Chapter 10
Redd took Téa to school Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday he allowed Miki to take her to school. Miki tried to get there as early as she could to run into Bebe. She had gotten there too early. After dropping Téa off in her classroom Miki strolled down the corridor expecting to see Bebe come in through one of the double doors at the end. He never walked through. She got to her vehicle, started the engine and reached for her seatbelt. She looked out of the front window and could see Bebe hurrying Kennedi inside the building.
Miki thought about blocking his truck so that he would see her, but it seemed as if he was in a hurry. She gave it a few minutes and called his cellphone. No answer. She called it again.
“Hello?” a female voice answered.
Miki was thrown. “I think I dialed the wrong number.”
The female said, “That’s okay.” And ended the call.
Miki looked down at her phone to make sure she had dialed Bebe’s number. Plain as day it said Ms. Brenda. Did he get his number changed?
Bebe came flying out of the building and half ran half walked to his truck. He was in a hurry. Miki didn’t bother him. She felt dispirited as she watched him pull off in his truck.
Miki went home and thought about the woman who answered Bebe’s phone. She wondered who that could have been. Maybe it was Pocahontas. It saddened Miki to realize that Bebe may need to just move on if he was looking for happiness. She wasn’t sure if she had what it took to leave Redd.
After about thirty minutes of being home she got a text notification.
Ms. Brenda: you call?
Miki: Are you able to talk?
Ms. Brenda: yeah
Miki dialed his number. He answered on the first ring. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Are you okay?” he asked with concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“How bad did he hurt you?”
“It ain’t nothing,” she lied.
“It is something. Why did he do it? Did somebody tell him about us?”
“Yeah. Somebody told him they saw me with a man at the club. Then I tried to hide my clothes and he dug ‘em out to smell on ‘em and shit.”
“Baby, I’m sorry ‘cause that was my fault.”
“You straight. Regardless if it was you or not, it would have happened for another reason anyway.”
“Can I see you today?”
“It’s not a good idea. He’ll probably call or come home around lunchtime.”
“You know what? I wouldn’t put it past his ass if he had some type of device recording your conversation or something hidden somewhere.”
Then the thought occurred to Miki that the surveillance cameras could easily tell on her. Shit! She just hoped Redd didn’t get the same idea and think of the cameras. “You’re right. But I was just calling to let you know I’m fine. I’ll see you Friday.”
“Friday?”
“He’s going out of town Friday. I told him I didn’t feel like going out of town with him. But I think he has his own agenda for not wanting me to go with him anyway.”
“So that’s why you said Friday and not tomorrow?”
“I figure we could just wait unless you wanna still meet tomorrow.”
“Hell yeah, I wanna see you. I need to see you.”
Miki smiled. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Bye Miki. I love you.”
Miki ended the call. She wasn’t sure if she should have asked him about the woman that answered his phone earlier. It wasn’t really her place to question him but she still wanted to know. She decided she would wait and ask tomorrow.
The following day just as Miki was about to leave for her Thursday parent meeting Redd showed up at the house.
“Ay baby,” Redd said from the bedroom. “Skip that thing today.”
“Why is that?” she asked. Her keys were already in her hand and she was headed to the door.
“Because I said so,” he said. He appeared at the end of the hall. He looked at Miki with lust in his eyes. “C’mere.”
“What Redd?” Miki asked with a bit of annoyance.
“Don’t what me. Just c’mere.”
Miki walked over to where he was. He pecked her forehead and pulled her close into a warm hug. “I want us to start doing better.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You know. Us and how we get along. We gotta stop all this bullshit arguing.”
Ain’t this some shit? He never accepted sole blame. He somehow had to always make it seem as if Miki was just as guilty. Miki knew better. She just wouldn’t vocalize her opinion. However, she said, “Well my biggest issue with you is your cheating and when you…hit me.”
“I don’t fuck around. You think I got time to mess around?” he asked innocently.
“I know you mess around. Alicia and Tamika be dropping little slick shit.”
“Fuck them. They just jealous of you and wanna be where you are and shit. Fuck them,” he barked. He took Miki by the hand and led her to their bedroom. “Take them clothes off.”
Shit. The only thing Miki could hope for was that Bebe didn’t call or text her phone to raise suspicion.
Redd started kissing on her neck and behind her ears. Miki began to disassociate herself. Sex with Redd had become redundant. She knew exactly what he would do, what positions he would put her in, and what he would request of her. He would lick her pussy then he would shove his dick in her face as if that’s what they agreed on. She didn’t want to suck his dick. He went around putting it in too many people. But if she objected it would be a problem. So, she half-heartedly sucked it.
He got on top of her and pumped in and out. She wasn’t wet enough. He let spit fall from his mouth down to his dick that was still inside Miki. She hated that too. She thought, if I’m not wet then that means I don’t wanna do it with you dummy!
It seemed as if he couldn’t bust a nut. Miki was becoming drier. He reached over to the nightstand to get the lubricant out of the top drawer. Miki should have been happy to see the bottle, but she wasn’t. Just as she thought, after lubing up he let some drizzle on her rectum. She looked up at him, “I don’t wanna do that.”
“Just a lil bit,” he said. He began short stroking his way inside her ass.
Miki was supposed to relax but it was the worse feeling ever. She wanted him to stop.
“Relax,” he whispered.
Miki remembered to breathe as she tried to relax. She figured the sooner he get a good rhythm the sooner it will be over with. It seemed like it took him forever. She thanked the Almighty when he was done.
She looked at the time. It was only 12:10. She could still get an hour in with Bebe.
“What you looking at the time for?” Redd asked. He was lying on his back watching her.
“Tryna see if I could still make it to the meeting. I think they were going to discuss a bakeoff for the kids today,” she lied. She didn’t know where these lies came from. Now she could see how easy it was for lies to drip from Redd’s tongue.
“They’ll catch you up next week,” he said.
Miki didn’t want to be in the house with him. She couldn’t wait until it was time to get Téa.
_____________
Bebe was agitated. He wanted to call Miki and just call off the entire relationship. He couldn’t keep doing this playing some side piece for Miki. She was going to have to make a decision. It was either him or Redd. If she chose Redd, then that would be on her. He couldn’t play savior for everybody. His mother and Dinky both fussed at him about it. But if Bebe was honest there was something about Miki that he wanted to save.
He was so mad he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to see her Friday, but she said she would be over as soon as she parked her car at her sister’s house. Who wanted to go through these changes just for some ass? Sometimes he felt like he would be better off trying to make something work with Stefani’s wild self. At least with her he could have her as often as he wanted. He could go out in public with her. Go on dates like normal couples do.
The doorbell rang. Expecting it to be Miki he didn’t bother asking who it was before opening the door. It was Deja and Cyn. They were dressed and ready for somebody’s club.
“What’s up, bruh?” Deja said as she walked inside his house.
Cyn smiled up at him making sure to throw her breasts up at him. “Hey Bebe.”
“Why are y’all at my house?” he asked as he closed the door behind them.
“Just stopping by. You got something to eat?” Deja asked immediately going to his kitchen.
Cyn asked, “What’s up with you Bebe?”
“Nothing,” he mumbled.
Cyn looked him up and down like she wanted to eat him. He chuckled, “What is your problem?”
“Why you say that?” she grinned.
“Why you looking at me like that?”
“Cause every time I see you it seem like you get sexier. I don’t know Bebe. We might have to stop playing games.”
“Who’s playing games? I don’t play them; you the one bullshittin’,” he said.
“Whatever,” she rolled her eyes.
“Well c’mon then. Tell my sister you’ll holla at her later and let’s go to my room.”
Cyn called out, “Deja! I’ll see you in a minute.”
“Where you going?” Deja asked.
Cyn looked back up at Bebe from under her lashes. She tried to wear an innocent seductive expression. Bebe walked upon her thinking how cute she was and how many ways he could fuck her. He said, “You ain’t ready.”
Frustrated Cyn said, “Yes I am. You always do me like that.”
“Cause you’re my sister’s friend. Y’all will fall out once you fall in love with this dick girl. You ain’t ready,” he boasted.
“Whatever Bebe. You just scared you might fall in love with this pussy. Now,” she challenged.
“Well let me see,” he said grabbing her hand. He started leading her to his bedroom. Cyn didn’t object. Thinking of Miki and just because he could toy with Cyn he let her hand go and said, “I’m just playing. Girl go on!”
“Ooh! You make me sick,” Cyn exclaimed. She started playfully hitting on him. “You always playing with my emotions Bebe.”
“I love you though,” Bebe teased. He decided to give her a hug just as Miki let herself in the front door. He and Cyn both looked over at Miki who was staring back at them. Bebe immediately released Cyn from his hold. “Hey baby.”
Miki asked, “Am I interrupting?”
“No. We were just playing around,” Bebe explained.
Deja stepped into the great room to be nosey. She recognized Miki as Kat’s friend, the one that had been at the park on Labor Day. So that’s who he’s been talking about all this time.
Miki looked over at Cyn and cut her eyes back to Bebe. She said, “I’ll come back once your company has left.”
“You ain’t gotta do that. It’s just my sister and her friend,” he said walking towards her.
“Whatever,” Miki murmured and went back out of the door.
Bebe shook his head and glanced at Cyn. She was wearing a sneaky grin. He asked, “What’s so funny?”
“Your girlfriend mad,” Cyn said.
Bebe blew out air in exasperation. He went after Miki. She was walking fast so he had to jog to catch up with her. “Miki stop.”
“I don’t know what I’m thinking,” she said to no one in particular as she kept walking.
“What are you talking about?” he asked keeping beside her.
“Me and you. Why am I even doing this? I keep getting my ass beat, I can’t be with you like I want, and I know you won’t wait around for much longer,” she said as tears filled her lids.
“All you have to do is leave him. You can stay with me.”
“I can’t,” she cried. “He will find me, and he will kill me. I know he will.”
“Not as long as I’m around…Will you slow down?”
Miki stopped. She looked up at Bebe as tears streamed down her face. “I feel so stuck Bebe and don’t nobody understand me. It’s so easy for y’all to say leave him but I can’t.”
“Who is y’all?”
“You! My sisters, my mama…Kat…”
“Well we can’t all be wrong in telling you to do so. All you gotta do is walk away. I’ll protect you and we can get the police involved.”
“I can’t call the police on him,” Miki said as she started walking again.
Bebe grabbed her by her arm and spun her around back in the direction of his house. “Let’s go to my house and talk about this.”
Miki turned around to go to her sister’s house. “I think I just need to go to my sister’s house and think some stuff out.”
Bebe spun her around again. “You can do that at my house. We can come up with something together.”
Miki shook her head. “You need to move on. I’ll never be able to be anything more for you.”
Bebe stopped her from moving by grabbing either of her arms. “Listen. I’m not letting you go to your sister house right now. You’re coming back with me and I’m not taking no for an answer. So stop this shit.”
Miki averted her gaze from him. She looked anywhere but his face. “You like your sister’s friend?”
“There’s nothing between me and Cyn. She just come around with my sister and get on my nerves. That’s all.”
Miki thought about what it would take to leave Redd. It would be hell. She didn’t want to have to send him back to prison but Redd would get things to that point. He had an invincible attitude and thought nothing, or nobody could stop him from wreaking havoc. She asked Bebe, “Why do you want me so much?”
“I don’t know…,” he shrugged. He took her hands in his. “It’s just something about you. You’re beautiful as hell. You have a softness about you I can appreciate. I know I can bring out the best in you. I feel passionate about seeing you fulfill your own dreams. You need a man that will love you Miki. I’m that nigga.”
Miki smiled big. “You are?”
“I’m the one. It don’t get no better than me,” he bragged proudly.
Miki laughed. “You’re so full of yourself.”
He kissed her forehead softly. When he pulled back they stared into each other’s eyes expressing a desire for the other. Then their lips met in a soft sensual kiss. It awakened Miki’s inner being as it always did when she was with Bebe. She needed him. She just had to get to a point where she could trust that he would protect her.