Him and I

Fourteen - The Plan

"What? No. I did pay her, Christian confirmed that payment and everything"

"Because the payment did go through, it did leave your account but it didn't reach her account- it went to this sixth person" I tap on the paper by the sixth person's account "I don't think they did that on purpose though, something glitched and her cut went to six. Which would be an easy fix if the person was real, but because the person isn't real it makes it hard to remove money already sent without the thief revealing himself"

"Who the fuck is the sixth person?! Or thief, whatever"

"I'm getting to that" I flip through the papers and show all my calculations and scribbles "This is how much I assume the sixth person has made over the past five years"

"990,000 dollars?? Are you joking??"

"No, and honestly it's probably more than that I just didn't feel like doing all the math. But um, yea if you're okay with it I want my financial team to work on finding out who this sixth person is and everything and then we can take it to court and all that"

"So, you don't know who it is?"

"Oh, no. I know exactly who it is, but I just don't have enough hard evidence"

"Who?"

"Jermain Jackson, baby" I sit back in my seat and watch Melo's face shift from being shocked, to angry, to upset, and then it goes blank

"Nah, no way" he shakes his head

"Yes, it all starts with him"

"Nah, that's like my uncle bruh. He would never do that"

"That's exactly why he did it. Yall put too much trust in him and he thought he would be able to get away with it, especially since you don't pay attention to your finance"

"Dee, JJ would never do that"

"He already did"

Melo sits in silence for a moment.

I can see the gears spinning in his head, see the disgust and anger creased in his face

I let us sit in silence for a while, letting him process.

A part of me wants to say something, to comfort him but the other part knows that no words can comfort him when someone he loves has betrayed him for years.

Still, I try.

"It might not be Jermaine, we have no proof it's him. It's just my assumption from comparing his paycheck to the way he lives" I trace small circles on his back as he sighs

"It's whatever, we'll find out" he raises from the seat and begins to walk out

"Are you hungry?" my poor attempt at cheering him up

He shakes his head and walks away, "Nah"

~~
9:30am

"So?" Jelly lays on the couch next to me twirling a pen

"So what?"

"Your fiancé was pretty mad last night. How's everything going?"

I sigh and shrug, "We talked and I explained. I don't think he's mad at me anymore, like we're good, but he's understandably mad about the JJ stealing thing. I don't know how to fix that, like what is a wife or fiancé or whatever supposed to do?"

"What'd you do with Trell?" Jelly asks

Sometimes I miss Shiesty, he was easy in some ways. He never really got upset with me, although I was much less professional and more ditsy with him. I didn't care about business or work, I just wanted a break from all that and he was the break for me. He never got upset enough to make me feel bad, genuinely just a good time.

"Nothing," I shrug "We never had this issue. I never had to fix things I just went to sleep and in the morning it was fine. You know Melo didn't even sleep with me last night? Trell was never that mad over something with me"

Jelly inhales sharply "That's bad, Dee, I can't even lie"

"Maybe I should decorate the house or like plan an outing"

"Ooooohhh," Jelly smiles ear to ear "Do a movie night and get him a basket of stuff he likes"

"How's that gonna fix his mood tho?"

"It might not, but it shows you care or that you tried. Do something nice for him. Cook dinner, movie night, gifts, quality time"

I sigh, "Why am I even doing this? It's a contract"

Jelly sits staring at me for a moment,

"Do you like him or not? I feel like you jump between yes and no rather often. Pick one. You can't limboing between the two whenever you feel convenient"

I shrug. "I think I love him, but I'm not in love with him. I care for him, he's kind. But I don't know I feel like everything's so fast, so when I feel like I'm going too fast I just convince myself it's because of the contract. I wish we could do this on our own timing"

"Well then bitch fuck the contract. Slow it down if it needs to be slowed down. Does he know this?"

"No, I mean how do you take back an 'I love you' and change it to 'I care for you'. That's crappy. I feel like maybe I lust him but like I don't genuinely know him and that's the whole issue"

"You know what I think?" Jelly taps her chin

"What?"

"I think the reason you're saying all this is because you're scared that's it's getting serious and real. For some reason that scares you and now you're trying to make it less serious or scary by removing or simplifying your feelings"

I stare into space for a while, partially Im exhausted by this topic and partially because I don't want to really think about what she's saying.

"I guess," I get up to grab my tin box of zaziana. Jelly follows me happily onto the balcony and takes over rolling

"This is actually such a nice place, Dee" Jelly rolls and lights it before handing it to me

"Mm," I inhale and let it sink in before releasing. Slight cough. I prefer Californias dealers but Charlotte is pretty okay compared to others I've had, it's pretty strong all things considered. "I don't mind it but I kind of want a house or like something more private or grown up"

"You said you wanted to travel every month. Why buy a house n you're not gonna be there?"

"Well I want a kid so might as well invest now y-"

"Bitch, shut your ass up and pass the blunt. You don't even know what you want, you don't love him but you want a kid but you wanna go slow" Jelly shakes her head. This is what I love about it Jelly. She can be hilarious but she can also humble me and bring me back to earth "Dat poor boy"

"Alright my fault, I might've forced" I take another hit and then pass it to her

"Might've?"

I roll my eyes and chuckle "Anyways"

AN: that's it🙂 i'll edit it later maybe