CheckMate 4: Winner Takes All

by Tiece

  “I don’t wanna think about any other woman action right now.” Rico said standing to his feet. “Guess we’re back to work then.” He said figuring that it had to be a customer downstairs.

  “If it’s for me, just send them up.” Monty said as he turned to his computer.

  “A’ight,” Rico responded. He exited the room, but then peeped back into the room to get Monty’s attention. “Sssp,” he said. Monty looked up from his computer screen and glanced in his direction. “It’s MiKayla.”

  “What?” Monty said standing to his feet. “I didn’t tell her to come here.”

  “Well, she’s here and she’s heading up toward the staircase.”

  “Oh no the hell she ain’t.” Monty said exiting his office while passing Rico.

  “Oh shit,” Rico whispered.

  Monty walked straight down the stairs, meeting MiKayla before she could even put a foot on the stairs. “Hold up, what you doing here?”

  MiKayla looked like she’d had a rough and restless weekend from the bags under her eyes. “Monty, please talk to me.” She pleaded.

  “We have nothing to talk about.” Monty responded with a serious stare.

  “We have plenty to talk about.” MiKayla said trying to grab at his arm to make him pay attention, but Monty pulled away from her. “Please listen to me. I did not know that Chad was alive. He just showed up to my crib.”

  “Look MiKayla, this is my place of business. Now nor here is the time to discuss this.”

  Rico eased down the stairs passing them with an awkward smile on his face. “What’s up, MiKayla?” he spoke, but kept walking straight into his office. He shut the door behind him thinking that he had his own problems to worry about.

  “I wouldn’t be here if you’d answer your phone.” MiKayla said in between sniffs of crying.

  “I just don’t care to hear about this.” He told her. “Your man is alive and that puts a lot of things in perspective for me. I can’t be with you like that.”

  “First of all, he’s not my man. He used to be, but that was years ago then my man died. I don’t know who that man is at my condo.”

  Monty frowned. “You don’t know the man at your condo, huh?” He asked with sarcasm. “So, you just let stranger’s house-sit now while you’re gone now?”

  “Don’t do that, babe. You know what I’m trying to say.” MiKayla responded looking pitiful while the tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Monty didn’t feel any type of remorse for her whatsoever. “No, actually I don’t. You claim that he’s not your man, yet he’s chilling at your crib.” He laughed almost like it was funny, but it wasn’t. “The man drives a Bentley. You mean to tell me that he couldn’t afford a hotel room?”

  “It’s not like that.”

  Monty grinned with a shake of the head as he started walking towards the office doors with MiKayla on his heels. “Is that the only thing that comes to mind nowadays when you’ve gotten caught?” He questioned thinking that Candy was screaming the same thing when she was being grimy.

  “Chad and I have a past, one that I needed closure on.”

  “And what, you’re still getting closure after a couple of days have passed?”

  “You’re being difficult.” MiKayla said as Monty reached the office doors.

  “No, I just have work to do and talking to you about this mess ain’t on my work schedule.”

  “I’m not leaving until you talk to me,” MiKayla said wiping the tears from her eyes.

  “Oh you’re leaving,” Monty said, and then he opened the office doors. To his surprise another unexpected visitor was already standing there.

  “Oh, my bad,” Candy said with her hand still reaching for the door latch since she was about to walk into the building.

  “Candy,” Monty said. His heart had skipped a beat or two as he stood face to face with her not knowing what else to say.

  Candy cleared her throat looking in MiKayla’s direction. She didn’t seem too happy with her puffy red eyes and tear stained face. She then directed her attention back towards Monty. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had company. I just wanted to talk.” She said holding the pink Juicy Couture umbrella over her head as the drizzling rain began to fall a little harder.

  Monty didn’t know how to respond, because he wasn’t ready to talk with her yet either. However, MiKayla had gotten pissed off just that quickly.

  “Is she the reason why you’re rushing me off?”

  Monty rolled his eyes back in his head as if to say, Bitch please. “Just leave MiKayla.” He said.

  “No, she should stay. I’m leaving.” Candy said, and with that she started heading back toward her car.

  Monty watched her walk away. A part of him wanted to stop her, but another part of him just allowed her to leave. He quickly scanned the parking lot and shook his head, and without hesitation he grabbed MiKayla by the arm since she didn’t seem like she wanted to budge. “You drove that nigga’s car here, too? Maaaaaannnn, y’all women nowadays got some super nuts.” He added.

  “Babe, my car had a flat tire and I was determined to come see you. So, Chad let me use his car.”

  Monty laughed thinking that MiKayla had to be the worse liar in the world. “Man, just leave. Please,” he added. “I’m not doing this with you today, tomorrow, or next week. We’re over.” He told her. Before MiKayla could say anything else, Monty had pushed her out the door and shut the door back behind him. He didn’t care how she felt at that moment. He did think about Candy though. Seeing her had him in his feelings.

  Damn, I should’ve stopped her. He thought. “Fuck that,” he said then headed back upstairs to his office. His feelings were all over the place, but seeing Candy tugged at his heart some kind of bad. The way she just nonchalantly looked at him and MiKayla, and then turned to leave had him fucked up. Damn, could it really be over this time between us?

  Chapter 5

  Candy got inside of her car and sat with the door open as she let down her umbrella down. She shook her head as she watched MiKayla somberly walk to the car in the drizzling rain. It was like she didn’t care about getting wet. Maybe the rain covered her tears, because she’d certainly been crying. Candy didn’t know what had happened, but from what she could see they weren’t this little happy couple that Monty portrayed them to be at Raven’s Hot Spot.

  “Damn, another one bites the dust,” she whispered. “Monty must’ve let her go,” she said because of the way that he was acting. Whatever had happened had to be on her, because of Monty’s actions. “He has found out that the slut is not a saint.”

  She knew that Monty could be cold hearted if he wanted too or if he was hurt. She’d seen that reaction a few times while growing up and hanging around him over the years. He could definitely be a stubborn one and at that moment she was actually glad that MiKayla had caught the bad end of the stick first before she made it there. Otherwise, it may have been her.

  She sat for a moment thinking that maybe she should call him since MiKayla was now inside of the car and heading out of the parking lot. However, she was nervous. She hadn’t seen Monty since the day he’d caught her inside of Brendon’s hotel room. Instead of wasting her time calling or messaging his phone, she decided not to do either; only show up to his office in hopes that he’d talk with her. She hated that things had gone this far between them and seeing him standing in the doorway of his building did something to her. There were feelings that were still there; unresolved feelings and she had to figure out what she was going to do about them.

  She opened up her car door again. “Fuck it,” she whispered. “I might be leaving here like MiKayla, but at least I will have gotten my point across.” She said then opened up her umbrella, stepped out of her car, and then headed for the double doors of the building. As she walking up to the doors a woman and man was also entering ahead of her.

  Damn, now he might have clients. She thought but continued to walk on inside of the building behind them. Once they were inside of the of
fice, Candy cleared her throat then asked the couple, “Who are you here to see?”

  The man politely responded, “Rico Mack.”

  Thank God, Candy whispered. She looked over to see Rico’s office door shut, but still instructed the couple to just knock on the door and Rico should’ve been in there to assist them. They thanked her then headed towards Rico’s office door as she headed up the stairs. Her heart was racing a hundred miles per second with each step that she took and when she reached the top of the staircase it only got worse. She looked down on the first floor to see that Rico had opened his office doors and let his clients in.

  “My God, maybe I should turn around.” She whispered, but her feet continued to gradually make their way to Monty’s office. She passed by Maurice’s office, peeking inside it. He apparently hadn’t made it to work yet and she was glad. She didn’t want any type of eye contact with him right about now. She wouldn’t even know how to look at him. Before she knew it, she was at Monty’s door. Just go in, she coached herself.

  “Knock, knock,” she said tapping on his already opened office door. Monty looked away from his computer with a surprised look on his face. Candy’s heart dropped to the floor the minute they made eye contact. In just that second, she felt maybe she should’ve left when she was inside of her car. “Uh… Hey,” she hesitantly spoke. “I saw MiKayla leaving and thought that I should come back inside so we can talk.”

  Monty didn’t say a word. He just stared at her. He thought that she’d left earlier and he was cool with that. However, now she was back and he didn’t know what to say to her.

  “Well uh… Well I uh…” Candy stuttered. Monty not saying anything was making this conversation extremely difficult to have. “Uh, is this a good time?” She finally got out.

  “Actually it’s not.” Monty said finally looking away from her and down at his Rolex timepiece on his wrist. “I have a client coming in about thirty minutes. Can you make this quick?” He said turning away from her then looking back at his computer screen like he wasn’t fazed that she was standing there.

  Candy wanted to say something, but she couldn’t. She didn’t like the cold shoulder that he as giving her. After just standing there for a few minutes like she was alone in the room she then said, “Never mind. I knew that this was a bad idea.” As she turned to leave, Monty looked over at her.

  “Did you sleep with my cousin?” He asked.

  “No,” Candy said as she glanced back at him, and then turned to walk out again.

  “Do you love him?” Monty questioned causing her to stop in her tracks again.

  She slowly turned to partially face him. “I do like him,” she admitted. “But, I’m not looking to jump into anything serious at the moment. I just want to live my life for me and not anyone else.”

  “Even if it’s with my cousin?” he pondered almost with tears in his eyes.

  “Does it matter, Monty? You don’t want me.” Candy said.

  “I never said I didn’t want you.” He said.

  “You didn’t have, too.” She said. “Your actions speak much louder than your words.”

  Monty sat behind his desk feeling tense. He wanted to prove to her that he still loved her, but he didn’t know how to put his pride to the side. He glanced out the window at the now pouring rain then back over at Candy. She was beautiful standing there in a simple black Velour sweat suit and a new pair of black and pink Nike Air Max’s. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail like she was prepared for the rainy, cool weather from the briskly March winds. He then glanced back towards the window.

  “Candy,” he said while standing to his feet while looking in her direction. He then slowly made his way over. Candy took in a deep breath seeing that Monty was getting closer and closer to her. A few seconds later, he was standing right in her face as she stood with her back pressed up against the office door. He cleared his throat “We’ve been through a lot since we got together. I know I’ve not been perfect and I just want to say that I’m sorry.” He said with the most genuine stare.

  Candy was shocked to hear him apologize as she stood there staring at him. She was wishing he’d just say that he would change, but another part of her wasn’t ready, because she knew that he wasn’t ready. “Monty, let’s not do this.” She hesitantly said while taking in the invigorating smell of his Chanel cologne. This was the reason why she had stayed away. It was just something about his smooth chocolate skin, small slanted eyes, and his succulent soft lips that enticed her. That and his amazingly cool swag, charismatic demeanor, and handsome face kept her in a daze for years; a daze that she just couldn’t seem to shake.

  “Tell me that you’ll stop seeing him.” He said hoping that she would.

  Candy frowned. “Are you kidding me? Why should I tell you anything?”

  Monty shook his head. “You should tell me because I want you to stop seeing him.”

  “I can’t believe that you’re telling me to stop seeing someone when I’ve asked you over and over again to stop seeing MiKayla, yet you continued to do so.” She put her hand on her hip ready to give him the business. “Let me tell you something, Monty Banks. The world does not revolve around you or your demands. I will see who I want, when I want and there ain’t nothing you can do or say about it.”

  “You won’t be seeing my cousin.” Monty straight up said.

  “We’ll see about that.” Candy said pushing him out of her face. She attempted to walk off as Monty grabbed her by the arm to stop her. “Don’t touch me you selfish bastard.” She said snatching away from him. “I can’t help that whatever happened with you and MiKayla didn’t work out. One minute you seemed to be all in love and over me. Now you’re looking like a sad puppy dog telling me what I need to be doing. Well, you need to be minding your own muthafuckin’ business and not worrying about what I got going on. I’m a grown ass woman and I will do what the fuck I wanna do.” She said feeling pissed by this point.

  “You don’t have to go there.” Monty said feeling the heat. He didn’t expect things to turn out this way. He’d had his way for a long time and surely he’d dogged Candy more than a few times, but she wasn’t having that shit anymore.

  “I’ll go where ever the hell I wanna go.” She snapped. “You wanted MiKayla, so go be with MiKayla. I’m done being a doormat for your whorish ass.” And with that, she walked off.

  “Candy,” Monty called out to try to stop her. “Candy!” He called out again, but to no avail she kept it moving. He stood in the office doorway as he watched her walk down the stairs and straight out the door. Not once did she look back. For the first time ever, he felt that she was truly going to get over him; if she hadn’t already.

  “Damn,” he said just above a whisper. “I’ve really fucked up this time.” Instantly, thoughts of MiKayla surfaced in his mind. He actually felt hatred towards her for fucking him over and ruining his relationship. He still wasn’t willing to take full responsibility for his actions, but little did he know that wasn’t going to get him very far and especially nowhere with Candy.

  ***

  Meanwhile, not far away, MiKayla was just walking inside of her condominium. She was outdone with the way things had played out when she’d gone to see Monty at his office. With her eyes still teary, she headed into the kitchen to fix herself a glass of wine.

  She sat her Coach bag on the granite countertop and somberly opened the kitchen cabinet reaching for a glass. She then stepped over by the wine cooler and opened it, grabbing a bottle of red wine to sip on. The minute she started pouring herself a glass of wine, Chad entered the kitchen. She turned to face him with a disappointed expression on her face.

  “I take it that things didn’t go well with you and your man?” He questioned with an uncaring tone.

  “That’s none of your business,” she said walking past him like he wasn’t standing there.

  “Oh, it is every bit of my business.” He said as he followed her into the living room.

  MiKayla sat down on the sof
a and picked up the remote off of the end table next to her. Instantly, she started flipping through the channels as Chad stood there watching her. “You can leave now,” she told him.

  “What if I don’t want to leave?” He questioned.

  “What if you have no choice?” She questioned back.

  Chad frowned. “You’ve become someone else in the time that I’ve been gone.”

  “What, was I supposed to stay the same? I fucking lost my fiancé and my baby in a matter of months. I had to pick myself back up and carry on.” She said feeling the pain in her heart from the loss of their baby boy.