Page 18 of Love's Most Wanted

“It’s aight. Kind of freaky, but I could fuck with it if I was high.”

I shook my head at him as I got back to indulging in my ice cream. My mind began to wander in the comfortable silence we sat in, inside of the dank storage unit.

“How long did you know?”

“About?”

“AJ being married.”

“From the beginning. I been busting my ass in this industry for a minute, and while doing so, you meet a lot of muthafuckas. So when I met him, I knew who his father-in-law was already. Wasn’t some shit he could hide from me like he was able to from outsiders, fans and shit.”

I nodded, then sighed. “I wished you had told me then because it would’ve saved me a lot of fucking trouble,” I admitted.

“What you mean?” I felt him look at me as I stared out into the gravelly parking lot.

Shrugging as if I didn’t know, though I did, I replied, “Other than the fact that I wouldn’t have dealt with his ass period, I wouldn’t have trusted him with my life and livelihood like I did. Now here I am having to rework my life at twenty-six years old when I already had my shit mapped out.”

“You still do. You got a whole fucking brand, making ya own money with ya own name.”

“Yeah,” I scoffed, “but all of that has been tarnished because now I’m the homewrecker.”

Unique was silent, and I knew it was because he didn’t have much to say on the matter. There was nothingtosay. My reputation had been muddied, and no matter what I said, someone always had a response or reason as to how I should’ve known and how I was lying. So I stopped saying anything because it only seemed to make shit worse.

Not to mention, Zosia Jared was everywhere now. Judging from what I saw on her page, before, she was more of a recluse, not making a peep other than a few pretty pictures on social media occasionally.

Now she was going live and basking in all the sympathy people had for her. I only knew because I got tagged constantly in her comments, people calling me all kinds of shit. I never replied to her because at the end of the day, AJ was her husband, and there was really nothing for me to say to her ass. I could tell her I didn’t know about her, just like no one in the world did, but she wouldn’t believe me, and it’d only garner more negative press.

Though Zosia was pissing me off, I couldn’t blame her. In her eyes, I was a whore who had been fucking her husband. I just hoped she was digging in AJ’s ass as much as she was mine.

“What you gotta rework?” Unique finally spoke up.

“He was paying for my apartment, and he, of course, wants me out. I wasn’t about to stay in that shit anyway, but now I have to find some place and within a certain budget now that I don’t have a booked calendar with high paying celebrities on it. Budgets and Los Angeles don’t really go hand in hand.”

“They definitely don’t.” He polished off the last bit of his ice cream.

“I need you to promise you won’t mention what I’m about to tell you.” I looked to him, and he offered strong eye contact right back as he nodded. “I’m pregnant. I’m not keeping it though. There is no way I would.” I shook my head at the thought.

While I never wanted an abortion, giving my child a father who was already married would be continuing a generational curse. I was so lonely as a child, and overhearing my mother begging my father to see me, hurt to think about even now. It was weird knowing who my father was, his name, what he looked like but not being able to have him around. It did more damage than not knowing, in my opinion.

“It’s his, right?”

“I mean, yeah, I’m assuming. We both agree that we don’t think we had sex, right? Plus, I don’t think signs would show up this early if we did.”

He stared off, eating some of his second ice cream with those nice ass lips surrounded by his mustache and facial hair.

“Any way to check?”

“I heard it’s expensive and could hurt the baby. Plus, do you really want to have a kid with me when you have girlfriends? Come on now, Unique.”

“I mean, nah. I ain’t out here actively trying to become a father, but if a child of mine comes up, I’d want ’em.” He finally flashed me his beautiful, sparkly eyes. “Me not proactively trying to be a daddy ain’t got nothing to do with being a deadbeat. I take shit like that personally.”

“Well, I can assure you this baby is not yours,” I said, and that was majority truth. It was unlikely this baby was Unique’s, but also, I wanted an abortion, and I didn’t need him thinking it was his.

Unique seemed to be dragging his feet when it came to this annulment, and something told me his thinking I was having his baby would only make things worse for us personally but also the courts when it came to granting our annulment.

And I needed for us to get that annulment for too many reasons. With my reputation already in shambles, this would only be the nail in the coffin. Plus, with how I grew up, I despised side chicks or mistresses of any kind. It didn’t matter if I was the wife legally; his women were there first, and therefore, I was the side chick.

“Do he know?” Unique sat forward, elbows on his knees to look up into my face.