Page 12 of F*ckin’ With Me

“Hey.” Rissa’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “You know that it’s alright to cut off people who don’t treat you right, even family. I haven’t even known you a full week, and I can tell you’re a treasure.” She leaned forward. “As quiet as it’s kept, my brother can tell too.”

My eyes widened while my head moved side to side. “No! He’s just doing me a huge favor.”

“You really think my brother would charter a jet and get that huge ass villa as a favor? Let’s be for real.

It’s one thing to be a fake boyfriend at a wedding in Atlanta, Charlotte—hell even California.

You have my brother in the damn Maldives!

” Rissa laughed. “Girl, my brother is not doing all that for any female he doesn’t have some kind of interest in, like I told you before. ”

The waitress came with our main course. We sat, ate, talked, and laughed. She was so damn funny. I loved the stories she told me about her brother. Some of them, I knew he would not want me to know.

“Simonette, may I have a word with you?” My mother’s voice startled me because I didn’t see her approach the table. Rissa and I were in the middle of a gut-wrenching laugh. My mother glared at Rissa for a second before she turned her attention back to me. “Privately, please.”

I nodded, grabbed the glass of wine, since I now drank wine, and moved toward the outside patio of the restaurant. I took a sip of my wine before I spoke. “Yes, Mother?”

“I see your man is changing a lot about you. I don’t recall you being a wine drinker,” my mother commented as if she wasn’t a lush. The judgment was a lot.

Drag your nuts. “There’s a lot of things that you don’t know about me, Mother. If you took the time to get to know me, you would know a lot of interesting things about me.” I took another sip of my wine. “Was there something you wanted to talk about?”

“Simonette, baby, I don’t understand why you’re doing this to your sister. You have been intentionally upsetting her since her bridal shower. This time is supposed to be about her. Not you and your ball player boyfriend,” she said with feigned concern.

I double-blinked because there was no way she was serious.

“Mother, have you noticed that I never say anything to you or Lanette? It is always the two of you ganging up on me. Now that my man and my best friend are here to take up for me, y’all are so offended.

I’m not doing anything but trying to enjoy time with my man and friends. ”

“That’s the point. You’re supposed to be here for your sister, doing the things that she needs you to do. Your friends aren’t even supposed to be here!”

My head bucked back at her increase in volume.

I placed my hand over my chest. “Simone Brand, where is your decorum?” I questioned, my tone laced with disgust. “First, Lanette does not need me. I overheard her saying that the only reason I’m in the wedding is because she didn’t want to hear Daddy’s mouth.

Trust me, he wouldn’t have said anything, because he knew I didn’t want to be in the wedding anyway. ”

My tone remained calm and even. It was not an argument. At least, on my end, it wasn’t. I didn’t feel the need to raise my voice, snake my neck, or pop a hip out. “If I recall, y’all were the ones who told me to bring my man, and I did. What? Did you think he was imaginary?”

“None of that matters, Simonette. Your man and his friends are a distraction. They are not allowed at the wedding,” she sternly proclaimed.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Last I checked, neither was I. That works out for us perfectly because it gives us more time to enjoy the island in peace. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m being rude. Have a good night, Mother.”

I set my empty wine glass on the tray that was near the door. I refused to participate in the conversation any longer. That sense of empowerment washed over me as I walked back to the table where Rissa sat. Is this what it feels like to drag your nuts? If it was, then I wanted to do it more often.

A Little Later, Same Night . . .

“Oh my God! She was horrified!” I said through my laughter. “I can’t believe you said that in front of everyone. Well, I can, but still,” I said to Rissa. That night was one of the most eventful nights of my life.

After dinner, Rissa and I went back to the villa, took showers, put on our bathing suits, and had the butler bring us wine and a dessert charcuterie board.

We didn’t have a chance to enjoy dessert at the restaurant.

The board he brought had an assortment of goodies, and it felt so good to do things like use my fingers to pick up a piece of cake instead of using utensils like a proper young lady.

My mother was right. The first taste of wine that I had was when Rissa came to my house with some. She brought over different varieties so I could find which one I liked. Sweet wine was for me.

“Girl, I have no idea how you put up with them. With family like that, who needs enemies? It’s like your father said; you don’t have to deal with them.” Rissa seconded my father’s advice.

I finished the wine in my glass before I poured another one.

I probably should’ve stopped because that was my sixth glass.

I was buzzed, for sure, but it felt better than the pain of everything about my relationship with my mother and sister coming to a head at her wedding weekend in front of everyone.

Yes, I’d been slightly more vocal than I had in the past, but was I really?

My father stood up for me when he was around, but he spent more time away from home than he did there. He always urged me to stand up for myself. I realized that weekend it was easier to stand up for yourself when you had people behind you.

“Yeah, I think I really have to take my father’s advice to truly distance myself and learn how to say no.

I should have told her no to being a bridesmaid after I heard her say that she didn’t want me to be anyway.

If I did, I wouldn’t be so hurt that I got kicked out instead. ” I mumbled the last part.

Rissa grabbed my hand. “Hey, hey! Don’t do that. Change your perspective, sis. You didn’t want to be in the wedding anyway, so God gave you a way out. Although you couldn’t say no, He still covered you.”

I smiled, shrugged my shoulders, then said, “I guess you’re right. Now I can really enjoy it here instead of being bogged down with all her activities. I can attend the ones that I choose to.”

Rissa perked up. “Exactly! We can go be outside tomorrow!” She clapped her hands.

I laughed wholeheartedly at her antics. I loved her bluntness, lightheartedness, and her sense of sisterhood and loyalty. “It’s funny that I asked for a fake boyfriend and got a real friend.”

“And did, bish! The realest friend too.” She clapped again. She lifted her hand, palm facing me, and I met it with mine.

We talked and laughed for a while before the alarm to the villa sounded that the front door opened. Seconds later, the sliding door to the patio was opened. “What y’all got going on out here?”

I loved Daylen’s voice. It was raspy, almost like he smoked, but he didn’t.

We talked about that on the jet ride here.

It surprised me that he’d never smoked weed before.

He said he didn’t like being in an alternate state of reality, which was what marijuana did.

Alcohol was as much as he would do, and that was only around people he trusted.

A part of me felt bad that I judged him and just assumed he did.

The lounge chair that I sat in was partially submerged in the water. I lay my head back on it, tilted my head up, then offered him a smile. “We’re just out here partaking in sweets and wine.” I held up my wine glass. “Want some?”

Rashad laughed. “Yo, Rissa! You ain’t shit for getting that girl wine wasted. You know wine drunk is different than liquor drunk.”

“I didn’t get her anything! She likes wine, so we’re drinking wine. That’s on her.” The bridge of Rissa’s nose scrunched before she laughed under her breath.

Daylen hadn’t spoken yet, but his eyes were on me. My smile slowly fell, and I turned my head to look at the beautiful moon and stars. This is the most beautiful place on Earth.

“Sim, what happened at dinner?” Daylen asked. When I tilted my head back to glare at him, he put his hand up. “Don’t fuckin’ lie to me. I know something happened. I can tell by your aura. What happened?”

My back straightened in my seat. I didn’t want to tell him what happened, because I didn’t feel it was necessary. As far as I was concerned, I stood up for myself, and it was all over. “Nothing happened that’s worth mentioning.”

When his glare turned from me to his sister, I went back to moon watching. I listened to her tell him an abridged version of dinner. I didn’t feel his eyes back on me until Rissa told him that my sister said I wasn’t welcome at her wedding.

“Damn, that shit is fucked up,” Rashad mumbled. “Shit, I don’t think there’s going to be a . . .” He stopped talking when Daylen gave him a look that I couldn’t quite read.

Rissa got up from her seat. “I’m going to head to bed. Good night, y’all. Come on, Rashad, with your nosy ass.”

Rashad told her to shut up before he told her that he had pussy plans with one of the bridesmaids. I wondered which one but didn’t care enough to ask. Rissa mumbled about knowing the girls were hos before she left the patio.

“Sim, I’m about to take a shower, then I’m gonna come back out here, and we’re going to talk. Don’t get your ass in the bed. I will wake your ass up, ole drunk ass girl.” Daylen’s voice held so much authority.

He walked off the patio and closed the door behind him. I grabbed the bottle of wine and topped my glass off. He said I couldn’t get in bed, but if I dozed off right there, then it was what it was.