows why they going at it,” she replied.
I nodded as a beautiful Persian looking woman walked into my bar. She talked to my receptionist and the receptionist looked back at me.
“Well we gotta get down to the bottom of it because Marcos was looking like he was ready to do some shit and Elijah said that they had been beefing for a year now. That’s just some bullshit because they should be like fucking family at this point,” I said shaking my head. I noticed the Persian beauty arguing with my receptionist so I stood up.
“Hey let me call you right back. I got this Kim K wanna be up in here causing some problems.” Harlow laughed.
“Okay and remember, don’t tell the twins where I’m at,” she said and ended the call. I laughed putting my cell phone away. Her ass was crazy too. How the hell did she think it was okay to go on a damn one month break away from her husbands? No one did shit like that except for Harlow and she had to be crazy if she thought they didn’t know where her ass was at. I walked to the front of my beauty bar and my guess was dead on. The girl arguing with my receptionist looked exactly like Kim Kardashian. She had the tanned skin, the fake ass and tits, and the long ass black weave. She was dressed in a nice ass silk romper and dangling from her hand was a 50,000$ Hermes crocodile bag. I was a little heated because I saw that bag online and that shit was sold out. I walked up on her and my receptionist smiling. Maybe she came here before and didn’t like her makeup job or something.
“Hi, welcome to my beauty bar. Jewel, you can go back to your desk.” My receptionist eyed the girl with a slight frown on her pretty face, before walking away.
“Are… you …with….Elijah?” she asked in broken English. I decided to take a step back. See, for a year Elijah and I had been doing so damn good. I honestly thought that we both were on the same page as in being monogamist.
“Who’s asking?” The Persian beauty smiled exposing a perfect set of veneers.
“I am his son’s mother. He’s been dodging me for way too long. I felt that I should come in here and give him a message since he decided to stop taking my fucking phone calls,” she said starting to get angry.
“And what message was that?”
“This one,” she said pulling out her phone. She whistled and aimed her phone at me. A man the size of fucking Texas walked into my bar. She pointed to me and he cracked his knuckles. I started stepping back but I wasn’t quick enough. He gave me a damn uppercut and I swear it felt like I flew up in the air then fell down. My estheticians screamed.
“Help her and I will send ten more of him up in here!” she shouted pulling a pistol out of her purse. The man stepped over me and kicked me in my stomach. All of the air was knocked out of my lungs and I winced from the pain. I blurred in and out of consciousness. The uppercut really fucked me up. I covered my face in a fetal position as he bent down. He grabbed my head and smashed it into the wood floor making me instantly pass out.
“You’re awake!” Tegan yelled. I closed my eyes and tried to touch my head but winced when I lifted my hand. I opened my eyes back up and noticed my left wrist was bandaged up.
“It’s sprained. You also have fractured ribs,” Celine said through gritted teeth. I took a deep breath and I winced from the pain. It hurt just too fucking breath. “They said that it would hurt for you to breathe Elsie, so take it easy. Who the fuck was that bitch that uploaded you getting your ass beat by a man, to the internet?” she asked.
“Does it even matter? We all know why it happened,” my mother said in her usual bored tone. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe as easily as I could, because my chest area was killing me.
“Mom not now, can’t you see she is in pain?” my older sister Sasha asked her.
“Well I just wanted to make sure you were alive. The videotape is now circulating the news station and when my coworker told me it was you, I thought that you were dead because that man had to be at least four hundred pounds. Just keep me updated, I guess, bye,” she said and I could hear her leave out of the door.
“Hey ladies can I speak to Elsie alone?” I could hear Elijah ask.
“What you need to be doing is looking for that bitch ass nigga that fucked up my sister! I swear you niggas always got some bitch tucked away waiting to cause some motherfucking drama!” Celine yelled. I looked at my sister.
“Celine, please. Arguing with him won’t change what happened. I’ll be fine ladies; can y’all give us a minute?” I asked.
“Whatever,” Celine said and walked off. Shortly after Sasha and Tegan followed after her. Inga walked into the hospital room along with Hayden. I could hear Tegan talking all kinds of shit in the hallway. Hayden walked back out of the room as Inga walked over to me. I could tell she had been crying and as much as I fucking hated her for doing that shit to Tegan, it did touch me that she showed up here, considering I had been nothing but rude as fuck to her for the past year.
“Elsie…are you okay?” she asked crying. I nodded, smiling weakly at her. Hayden walked back into the room and walked over to Elijah. They were first cousins. I watched them whisper about something until he walked up to us. He pulled Inga to his side and looked down at me. It was so weird to see him with her like this. I don’t know if I would ever get used to it because since we were younger he had been attached to Tegan’s side.
“Elsie what the fuck happened?” Hayden asked looking just as angry as Elijah. Elijah walked over to me and grabbed my hand. I could tell by the look in his dark eyes that he knew exactly what was going on. He had blood on his grey t-shirt and I could only imagine who it belonged to.
“Man I fucked up. Elsie, I’m so fucking sorry this happened baby. I wanted to tell you so many times baby,” he said in a low, pained voice. I tried to snatch my hand away but he only tightened his grip. “I swear I did. I messed around with this girl and I didn’t know her fucking father belonged to a Mexican cartel. This was back when you were married to Aiden. The nigga is crazy, and threatened to kill Corrine and the kids if I didn’t push some off his drugs, but I couldn’t because we were working for someone else, so Lloyd did. Well the nigga we were working for found out we was doing some side shit and he sent some shooters to get us, and that’s how Aiden and Lloyd were killed. I cut off my ties to them after that. The bitch just started back calling me a few months ago saying that she had my son and that I needed to step up and be a dad. Her father was killed so she is now running his business. I don’t know what to do,” he said. I shook my head cryin
g. This was just too much to take in.
“So you’re the reason why Aiden and Lloyd is dead?” I asked.
“Elijah, let me talk to you for a minute,” Hayden said looking at him. Elijah ignored him and looked down at me.
“I swear I’m not fucking with that girl and I only slept with her one time. Baby, I wanted to tell y’all the truth, I swear I did,” he pleaded.
“No the fuck you didn’t because if you did you would have done it! My sister is now raising her son alone because of you. That’s so fucked up! What you need to do is just leave!” I yelled finally being able to snatch my hand away.
“Baby…”
“Come here Elijah, I really need to talk to you nigga,” Hayden said grabbing his arm. Elijah stared at me for a minute before walking out of the room with Hayden. Inga sat down in the chair next to my bed and Tegan and Celine walked back into the room. I looked at my sister and I cried harder. I wanted to tell her what I had just found out but I didn’t wanna open old wounds for her. She was still deeply hurt over the loss of Lloyd but she was trying to move on. I didn’t want these new revelations to put her back at square one.
“Why they fuck is this bitch even here?” Tegan asked pulling me out of my thoughts. I looked from Inga to Tegan feeling so damn torn.
“‘T’ calm down. She came to check on me.” Tegan nodded pursing her lips together.
“I see she got you too. Look, I’m happy you’re alive. I gotta go get my son, Hayden’s only son and his first born child from daycare. A baby that wasn’t a mistake but that was indeed made out of love. I’ll talk to you later,” she said and walked away. Celine looked at Inga and they both just laughed. I didn’t wanna laugh because our lives seemed to be a big ass soap opera that just wouldn’t stop, but I did anyway because it felt good to forget about all of the fucking problems I had going on.
The Way That I Love You 3 Page 6