Page 106 of Taming a Menace

Keywan

My phone rang as I drove home from Iyla’s office. I was shocked to see her number come up on the caller ID. We had spent every night together since I’d asked her to marry me, and I still couldn’t get enough of her. I couldn’t wait to spent the rest of my life with Iyla.

“Hey, baby. Miss me already?” I asked her.

“We need to chill for a while, Key.”

“What does that mean, Iyla? What are you talking about, baby?”

“Us. We need to back off for a while. All the sneaking and hiding is too much. I don’t know why we thought this would work.”

“Where are you, baby? Meet me somewhere so you can tell me what’s going on.”

“I can’t, Key. I have to work,” she declined.

“You have thirty minutes. Just talk to me. I know we can fix whatever it is.”

“I don’t know if we can.”

The way her voice cracked made something break inside me. What the hell had changed in fifteen minutes?

“What happened, Iyla? I just left you. We’re almost at the finish line, mama. Don’t give up on us.”

“That was my ex in the office when you came back. He recognized you from the restaurant and is threatening to report me to the board.”

“Fuck!”

I punched the steering wheel knowing that my baby’s worst fears were coming true. I promised that I wouldn’t let anything happen. Now I felt responsible for turning our love story into something else.

“We just need to back off for a while until I can figure out what to do. He wants me to move back in with him and come back to work at his office.”

“You’re not doing that.” I snapped.

“I’m not going back to him, Keywan. That doesn’t mean we don’t need to chill for a while. I don’t want to give him any more power over me than he already has. I didn’t even know he knew where I worked until he showed up today.”

“What’s his name?” I asked her.

“Wyatt,” she responded.

“His full name, Iyla.”

“Doctor Wyatt Lowe. He’s the medical director over the clinic where I used to work. He showed up here acting like nothing happened and asking me to come home. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to handle him.”

“You don’t have any business trying to figure out how to handle another man when you have a man. I’ll handle him,” I declared.

“Keywan, don’t.”

“What do you want me to do, Iyla? You expect me to sit back and wait for him to force you back into that toxic ass relationship? I’m not doing that.”

“Please let me handle it.”

“Am I seeing you tonight?” I asked just to see what she would say.

“I don’t think we should see each other for a while,” she responded, crushing my heart.

I sighed. “Baby, come on.”

“What else can I do, Keywan? He’s trying to ruin my life once again.”