Black Butterfly (23 page)

             
He walked off and I followed him. Hurrying to keep up with his long strides I asked the burning question. “Who is she Maurice? Who the fuck are you in love with?”

             
He stopped and turned to face me. “Do you really want to know?”

             
“Hell yes. I wasted years of my life with you and I want to know who the bitch is,” I said with anger dripping from every word.

             
Mother and father had returned to their adoring fans and nobody could hear us. The celebration continued as Maurice proceeded to tear my heart out and stump on it.

             
“I had met her before you. I’m just a man and I got caught up in the physical with your ass. Shit, your pussy’s fucking amazing, but you have no substance. You’re nothing like her. When I first met you I preferred you. Now I realize that I don’t want that anymore. That’s why I am always pursuing other woman. The truth is that I don’t think I ever loved you,” he explained with not one ounce of guilt or remorse.

             
The words he uttered shattered my heart into a million pieces, but I still had to know.

             
“Who the fuck is she?!” I screamed hysterically, letting the hot tears fall down my cheeks.

             
Clearing his throat he said, “Renell. I was with her before I knew you. After we got together I continued to sleep with her. She fulfilled me in so many ways and I was a fool for letting her go for you. Not only is she strong and intelligent, but she’s independent. Oh, and believe me when I say she’s not a lesbian. She ended things with me because for some reason I couldn’t shake your freaky ass off. I was fine until I saw her with Ricky. Now I realize that I still love Renell. So there, it’s out. I guess that’s it for us.” After he’d said his piece he walked away and left me standing there stunned. He jumped into his burgundy E-Class Benz and drove off.

             
No words could describe how I felt as I watched Maurice speed off. Did he just tell say that he was with Renell before me? I felt sick and I couldn’t return to mother’s party. I ran into the house to get Edwin to take me home.

*           *            *

Seantay

             
A week had gone by since mother’s birthday party and everyone was still pondering about Maurice and Seandra’s argument. Whatever it was had caused her to leave without saying a word to anyone and we hadn’t heard anything from her since. Nell considered Seandra’s silent treatment toward her as normal, but she would have called our mother by now.

             
Mother had gone so far as to call the director of Cinammon Star. He informed us that Seandra had been coming to the set as scheduled, but her work was suffering. She had been forgetting her lines and snapping at other cast members. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Ahmad had said. “I just decided to give her some time off to get herself together.

             
Maurice had returned to Atlanta and informed us that the engagment was off. His announcement had shedded some light on Seandra’s strange behavior. He’d told us a day after he leaked the news to the press. Once we saw the story in all of the gossip magazines, newspapers, and on internet sites we knew that Seandra would only crawl into a deeper funk. Even Renell felt bad for her. I for one was glad the engagement was off because Maurice was no good for her.

             
“Girl, they’re still talking about Seandra and Maurice’s split on TV. Don’t ya’ll get tired of the press?” Reba asked.

             
We were leaving the nail shop after getting manis and pedis. “Yeah, the break up is big news considering the fact that they’d just gotten engaged. She must’ve gone out of town to let things cool off. I guess she wants to stay away from the media.”

             
“I can understand why she’d stay out of the public eye. A break up is bad enough when noone is around. I can’t understand why she’d stay away from her family,” Reba said.

             
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess she just needs a little time alone. She really loved Maurice.” Rolling my eyes I added, “For whatever reason.”

             
We’d made it to my car when I saw a familiar looking car approaching. The windows were tinted, but I didn’t need to see the driver to know who it was. The window slid down as the car came to a complete stop.

             
Sucking my teeth and rolling my eyes were obviously signals that he misunderstood, because he had a huge grin of his face.

             
Reba couldn’t help but laugh.”Hi Nafis,” she said shifting her gaze from him to me.

             
“Mmm,” was all I said as I opened my car door.

             
You g’won speak baby?” Nafis asked in that Jamaican accent that used to make me horny instantaneously. He was gorgeous and I’d gotten caught up in his web about a year ago. It’s funny how I managed to sneek around with some very infamous men without being spotted. The secret was that paparrazi were not lurking around the type of men I was attracted to. They were hood stars and I liked being incognito. In Nafis’s case my secret had almost been exposed.

             
Nafis was a very infamous drug lord who was known for moving major weight all over the east and west coasts. He’d gotten involved in the family business at a young age and was already a multi millionaire at the age of 23. His skin looked like caramel silk, with deep, penetrating eyes, full, sexy lips, and long, neatly groomed locks. Yeah, I loved those bad boys.

             
“Ya know you hear me talkin’,” he added giving me one of those sexy looks that used to captivate me.

             
“Yeah, I hear you. I just don’t care to listen. C’mon Reba,” I said not able to get in my vehicle to drive away fast enough.

             
“What’s wrong Seantay. You still mad at me?” The innocent expression that flashed across his face disappeared instantly. All that was left was a menacing glare.

             
A shiver ran down my spine as I recalled the reason his good looks and bad boy charm had not been worth the trouble. Shit, the events that took place had kind of scared me straight. I’d promised myself I’d stop playing with fire.  Upon meeting Nafis I had no idea he was as deep in the drug game as he was. He had at least 75% of the state of Florida on lock down with his pure, raw, uncut bricks of that pure Columbian blow. That was only the beginning of his product’s reach. He was a master con man and I’d found out the hard way. After him I decided that I’d stick to harmless hustlers like Raheem. My daddy was rich, so I didn’t need the biggest fish anyway.

             
Ignoring the fine creature I started the igntion and peeled off. I was mad as hell all over again when I thought about the last time I’d seen him. How in the hell had I run into him again?

             
“What happened with that anyway? Everytime I asked you just brushed it off.” Reba broke the silence.

             
“Okay, of course he’s sexy as hell and you know his accent turned me the fuck on. You have to know he did some foul shit for me to stop fucking with him right?”

             
She nodded. “Uh huh, so tell me girl. I’ve been dying to know.”

             
“Of course I knew he had to do something illegal because of his luxury cars, nice big house, and the money he’d toss around with no damn job. When I was fucking with him he had this hot ass red old school Rolls Royce that he was getting some work done to. He asked me if I could pick it up from the detail shop. I agreed to get Edwin to drop me off and I drove the car to his crib. He’d given me a key to his house, so I just decided to chill until he got there. He didn’t get home until after three a.m. and I was pissed because I’d been there since three that afternoon. We go to the car so he can see the paint job and he is going on and on about how great the car looks. Suddenly he goes over to the car and just pulls the grill off. I’m just standing there looking at him like he’s crazy. You just got a new paint job and grill put on the car and now you’re destroying it? Next thing I know he’s out there with tools taking the damn car apart in the garage. I asked him what the hell he was doing and he says ‘Nothin’ babe.’ Next thing I know he’s pulling out brick after brick of cocaine.”

             
“What?” Reba shrieked in astonishment. “No he didn’t.”

             
“Oh yes he did. I was just standing there watching him, shocked as hell. I asked him if he knew that the bricks were in there. Of course I knew the answer to that question. The detail shop was a cover up for his drug operation. He’d gotten me to pick the car up because noone would search Sean Beauvois’s daughter. Why? I could afford a Rolls Royce. I was just a rich cover up for his ass. I went off on him and took a taxi home. It was a good thing the taxi driver was foreign and barely spoke any English. I hadn’t talked to or seen that fool since. Had me driving around with enough drugs to get me locked up for life. Hell no,” I said shaking my head.

             
“That’s some crazy shit, but you were smart enough to fall back and avoid prison time.” We laughed making light of a situation that could’ve been a really serious one.

             
“Where to now?” I asked checking my text messages. There was one from Rah declaring his eternal love for me. The smile covered my face without me even trying.

             
“The Christian Dior Boutique on…” Reba just stared at me for a minute. “Girl, love looks good on you. Look at you glowing over there.” She grinned approvingly.

             
“If it wasn’t for you I probably would’ve just let it go,” I admitted. “It’s funny how you switched up. At first you were Dean’s cheerleader.”

             
“Yeah, well that was before I talked to Raheem. He really wants to be with you and to change his life around.”

             
As thoughts of his baby mama drama crept into my mind I only hoped that she was right.

Chapter 1
6

             
Seandra

             
I just lay in my bed for the fourth day in a row not wanting to deal with the outside world. The doorman knew all of my relatives and I’d given him strict instructions to keep them away. If someone happened to get past Stephen I would just ignore the door. When the phone rang I just ignored it too.

             
Life had really become a fucked up, hot ass mess for me. My relationship was over and I was feeling sick about it. I couldn’t believe my sister had been with Maurice before me. How could she let me be with him for so long without telling me? I hated her and I
really
hated him. I was so mad because that bitch still had a man. All I could do was wonder why. Why me? Even Seantay had a man.

             
Maurice hadn’t even bothered to call me once. I knew because I checked my caller ID and voicemails just to see if he had. It was so painfully clear that he’d never really loved me, nor had he ever intended to marry me. I was in denial for so long and didn’t want to see the obvious. I should’ve left his ass, but instead his pathetic ass left me. Shit, most men threw themselves at my feet and here I was crying over him.

             
The tears slid down my cheeks. I looked around at my luxurious pent house realizing that I’d always had it all. I didn’t need anything he’d given me although he’d promised not to attempt to take anything back. It really didn’t matter because I was planning to move out by the end of the month. There was no need for me to stay there with so many memores lurking around. I’d fallen in love with my Ferrari and he wasn’t getting that back, nor was he getting the engagement ring that sat heavily on my finger. No fucking way.

             
My phone rang and the answering machine picked it up on the second ring like I’d programmed it to. “Hi, it’s Seandra. I’m out at the present moment, so leave your info and I will call you back.” Beep!

             
“Seandra? If you’re there pick up the phone sweety. This isn’t like you. You need to call your parents honey. We’re worried about you,” my mother said sweetly. “We know that this break up has been public and it’s tough for you. Things will get better. I promise. I love you and your daddy loves you too.”

             
Tears dripped down my face and I attempted to wipe them away before they wet my pillow. All I wanted to do was close my weary eyes and sleep. I had stopped watching televison and listening to the radio. All they had been talking about lately was Maurice and I. We’d gone from being the “it” couple to the “shit” couple in no time. Our whole three year relationship had been one big ass lie. Damn, the truth really hurt.