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“I miss you,” Carter said, and she remained silent. Even though she wanted it to be over so she could put it behind her and move on with her life, there was a part of Mileena that was glad that he missed her too. And he looked so damn good in that suit.
“I want to talk to you, find a way to make this work. I wanna see you, spend some time with you.”
“You don’t have time for me, Carter Garrison.” Mileena got in his face. “You’re too busy fucking Fantasy! Why don’t you go fuck that bitch!” she shouted, and it got the attention of the customers in the restaurant.
“I am not fucking Fantasy,” Carter lied, more out of reflex than anything else. “I haven’t even seen her lately.
And he hadn’t, and Mileena had her loyal friend Mercedes to thank for it. When Mileena told her about the breakup, she told Mercedes about Fantasy and the way she would always position herself to bait Carter. Mileena had no idea that she would mention it to Jada, but as soon as she heard about it, Mercedes knew what she needed to do.
“Yes, you are. I saw you leaving
with her right after you talked to me. You walked right up to her, grabbed her hand and you fucked her! Why do you wanna stand there and lie about it!” Mileena yelled and stormed off and left the restaurant.
Anytime she thought about Fantasy, it made her sick to her stomach and hurt her heart. She went behind the nearest bar, grabbed a bottle of Absolut Blue Sequin Vodka, poured a glass and drank it down. Then she poured another one and shot that one too.
Once again, Mileena came from behind the bar and walked passed Carter. “Mileena, wait!”
But she kept going; straight to her office, told Demi that she was leaving, grabbed her stuff and left the club with Carter still in pursuit. He caught up with her before she got to her car.
“Yeah, okay, I fucked Fantasy,” he admitted walking beside her. “I was mad at you after we fought. But she means nothing to me. I love you.”
“If I had really meant something to you, you wouldn’t have fucked her. But you did,” Mileena said when she got to her car. She turned and got in his face. “You fucked her. How could you do that to us?”
“I’m sorry, Mileena. I never meant to do anything to hurt you. I love you.”
Mileena shook her head because love didn’t matter, not anymore. It used to mean everything, but now, they were just words he was speaking that never were true. She stepped back a little.
“What do you want from me?”
“You,” Carter said calmly. “All I’ve ever wanted is you,” he said and took a step closer. “I love you, Mileena. I’ve been miserable without you.”
“I love you too,” she said and was about to tell him that love didn’t matter anymore, but he cut her off.
“That’s why we need to stop fighting with each other and talk,” Carter said and Mileena unlocked her door.
“You don’t love me, Carter. You never really did. You couldn’t have. If you had we wouldn’t be where we are right now.”
“Don’t do this to us, please.”
“Goodbye, Carter. Please stop trying to reach out to me. It’s over between us.” Mileena opened her car door and got in. “I’m sorry,” she said closed her door and drove off.
As Carter watched Mileena drive away, it was as if she had taken everything that he was with her.
Chapter Twenty-one
Barbara had been on lock down since the war began, and to everybody’s surprise, she was good with it. And that was only because Barbara had everything that she needed to be good with it. Now that she knew what was really going on, she understood the situation and accepted that this was just the way it is. So, Barbara spent her time texting, facetiming and snapchatting with her friends. There were movies she hadn’t seen and TV shows to binge watch on her tablet and then there was her music. Knowing how much Barbara loved music, Scarlet had been sending her demo tracks from The Regulators recording session that she was producing, so she had plenty to occupy her time.
But even though Barbara was good with being on lockdown, she still insisted on going to school. So, each morning, Treshaun took her and Kayla to school and picked them up.
The day that she spent with Tenikka was eye opening to say the least. And with that knowledge, came enlightenment. Naturally there were the things that had once made no sense, now suddenly made perfect sense, like why Pam needed a driver when she never went anywhere and Shy coming back from the dead being no big deal, but it was more than that. Barbara knew who she was now so everything that she knew took on new meaning.
After Tenikka left the house that night, Barbara went into the basement to talk to her father. She told him where she had been that afternoon and what she had been told. Bobby looked at his daughter, shook his head, took a deep breath and thought about where to start.
“What she told you is true. Me and your Uncle Mike …” Bobby paused, and a little smile crossed his lips. “We were bad boy’s back in the day. I’ve done a lot of things that I am not proud of, but I did what I had to do to make my way in the world and to take care of your mother and you kids.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, daddy?”
For Barbara, that was the part that bothered her the most. She was kept in the dark when everyone else knew.