Page 16 of Resisting Your Love

I smiled as I moved around Levi's kitchen, preparing dinner for him while he was upstairs taking a nap.

I hadn't seen myself as a stay-at-home wife, but that was what I did with my time.

I had quit my job at my father's poker lounge.

Levi said it was okay, and I jumped at the chance to do so.

I now helped Levi's mother with the planning of some of the events. I was officially on the committee.

My cell phone rang on the counter, and I ambled toward it to see that it was Mimi.

That was a shocker since it seemed like she had been avoiding me.

I didn't know how to feel about her calling me out of the blue like this.

We hadn't talked in a while, and every time I'd try to hit her up, she didn't reply or answer the phone, so after a while, I stopped trying with her.

"Hello?" I answered, putting the phone on speaker.

"Well, it's about time you realize you have real friends," she voiced.

I frowned, wondering where that came from. "Huh? What do you mean by that? Whenever I call you, you don't answer the phone, so I stopped calling you."

If Mimi thought I was going to run behind her, that was a lie she told herself. I would never let someone make me out to be the bad person when I did nothing wrong to them. I hated that.

"I can remember calling you plenty of times, and you didn't answer the phone. Do you think you are better than me or something?" she angrily questioned.

I was in disbelief at what I was hearing right now from my best friend. No way had those words left her mouth. "Mimi, how could you say something like that to me? I've never switched up on you. What the hell is going on? Why are you acting this way toward me?"

Silence came on the other end of the phone. Was I about to lose my best friend for something I didn't do?

"I'm sorry, girl. Joel's got my head all messed up. He's been talking about you badly."

I scoffed, wondering why she hadn't told me before now.

I didn't like the secrecy she had shown.

"And from the way you were just talking to me, I guess you were too," I bluntly stated.

It was best to get that off of my chest since I was feeling that way.

From the time I answered the phone to now, Mimi had been saying things that I questioned if she was being a genuine friend to me.

"What?" she screeched. "No, I wasn't, but let's face it. Things haven't been the same since you got married to that man."

Now I was getting pissed off. "For one, his name is Levi. For two, you need to stop listening to Joel. Joel didn't want me, and now that I am happy with someone else, he's bothered. His words can no longer hurt me."

"Who words can no longer hurt you?" Levi interjected.

I jerked my neck toward his voice, and the color drained from my face when I saw him leaning against the entry of the kitchen. The look on his face was unreadable, but he was staring a hole in me. I didn't know what to do or say as I stood there frozen.

Mimi continued talking. "Yeah, Joel told me he saw you at Dunk's Wings, and y'all exchanged words. I wouldn't say he is bitter. He just wants his girl back. And let's face it, you not really married for real."

I hung up the phone. I'd heard enough of Mimi showing her true colors. I refused to listen to anything else she had to say.

I had to face Levi now. I could feel the rage rolling off of him. This wasn't about to be good for me. In my defense, I didn't do anything, so I hope he wasn't going to take his anger out on me.

"You talked to your ex-boyfriend and didn't tell me about it," he accused.

I gulped, not knowing how to answer that. "It wasn't anything to tell you. I was able to handle Joel on my own. It was the day I brought you lunch." I decided to be honest with him.

Levi pushed off the wall and strolled toward me. He looked dangerously delicious, with his tattoos covering his light brown body. "Hmm, you had all the time in the world to tell me, though. What did he say to you?"

I shook my head, not wanting to repeat any of the awful things Joel had said about me. "I'd rather not."

"Nah, go ahead and tell me. It had to be something good since you felt the need not to tell me. Wassup with it?"

I had a feeling he wasn't going to let it go, so I needed to be honest once again. Sighing deeply, I told Levi everything Joel said about me.

"He said that you were going to cheat on me when you found out how worthless I was. Then he said that I was dull, and I had nothing going for myself."

I cringed, just even repeating what Joel said to me.

It made me feel like he was right since I didn't have anything going for myself.

The way I was brought up, I didn't feel the need to do anything other than collect money from my parents.

I was spoiled rotten and was treated like royalty.

Look at me now, married into wealth, although it was an arranged marriage.

Levi's face turned a shade darker, and I didn't know how to react to it.

"You kept something like that from me when I could be kicking down his door and giving him a knockout he deserves for talking to you like that," he growled.

"I didn't want to tell you. It meant nothing to me," I lied.

"Bullshit!" Levi bellowed. "Is that why you were walking around here like you lost your puppy? You were saying slick shit about yourself, too. Is he the reason for it?"

I dropped my head and nodded.

"Un-fucking-believe-able. All this time, you could have told me what was said, but you didn't. You kept it from me."

I shook my head wildly, tears filling my eyes. "No. No. I wasn't trying to keep it from you. I hated repeating it like you made me do just now. It hurts too badly."

I didn't want Levi to ever think I was keeping anything from him. Just talking about Joel and what he thought of me hurt.

"Why the hell do you care how another man feels about you? I'm the only man who should matter to you. Or so I thought, yet you're still worrying about that damn ex of yours."

No matter what I said, I had a feeling it wouldn't even matter to Levi. Not now, anyway. Maybe I'd try again when he was in a better mood. I also didn't like how he was cussing at me.

"Okay, you are not about to continue to cuss at me. You are doing too much, and I don't have the time for it. When you are ready to talk to me normally, we can talk. Until then, I'm going to walk away." And with that, I left the kitchen and headed to my bedroom with tears streaming down my face.

It was a good thing I hadn't started cooking yet. If Levi was still in the kitchen, I didn't want to be anywhere around him. If he thought I was going to sleep with him tonight, that was something he didn't have to worry about. Today started off good yet ended bad as hell. I hated that for me.