I just couldn't believe what I saw. Did Kyle really have a baby on the way? Was he in a relationship with Taylor? Why didn't he tell me about this?
"Bre everything was so perfect last night and then it just all went to shit in one second," I complained into my phone.
"I think you should hear him out. Everything you've told me about him makes me feel like Kyle is a good dude. I don't think he would do no snake shit to you." Bre tried to reason with me.
"Man I don't know. He almost had me too cause that sex last night was crazy lit. But now... I have a guard up with him."
"See here you go. Drawing conclusions before you even know the whole story."
"Hold up bitch. You're supposed to be my best friend. Who's fuckin side are you on?!" I snapped.
"Girl please I will hang up on you right now. You know I'll have your back through everything, but you also know Imma let you know when you're wrong, and right now I think you're wrong. But go enjoy your little baecation with Clifford. I gotta go clock in. I love you mamas."
I sighed. "I love you too butt head." Bre chuckled as she hung up. Maybe I was overreacting.. but that's not something I wanted to talk about right now. I went into my phone and muted all messages and calls from Kyle. I didn't want to talk to him or be reminded of him at all this weekend.
I finished packing my bag as I waited for Clifford to come get me. At almost 10 o'clock on the dot, he let me know he was downstairs.
I got to the big Escalade and smiled at Clifford who was waiting at the trunk to put my bag in.
I hugged him and then hopped in the car quickly. He got in the driver's seat and looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. "What's wrong Cheyenne?"
I shrugged. "Nothing. I'm okay." I tried to convince myself.
He shook his head not accepting my answer. "You know you can talk to me right?"
I sighed and looked at him honestly. "I just wish more boys my age were like you."
Clifford chuckled softly. "Ah... boy problems. Believe it or not, I wasn't always like this. This level of maturity and respect for women takes time."
I nodded my head as I looked out the window. I hated feeling like I was tripping.
"But any young dude would be lucky to have you and would be foolish to mess that up. Anybody, no matter their age, should be able to see that... Anybody who's worth your time at least."
"Thank you, Clifford..." I looked back at him. "Thank you for always being so kind to me."
"It's not about being kind, Cheyenne. I'm just being real with you. You deserve that."
After a long pause of silence, Clifford spoke again. "You're with me this weekend, so whatever is going on, you can leave that behind. You know I'll take care of you." He rubbed his thumb over my hand.
Every time Clifford said he would take care of me I couldn't help but think he meant more than monetarily. I didn't want to cross a line and get physical with Clifford. Not that I didn't find him extremely attractive, I just don't think that would be good for our arrangement.
I leaned my head against his window and slowly drifted asleep as Clifford drove us to New York.
—————
I woke up feeling the truck at a complete stop. Clifford shook me softly. "Hey, we're here." I looked around to see us sitting in front of a hotel. "I'm gonna go check us in and then I'll come back to get you."
I checked my phone and looked at the time. It was already 3 o'clock. I can't believe I slept through the whole trip, but I guess I was making up for the sleep I didn't get last night. I sat up in my seat and stretched trying to wake myself up.
Clifford quickly reappeared helping me out of the truck. He grabbed our bags and handed them to the bell boy who followed behind us. Clifford held my hand guiding me through the hotel.
Once we reached our room, the bell boy dropped our bags in the room and Clifford shook his hand, giving him a tip. I noticed in the room there were two beds which made me feel more comfortable.
"Okay," He turned around to look at me. "I have a business meeting tonight. It will be a business casual type of dress code. Let me see what you brought to wear." He commanded.
I opened up my bag and showed him the various dresses that I brought.
"Try those on for me please." He said sitting down in the chair at the desk in the room.
I grabbed my different dress options and went into the bathroom without question.
I put on my first dress which was a silk navy blue maxi dress with a slit up to my thigh. I walked out of the bathroom and Clifford's eyes looked over me as if he was taking a mental picture. He didn't say anything, he just nodded his head.
I stood awkwardly waiting for him to say something, anything. "You can try on the next one." He said turning his attention back to his laptop.
The fuck?
I went back into the bathroom and put on my black plunge neck wrap dress. Again Clifford studied me in the dress but didn't say much. Well, actually he didn't say anything.
"The next one, please." He said turning his attention back to his laptop once again.
Alright now Clifford.
I walked into the bathroom and huffed out of irritation. I don't know why, but it annoyed me that Clifford wasn't complimenting me or atleast telling me how he felt about the dresses. My last dress option was this long sleeve black dress that had a deep v cut and a slit up my thigh. The dress was long and touched the floor even when I was in heels.
I opened the bathroom door hoping I would get some kind of reaction out of him. When I walked into the room Cliffords eyes lit up. He still didn't say anything but I could tell he liked this one.
"Do you like it?" I asked breaking the silence.
He nodded his head in approval. "You'll wear this one. You look gorgeous." He said standing up and walking behind me. He stood behind me and looked at me in the mirror. "Yeah, this is nice." He lightly sat his hand on my shoulder, still examining me. He looked as if he was thinking really hard about what I was wearing, and I couldn't imagine why it would be that serious.
"Okay, you can change now." He said sitting back down at the office chair.
I quickly went back into the bathroom and changed my clothes. I don't know what it was, but seeing Clifford serious like that, and hearing him commanding me to do stuff, really turned me on. Ew.
I came back in the room and laid on the bed closest to him. "Are you hungry?" He asked looking over at me. I nodded my head. "Yeah, I could eat." He smiled as he handed me his card. "You can order whatever you want."
I ordered us some chicken and waffles from this brunch spot. I knew it would be a couple hours until we ate again and I knew how I got when I was hungry so I made sure to get enough to hold me over.
While we ate Clifford told me about the people we would be meeting with tonight.
"So this meeting is a pretty big deal?" I asked. I needed to know what I was getting myself into.
"For sure. I have several businesses right now, but I am trying to expand and start up a nightclub."
"So we had to come to New York for a meeting about a club?" I raised my eyebrows.
Clifford chuckled. "Well for one, I'm from here, I always do business here in my home town. There's some things you may not understand, but there's a club owner out here who's... business model I want to follow," He chose his words carefully, almost as if he didn't want to tell me too much. "I'm meeting up with the owner for advice, and to ask him to be my partner. We go way back to high school but still, I gotta approach things the right way."
I nodded my head showing him I understand what he was saying, even though it felt like he wasn't telling me everything. I decided to stay in my place. "Well, I hope this does go well. Is there anything I need to do?" I asked not really understanding why I was there.
"No, all you have to do is sit there and be pretty which shouldn't be hard for you." He smiled.
I smiled back and finished eating my food. Something felt weird but I just shrugged it off per usual. I didn't want to think that Clifford would put me in a dangerous situation.
—————
Clifford was holding my hand as we walked to the door of the restaurant. He bent down to whisper in my ear before he opened the door. "When we get in here, let me do the talking about our relationship. If anybody asks you personal questions, don't answer them. Okay?"
I swallowed and nodded my head. Okay, this is freaking me out.
"Aye Shotgun is here!" A man in a black suit with some expensive looking glasses on hopped up from the big round table as he walked over to us. Clifford dapped the man up and smiled down at me. I smiled back, nervous as hell. This all looked like a scene out of an old gangster movie.
The table was in the middle of the restaurant, and there were no other customers in sight. Just us and the staff of the restaurant. At the table sat about 20 different people, most of them men, two of them women. Why the fuck was I here again?
Clifford, or Shotgun, as his friends were calling him walked around the table dapping everybody up and making small talk. I stood beside him and everyone smiled at me, but no one said anything to me. This shit felt so weird. They sat around and chatted for a while, basically ignoring my presence. Clifford kept me close to his side and I can't even lie, I was basically latched on to him.
"So, where you from again?" A light skin boy around my age came and sat next to me. He was covered in tattoos and had a dark look in his eyes that didn't match the nice tone in his voice. I looked up at Clifford to see what I should do or say. "Reek, she's with me." Clifford said sternly, putting his arm around me. Reek nodded his head, "Of course, I wasn't tryna slide on her, Unc. She's just sitting over here so quiet."
Unc, huh?
Clifford sighed. "This is Cheyenne, she's a good friend of mine. I met her out in Maryland. Cheyenne, this is my knucklehead nephew Tyreek."
Reek smiled, waiting on me to say something. "So does Cheyenne, speak or what?" He laughed still looking at me.
I let out a small chuckle. "Nice to meet you." I said holding my hand out. He took my hand and kissed it. "Yeah, likewise." He got up and went to his seat across the table.
Clifford and James, the other club owner, broke off from the group and sat at another table, I guess this is where they were discussing business about the nightclub. It felt like they were over there for hours, sometimes the conversation looked heated and sometimes the conversation looked friendly. Clifford kept looking over at me, making sure that I was okay.
I was sitting in the same spot, quietly eating my food as Reek came back and sat next to me.
"Don't be scared ma. Ain't nobody gon do nothing to you here." He smirked.
I tried to relax my shoulders to appear not nervous, but I couldn't hide that I was nervous as hell.
Reek snorted and shook his head. "My uncle gon take good care of you. You in the best possible hands you can be in."
I nodded my head and smiled. "And what about you, where you from?" I asked him.
"I'm from right here in New York. Born and raised." He said fixing his suit jacket. "I-"
Clifford appeared on the other side of me and put my hand in his. "You ready to go?" He whispered in my ear. It wasn't much of a question because he was pulling me out of my chair and walking us towards the door. He said good bye to everyone at the table and I waved as he pulled me away.
"Yo, Cliff." A man ran up to us before we left. Clifford turned around and stared at him. "I-uh... I gotta talk to you about some other business." He said quickly looking from Clifford to me, back to Clifford.
"Does this really look like the time?" Clifford asked the man rhetorically, looking down at me, and back at the man. Okay, I get it, Y'all can't talk cause I'm standing right here, Shit. "Whatever it is, handle that shit. Or that's your ass. How you ask for more responsibility, but then can't fuckin take care of it?" Clifford spat at him ruthlessly. He took a breath to try to calm down but he still sounded irritated. "Please, don't make me rethink my decision Jamal." The veins in Cliffords neck were popping out. Even though he was speaking low, I could tell he was genuinely frustrated. I had never seen him like this, or heard him talk like this.
Jamal nodded his head looking worried and left us where we were standing.
I looked up at Clifford worried and squeezed his hand to try to comfort him. He shook his head and rubbed the back of my neck. "Let's go."
—————
We got back into our hotel room and I took a sigh of relief. What a night.
"So, Shotgun huh?" I asked playfully watching Clifford take off his cuff links.
"Oh you caught that?" He smirked. "It's just a nickname I grew up with."
I walked over to him and helped him unbutton his shirt. "Did everything go okay with James?"
Clifford nodded his head proudly. "Yeah, the conversation went exactly how I needed it to." He pulled his arms out of his shirt and threw it on the desk chair. He was standing infront me in a wife beater, tattoo covered muscles just popping everywhere.
"That's good. I enjoyed the dinner tonight. Everyone seemed nice enough." I said quietly, trying to get the courage to ask him about what he was hiding from me.
He smiled as he sat on the edge of one of the beds and held his arms out for me. I hesitantly walked over and stood inbetween his legs. He wrapped his arms around me and started unzipping the back of my dress.
My breath started getting heavy as I felt my back becoming exposed. Clifford looked into my eyes watching me as he pulled my dress off my shoulders and letting it fall past my hips, to the floor. My heart was ready to beat out of my chest.
Clifford glanced over my body for a second, and then back at my eyes.
"Relax," He smiled genuinely. "I'm not going to do anything you don't want to do."
I stepped out of my dress and picked it up, sitting it on the desk chair on top of his shirt.
"I know you've been stressed about whatever happened before I picked you up. I can tell your energy is off Cheyenne."
I relaxed as he massaged my shoulders and back. "Talk to me."
I swallowed nervously turning around to face him. "It's sort of stupid I guess." I rolled my eyes for putting myself in that situation. Clifford held me, laying me next to him on the bed as he wrapped his arms around me. "But... I just feel played and lied to. I thought me and this boy were developing something, and then I found out he had been lying to me. I think what makes this hurt the most is that I had already given myself to him." I looked down with a sigh.
Clifford grabbed my chin and picked my head up to look at him. "I'm sorry that you are going through this. It's not stupid at all. Have you talked to him about it?"
I shook my head no. "I found out about what he was hiding from me right before you picked me up. I haven't talked to him since."
"I understand if you don't want to talk to him right now, but you'll have to face him eventually."
"I know, I just don't know what to say. And I don't want to look dumb because it's really not my place to be mad about this. It's not like I'm his girlfriend."
"Cheyenne, your feelings matter. Regardless of what label you do or don't have. You deserve to be respected, and you deserve to know the truth."
I smiled at him. This little conversation actually did make me feel better. Okay so maybe it was a little weird that we were laying in bed, in our underwear, having a conversation about another nigga - not to mention the fact that Clifford was damn near old enough to be my daddy - but I was genuinely enjoying this moment.
He rubbed my back as we laid there. I could feel his eyes on me like he wanted to say something, but if it was going to ruin this moment then I didn't want to hear it.
New Characters:
Tyreek
James