by Candi B
Copyright © 2019 Candi B
Published by Talehia Presents
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
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This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to the real locals intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents are entirely coincidental.
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Acknowledgements
Thank you my Heavenly Father, for allowing me to do something that I love. Through each book there is always a different journey in getting to the finish line. I’ve leaned on you for your strength and perseverance, and you have never failed me. Thank you for the doors you have, and still are, opening for me. A BIG thank you to my wonderful, knowledgeable, and caring, publisher, Talehia McCants. You’ve pushed me and enhanced my craft in ways I didn’t imagine, your leadership and guidance is unmatched. To Kendra Sumter, thank you for always being there when I need you. You are always encouraging me, and making me look at the bigger picture. To the TP family, thank you, ladies, for your support, and to the ones that are putting in the work, please stay focused and dedicated. Trust me, our time is coming.
Thank you to all the groups who allow me to promote my books and put my work in the atmosphere. Thank you to Tootie Williams, and her crew, for promoting and designing some fire flyers. Thank you to the designer of this hot book cover, this is definitely in the top five spots. Shout out to the biggest support system a writer could ever ask for, my family. You guys believe in me, encourage me, and always show how proud you are of me. To my mother and best friend, Lynette Albert, you are the bomb. I love how I can call you and ask, “Mama, did you read this book? Or Mama, try this author out.” We have the dopiest connection and I’m so grateful for you.
To my pride and joy, B’Nyria, thank you for having patience, because I know it can get hard dealing with me, especially when Mama is trying to finish a book. Thank you for being my lunch and dinner date, thank you for thinking that it is still cool to hang out with your mama, and thank you for trusting me enough to tell me all your lil business, lol. Last, but not least, thank you to all the readers who continuously one click and download my books. Thank you for all the threatening inboxes, lol. I promise it doesn’t be me, the characters have a mind of their own. To the authors who share my links and recommend my books, I really appreciate you ladies. I love seeing black women support other black women, and you ladies do it gracefully. Thank you for sharing my links, tagging your reading buddies, and just showing love all the way around. I’m always amazed by how much love you all show me, and I try to return that love through each book I write. Kia Crump, you have become one of my biggest readers, and I thank you for always keeping my name down your time line. There is nothing like receiving an inbox from a person you have never met, telling you how much they love reading your books. I only hope I can keep delivering pleasurable and entertaining books, that will keep you wanting more. I’m deeply humbled, and as always, THANK YOU for rocking with me!
On a more personal note, I just want to take the time to express how much Pamela Johnston Ward meant to me. I didn’t know her on personal level, but I remember when my first book dropped, she was the first person who dropped an inspirational message in my inbox and wished me success. Over my next few books, she always showed her proof of purchase, and then would send me her review on the book. She was a faithful reader and supporter. She was miles, and miles, away, yet, she was rooting for me like she had done for many of authors. Her beautiful spirit will be truly missed, and from the bottom of my heart, I just want to say thank you. Rest in peace, angel.
Kisses from Candi B!
Synopsis
Ivy was fed up with her marriage, and with good reason. For years, she stayed in a marriage that held no value or substance. She dedicated four years of her life to a man who lied, cheated, and walked all over her heart. At the age of twenty-four years old, she should have been wild and living her best life. After Xavier delivers another powerful blow to her heart, Ivy has no interest in sticking around to save her sunken marriage. The moment Ivy signs the divorce papers, she feels alive and free. She's on a mission to get her life back, and put the past behind her. When she parks her U-Haul in her neighbor's assigned spot, she comes face to face with the sexiest man on God’s green Earth.
Since his junior year in high school, Zane worked the streets of Detroit, and now he was leaving his ruthless ways behind him and focusing on his upholstery shop. Zane was now just a regular guy, who was trying to make a way for his eight-year-old daughter. He had been with a few women here and there, but not anyone who could potentially capture his heart. Falling in love wasn't on his agenda, and if it was, his nagging baby mama, Timeka, wouldn't make it easy. After a frustrating day at work, all Zane wanted to do was go home, turn on his TV, and relax. He notices his new neighbor, and instantly, he is mesmerized by her good looks and perfect body.
After a run in that leaves both Ivy and Zane wanting to do more than just borrow a cup of sugar, they avoid each other as much as possible. The inevitable occurs, and Ivy and Zane are forced to face the elephant in the room. Being in Zane's presence did something to Ivy, and she could no longer resist what her body and heart desired. Zane is falling hard for Ivy, but where there is happiness, evil lurks. When the past can't let you go, secrets are put to the forefront, and enemies are watching your every move, can Ivy and Zane survive the madness?
Talehia Presents
I Fell For The Plug Next Door
Candi B
IVY
There was nothing like cruising down Rodeo Drive in my brand-new Rolls Royce convertible. My inches blew in the wind, while I stretched the legs of the beautiful car. This trip, and this car, was a divorce gift I purchased for myself, thanks to my ex-husband, Xavier. Baby, let me stop fronting for the Gram. This car was rented, but since I paid for it, it was mine until I returned it. I wish Xavier’s broke ass did have the kind of money to buy me something this luxurious.
“Bitch, slow down, before you get us pulled over.” My best friend, Sunjai, was sitting in the passenger seat high as giraffe ass.
I stepped on the gas to go faster, and watched her hold on to the seatbelt. She took a pull of the blunt and passed it to me. “Bitch, we in Beverly Hills, hoe! I’m Freeeeee!” I shouted, with my hands in the air.
Sunjai shook her head at me. “I know you glad you don’t have to deal with that nigga anymore. Xavier a whole bitch, for real.”
I passed her back the blunt. “A whole four years of marriage wasted, years of lies and betrayal. Girl, fuck that nigga, and his mama, for giving birth to his ass.”
“Ivy, that’s what that good pipe do you. It makes us all discombobulated, and we can’t see straight. Just look at me and Melo. Girl, I can’t stand that nigga, and deep down, I know he don’t mean me no good, but I promise won’t no other bitch be getting that long, thick, and melt in your mouth, dick.”
“Uh huh, that was TMI. You and Melo need to get on some medication, because you and his ass are bi-polar.”
“His grandma told me the same thing, girl, but y’all don’t know what y’all talking about. He just needs to stop making me crazy, and I’ll be chill. So, since you back on the scene, what are you going to get into
? A lot of niggas gon’ be after your ass now that Xavier is out of the picture.”
“No, ma’am, thank you, bam. These niggas will get treated accordingly. I’m on some fuck these niggas shit, and all they can do for me is help me bust a nut and get the fuck out my face.” I laughed.
“Girl, go somewhere and stop playing. You don’t have a hoe bone in your body, and I’ll believe it when I see it.” She passed me the blunt.
“I am full of shit, huh? But on the real, I just want to do the things that make me happy. I can’t see myself giving my heart to another nigga right now, but this pussy, baby, it’s been in a drought. I ain’t had no good dick in years.”
For four years I was tied down to a nigga who didn’t care about me, at all. All Xavier wanted was his cake, and a fork to eat it with. Me and Xavier grew up in the same neighborhood, and knew each other most of our lives. We dated throughout his junior year of high school, but when his father got a better job, they moved across town and we ended up breaking up. I worked nightshift at the Henry Ford Hospital as a radiologic technologist, in other words, I took x-rays. Xavier was wheeled in the room needing an x-ray for a gunshot wound. I can’t remember how we went from talking about his condition, to the past, to me falling back in love with him again.
I hadn’t seen Xavier in years, but he was still fine as fuck. He met my height requirements, at 5’11, just how I like my men, and when he took his shirt off, and revealed all that muscle goodness, I wanted to throw myself on the table. I remembered thinking his braids were a little soulful to me, but his hair was freshly braided, and his edge up was on point. Skipping past all the gushy and how he made me fall in love with him with his ass again, Xavier was a fraud. Shame on me, because before I said “I do,” on many occasions, I had been shown Xavier was a nigga that just wasn’t going to do right.
Sad part about it, my family knew too, and no matter how much my mama and daddy and told me I was making a big mistake, they still attended the wedding and watched me marry the piece of shit. The second mistake I made was not running when I found out what he actually did. This nigga had me believing that he held rank, and was helping run the operation, until one day I saw him standing on the corner. I parked my car and walked over to him, and asked him what he was doing on the corner. This fool ass nigga told me he was at work, and that I needed to leave before I got him fired. Another nigga saw us talking, and yelled out for Xavier to get back to work. The look I gave Xavier didn’t do anything but make him walk away from me like I was a bum on the street. I overlooked it, and figured he was embarrassed, which is why he didn’t tell me the truth from the beginning.
“Damn, Ivy, you missed the turn, what you over there thinking about?”
“Girl, my bad, this dro got me high ass fuck. Where you get this good green from? This Cali weed the truth.”
“Girl, Melo’s cousin stay out here, and Melo called him up for me when you were in the shower. Man, I’m so damn high, I was about to jump out the car. I swear I just saw Melo and some bitch.”
I laughed. “Girl, give me this, before you kill yourself, your delusional ass blowing my high.” I took the blunt from Sunjai and threw it out the window.
Now let me finish telling how I got here. This time I should have slammed the door in his face, and made sure the door was bolted. Xavier showed up at my doorstep with a sob ass story about his apartment being robbed, and how he needed a place to stay for the night. Well, a night turned into days, and days turned into months. Eventually, he didn’t go back to his apartment, and he moved in with me. Come to find out, months down the line, Xavier was two months behind on rent, and he got evicted. But oh no, baby, my dumb ass was ok with that, because he was my man, I was in love with him, and I was going to help my nigga. Didn’t matter if he was a broke corner boy, and had me paying all the bills. But, chile, this time, I probably should have been on an episode of Snapped. It was my off day, and I was laying on my couch, watching Steve Wilkos. There was a knock on my door, and I got up to answer it. Lo and behold, Monique, the bitch who couldn’t stop calling my phone and saying she was sleeping with my man, was on the other side. Never in life did I remove my hair bonnet, and slip off my house shoes so fast. I went against the ass whooping I was about to deliver to her, when I saw a young boy gripping her leg. He looked nothing like Xavier, and a lot like her, but still, how did she know where I lived? And why was she at my front door? My heart stopped beating when she told me since I wanted her man, I could have his son too. She turned and left quickly, leaving me and her son standing outside my door.
The look on both of our faces as we stared each other down was like, “what the fuck just happened here?” Xavier finally showed up after I constantly called him, and his response was “Oh, I’d been meaning to tell you.” Guess what I did? Thinking about it now, I wish I would have told him to pack all his shit, and made him and his son leave, but instead, I ran to my room and cried. All that bullshit, and I still put on a white dress and married him.
Xavier did good the for the first year of our marriage. I put the hurt behind me, and was focusing on making us better, but that was a waste of time. I found out Xavier had been promoted, and was making triple the money I was bringing home each month. We were splitting the bills fifty fifty, but he always told me he couldn’t afford anything extra. I had also heard through the messy bitches at the beauty shop, that he was back fucking with Monique. Now, the feeling in my gut was telling me it was true, but I was a visual person, and I needed to see for myself.
Sunjai was down for the cause, so we followed Xavier around in her car all day, until it was nightfall. Nothing was out of the ordinary the entire day, every time I called or texted him, he answered. We continued to follow him until we ended up in a nice suburban neighborhood. I watched Xavier pull out his key and go inside. They say when you go looking for something you will find it, but I never expected to find this type of hurt. I got out the car and knocked on the door. A woman answered it, but it wasn’t Monique. I looked at my cousin, Sharaya, and her protruding belly, and my heart dropped to my ankles. This nigga had taken his side bitch, my cousin, out the hood, and had his wife living in a small ass one-bedroom apartment.
Would you believe it if I told you I still didn’t divorce him? Well, believe it, because I didn’t. My heart barely had a pulse, and I didn’t think I was going to make it. Until he came in the apartment one day, happy as hell. He was out and about, living his life, while I felt like I was being buried alive. Xavier had woken me up, and if he wanted to be with my cousin, that was cool, but it would cost him. I played shit easy for a full year, and I made him think I was still in love with him. I found Xavier’s stash spot, along with a few bricks, and I started taking six thousand dollars out of it, and putting it into my personal account each time he went to hide money. He thought I was so gone behind him, that he didn’t bother to count his money. I didn’t hound him with questions, and because I knew he was with Sharaya, I didn’t have to give up any pussy. Yeah, I gave him the fork so he could eat his cake, but once my bank account sat pretty, I filed for divorce and took all his cake, literally.
I watched him get served the divorce papers, and sent him to go with Sharaya for good. He begged me to let him come back home, but I knew it was only to get his money he had hidden in the bathroom ceiling. After I thought about it, I took the remainder of the money and deposited it into my account. I even called up my brothers, who hated him, and gave them the four bricks, so they could flip for me. When I finally did let him into the apartment, he tore it up looking for money and drugs he would never find. All while I sat on the couch, pretending to look through Sunday’s newspaper. That was the last time I saw, or talked to, Xavier Carter, until I had to face him in the divorce hearing.
“Well, bitch, eating right now would make me happy. We getting low on weed too, I’m going to call Melo so he can call his cousin and have him bring us some more.”
“Hell no, bitch, you not calling nobody, because you ain’t smoking no
damn more. Look at your eyes, you look like a Chinese woman. Plus, we got an hour to meet Drizzy anyway.”
“Bitch, what you mean we? You have an hour to meet up with that nigga. Are you trying to get me killed? If Melo finds out, that’s my ass, and yours too, because we together. You really about to meet up with that nigga, Drizzy, though?”
“Yes, hoe, I’m single, and I can do what the fuck I want to do. We’ve been in L.A for two days now, and I’m tired of being around you. Bitch, niggas probably think we dyking.” We laughed.
“Girl, you know you want my pretty ass.” Sunjai flicked her tongue.
“Bitch, you got to get your teeth fixed first.” I laughed. Sunjai flicked me off, and then looked in the mirror.
There was nothing about Sunjai that needed to be fixed at all, not even her teeth. Sunjai was the most beautiful chocolate girl I had ever seen. She appeared as if she was from a foreign country, with her shimmering dark skin, long legs, and high cheekbones, but she was straight out of Detroit. She had long, natural curly hair, that stopped at the middle of her back, and with all the food and liquor she consumed, her body was slim curvy. I met Sunjai when I was in middle school. We had three classes and shared lunch together, so we instantly clicked. We had been through a lot together, and when things get tough, I know I can always count on my girl to come through.
“Ivy, I don’t feel right with you going out with this nigga you met a couple hours ago. It’s something about him I don’t like.”
“How can you judge someone you’ve never held a conversation with? I mean, it’s not like I’m going to fuck the nigga, we are just going out for drinks.”
“Ok, if you say so, but keep your phone on, and call me when you get there, and on your way back. If anything happens to you, Los Angeles won’t have to worry about mudslides, because I’m sliding all through this bitch.”
I believed her. Sunjai and I were known to get shit popping if need be. Sunjai told me she would order room service once we made it back to the room. We smelled like ten pounds of weed, and the way people were calling the police for anything, I didn’t want these bougie ass people out here tripping. Sunjai was never wrong when it came to feeling people out. I valeted and went to our room to freshen up and change. She said the same thing to me about Xavier, but I didn’t listen. This time was different. I was just needing the company of a man, I wasn’t going to marry Drizzy.