Twisted (27 page)

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Authors: Tracy Brown

BOOK: Twisted
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“Please!” Rah-lo spat at her. “You were only with me because I
am
somebody. Don't act like you just loved me all along and now you're destroyed because I don't wanna be with you anymore. You were caught up in who I was and what I represent and how it could benefit you. It was never about me. Don't insult my fucking intelligence!”
“You know what, Rah-lo? Fuck you!”
It was Rah-lo's turn to laugh. “You only want me to come back so that you don't feel like you lost some stupid
game. It's a game for you to be with me and be my wife. You love the privileges. You don't love me. The only reason you want me is to keep somebody else from loving me. You know that another woman will appreciate me.”
“You think you're all of that, Raheem. What the hell is there to appreciate about you? You cheat on your wife! You're a liar and a fucking sneak! You act like it's all about you, but it's not.”
He nodded. “Exactly. With you, it's not all about me. It's all about you and what you want and how you look and what you can get out of it. I don't want that anymore. I want a divorce. Let me be happy and you can find somebody who can make you happy.”
Rah-lo turned to leave, and Asia stood in his way. “Tell me what I have to change and I'll change it,” she said, her voice wavering slightly. This was uncomfortable for her—conceding defeat. She choked back a sob as she tried to block his exit. “I'm sorry,” she offered. She was desperate to change his mind. “I'm sorry for the way I was acting. Can't we fix it? Please.”
It pained Rah-lo to see her this emotional. Asia had never softened this much around him. She was always so tough, so stoic and frigid. Now she stood before him with hurt etched on her face and tears sliding down her cheeks. He wiped them for her and lightly touched her face. “No, Asia. It's over. I just want to move on. Let me do that. Go home and get the kids. When I get back I'll come over and
we'll talk to them together. Don't make this harder than it has to be.”
Asia's pain turned to sheer rage as she listened to her husband dismissing her like she was nobody. She had let down her guard and shown him what was in her heart and still it wasn't good enough. Asia couldn't stand the idea that even when she cried and pleaded with him it wasn't enough to make him stay. She reached to kiss him and he pulled away. Asia swung at him and Rah-lo deflected the blow and shook his head in disgust.
“See? That's why I don't wanna be with you anymore.” He shook his head. “I'm gonna tell you one more time to leave me alone. I'm not gonna say it again. Please don't make me hurt you. Seriously, Asia. Go home.” He stepped around her and went back into the waiting room, leaving Asia crying in his wake.
He found Celeste in Ishmael's room. Rah-lo stood beside her and saw his friend lying there with tubes running all over the place, a respirator breathing for him. A monitor beeped softly near his bedside and the IV dripped steadily into his veins. Ishmael's head was wrapped in gauze and visibly swollen. His eyes were puffy and his legs were both encased in casts. Celeste stood with her hand covering her mouth and shook her head in disbelief.
“Oh my God,” she sighed.
Rah-lo stood beside her and looked at his friend. Celeste went to his bedside and touched his hand lightly. He was
covered almost head to toe in bruises and casts, sutures and gauze. “Ishmael,” she said. “Hold on. You're gonna be all right.” She began to cry softly. Rah-lo ushered her out of the room and into the waiting room, where he rocked her in his arms to calm her. She took some deep breaths and he handed her a cup of water from the nearby cooler.
“I need to talk to you,” Rah-lo told Celeste. She nodded and he led her to the other side of the room. “I want to apologize about what happened with Asia,” he began. “I'm sorry.”
Celeste shook her head. “You're not the one who should apologize.”
Rah-lo looked at the floor and then at Celeste once more. “I love you,” he said. “I know I don't always have the best way of showing it. But I never loved any woman the way that I love you. I didn't expect all of this to happen when I came down here. I thought I would come here and find you and then we would see if we could have another chance to be together. But Ishmael came to see you and Asia followed me down here and then … this ain't how it was supposed to end up.”
“You don't have to apologize for all of this,” Celeste said. “I know you didn't mean for this to happen.”
Rah-lo shook his head. “My marriage is over, Celeste,” he said, looking directly into her eyes. “I swear it is. I don't want to be with Asia or with anybody else. I just want to be with you. Can we have a second chance?”
Celeste looked away and said nothing for a long time. “I
don't want to live like this anymore. Fighting, bitter exes … all of that shit surrounds you. Rah-lo, I love you, too. I probably always will. But I came down here to get away from all this. I came to Atlanta to have peace in my life and I didn't ever want to have to deal with this kind of drama again. If you and Asia are finished, I think that's great. But she's always gonna be in your life. You have kids together. And she'll do everything she can to make our lives miserable.”
Rah-lo shook his head. It seemed that all he ever heard from Celeste these days was “no.” “So you're gonna let her win? You're gonna let her keep us apart?”
“It's not about letting her win. It's about accepting the situation for what it is.” Celeste was feeling overwhelmed by everything. In the past few days the man she loved had come back into her life, along with his friend, with whom she'd shared a physical and emotional chemistry; his wife, who was bitter; and the type of drama that Celeste had hoped she'd never see again. It was all too much at once. She wanted nothing more than to go back to her new life with Bryson, spending her Sundays with her mother and Nana and having her after-work drinks with Keisha. All this drama was for the birds.
Rah-lo knew that Celeste meant what she said. He could see the conviction on her face and hear it in her voice. But he couldn't give up that easily. He stood beside her, knowing that he had to do something drastic to get her to see things clearly. He walked over and asked the doctor on call whether
Ishmael could regain consciousness any time soon. The doctor shook his head, explaining that Ishmael was heavily sedated and would be asleep for hours. That was all that Rah-lo needed to hear. He walked back over to Celeste and grabbed her by the hand. She looked at him, confused. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“To your house. I need to talk to you without a million people standing around, without Asia starting her bullshit, without Ishmael—just me and you.”
Celeste looked at him but didn't protest. The truth was she needed to get out of there just as badly as Rah-lo did. She felt drained and she desperately wanted to go home. Waiting around for Ishmael to wake up was fruitless. She and Rah-lo headed out to his car and drove the whole way to her house in silence. Both of them were lost in their own thoughts, processing what had happened over the past several days.
When they pulled up in the parking lot of her condo, Rah-lo parked his car and they headed toward the entrance. Just as they reached the lobby door, Rah-lo stopped her. “Listen,” he said. “I need to say this to you before we go inside.” He stepped in close.
Celeste felt her heart racing in her chest. “What?” He was standing so close that she could feel the breath on her face.
“I'm willing to do whatever it takes to have you back in my life. If I need to move down here to be with you, I'll do
it. I'll get out of the game. Shit, I've wanted out for a long time now. Maybe this is the push I need to do that. I'll keep Asia out of our life.”
“How? You can't even keep her out of your life
now.
”
“I swear she won't bother us again. I promise, Celeste. Just don't say no to me anymore. Please.”
Celeste looked into his eyes and saw that he meant what he said. Without second-guessing herself, she took him by the hand and led him into her place. They were silent the whole way. Once inside, Rah-lo looked around and was impressed by all that she had managed to accomplish on her own. Her home was so beautiful and so meticulously decorated. He hadn't noticed that last night when he had been fighting with Ishmael. But despite how proud Rah-lo was, he had more pressing matters to attend to. Celeste was here with him, and there was no one or no thing around to interrupt them. Celeste was feeling the exact same way. It was almost too good to be true. Without a word, Rah-lo walked over to her, led her by the hand to her huge master bedroom, and made love to her until the sun went down.
In the morning, she called in sick to work and watched Rah-lo sleep. She couldn't believe that he was back in her arms, in her bed, after so many years. She wondered if she had made the right decision by sleeping with him. But one flashback to the night before and she no longer second-guessed herself. She recalled the way his luscious lips had felt pressed against hers, the way his big, powerful hands had felt
as they explored her body, how he had felt inside of her. She thought about the way they'd moved together with a cadence that was as close to perfect as anything Celeste had ever known. Watching him now, sleeping peacefully naked beneath the sheets beside her, she almost wanted to cry. She had missed him so much, and now here he was.
She reached over and touched his face, just to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. Rah-lo stirred in his sleep and slowly opened his eyes, squinting against the sunlight peeking through her sheer curtains.
Seeing Celeste beside him, he smiled and turned to her, scooping her into his arms in a warm embrace. “Good morning,” he said. He hadn't been this happy in years. Waking up beside the woman he loved so much made him feel euphoric.
She smiled as he held her close. “Good morning.” She couldn't understand why she suddenly felt shy like a little girl. She had known Rah-lo for over ten years. The two of them had practically lived together when she was in New York, and they had had sex in various degrees of intensity over the years. Rah-lo had fucked her, made love to her, seduced her, ravaged her, and seen her in every position imaginable. He knew all of her dreams, her fears, her triumphs, and her disappointments. He knew what made her happy, what made her cry, and all the things that made her smile. Rah-lo knew Celeste like no other man—or woman for that matter—had ever known her. He had been her best friend. But that was long ago.
Now she felt as if a familiar stranger was lying beside her. She pulled the sheet up closer to her chin and rested on her elbow as she faced him. Rah-lo noticed her covering up but didn't comment on it. He wondered what was on her mind, so he asked her, “What are you thinking about right now?”
She shrugged. “Whether or not this was a good idea,” she said honestly.
“Why wouldn't it be a good idea?” he asked, frowning. “Because of your man?” Rah-lo hated the thought of any man kissing her, touching her, or, worse, making love to her. He knew all along that in the four years that had passed she had probably had sex with another man. Still, the very thought of that made Rah-lo sick to his stomach. So he didn't ask her for details or press her on the topic. But he did want to know how serious she was about this dude. Because Rah-lo was there to take his baby back, whatever the cost. “What's his name, anyway?”
“Bryson,” she said. “But that's not important. It's this that I'm worried about … us. I don't want to get caught up with this,” she said, motioning at the bed in which they lay naked together, “and forget the problems that we still have to face.” She looked at him seriously. “It felt so good to be with you last night.”
“Tell me about it,” he said, smiling.
She smiled back but then forced herself to be serious again. “But we still have a lot to talk about.”
Rah-lo nodded, agreeing. He linked his fingers together behind his head and lay back. “Where do you want to start?”
Celeste looked at him. Such a beautiful man. She got comfortable and asked, “What do you want from me now?”
Rah-lo sat up and pulled the sheet off of Celeste. “I want to see your body, baby girl. Don't cover yourself up like you don't know me anymore. I thought about you so much all this time, imagining the way you looked when we used to spend the day in bed together. Don't hide from me now.”
She sighed, and felt more at ease with him seeing her in her birthday suit. He looked at her from head to toe and smiled. “That's more like it,” he said. Rah-lo told Celeste about how his life had changed when she had left town so suddenly. He told her about his attempt to reconnect with his wife, including the family trip to Florida, and the fact that he had been feeling like he desperately needed to leave the drug game alone. He painted a picture for Celeste of a man who loved his children and had grown accustomed to a lavish and privileged lifestyle. But also a man who wanted peace and needed the comfort of not having to watch his back all the time. He was tired of looking over his shoulder 24/7, waiting for some enemy from some past beef to come back seeking revenge. Rah-lo was sick of the empty marriage he had found himself in, and sick without the woman he truly loved—Celeste. They ordered food from a restaurant down the street and ate it in bed, talking and catching
up on each other's lives. Celeste listened to him insist on how much he loved her, missed her, and how sure he was that his relationship with Asia was over. And Celeste was encouraged. They laughed together, just like old times. They had a pillow fight when she made fun of his few stray gray hairs. For the first time in a long time, they were enjoying each other's uninterrupted company and reestablishing their beautiful friendship.

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