After quickly sending Carissa tons of middle finger emoji’s, Brix locked her phone and tossed it on the bed. With the back of her knees pressed against the mattress, she stared at Shemel and willed herself not to bite her lip. The braids he had when he left for Atlanta were long gone and his crinkly dread locs swung softly as he shut the door behind him. Standing in some gray sweats—a woman’s creep attire— a simple white tee, and a red pair of Jordan Futures, he looked damn good. He had on a gold cross necklace, but that was the only jewelry he rocked majority of the time, including his diamond encrusted watch.
Brix figured he had went through a lot of trouble to get here, seeing as though Carissa didn’t like anyone to know where she lived. She definitely wasn’t expecting him to be standing in front of her, while she was basically half-naked. Although she had on a big t-shirt and some shorts, her smooth caramel skin thighs looked inviting to Shemel underneath the moonlight. On any other day, he would have been nestled between them with his arms wrapped around her waist, laid back chilling. Today wasn’t that day, and he didn’t know when the next one would be.
“Why are you here?” she asked, with a mug on her face.
Shemel flipped the light switch on, needing to see her face. Licking his lips, he couldn’t stop the smile that spread over his face. Even though it looked like she had been crying all day, she still looked as beautiful as the first time they met at Walmart. Clearing his throat, Shemel began to answer her question.
“To clear some shit up. I don’t know the key details of what happened while I was out of town, but that’s no reason for you to ignore me. I was worried about you.”
With a chuckle, Brix rolled her eyes. In less than twenty-four hours, here it was another man who supposedly cared for her trying to explain himself. She didn’t have the energy or time to deal with him right now.
“Worried? About little ole me? I find that quite funny.”
“And how is that funny Brix? Please, enlighten me. I go out of town and you basically disappear from the face of the earth. No replies back, no returned phone calls or nothing. I understand if you mad about some shit Rei told you, but you didn’t even give me a chance to see things from my side.”
“Why should there even be a reason to hear your side of anything? Just answer me this one question and you can leave.”
Smirking, Shemel nodded his head for her to continue. He had no plans of leaving anytime soon.
“Did you know she was the one who messed my car up?”
Shemel started to nod his head, but Brix stopped him. She wanted to hear him say it, loud and clear.
“No. Say it out loud,” she told him.
“Yeah, I knew,” he mumbled, shaking his head.
The tears that Brix dried hours before had surprisingly resurfaced. She was so tired of crying; it didn’t make sense. She couldn’t control it though. Hearing it straight from his mouth was a stab to the heart. While she knew some women could be downright conniving, there was no reason for Reilyn to just show up at her tasting and make up a complete lie and make a fool of herself. Surely there was some truth to her harsh words, and low and behold, there was. Seeing the tears fall from her eyes, Shemel quickly stepped in her direction to hug her. As much as she didn’t want him to touch her, Brix didn’t put up a fight like she did with Drew. Wrapping his arms around her small frame, he held her tightly as she cried.
“How could you know that and not say anything? Why would you do that?” she said, hitting his chest, demanding answers.
“I didn’t want to hurt you. It was stupid man, and I’m sorry. I should have told you.”
Hearing him say he was sorry triggered something inside of Brix. Removing herself from his embrace, she took a step back and wiped her face. She was so tired of hearing sorry come from niggas’ mouths. It was sickening. To her, they were never sorry until they were caught up in a lie. Where was this remorseful feeling when they were unintentionally breaking her heart?
“That’s all y’all ever are. Fucking sorry and for what? You knew what you were doing. You know it’s funny,” she said with a chuckle. “I had my ex tell me to my face this morning that he played a role in murdering my father and made every excuse in the book as to how he was protecting me when he left. Claiming he didn’t want to hurt me and then here you come with the same shit. I have heard enough excuses in one day to last me a lifetime. So you can save whatever speech you had prepared and walk right back out that door. I do not have the time,” Brix concluded, trying to hold her ground.
Shemel listened in with wide eyes. He had never heard her curse before and damn did she sound sexy when she was pissed off. What he heard had put his lustful judgments on hold. All he could think about was her seeing her ex this morning and what she meant by murdering her father.