Page 25

I made my way through the house toward the back, where Stevie’s art studio was. The doors were opened, and I could hear music coming from the studio. Her humming was almost as loud as the music.

When I entered the studio, her hand was pressed into her back as she stood staring at a piece she was working on.

Her strawberry blonde hair was pulled up in a messy bun, and she wore a pair of baggy jeans, cropped shirt with paint stains, and her stomach was exposed.

Her feet were in a pair of Dior slides, and her Birkin sat on the back counter like she had come in here on her way out.

“Hey Stevie!”

She slowly turned, exposing her swollen stomach with paint marks on it. “Hey Ken… you know Mavie is currently having quiet hour, right?”

“So, I’ve been told. Are you busy?”

She stuck the paint brush into her hair. “Just fixing some last-minute mistakes. When the baby comes, I won’t be able to get in here as often as I want.”

“You’ll have nannies, though. They can watch the baby while you come paint and relax for a few hours.”

She waddled over toward where I stood, and because I wore heels, I was taller. Our cheeks touched, and we made a smooching noise before she went over toward the couch.

“I’m not hiring a nanny. Mavie isn’t comfortable with someone watching our baby, and I agree. Do you know people will steal your baby out the hospital?”

“I remember watching a documentary about it.”

She gasped so loud I thought she would go into labor. Her hands touched both sides of her belly like she was covering the baby’s ears. “So, this is something that can happen?”

“It doesn’t happen all that often, though.”

“Yeah, until my baby is being raised somewhere else and I’m a mess.” This was something she had been thinking about and probably had watched too many movies about it. “Anyway, what is on your mind?”

I stared at this woman who was the Menace whisperer. It was how humbled and calm she was about it. The man that Menace was, and she could be married to him, and they seemed happy, too.

“Are you and Menace attending my wedding?”

She looked away. “We are.”

“What is that look, Stevie?”

“I’m not a fool. You and Landon have had something going on. My husband, he doesn’t look too much into things once he sets his rules and expectations. I know better and know that Don has feelings for you. The thing I could never tell is if you felt the same about him.”

Damn.

Now I could see how they were married. She didn’t beat around the bush and try to pull the information out of me. “I care about him a lot.”

“Then why are you getting married to your old client? Which, by the way, Menace isn’t thrilled about.”

“It’s not against any of the rules he has.”

“You are young, Kennedy. Being married to a man that could be your father isn’t the life you want.”

I folded my arms, offended that she was judging like she knew me and Alex’s relationship personally. “Stevie, you don’t know my relationship with Alex.”

“Never said that I knew the relationship. I don’t need to know the relationship to know that you are not happy. If I know anything, if you’re not happy now, you will never be happy.”

“Is that what you went through?”

Now it was her turn to be offended. “I’m very happy in my marriage.

That man that you all get, I don’t get the same man.

You all get Menace, I get Maverick… there’s a difference.

Alex is an older man who isn’t going to change his ways for you.

If anything, it’s gonna be expected for you to fall into line with his lifestyle. ”

“Nothing wrong with that… he’s worth a lot of money.”

Stevie sighed and rubbed her stomach slowly. “Money means nothing.”

“Says the woman who married a billionaire and lives this life. Stevie, no offense, but this conversation coming from you means nothing. You are married to a billionaire with no prenuptial agreement. Well, you have one that protects you .”

“You said that I’m stupid, Kennedy?”

I paused and waited for the laugh, and one never came. “Stevie, that is not wha?—”

“What do you want me to do about your decision? You want me to make it alright for you. You hurt Landon by not being truthful. You thought about only you, and now you want someone to smooth it over and make it alright for you. I’m not going to do… ouch.” She let out a breath and leaned back.

“Are you alright?”

“Stupid Toni Braxton contractions,” she took slow and deep breaths, as she held the top of her stomach.

“Braxton Hicks?”

“You worried about the correct term, or the fact that you’ll marry Alex and end up using your youth being unhappy? Menace doesn’t approve of what you and Landon would have, but you could have come to him, proved him wrong… he’s very open-minded.”

“Girl, what?” I blurted.

She raised her brow. “I’m curious. What did you think Menace would tell you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Me and Landon got into it and he called me a wench and told me he wished me hell.”

“Well…”

“Stevie!” I laughed.

“All I’m saying is he had a reason. You lied to him, and he had to find out with the rest of the world. Maybe it’s best that you both go your own way. Him with this new girl, and you with Alex.”

“New girl?”

“Oohhh,” she groaned out.

Menace came running into the studio. “Wonder, you straight?”

In usual Menace fashion, he was dressed down in sweats, house slippers and a t-shirt. “These are more intense, Mavie.”

Menace kissed her lips a few times, and I turned to give them privacy. “You about to have my baby, Wonder?”

“I don’t know… what if this is a false alarm again?” She blew out a breath and took a few short ones.

“Hey Menace,” I finally greeted.

He looked at me, confused. “We had a meeting or some shit?”

“No… just wanted to talk.”

“About?”

“Nothing… you tend to Stevie.”

“Ooh, Mavieeeeeee!” Stevie hollered and held his shoulder while her face became red. “I think something is happening.”

He looked down, and she had soaked the couch she was sitting on. “Fuck, Wonder… shit… Duke!” he hollered.

“Stevie, you got this… you’re gonna become a mommy.”

She smiled in pain as he helped her to her feet. The jeans she wore were soaked, as Menace became her calm in this chaotic situation. I saw my way out, and called Don, and he sent me to voicemail.

Tossing my purse into the passenger seat, I pulled down toward the gates. Don could throw his little fit all he wanted; we were going to have a mature conversation about this.

“Is it alright to send her up? Okay, yes… well, thank you so much. Alright, I will send her up.” The front desk put the phone down and looked at me. “You are free to head toward the elevator.”

“Thanks.” I was glad he wasn’t on any petty shit today and had me down here waiting because he could.

Alex was expecting me for lunch with his parents in an hour, so I figured I could come speak with Don and find out if Stevie had the baby. I tried calling her and never heard back. Zoya was damn near impossible to get in touch with, and I never even bothered when it came to Kora.

The elevator took me up to the top floor, and flashes of Don kissing my neck one night after dinner flashed through my mind.

I had to put one leg in front of the other and squeeze.

Sex had always been work for me. I’ve never experienced sex for pleasure and I hated that for me.

I didn’t need to have sex with Don to know that he would have taken care of me.

The elevator chimed, and I could hear Wale blaring through the speakers.

“One second,” I heard a female voice over the speakers, and then she ran rounding the corner. “Oh hey,” she greeted.

It was Greene’s cousin that she insisted on inviting to my birthday dinner. She arrived with Greene, greeted everyone, and then proceeded to keep her head stuck in her kindle. She made no conversations with us and acted like she was better than us.

My blood boiled seeing her wearing Don’s Lora Piana shirt. It was an almost three-thousand-dollar shirt, and she was standing here with a spatula in her hand like it was normal.

“Hey, is Landon here?” I asked, not even knowing what to say because her appearance was throwing me off.

She wore his shirt, and it fell right before her thighs, and she wore a pair of brief boxers.

Her braids were half taken out, some in a bun, and some of her actual hair hanging out of the bun.

Sis’ was real comfortable for somebody that didn’t know Landon Caselli like that.

He didn’t even allow people to get comfortable in his space like that, and she seemed at ease.

“He is. He’s on a business call. Want to see if he has wrapped it up?”

As I walked further into the condo, she had her laptop, TV on Netflix, and a bunch of snacks. In the kitchen, she was cooking something sweet, like a cake or something. I watched as she walked across the massive living area and down the hall where Don’s office was.

I stood there clutching my purse and feeling angry that he was doing this. He was trying to make me jealous with her, and it was working. All we needed to do was talk, and he was making it difficult.

She came around the corner laughing and did a slight jump, letting me know he was behind her, and he had slapped her ass. “He’s coming.”

Don rounded the corner wearing a pair of basketball shorts and no shirt on. His favorite Ralph Lauren house slippers glided across the wooden floors as he looked at me, confused.

“What up, Ken?”

“Hey. Can we talk really quick? I won’t keep you long.”

He looked over at Greene’s cousin, as she mixed whatever in a bowl. She wasn’t even paying us attention. Instead, she bopped her head to the music as he watched her, then turned back toward me.

Don nodded his head to follow me into the study that was toward the foyer. It had a few books, but mostly it had his different collectible sneakers that were worth money. They were all displayed with jerseys.

He closed the sliding doors and then sat down in one of the leather chairs. “What’s going on, Ken?”

“Making me jealous? Is this what it has resulted to?”

Landon stared at me like he didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. With the way he stared at me, I was starting to question if I even knew what the hell I was over here talking about.

“What you mean?”

“You have Greene’s cousin in here with your shirt on and cooking in the kitchen. Why make me jealous?”

“Did you call and tell me you were coming over?”

“No, I figured I would po?—”

“Did the front desk speak to me when they called up here?”

“I don’t know, he never?—”

He leaned forward. “I’ll answer that… nah.

Navy answered the call ‘cause I was on an important business call that I needed to handle for Menace because he’s a father now.

I didn’t know you were coming over, and honestly, don’t do the shit again.

Fuck I gotta make you jealous for? You are getting married, Ken… that’s where your focus should be.”

I felt stupid as hell standing here as he casually sat there staring at me like a dumb bitch. It was dumb to holler out that he was trying to make me jealous when he didn’t know I was coming.

“I miss my friend.”

He snorted. “Friend.”

“What do you want to be called? Were we not friends?” I folded my arms and stared down at him.

“I was never trying to be your friend, and you know that shit. I was trying to show yo’ fucked up in the head ass some love… even though I don’t even know what the fuck that shit is. I tried to show you, and you wanted to play games with me.”

“How is that playing games?”

Landon stood up and I bit my lip, looking at his body. Every muscle was perfectly sculpted and worked together to make me want to jump on him. “Being real, it’s disrespectful to my company to even be in here having this conversation.”

“So, you both together… that was quick.”

Landon stared down at me and then opened the sliding doors. I expected her to be listening in to our conversation, but she had lowered the music and put her headphones on. Her back was turned as she danced and continued to make whatever she was making.

“Are you gonna even introduce me to her?”

“Didn’t you fucking meet her?”

I folded my arms again. “I want us to continue to be friends.”

“Can’t be friends with somebody I wanted to be with. Shit don’t work like that.”

I nearly choked down a lung. “You lie so bad, Don. Um, your little friend from school… Annie or something like that,” I snapped, trying to remember her name.

“Aimee.”

“You are still friends with her… in fact, you are real close with her.” I continued to rub it in his face because he was bullshitting me right now.

“She’s a married woman and the minute she told me that shit, I respected her and that relationship. Did I want to fuck her? Yeah, but that was because I thought she was single. All that shit went out the window because we work together. I have respect for her husband and son.”

“Hmph, but you wanted to fuck her.”

“I didn’t fuck her though, Ken. That’s what you keep forgetting.

I didn’t fuck her, take her out on dates, and let her know how the fuck I felt.

And she never fed into my shit and played funky ass games with me, either.

She told me off the rip she had a man that she wasn’t coming up off and I respected that. ”

“And her?”

“What about her?”

“Do you want to do all those things for her?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer to the question.

Hearing him admit that would hurt, and I didn’t have the right to be hurt because I was the person that did this to us both. “Hell yeah.”

He didn’t need to get into deep words because the two words he used had my chest hurting. “Why?”

“I’m not about to go back and forth with you on some bullshit. I got some work to get back to… you know the way out.” He walked the opposite way. “Oh, Ken?”

“Yes?” I was hopeful.

Stupid, but hopeful at the same time. “Sending me a wedding invitation was wild.”

“You and a plus one are welcomed, Landon.”

“Don,” he corrected and walked away.

She was still dancing to the headphones, and then turned in my direction, nearly jumping out her skin. “I’m sorry… you needed me for something?”

“No. I wouldn’t waste your time with him. He’s still in love with me and just admitted it knowing that I’m getting married,” I lied, and I knew it was childish, but I was heavily in my feelings.

Alex: We’re waiting for the car now. Don’t be late, Kennedy.

Alex spoke to me like I was an assistant and not his future wife. It never bothered me before, but after seeing Don write me off mentally in front of me, it bothered me.