Jaded 2: Broken Love Series (7 page)

“Thanks, but I had it. Especially since I haven’t had to pay for an iced coffee or muffin in months,” I say, and immediately take a long sip of my drink. Nodding my head at the perfect mix of alcohol and pineapple juice, I place a tip in the bartenders’ glass. Chris looks at the two drinks I’m holding.

“You trying to turn up, huh beautiful?” I look up at the VIP section and see that Charity is still hugged up, so I decide to entertain Chris for a moment.

“What brings you here?” I ask. Ignoring his question, he points over to Cedric sitting in the VIP section across the dance floor. “We decided to stay with Boulevard so we’re toasting to our new contract. We almost went to another club, but I’m glad we came here,” he says while his eyes travel down from my breasts to my gold navel ring that matches my gold accessories. I shift uncomfortably because I don’t know why, but my nipples tighten under his stare. It must be the effects of alcohol because though Chris is attractive, I’ve never been attracted to him. “What brings you out?” he asks.

I didn’t know if I wanted him to know that Charity was here with a married man or not. I don’t know who he knows, or if their relationship was supposed to be a secret. See, this is why I don’t like this crap. I’m unaware of proper protocol when it comes to infidelity. However, the way that the two of them are carrying on, it seems they didn’t care who notices them. His wife could walk in at any minute. To my knowledge, she lived in Atlanta. Also, photographers were everywhere; they could snap a picture that ends up on a blog. Deciding it must not be a big deal, I finally nod my head towards Charity.

“We’re hanging out with her friend.” Chris looks over to where Charity and Calvin are; they’ve finally come up for air. He nods his head and his eyes return to me. A slow smile spread across Chris’s face.

“So Ms. L’oriel, what do I have to do to get to know you better?” I take another long sip of my drink and slant my eyes.

“What kind of relationship do you want with me, Chris? Why do you want to get to know me better?” He licks his lips and takes a sip from the cup that holds his brown liquor.

“First, I want to get to know you as a friend and we’ll see where it goes from there.” I stare at him. I never paid much attention to Chris, but he’s definitely fine. He had milk chocolate skin, thick eyebrows, almond-shaped eyes, a strong angled jaw with a dimpled chin, and full seductive lips that sat below a perfectly manicured mustache. He wasn’t as tall as Troy, but he definitely was a good height. He wasn’t bulky, but he had a solid-medium build. The button down that he was wearing was hugging his chest just right. I look at the bottom of my cup wondering if he always looked this good, or if it was the alcohol. I furrow my brows at my now empty cup, turning to place it behind me on the bar. I turn back towards Chris and take a sip from my other drink. He studies me for a moment, then reaches over me to put his drink on the bar. His chest brushes against mine. The friction mixed with the smell of his cologne causes my nipples to tighten more.
What in the hell is wrong with me?
I shake my head, trying to shake off my hormones. Chris reaches into the front pocket of his dark washed jeans, pulls out his wallet, flips it open, and hands me a card.

“Call me, so we can get to know each other better.” He places his wallet back in his pocket, reaching over me again to grab his drink. I make sure to step back this time so our bodies wouldn’t touch. He hollers to the bartender and tells him all of my drinks are on him. I watch as he walks away, wondering how I suddenly find him attractive.

Before I can make my way back to the VIP section where Charity is, my gait is cut off by Zenobia, my co-worker that still hasn’t figured out her body type. Her puffy stomach and side fat bulge through her grey embroidered mesh V-neck dress. She’s wearing sequined pewter shoes…wait, does she have on kitten heels? What the hell? I take another sip of my drink to keep from laughing;
this night just keeps getting better and better.

“Hey, L’oriel. What you doing here?” she asks with her lip turned up.
See, this broad about to make me act real Detroit up in here
.

“Drinking…clearly,” I deadpan and raise my drink. Before I could walk away, a pretty mocha colored girl with smooth skin, looking as if she was descendent of Egyptian royalty, walked up. She had high cheek bones, sharp angular jaw, large almond shaped eyes, a super small waist, and full hips. She stands beside Zenobia with a drink in her hand. She’s wearing a long-sleeved sequined crop top and a sequined maxi skirt with a high slit and strappy sandals.

“Hey cuz. I saw Cedric over there,” the mocha girl says and realizes that Zenobia is engaged in either a conversation or a stand-off, and turns towards me.

“Who’s your friend?” Zenobia raises her eyebrow.

“Brittney, this is my
co-worker
L’oriel.” She put emphasis on co-worker, as to let her cousin know we aren’t friends.

“Oh,” her cousin states and turns dramatically away from me, causing her hair to swing. “You ready to go and see if we can get over to Cedric?”

“Sure,” Zenobia responds, staring me up and down. I grip my drink tighter, willing myself to keep it in my hand and out of her face. Before they fully turn and walk away, Zenobia turns around. “Oh L’oriel, that’s a cute outfit you’re wearing, did you get it from Macy’s?” Oh, this girl. She is really trying it.

“As a matter of fact, I did. My heels as well. Where’d you get your kitten heels?” I smirk. I hadn’t actually gotten my outfit from Macy’s. I’d gotten it at a boutique downtown, but I wasn’t about to explain all of that. If this cow wanted to try and clown me, I was ready for her ass. I took another sip of my drink.

“Kitten heels? These are Stuart Weitzman, and my dress is Olivia and Alice. You wouldn’t know that though. They don’t sell it at Macy’s.” She is really feeling some type of way because I suggested an outfit from Macy’s to her fat ass.

“Girl, Stuart Weitzman or not, you’re still up in the club looking like Easter Sunday. What, you mad because I get more shine in my Macy’s clothes–you mad because you can’t match my fly no matter what I’m wearing? I can make an outfit from Forever 21 look like I got it straight from a Paris catwalk. And you can’t even manage to properly work Stuart Weitzman and Olivia and Alice. Girl, go sit your kitten heel-wearing ass down somewhere.” I hated kitten heels. I took them as disrespect to its sister high heel. I figure either wear a flat or a real heel that’s three and a half inches or more. The in between was just ridiculous – it ruined the shoe.

I knew I’d just pissed her off when I saw the vein in her neck beating wildly. I placed one foot in front of the other, prepared to try and knock this odd-shaped female on her ass if she tried me.

“I just thought with you fucking Troy and all, he’d help you step up your wardrobe game.” Her cousin suddenly looked like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

“Tr-Troy Williamson–Troy? You’re with Troy?” She looked back and forth between me and Zenobia, waiting for one of us to answer. I cut my eyes at her. I’m not about to get into a conversation about Troy with these broads. They’re not about to talk me to death. Charity appeared with a look that held mixture of pissed off and amusement on her face. She moved to stand on the other side of Zenobia.

“Hey Zenobia,” Charity smirked, staring her up and down. “Girl, those shoes are cute. Are they Stuart Weitzman?” Charity asked, clearly goading her and she took the bait.

“Yes,” she said as she smiled over at me. She turns back to Charity, and her lip turns up as she notices Charity’s dress. “I see you with your Emilio Pucci. I wore one similar to that last year.” Zenobia raises her eyebrow and smirks, then turns towards Charity. She looks over to her cousin for reinforcement. However, her cousin is preoccupied with staring at me. She appears to be studying my every feature. I cut my eyes back to Charity and Zenobia. Charity gave the brightest smile as she turned toward me.

“L’oriel, didn’t Mrs. Brooks have those exact same shoes and similar dress on Sunday? In fact, weren’t we complimenting how nice she dresses for a seventy-year-old woman? Mrs. Brooks was in her Sunday’s best.” Charity gives a reminiscent nod.  “However, unlike you Zenobia, Mrs. Brooks understands she needs Spanx to smooth the humps and bumps she’s gained over the years. Since you love reminding us that you shop at Neiman Marcus and Saks, you are aware that they also sell hosiery that’s geared towards body shaping, though I’m not sure what could be done to alter your odd configuration,” Charity ended with a grin. “You have a good evening, ladies,” she smugly says as Zenobia stands there with her mouth hung open, and her cousin still trying to commit me to memory. Charity grabs my hand and we head back to VIP laughing so hard that we have to lean on one another for support.

“Girl. She was ready to knock us out,” I say as we take our seats back in VIP.

“Zenobia not about that life. Girl, when I walked up and heard you tell her she was looking like Easter Sunday, I almost died.” We continue to giggle and talk about Zenobia’s attire.

Our laughing immediately stops when the DJ drops
Cash Money taking over for the 99 and 2000
, and Juvenile’s
Back That Ass Up
starts playing. Just like that, Zenobia and her biscuit shape is forgotten. We jump to our feet and began to grind as Juvenile tells us, “
Girl your working with some ass yeah. You bad yeah.”
I look across the dance floor and see Chris staring with so much lust in his eyes that my movements almost falter. I peel my eyes from him to find Zenobia’s cousin Brittney staring daggers at me. She’s so engulfed in looking at me that she isn’t giving any attention to Cedric, who looks as if he wants to drink her through a straw.

Charity and I don’t get to discuss why she feels the need to date a married man, because we’ve had way too many drinks by the end of the night. Her and Calvin practically suck each other’s tongues out their mouths on the way to drop me off at home. He refused to let me drive. I press myself against the door and peer out the window, attempting to ignore them. When we pull up in front of my condo, I don’t wait for his driver to open the door for me. I practically fall out of the door. I thought they were watching to make sure I got in the house safe. However, when I go to close my blinds after I wash my face of my make-up, brush my teeth, put on my pajamas, and grab a bottled water, I see Calvin’s limo is still parked in the same spot.

“Nasty asses.” I shake my head. I check my locks and head to bed. My phone vibrates, alerting me of a text message. I look down and see Troy’s name on the screen.

Troy:
Did you have fun?

I use the emoji of the girls dancing and the smiley with his tongue sticking out.

Troy:
I’m glad you had fun with your girl. Rest up little girl.
(blowing kiss emoji).

̃

Troy

Fucking Chris. This joker trying so hard to get with L’oriel, though I can’t blame him; but she’s mine. I thought I sent a clear enough message when I had her wobbling past him. I guess he can’t take a hint. I don’t know if I’m angrier at him or Brittney. Her ass just felt the need to send me pictures. She sent me a picture of Chris looking across the room at L’oriel like he was a lion and she was his prey.

I must have been wearing too many suits lately. Chris knows how I get down. He’s been around for a long time. He knows there have been quite a few times where I had to show cats there’s more behind this suit. For instance, the incident that happened to that mutha-fucking wanna be producer Cash. He allowed himself to be fooled by the fact that I attended college. That was ten years ago, and he’s still unable to feed himself and never will.

Besides, I haven’t forgotten about him meeting behind my back with Reggie. Who would have thought that Cedric had more loyalty than his manager?

It took severe restraint for me not to show up at that club tonight, knock him out, throw her over my shoulder, and snatch her ass right out of that tiny ass mini skirt. I mean damn, did her ass get bigger in the two months I was gone? I zoom in on her ass several times, trying to figure out if it has gotten bigger. I can’t believe I’m in my damn feelings right now.

I had to text L’oriel to see if she’d respond. I don’t even want to think about how I would react if she hadn’t. I had my security quit tailing her when I was in Miami. Ole boy hadn’t been anywhere near her, so I felt it was a little bit stalker-ish to continue. I don’t know if Chris even came home with her. Regardless, I’ve never let a little competition stop me before. There was no need to become bothered by it know, though if he knew what was best for him he’d tread lightly.

I could tell by her reaction to me in church and during our FaceTime conversation that she still wants me. I know she just wants me to prove that I’ll be there. I know I left her hanging for a couple of months, but I had to wrap my head around her being married. Now I’m back to claim her heart; I’ll let her think she’s in charge for now. I owe her that.

I let out an exaggerated breath as my phone lights up in my hand again. Brittney had been blowing up my phone after she sent the pictures, thinking she was giving me damaging information on L’oriel when in fact, it was just encouraging me to show L’oriel and the world that she’s mine.

I don’t know what has Brittney out of pocket; she knows we had a
friends with benefits
type of friendship. That’s why our relationship lasted so long, because she stayed in her lane and didn’t let her emotions get the best of her. I never kept side pieces around long, typically because it’s a recipe for disaster—especially for a man with a few coins in his pockets.