Page 46 of Love's Most Wanted

“I don’t want Unique, but word of advice—a grown ass man cannot be stolen. He is always going to go where he wants, no matter how many plots, ploys, and schemes you come up with.”

“Thank you, but I don’t really need advice from a professional side chick.” She scoffed.

“It’s one thing to be unknowingly used or cheated on, but for the life of me, I cannot understand how you allow a man to dog you out and play with you right in your damn face.” I giggled, packing my shit up since I knew this appointment was over. I was furious that I’d wasted my time coming here, gotten my hopes up, and that I was even in this shit with a man who wasn’t even mine, really, but was still my fucking husband. I almost told Aurora that last tidbit, but I didn’t want that information getting out. “I mean, what is the point in allowing a man to have you and another woman at the same time if you still have to go out of your way to stop him from skirt chasing?” I cocked my head after locking up my makeup case.

“He has to learn, and he will. I’ll teach him that.”

“Baby girl, Unique doesn’t need to be taught shit. He may joke a lot, but the nigga isn’t dumb. And to me, there is nothing worse than a man who knows better but chooses not to be better. Have a good one.” I snatched my roller bag’s handle and trotted off.

“Can you at least finish my face?” She called after me, sort of delayed.

“Nope!” I shouted back, continuing on.

“Bitch,” she mumbled, and boy did it take a lot for me not to turn back around and hit her.

I was so irritated that I almost sent Unique a very ugly text, but I opted out. Instead, I started my car and headed in the direction of my aunt’s home. I was going to talk to her about possibly allowing me to move in, because I didn’t want to live in the studio Unique provided me.

Whether he intended to or not, he was putting me in the same situation as AJ, and as long as I entertained him, I was allowing the shit. It didn’t matter how platonic it was, and with me being as attracted to him as I was, I didn’t want to even put myself in a position to be the side chick people assumed I was.

“Fuck.” I grumbled when I pulled up to my aunt Bell’s house to see her car was gone. Seemed like she was always doing something with her best friend these days, and it annoyed me.

I exited the car to go double-check because sometimes she would let the little nigga she dated use her car on occasions, which was insane, and actually would be inside. But as I neared the home and saw her lights were completely off, I knew that wasn’t the case.

“Are you Kabrina Kenneth?” A female’s voice spoke from behind me.

“Who is—” Before I could say a word, she sent a fist to my stomach.

The impact was strong, but I was also caught off guard, causing me to fold in half. Two other women who looked just as rough and burly as her, joined in with one punching me in the jaw while another kicked me in the stomach. When I gathered my bearings, I started throwing punches at one of the girls, focusing on her solely and making her back away.

I’d always been taught that if you got jumped, beat the brakes off at least one of them, and that would surely lessen the bragging the jumpers could do if their counterpart was sporting injuries.

She tried her best to hit me back, but due to her shorter stature, her arms weren’t as long as mine, so I was able to dodge her hits while simultaneously punching her repeatedly in the face. I didn’t slow up once in my rhythm, pounding her face back-to-back. She tried to hug me in order to avoid the hits, but I just banged on her fucking head, making her free me.

Her eyes widened in horror when she realized she was on the losing end, her nose leaking. I could feel how hard I was hitting her because with every punch, my knuckles rattled while she cried out.

“Get this bitch!” she shouted, teeth bloody as I knocked her ass around, causing her to drop.

As I was about to wail on that bitch some more, another kick hit my abdomen, then another, causing me to fall and yelp. For the next few minutes, all three ladies, including the bloodied one I’d been fucking up, began kicking me in the stomach until the girl who first approached me yelled for them to the stop.

“I don’t see no blood or nothing,” another asked. “That rich bitch said she gotta be bleeding for us to get paid.”

“Maybe it’ll come. I don’t know, but let’s go. That bitch got my face ringing,” another said, and I surmised that it was the one I was whupping on.

I groaned, unable to stand without feeling like I would throw up as them hood bitches ran off, hopping into an old ass Honda Civic before peeling off.

My aunt’s neighbor from across the street, an older man, rushed over after a while, yelling for his wife to call an ambulance. He smelled like whiskey, cigarettes, and motor oil, but I didn’t mind it because he was getting me some much-needed help.

The ambulance arrived within what felt like five minutes, and the EMTs rushed over to place me on the gurney, asking the old man what happened, but he couldn’t explain.

“I just stepped outside to smoke and saw her in the grass, moaning, groaning.” He coughed.

The ambulance took me to the hospital, and after calming down some, I was able to tell them what happened and that I didn’t want to press any charges or anything. After that, I took some medicine and passed out.

* * *

“Miss Kenneth?” A soft but unfamiliar voice woke me from my sleep. I was partially up but not fully.

“Yes?” I answered groggily.