Page 56 of Love's Most Wanted

“Uh… yeah.” I giggled politely as my aunt Bell came back into the living room carrying two glasses of wine.

“It is!” She beamed. “Brina, you remember Sharon, don’t you?” my aunt inquired.

“Oh yeah, I do,” I lied.

Pursing her lips and realizing I didn’t, she said, “My best friend. You remember her from when you were in elementary school, when she used to come over every Friday and Saturday.” Aunt Bell sat down on the couch after handing Sharon her glass.

The latter took a sip, smiling at me over the glass like a proud mother. So this was who my aunt had been kicking it with so much as of late. She told me no name, just ‘my best friend.’

“Oh wait, yeah, I do. You did come over a lot and then you kind of just… stopped.” I frowned, sitting in the recliner across from them.

Descending next to my aunt, Sharon replied, “I started dating my now husband. Things moved fast, which I am not complaining about, but one day I was single, and the next, I was planning a wedding, opening a new church, and pregnant.”

“Want some wine?” Aunt Bell asked, and I shook my head.

“I see. In that case, I’m happy for you, even though it’s been like what, eighteen years since I’ve seen you?” I ran the numbers in my head.

“Excuse me.” A tall teenaged boy came from the back, low-key scaring the shit out of me.

“Speaking of being pregnant, this was the baby I had.” Sharon gestured up to theverytall, baby-faced boy with a honey complexion and bright brown eyes. “Deacon, this is Kabrina, Bell’s niece I mentioned.”

“Nice to meet you.” I shook his hand as he nodded to silently say ‘same,’ before he stepped past me to sit down. Immediately, he pulled out his iPhone to scroll on like a teenager would.

I didn’t know what it was, but something about the boy’s aura was familiar, like I’d either met him before or met someone like him.

“So, Kabrina, when are you going to visit the church?” Sharon pulled my attention from her son as my aunt flipped through channels, sipping her wine.

“Uh, what church again?” I stalled, knowing I would never attend. Now that Sharon was here, everything was slowly coming back to me, and when my aunt gave me brief, knowing eye contact, I recalled the things Bell had said about Sharon’s husband.

She claimed he was money hungry and how weird it was that he seemingly came out of nowhere. The details were spotty since I was only in like third or fourth grade when I would be eavesdropping on her and my other aunt Rosette’s conversations, but I distinctly remember my aunt being suspicious of him. Especially the fact that he claimed to have no family and that his parents had died when he was a boy.

“Crossroads Church. Big church out in Costa Mesa.” She smiled, pointing toward the door as if the church were right in the front yard. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it, Kabrina.” She sized me up a bit. “Do you attend church?”

“Oh right, and yeah, I do when I can.” I caught eyes with my aunt again before saying, “I’ll come to that one someday for sure.” I stood, suddenly uncomfortable. “Aunt Bell, I’m gonna grab my pie and go. I have an early appointment in the morning,” I said, only wishing that shit was true.

“Oh… well, okay. It’s the one covered in foil and with your name on it.” Aunt Bell eyed me for a moment before engaging Sharon in conversation.

I quickly grabbed my pie and said my goodbyes. But before slipping out, I stole one more glance at Deacon, trying to figure out why something about his young ass was so familiar to me.

FEW DAYS LATER…

It was rare as fuck,but all my brothers were here at the moment. And since we wouldn’t have a night like this for a little minute, we decided to take it back and play drinking games—mainly beer pong, but instead of beer, it was brown Don Julio in them red cups.

We used to do the shit years ago before these niggas turned in their player cards to become daddies, husbands, and sucker ass niggas.

I enjoyed calling them out on that simp ass behavior, but I didn’t wanna see the day them niggas found out I was on some simp shit of my own and not even with the women I was supposed to be doing the shit for.

Kabrina had a nigga open in an embarrassing ass way, to the point where I hadn’t had sex in two whole weeks. Shit was difficult to fuck while thinking about her ass every hour on the damn hour. I played it off like I was just tired as fuck, but Aurora and Daisy had been fucking with me long enough to call bullshit.

“You still married, nigga?” Lequay asked, laughing with the rest of my brothers like he’d said the joke of the year.

“Nope.” I caught their asses all off guard, smirking a bit as I eyed the cup I had to toss the ball into, because all six of them niggas stopped laughing immediately at my answer, staring me down like a muthafucka. “Thought y’all was about to have some fun talking ’bout a nigga, huh?”

“Man, you lying. When the fuck you get the annulment?” Bashar’s brilliant ass asked.

“For real. I ain’t going for it, because one, I think you wanna hold on to that woman, and two, you would’ve been said some shit.” Asif agreed with Bashar’s assessment.

“Fuck!” I growled, missing the cup and taking the red cup filled with liquor that Khari handed me to toss back. “You niggas is distracting me.”