On the Other Side

8

"Hello?"

Too eager; Laila had ran to her phone and answered without checking the caller ID.

"Hey Laila," disappointment coursed throughout her body. "I need your recipe on that beef stew you made the other day." Janelle replied as Laila rolled her eyes.

She gave the recipe to her friend with a rough edge to her voice. She didn't mean to be so rude but she was very frustrated.

It was 7pm and she still hadn't heard anything from Hakeem.

After their magical night together, not only did she want him again but she wanted to hear his voice

He had said 'I'll call you' before he had left.

Yet he hadn't called.

"Thanks honey. Are you going to the rec center with Diane and Alicia today?"

Laila bit her lip in deep thought.

If she went then perhaps she would see Hakeem.

Then maybe he could explain why he hadn't called her yet.

She suddenly reared her head back as she realised just how crazy she sounded. Hakeem was a grown man. Although she didn't know his exact age - she knew that he was grown and no adult had to explain why they hadn't called someone after sex.

He owed her nothing.

"Nah. I think I'm gonna watch a movie with Holloway tonight." She replied. "Are you going?"

"I wanted to but Raph convinced me to take the night off and stay at home." She gushed as Laila heart went out to her friend.

Her tongue wanted to form the words 'your husband may be gay' but she couldn't get them out so instead she listened as Janelle went on about how great Raphael was. How he was helping her all the time around the house, how he was working out to look good for her and how he was treating her like a queen.

Laila could tell that her dear friend was still in the honeymoon phase although it seemed as if her partner had never even stepped foot inside the love bubble.

She still couldn't even begin to wrap her mind around it.

Raphael. Cheating on her and not even bothering to tell her his sexuality. As far as Janelle was concerned, her husband was heterosexual all the way.

She didn't know the truth.

And Laila didn't want to be the one who had to break it to her. Especially not on the phone. "Honey, why don't you run yourself a bath, curl up with a good book and some wine and take some time for yourself?" She suggested, cutting off Janelle mid speech.

"I deserve that don't I?"

More than you know, Laila thought, shaking her head to herself.

"You know what, I am going to take a leaf out of Laila Jenkins' book and do that. Thanks for the advice, girl!"

"No need to thank me. Just remember I'm here for you. No matter what. No matter what happens or what goes down and who knew about what went down and all that. I'm here for you." Laila rambled, the words just shooting out of her mouth.

She heard Janelle laugh over the phone. "You're clearly going crazy. What's bothering you?"

"What?"

"You only ramble when your mind is working overtime so what is bothering you?" It was times like these when Laila despised the fact that her friends knew her so well.

Biting her lip, she stood up to go and pour herself a glass of wine, exhaling heavily. She considered not telling Janelle and lying but her friend wouldn't stop trying to coax it out of her. "Fine, but you cannot tell Alicia or Diane or Naomi and certainly not Ana!"