His Betrayal Her Lies (17 page)

She walked up the stairs and entered their
room. Ari sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the pile of
clothes on the floor.

“You need some help to get your stuff?” she
asked rudely as she walked to the dresser, taking off her
earrings.

“Naw, I’m not leaving until we work this
out.”

Taylor spun around from the mirror. “We don’t
have shit to work out. You made your choice when you got that bitch
pregnant and didn’t give a fuck about my feelings.”

Ari stood and walked toward her. “I love you,
Tay, and if you give me the chance to tell you what happened, you
might be able to forgive me.”

She whipped around to face him. “I don’t care
what happened, Ari. I can see what happened. You cheated on me
while we were dating and that’s it.” Ari stepped closer. “Move
back, Ari,” she warned. He took a step back.

“Please listen, baby.”

Taylor just wanted him to leave. If it took
hearing him speak his piece to do that, then she was willing to
listen to the bullshit. “Go ahead, Ari. Speak. But it’s not going
to change anything.”

He started telling her about how back when
his parents died, he was feeling so low and he didn’t think anyone
understood. He went on to tell her about the trip he had taken to
Miami and how he met Maci. He explained he was drunk and what
happened should never have happened.

“Wait. Wait, Ari.” She tilted her head to the
side and squinted at him. “So you telling me you only slept with
her that one time and that’s it?”

“Yes,” he lied, “that’s it. One time,
baby.”

She wasn’t sure if she believed him. It
didn’t matter; either way, the pain wouldn’t allow her to forgive
him right now. “Whateva, Ari.” With her hand, she shooed him away.
“You said what you had to say, now you can leave.”

“So that’s it, Tay? You just going to put me
out of our house?”

“Yep.”

Ari turned and started picking his clothes up
off the floor and stuffing them into large black garbage bags he
had gotten from the kitchen. “This is real fucked up, Tay. I can’t
believe you right now.”

“Just leave Ari. I’m tired and too
emotionally drained to deal with this right now.”

He picked the last shirt up off the floor and
flung the bag over his shoulder. “This is not over, Tay. We will be
together. I’m not losing you.”

Taylor placed her hands on her hips. “Well,
you should’ve thought of that before you did what you did.” She
looked him dead in his eyes. “See, the fact of the matter is that
right now I can’t bear to look into your deceitful face.
So—Get—Out.”

Ari turned toward the door, then turned back.
“I’ll call you in a few days and maybe you’ll be ready to talk.” He
slammed the bedroom door behind him.

She yelled out, “Don’t hold your breath.”

The cashmere bedspread was like a sponge
soaking up the tears that fell as she fell across the foot of the
bed.

After a few minutes, she heard the front door
close. He had finally left. She turned over and stared out the
skylight in the top of her ceiling until her cell phone buzzed from
her purse. Rolling over and hitting the view button, she saw that
it was a text from Kalon.

“Hey babe, I was just checking on you.”

Taylor hit the reply button. “Thanks, I was
thinking about you.” She sent the message and waited.

Her phone buzzed again. “I need to go to New
York for a few days and I wanted to see you before I left.”

Blushing, she replied, “OK. When?”

He texted back after two minutes. “Now.”

She couldn’t believe he was asking her to
come over now. She had just left him that morning. “Are you sure,
Kalon? You want to see me so quickly again?”

“Babe, I want to see you all day if possible,
but I know it’s not. So if you can, please come over and stay the
night with me. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”

Taylor sat up in her bed and pondered his
response. She did miss him already. And the visions of Ari being
with that woman would not go away. Right now she was going to do
what Tay wanted, and her mind and body wanted Kalon. “I’ll be over
in a few hours,” she replied.

A hot bath was the first order of business.
She knew she needed to relax if she was going to have any strength
for Kalon.

* * *

Ari sped his white Navigator down Halsted
Avenue to Maci’s condo. She kept calling his phone over and over;
it was time for him to answer. On his way over, he thought he would
strangle her with his bare hands, maybe slap her around a few times
or beat her ass. But those things would give him time in prison and
he wasn’t ready to give up his freedom for a moment of
insanity.

He pulled up to Maci’s condo and rang the
doorbell.

She snatched the door open with a towel
wrapped around her body and Adrianne hanging onto her leg.

“Daddy.” The little girl ran out the door and
into her father’s arms. He picked her up and she hugged him around
his neck with her little arms. “I haven’t seen you, Daddy. Where
have you been?” Adrianne cupped her hands around his ear and
whispered into it, “Momma said you were mad at her.”

Ari walked into the apartment holding his
daughter. He was scared if he put her down, he might be tempted to
carry out one of those thoughts he had on his way over. “Let me
look at my little princess.”

Adrianne jumped out of her father’s arms and
spun around like a model walking down a runway. She flipped her
curls behind her shoulders. “See, Daddy. Don’t I look like Tara on
TV?”

Ari smiled. “Yes, baby. You look better then
Tara. Go play in your room and I’ll be there to play with you in a
while.”

She ran off down the hall singing. When Ari
heard her bedroom door close, he turned toward Maci, standing in
the kitchen with a smile plastered on her face. “I just love to see
you with her.”

“Cut the bullshit, Maci. Why the hell do you
keep calling my phone and why the hell did you attack Taylor?”

Maci took a beer out the refrigerator. “You
want one?” she asked.

“No, I want you to answer my damn
questions.”

She took a swig of her beer. “I can’t believe
I have to explain this to you. It should be obvious.”

Ari looked confused and shook his head. “What
the hell does that mean, ‘it should be obvious’? Stop talking in
riddles.”

Maci leaned against the kitchen counter.
“It’s simple, Ari. I love you and you love me. Your place is here
with Adrianne and me, and not with that bitch.”

Ari rubbed the back of his head. After all
these years, he never let himself believe that Maci felt this way
about him. Jay was right. They clearly were on two different
pages.

“Look, Maci, I don’t know where you got the
idea that I love you because I don’t. What you and I had was just
sex and that’s it. Yes, I love my daughter but not
you
. My
life is at home with my wife, Taylor.”

Maci slammed her beer down on the counter.
She started yelling and spit flew from her mouth as she spoke.
“Fuck that bitch, Ari. I have your child, not her. How the hell you
going to put her before me? You got this bitch living in a mansion
when your daughter and I are living in this tiny ass condo.”

“You need to lower your voice before my
daughter hears you.”

She waved her hand in the air to dismiss what
he said.

Ari had to get through to her. “If I led you
on, then I’m sorry. I thought you could handle a
no-strings-attached relationship, but I guess you can’t. You
allowed yourself to fantasize about something that wasn’t there
between us. I never promised you anything. So now you’re mad. But
I’m warning you, Maci,” he said through gritted teeth, “keep your
damn hands to yourself because Taylor doesn’t have shit to do with
this.”

In one smooth swallow, she finished her beer.
“So now you are taking up for the bitch? I did you a favor, Ari.
She doesn’t know you the way I do. She can’t fulfill your needs the
way I can. If she could, you would never have kept coming back to
me. Tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it, baby. I can be Taylor
if that’s what you like.”

He shook his head as Maci started to move
closer to him. She tried to kiss him, but he moved back. She
dropped her towel to the floor. He picked it up. “Put this back on
and tell Adrianne I’ll come by tomorrow to get her.” He looked at
Maci with disgust. “You’re tripping.”

Maci wrapped the towel around her body. “Fuck
you, Ari. Now you don’t want me since your little precious Taylor
won’t take you back?”

Ari walked to the door. “It doesn’t matter
what you say or do, I will get her back.”

Laughing like a maniac, Maci folded her arms
across her chest.

Ari began to feel uneasy. “Why are you
laughing at that?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing. Good luck with that.” She
smiled coyly.

* * *

Taylor packed a bag for her night out with
Kalon. “Oh, shit. My toothbrush.” She ran back into the connecting
bathroom. She had called and spoken with Toni earlier about the
family dinner her mother wanted to have. Toni explained that their
mother wanted everybody to attend, and that meant Ari, too. Taylor
wasn’t ready to explain to her family about Ari and her so she
would hold off the dinner as long as she could. She finished
packing and her cell phone rang. She answered, “Hey, chica.”

Pam started giggling on the other end. “Hey
girl, I got Libby on three-way.”

Taylor spoke to Libby. “Hey girl, you’ve been
MIA.”

“Yeah, I know. So what’s going on with you?
Pam and I barely see you at work.”

Taylor sat on her bed and played with a
thread hanging from the bedspread. She thought about telling her
friends about Kalon but it was too soon. “Well, I had a run-in with
Ari’s baby mamma.”

She heard a loud bang on the other end that
made her jerk her ear away from the receiver. When she listened in
on the phone again, she heard Pam say, “Dang, I dropped the damn
phone.”

“Did I hear you correctly?” Libby asked. “You
had a run-in with Ari’s baby mamma?”

“Yes, you heard me girl.”

“Hold up,” Pam ordered. “Tell us from the
beginning what happened.”

Taylor told her friends the entire story.

“So you kicked his ass out?” Pam asked.

“Yeah, girl, and right now I’m glad he’s
gone. I should’ve done this a year ago.”

Pam offered, “Well, Tay, if you need anything
just let us know.”

“Yeah, girl, anything,” Libby agreed.

They switched the subject to work-related
issues and hung up after a forty-minute conference call.

* * *

Kalon ran out to pick up some Chinese food
for dinner. He had called Taylor earlier that day to make sure she
liked it. Kung Fu Chinese Restaurant was five blocks from his
house. He decided to walk.

The takeout line in the main lobby was long.
People filled the place to capacity, standing along all four walls
of the building. He heard someone call his name from a distance.
Turning in the direction of the female voice, he saw Patricia.
Damn.

Patricia came walking up in a blue halter-top
mini dress. Her hair was in a ponytail, her feet were in thong
sandals. “Hey, Kalon, I’ve been calling you. Why haven’t you
returned any of my calls?”

Since the last time he ran into Patricia at
Ohio Restaurant when he was with Taylor, she had been blowing up
his phone since with nonstop calls. “I’m sorry, Patricia. I’ve been
really busy.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Oh, I see.
Are you busy now?”

Not wanting to get into a confrontation, he
simply answered, “Actually, I am. I have a meeting this evening and
I’m picking up dinner.”

Patricia raised the corner of her mouth. “You
have a
meeting
? On a
Saturday
? Come on, Kalon, I’m
not that stupid.”

The older Chinese man called Kalon to the
counter and handed him his food. Kalon paid with a twenty and
stuffed the change in his pocket. Patricia hadn’t moved out of his
path. “I’m sorry, Patricia, but I have to go. Take care of
yourself.”

He tried to walk out the door but she grabbed
his hand. “Wait, Kalon. I really wanted to see where this could go.
If you give me the chance.”

Kalon pulled his hand back gently from hers,
hoping to avoid a scene. “To be honest, Patricia, I’m not ready for
anything serious with anyone. I enjoyed the time we spent together
but I think all we could ever be is good friends.”

“Good friends?” she repeated out loud to no
one in particular.

“I’m sorry again, Patricia,” he said and
patted her on the back.

He made his way through the crowd and walked
quickly back to his loft to await Taylor’s arrival. He wasn’t fazed
by Patricia because he had dealt with women like her before. Every
so often he ran into the clingy type, the woman who didn’t know how
to let go. She didn’t realize that her purpose was only to be a
one-night stand.

Once at home, he moved around his kitchen
swiftly, setting up the Chinese boxes on the table and pouring them
each a glass of wine. He lit a few candles around the room because
he read in some magazine that candles set the mood for romance.
Tonight was the night he was going to make his move on Taylor.

He had spent too much time on her already. He
needed to get her out of his dreams and thoughts. He could not yet
fully process his actions toward Taylor the night before. It was
like another part of him had taken over and he was watching from
the sidelines. He made a promise that tonight, he wasn’t going to
check out; he was going to stay in the present and leave all that
romantic stuff to people who are in love—and that was definitely
not him.

Dimming the lights made the candles have a
more dramatic effect. The faint sound of Kalon’s favorite love
songs playing on the CD completed the ambiance. A timid peck on the
door signaled Taylor’s arrival. He had instructed the doorman to
send her up the moment she got there.