Authors: Tracy Brown

Twisted (20 page)

BOOK: Twisted

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Celeste lay beside Bryson and stared at the ceiling. She had slept with him again, and this time was just as good as the first
time. She was feeling Bryson. His conversation was great, his sex was even better, and best of all, he was successful and handsome. He had no kids, no wife, no drama. Bryson was a perfect match for her. As she tossed and turned, trying desperately not to awaken him, she wondered why she couldn't get Rah-lo off her mind. She wondered why she even cared that he was in Atlanta. She second-guessed letting Ishmael stay at her place. Somehow her past had come crashing through the door of her new life.

Bryson woke up and caught Celeste lying awake. “What's the matter?” he asked, his voice sexy and heavy with sleep.

“Nothing,” she said. “Go back to sleep. I just woke up and couldn't fall back asleep.”

“You need some help?” he asked, moving closer to her.

She smiled. She really liked this guy. “No. You're just trying to make me scream again.” She snuggled close to him and he wrapped his legs around her. She felt so at peace in his arms, and his heartbeat lulled her to sleep as she vowed that tomorrow she wouldn't give Rah-lo a moment's thought.

The next morning, Ishmael awoke to the sound of his cell phone ringing. He glanced at the bedside clock and saw that it was 11:27 A.M. Celeste must be at work. He stretched his long body and reached over to the nightstand to answer his phone. “Yeah,” he said.

“Ishmael, how come you don't answer my calls all of a sudden? I know you got my messages.” It was Asia, and Ishmael regretted answering the private number. “I have to block my number in order to talk to you?” she asked.

“It's not like that, Asia. Rah-lo's on some bullshit right now. I don't know what to tell you about your boy.”

Asia was all ears. “What do you mean? What kind of bullshit?”

Ishmael replayed his conversation with Rah-lo over in his head and lied. “He won't talk to me anymore. We had a fight and that's that.” Ishmael lay back in his bed.

Asia held the phone silently. She thought that Ishmael was lying through his teeth. “Rah-lo is in Atlanta at his uncle James's house. He went down there to find Celeste.”

“For real?” Ishmael asked, wondering how the hell Asia knew that.

Asia was enraged, but she kept her cool. “Ishmael, you knew all along where he was. That's why you didn't answer my phone calls.”

Ishmael rolled his eyes. He didn't need this drama first thing in the morning. “Nah, Asia. I didn't know that.”

Now Asia was incensed. Ishmael was insulting her intelligence. “Nina's the one who told me where my husband is.”

Ishmael laughed. “Keep listening to Nina if you want to.”

“Ish, please! Don't play games. It's funny how your girlfriend could tell me so much and yet you supposedly don't know shit. After all the years we've known each other, Ishmael.
You had all that loyalty to Celeste, but you treat me like a stranger. All those years you and her got so close. I bet you didn't keep no secrets from that bitch! I know all about how you used to drive her upstate to visit Rah-lo and hang around her hair salon every day. No wonder Nina thinks you wanted to fuck Celeste, too.”

“Asia, listenâ”

“No, Ish,
you
listen. I'm on my way down to Atlanta now. So, tell Rah-lo that if he's with that bitch Celeste I'm gonna cut his fuckin' dick off!” Asia hung up the phone and Ishmael put his phone back on the nightstand and shook his head. Celeste had no idea that the very drama she had run away from was headed her way.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Showtime

C
eleste yawned so hard a tear fell from her eye. She was tired. Working late came with the territory, but that was the part of the job she hated most. She had beautiful things and little time to stop and enjoy them. Her night with Bryson hadn't helped matters. He had kept her up all night with his wonderful lovemaking. After a full day at work and a full night sexing Bryson, Celeste was drained. When she pulled into her parking spot, she opened her purse and pulled out her house keys. She turned the car off and got out, feeling drained both emotionally and physically. Ishmael was upstairs in her home and Rah-lo was somewhere in town. Both of them had come back to disrupt the peace she had finally found in her life.

As she made her way through the parking lot, she heard footsteps behind her. She panicked, still fearful of being raped after her close call so many years ago. This wasn't New York City, but the city girl in her always expected the worst. She quickened her pace, only to hear the person behind her speed up as well. She started to run, and tripped on her pant leg. She stumbled and fell on her knees.

“Celeste!” a familiar voice called out.

Celeste looked up and saw Rah-lo standing there. Every thought in her head prior to seeing his face was washed away instantly. She wanted to cry tears of joy and run away at the same time. “What are you doing here?” she asked, stunned.

Rah-lo looked at his baby girl. She was as beautiful as the last time he'd seen her, and hearing her voice, seeing her face, made him want to hold her close to him. She had cut her hair shorter than it was the last time he'd seen her. She looked thinner, too. But she was as lovely as ever. Damn, how he had missed her. Without thinking about it, he walked up to her and held out his hand. Celeste stubbornly refused to take it. She got to her feet on her own.

“I don't need your help,” she said flatly. “What did you come here for?”

“I didn't mean to scare you.” He couldn't take his eyes off of her. “I had to see youâ”

“For what?” Celeste interrupted him.

“I know you don't want to see me. But I think you need
to hear what I have to say.” Rah-lo reached to touch her face, but Celeste pulled away.

“Why? You ain't saying nothing new.”

“That's not true.” Rah-lo was hurt that she was reacting this way. He wanted her to be happy to see him.

“Don't act like that,” he said. He shook his head for emphasis. “I missed you.”

“What about your wife?” Celeste demanded.

“I left her.” Rah-lo looked for Celeste's reaction but got none. “It's over. I know I don't have a right to come back into your life after all these years. You probably think I'm crazy coming down here like this, but I need you.”

“You need me for what? I left New York
four years ago,
Rah-lo. I changed my whole life around. Why did you come here
now
?”

“So you changed your life and now there's no room for me?” Rah-lo frowned.

“Get the fuck outta here with that, Raheem! I don't want to hear that shit. You married Asia and let her have your children. Then when I left, all these years you've stayed with her. Don't think you can come back here and pick up where you left off. Nobody sat around waiting for you. I wasn't fucking knitting in the corner waiting for you to finish being married! Rah-lo, fuck you! Get the fuck away from me!”

Celeste hated his guts at that very moment. She wished
she could hurt him the way she had been hurt after years of playing the background. She was done. He could kiss her ass.

“I'm not saying I was rightâ”

“You
can't
say you were right, muthafucka!”

Rah-lo breathed deeply. “I'm just sayin'.”

“What the fuck are you just saying? As a matter of fact, what the fuck are you doing here? What do you want from me? Why can't you leave me alone?”

Rah-lo looked at her and took another deep breath. “I can answer all your questions if you stop interrupting me.”

“I don't need your answers, Raheem.”

“Okay, I see you're real mad right now.” Rah-lo tried not to react to Celeste's bitterness, but she was making it hard for him.

“I'm not mad, Rah-lo,” she said evenly. “Never that! In fact, I'm quite happy. So go back where you came from. Back to your fucked-up wife and your kids and leave me alone. She can have you.”

Celeste walked away, telling her heart that it better not break. She meant every word she said to Rah-lo. She hated him. But damn if she didn't love him, too. Celeste's heels clicked on the pavement as she stormed toward the exit.

Rah-lo was right behind her. He grabbed her by the wrist and she swung at him with her other arm, hitting him square in the jaw, which made him bite his tongue literally. The pain was evident on his face the moment it happened,
and Celeste knew she had gone too far. Thinking she had knocked his tooth out, she reached toward him apologetically.

“Oh, shit. I'm sorry.”

Seizing the moment, Rah-lo kissed her softly. Celeste pulled away, but the feeling of his lips against hers lingered still.

She turned to leave and he stopped her, holding her by the arm until she met his gaze.

“I'm sorry,” he said.

Celeste shook her head. “I know you didn't think I was gonna just sit around forever and wait for you to get sick of being married,” she said.

“I knew you wouldn't.” He thought about it and was scared to ask his next question. “You got somebody else?”

Celeste glared at him. She almost wanted to tell him that Ishmael was right upstairs in her house. But she knew that would end badly. She felt the urge to tell Rah-lo that Bryson had been fucking her better than he ever had. But she simply said, “Yeah.” She wanted to hurt him and she could tell by the look on his face that she had succeeded.

Rah-lo said nothing at first. He was crushed, although he knew it was selfish for him to feel the way that he did. He had a wife and during the past four years he hadn't been alone. It was wrong for him to expect Celeste to be alone after all that time. “So, I guess I wasted my time coming down here, then.”

Celeste didn't understand why she felt sorry for him. And she didn't understand why she was secretly thrilled that
he had finally come for her, that he had left his wife, and that he still loved her.

Rah-lo rubbed his hands together. “You want me to leave?”

Celeste couldn't tell him to go, because she wanted him to stay. She realized then how much she still loved Rah-lo. Her gaze fell downward. She couldn't believe that this was happening. Where had he come from? She had convinced herself that Bryson was the type of man she needed in her life. He had stability, intelligence, romance, a legitimate job, no wife or kids, and she felt comfortable with him. Still, he was not Rah-lo. He didn't excite her the way Rah-lo did. And as Rah-lo stood before her she wanted nothing more than to fall into his arms and tell him how much she loved him.

Instead, she took her hand away and shook her head. “Yeah, you can leave. You can't come in and out of my life whenever you see fit.”

Rah-lo took her hand back and held it tighter. “I'm here to stay this time. I swear, baby girl.”

As much as she loved it when he called her baby girl, Celeste pulled her hand away again and walked inside her condo. Rah-lo stood in her wake, speechless.

Asia stepped onto the elevator at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Buckhead. She had checked in late the night before when
her evening flight had landed. The hotel was beautiful and conveniently located, and she felt right at home in her spacious suite. She figured she may as well enjoy cozy surroundings while she was here in Atlanta to fight for her husband. She waited patiently for the elevator to descend and looked around at all the activity in the lobby through the lift's glass walls. The fountain in the lobby bubbled with large tropical fish swimming inside. People milled about on their way to and from their destinations. As the elevator doors opened to the exquisite lobby, she stepped out and strutted out to the parking garage to get started on her way. She looked amazing that day. Wanting Rah-lo to see her in the way he once had, she had gotten her hair done and her nails, too, before she had left New York. She wore skintight capris and a very low-cut top. She wore her GUESS sandals and carried the Dooney & Bourke bag Rah-lo had given her for Valentine's Day. She hoped it was enough to change her husband's mind.

She had rented a car at the airport and was now ready for the drive to Uncle James's house. As she strolled along, her heels clicking on the pavement, she turned several heads and was pleased by that. Since she seemed to be having no problem attracting male attention from passersby on the street, maybe she would have equal success with the man whose attention she was determined to keep. Today was the day she would confront her husband and, she hoped, bring him back home where he belonged.

When she arrived at Uncle James's house, Asia parked the rental car and got out, eager to get inside and surprise her husband. She all but ran up the steps leading to the front door of Uncle James's house and eagerly rang the bell when she got there.

“Hold on; hold on a minute!” Uncle James called out. Somebody was ringing his doorbell like a madman. He was sitting on the toilet in the downstairs half bathroom, and he wasn't done letting his load out.

“I'll get it!” Wanda's son Brian yelled as he ran downstairs. “Damn, you stink in there, James!” Brian fanned the fumes away from his nose as he caught a whiff of what was going on in the bathroom.

“Shut the fuck up and answer the door!” James barked. He shook his head, for the hundredth time wishing Wanda had no kids.

Brian opened the door and smiled when he saw Rah-lo's wife standing there. He remembered Asia from the last time she came to visit. He had a crush on her then, and here she was again. “Hey!” he exclaimed, pulling her into a hug.

Asia felt caught off guard and it showed. “Hi,” she said with a fake smile. “What's your name again?”

“Brian.” He sized her up. “I haven't seen you in a long time! Why didn't you come down when Rah-lo came the other day?”

Asia smiled. This kid was feeding right out of the palm of her hand. “I wanted to surprise him,” she said. “Where is he?” She looked around Uncle James's living room for signs of her man but saw none.

Brian shrugged his shoulders. “He left last night. Right after he had some of my mama's good cookin'.” Brian smiled proudly, as if he had cooked the meal personally.

“How is your mama?” Asia asked, not really caring.

“She's fine.”

“Good. So did he say where he was going?” Asia asked.

“Right after he ate, he started making phone calls. Said he was trying to find somebody important down here and he wasn't leaving till he did that.”

“Find who?” Asia asked.

Brian shrugged. He was smart for thirteen and he didn't want to say too much. Rah-lo had sat up till the wee hours of the morning kicking it with Brian. His little brother, Nigel, had been asleepâjust as he was at the momentâand old James had been in his bedroom with Wanda doing only God knew what. Rah-lo had talked to Brian about how it was living in Brooklyn and what it was like being married to one woman and loving another. “Don't get married unless you really love a woman. Don't do it 'cause anybody makes you feel like you have to.” That's what Rah-lo had told Brian.

He shrugged his shoulders and ignored the question. “James told him to stay as long as he wants. So he left outta
here and he ain't been back since. Did you try to call him yet.?”

Asia noticed that Brian had ignored her question, so she in turn ignored his. “He hasn't called since he left?”

“Nope. I guess he'll be back here soon. You can stay here and wait for him if you want.” Brian rubbed his hands together. He would love to play peekaboo with Asia.

James came out of the bathroom at last. He wore a pair of red athletic shorts with tube socks pulled all the way up to his knees and a black muscle shirt that showed clearly that he had no muscles. He tried to spray the air freshener discreetly but failed. When he saw Asia, his heart sank. He knew that Rah-lo wouldn't want to see her. But even worse was the fact that
Brian
had been talking to her for several unsupervised minutes. James wondered what his dumb ass had told Asia. James scowled as he entered the room at the kid.

“Hello,” James said, pretending to be happy to see Asia.

She smiled. “Hi! Brian was telling me that I missed Raheem. I came to surprise him.”

BOOK: Twisted

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