Chapter 25

Hey Journal, April 25, 2022. Monday. When I woke up that morning at 7:00 am, the realization of six days left was upon me. I had been invited to film with Johnny again. He said he had access to a private beach where we could film. It was something I looked forward to, a break away from that apartment where Storm and I had worked so closely

I sent him a message that I would bring my recording equipment. As far as Storm and I were concerned, our friendship was over. She had fucked up royally.

I gathered myself to head to the apartment. As I stepped outside, I caught a glimpse of Felipe. His eyes shined as they fell upon me. I waved at him as I got into my car. I backed out and left.

As I drove, my cellphone sat on a holder on the dash, I saw an incoming call from Todd. I sucked my teeth and put him on speaker, “Can we please talk?” his voice sounded.

“I don’t understand why you want to talk now. It seems like you already have what you want.”

He sucked his teeth, “You know that’s not what I want. What time do you get done today?”

“I don’t know. I’ll be busy all day and later I have stuff to take care of.”

He huffed, “I already told Storm I didn’t want to see her anymore.”

“This whole time while you’ve been confessing your love for me, you’ve been fucking my friend. My friend. Behind my fucking back. It’s fucking low Todd.”

“Damn babe, come on, don’t throw this away. We can be great together.”

“I have to go.” I ended the call and put my phone on do not disturb.

When I finally arrived at the apartment ready to run in grab my stuff and head out, the door opened and I saw Storm standing in my kitchen. Our eyes met. She was silent at first, then spoke, “Don’t be mad at Todd—”

“Girl fuck you! I’m quite certain he didn’t have to force your mouth on his dick.”

“A lot of what we did was before y’all became official so—”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t trust you. There you were smearing my name to him and why? Don’t you have a woman? The same thing you accused me of doing with David ... you’re doing.”

“I’m not in love with Todd. I just—look, I didn’t understand why you had asked David and Michael to go to Houston with you.”

“Because they are men and I felt protected with them. I told you that.”

“Did you even consider anyone else?”

“Todd and I weren’t serious at the time and I had already asked them before.”

“And what about me?”

I nodded, “So you wanted to come.”

“You said we were friends and my name never even entered your mind. It’s always David this and David that. What about me?”

“You’re right. I could have asked you. That was an oversight on my part. It still didn’t give you the right to try and fuck my shit up with Todd. Like this whole thing is giving obsessed single black female vibes. You already have a girlfriend. And you’re all up on me like I owe you something. I like you, but I’m not in love with you or anything like that.”

Tears formed in her eyes, “I get that now. I guess ... I wanted to see if I could win your heart.”

“You can’t win people’s hearts by doing dirty shit. We were cool. You decided to be on some weird shit. Like we knew what this was. You said straight up you had a girl and I told you I wasn’t looking for anything serious.”

“You’re right. Just please don’t hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, but I don’t want to see you for the foreseeable future. I need space.”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the key, “Here I should give this back.”

I took it from her hand and watched her leave. Afterward, I asked Noel to have my locks changed. I didn’t know if she had made an extra key and I wasn’t about to chance it.

Before heading to meet with Johnny, I swung by and picked up David. Michael had to work. As I drove, I told David about what transpired. He listened attentively but he didn’t seem shocked, “I had a feeling about her.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, but, I knew she was your girl, so I didn’t want to stir the pot.”

I huffed and continued to drive.

“So, what are you going to do about Todd?”

I shrugged. We had finally arrived at the location where Johnny asked us to meet him. It was near the water. We sat inside my car chatting as we waited.

I pulled out my cellphone and scrolled through looking at pictures of me and Todd. We had so many great outings. I was torn inside. How could I forgive him? I wanted to badly, but if I did, he would probably take me as a joke and continue to do dumb shit. I closed the photo gallery disgusted with him and myself.

“What are you thinking doll?”

I shook my head, “That maybe it was stupid to think I could be in a relationship.”

He reached over, his hand touched mine, “You’re not stupid for wanting a relationship. And it wouldn’t be crazy if you wanted to forgive him.”

I smiled but I was still on the fence. Forgiving him and not Storm would have seemed hypocritical. I had to think more about how to handle it. As we sat there, we heard the roar of an engine. Then a red and black corvette pulled up and parked next to us.

The window slowly went down and I saw two pairs of eyes. The first was a soft hazel brown resting on the face of a god. His butter pecan-toned skin glistened in the sun. He had a neatly trimmed beard and a thin mustache over his pretty lips. He gave the head nod. Which I returned just before looking over his shoulder and seeing Johnny smiling, “Hey girl!”

“What’s up Johnny?”

“Nothing much. This is my boyfriend Caesar. We’re hanging out at the beach house for the rest of the week after we film. He won’t bother us.”

I nodded but a little bit of shock hit me. I didn’t know that Johnny was Bisexual, “It’s fine. I have my friend David.”

They spoke.

“We’ll leave the cars here and take the boat over to the location.”

“Okay,” I replied. David and I exited my car and they exited his car. We followed them to the docks while exchanging pleasantries.

David whispered in my ear, “Those are two fine ass men.”

I chuckled, “Indeed.”

The twenty-minute boat ride felt therapeutic. Staring out at the water, spotting a dolphin, and enjoyed the breeze as it danced across my skin. Caesar approached me as I sat, “Since those two are talking, I thought I’d keep you company.”