Shawnie's POV
"I'm so happy you're okay." Aubrey said while hugging me, caressing my hair.
"Did you call the police?" I pull away and look up at him, getting straight to the point.
"Nah, I just came straight over when you called." He says
"Well who the hell called them? We're at the top of a damn hotel building, who could've heard anything going on?" I say frustrated.
"I did." Mercedes slowly comes around the corner.
I let go of Aubrey and ran over to her, hugging her tightly. I'm happy she's okay. She tried to stand up for me.
"Are you okay?" I ask
"You know I'm good, but are you okay? All I saw was him slap you to the ground...I saw red. I can't believe he did that." She says
"I'm fine." I pull away from her, "Why did you call the cops?"
"I didn't know what he was going to do. I was scared for you." She says, "He literally picked me up and threw me out."
"I know but you shouldn't have called them." I say
"I did what I needed to do. I don't know what he was doing to you. I've always told you when I came to that I was not gonna lie for you." She says
"Yeah, but I didn't want him to get arrested."
"Well you could've lied like you always do." She says with a slight attitude. "Would you rather have your ass beat? I'm confused. At some point, you have to stop covering for him." Mercedes says and I know she's right.
"I know but he got arrested." I feel so sorry for him. I should've lied about it.
"Shawnie, I feel bad too, but that wasn't okay." She says
"Well you did the right thing." Aubrey speaks up, "Thank you." He says to Mercedes.
Mercedes doesn't say anything, she just smiles at him to be polite. I don't think she knows how to feel about him yet.
"Aubrey, this is my cousin Mercedes. Mercedes, this is Aubrey."
Aubrey smiles, "It's nice to meet you."
She looks him up and down, "I know what you did, and I don't like you." She says with a straight attitude.
Aubrey shrugs, "That's fair." He says, "I did what I had to do..."
"So you break up her family?" She says
"Mercedes!" I yell
"What?" She looked at me for a few seconds, "It's true."
"Technically, we were a family first. She might've been with him, but we created a family before all of this." He says
"No, you're not going to do this." I say to her, turning her around and trying to walk her away from him.
"Baby, it's fine. We have to have this talk." He says, stopping me. "We have to get this out, so we can move on and be a happy family."
She laughs, "...a happy family? Nigga, I don't like you." She says, and I hit her on her arm.
"Mercedes, I know you loved Chris but as you can see that had to end. You shared with me and everything. Not only did he put his hands on me multiple times, he also did it to you. Aubrey is a good man—come on, we've had a talk about this."
"I know, it's just a lot to process. It all happened so quickly, my head is still spinning." She says
"I agree, but it's me and Aubrey now...the better option. Remember?"
"Yes. I remember." She says.
"So stop." I say, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tightly. "Don't give him a hard time."
"Okay." She looks at Aubrey, "I'm sorry. I don't like you...but that doesn't mean I can't learn to." She rolls her eyes
He smiles, "See, that wasn't so hard." He hugs her.
She just stands there rolling her eyes, not hugging him back. She wanted to laugh, but she kept a straight face. He was playing with her but she wasn't having it. I thought it was funny myself.
They pull apart and she looks at him for a second, then takes a deep breath then lets it out. "I don't believe this shit...." She says
She's going to end up liking him, I'm not worried about her.
I look over at my phone on the floor and I go pick it up. Notifications were steady coming in. I opened the TMZ app and the article of myself and Aubrey was right under that.
"So someone recorded us at Tao last night and sold the videos to TMZ?" I ask
I don't know why I'm acting like I didn't know this wouldn't happen. Of course they did. This is how Chris knew. Duh!
"Yeah. As soon as I saw it, Earthquake Chris happened. I think him and I might've seen it at the exact same time because I didn't have time to say anything." She explains.
I stare at the picture of Aubrey and I. Kinda never thought this would be a headline. It's hard to believe myself. I left Chris. Like I've really left him. Him and I are really done. Like, it's public official, media official.
I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard Mercedes' voice.
"People just don't care...but y'all shouldn't have been in here making out in the middle of Tao." Mercedes says "He was there...did you really think he wouldn't see you? How dumb are you?"
"I wasn't thinking... Whatever...." I say looking down at my phone. This is real. I really did this.
"Let's get your things out of here." Aubrey says
"Gen has a lot of stuff." I say
"Just get what you can grab and tomorrow I'll have some movers come and pack everything up." He turns to Mercedes, "You're living here too?"
"Yes, but I have my own place. I'm just trying to help her out."
He nods his head, "Okay." he turns back to me, "We'll find a house today or tomorrow, and get you guys straight."
"No, I'm just going to go with my dad." I say, "I need to spend some time with him anyway, he's going to lose his shit." I say
"Yeah, and I already have one." My cousin says
"Nope, we already discussed this." He says to me, "You're moving in with me but I'm going to get you and Mercedes a place here for right now. You don't have to worry about any of that, Mercedes." he says
"I'm not comfortable with you buying me a whole house." She says
"I know you're probably not, and it's just something for right now. It takes some getting used to but I'm taking care of her and you're like a sister to her, so therefore I'm taking care of you as well. You're family now."
She doesn't say anything, she just shrugs.
"Mercedes I would appreciate it if you stayed with me." I say "I haven't lived by myself in years now. Chris as always been there. Even when I got my own house, Aubrey was over all the time."
"Fine, whatever." She says and my phone dings. I look at the phone and I see a new article about Chris.
"Shit!" I say looking at my phone.
"What?" The both say in unison.
"They already have pictures of them walking him out of the hotel in handcuffs." I say
Aubrey puts his hand over my phone, "Don't worry about that, babe."
"I have no choice, I have to worry about this. His mom is going to call me any second asking me what happened....and my dad... oh my god." I freak out a little.
He takes my phone, "Breathe, Everything is going to be fine. I'm going to hold onto your phone for a couple hours and put it on silent."
"Why?" I ask. I need my phone.
"Because I don't want you on social media, reading everything that's being said. Fuck what they have to say. They aren't living your life. People always have something to say." He says, "Let's just get everything taken care of and I'll give it back to you at the end of the night."
"I need my phone." I say as I watch him put it on do not disturb.
"I'll give it back to you tonight. I don't want you to stress out over this. Lets just do what we need to do here, so we can leave." He says
I listen and he follows Mercedes and I upstairs.
"You wanna meet the baby?" I ask, "It's not like you're not gonna be around her."
"Of course." He says smiling.
I walk him over to her bassinet, and I pick her up. I lay her in my arms and he looks at her for a few seconds before saying anything.
"She's beautiful." He says, smiling big. "She looks like you. Can I hold her?"
"Um, I don't know about that. Not yet. I'm sorry." Chris would kill me.
"It's okay. We have time." He says
He sits on the bed as I pack a few things to last for the night. When I was done, he grabbed the car seat with Genesis in it and we left, with Mercedes.
*********
After a few hours, somehow and someway we were standing inside our new rental property, in Lincoln Park. Honestly, I fell in love with the place. I literally just looked on Zillow, desperate to find something. I showed Aubrey and we were able to meet with the realtor a couple of hours later. Once the man saw that it was Drake looking to rent, he was very determined to get it done. And he did.
"I can't believe you pulled this off." I say
"I know right. This is better than the penthouse, and it's in Lincoln Park." Mercedes says
"Mercedes you'll learn, whatever my baby wants, she'll get." He kisses me on the cheek.
"Yeah, but 20 thousand a month, just to rent? That's a lot." I say
"That's not that much. You have to think about it, this is a 6000 sq ft location in Lincoln Park. You have five bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms with two steam baths, chef's kitchen, formal dining room, and coffered ceilings. You also have four fireplaces, a rooftop deck and three other balconies. And that's not including the living quarters downstairs on the street level. Second kitchen, a gym, master suite and steam bathroom, and private entrance for Mercedes."
"You're very proud of your purchase, huh?" Mercedes says jokingly and we both laugh at him.
"I am. This place just happened to fall into our laps, literally. Hell yeah I'm proud with this. I just might try to buy them from him. Everything just fell into place like it was supposed to. Like I said, whatever you want, babe." He smiles.
"So are you staying here?" Mercedes asks
"Yeah, when are you going to move all the way in? I can help with that too. When the movers gets her things in the morning, I can have them shoot over to your crib and move you out too."
She looks over at me and I nod my head yes. "That's cool. Thank you. I got that. How long are you going to be here?" She asks
"I'm recording so I don't know and now I really don't know because I have a beautiful young thang that I don't wanna be away from." He says and I just smile.
"Shawnie, let me talk to you got a minute." Aubrey says with a straight face.
"Watch her, please. I'll be right back." I say to Mercedes.
I follow Aubrey upstairs and outside to the rooftop terrace.
We take a seat, I sit in one wicker chair and he sits in the other, next to me.
"What's up?" I say looking at him. You could tell something was bothering him and that he had something on his mind. "Aubrey, talk to me."
"Is this for real? I mean, I'm doing this and this is one thing and I'm happy to help, but the shit I'm about to do for you—I just need to know you're not going back to him." He says
"I'm done." I assure him. "What I said to you was the truth. I'm tired of the back and forth. I'm tired of being treated like shit. I'm tired of his baggage, the cheating, of his overall behavior, all of it. I'm tired. You know, you were the first person to tell me our relationship was toxic and I didn't want to believe it."
"I sure did." He says with confidence.
"I look back and I know I should've done this a long time ago. Well I did but I just couldn't stick with it. I'm sticking with it this time. Mine and Chris's relationship has been over for a while and I was done mentally for a couple of months. I know I haven't really talked to you about what all really went down between him and I and maybe I will one day but right now, I just want to forget about it. Both of us was just scared to end the relationship. We loved each other, and we didn't want to be without each other but we both knew it was over. I thought our daughter would bring us back together, but that actually made things worse. But, whatever...it's over now." I really feel like it's whatever now.
He just nods his head. I look at him and I sense he's worried. As he should be. It's not like I've had the greatest track record when it came to Aubrey. I always knew I liked him and we had good times together but I never gave it a real chance because of Chris. But now, after everything that's transpired, and I have some clarity, I can honestly give this a real try.
"I understand why you're worried but there's absolutely no reason to. I know you, and I know what you're thinking. You want to protect yourself, as you should. I'm sure I've created some insecurities with you..."
"Hell Yeah, I got PTSD fucking with you..." He jokes.
"In a sense, I played with you and your feelings and I'm sorry for that. But I do have to say, you subjected yourself to that too. I know you were trying to get me to see, and you wanted to be with me but you tried to come between us and that ultimately made us stronger. The relationship still ended up not working out but it did bring us together."
"I want you to be transparent with me and I'll be the same with you. I've always been honest with you. Communicate with me. You know I love you and for me to be this way with someone says a lot. I'm usually not open with a woman like this, you've been the only one, especially publicly. I've made a damn fool out of myself fucking around with you. I just want to be sure this is what you really want, because if it's not, let me know. I don't want to waste my time. This is what I want and I'm about to love the fuck out of you. I just want you to be sure. You know I'll do anything for you, and I'm ready to do more."
"I know you will." I smile. "And I'm sure you are." I say and he gets up and walks over and stands in front of me.
"Every female I was talking to is gone. Anyone who had my number is blocked. I'll change my number if I have to too." He says and I nod my head.
"I know we're good, but kiss me and let me know." He smiles and I laugh.
I hate when he does this.
He helps me to my feet and I kiss him. The kiss was definitely different. It had more emotion and seemed like there wasn't a wall up with him. I feel like he's had a guard up for the most part, but it seems different now.
After we pull away, he just looks at me.
"What?" I ask
"I'm just really in love you with and I'm happy I finally get to show you. That's all." He smiles
"I swear to God of you play me, I'm going to send my cousin after you."
He laughs, "It's okay, I'm scared too."
"Promise me you won't hurt me."
"Mami, I promise I will never hurt you and I will always protect you and put your feelings first. This ain't gonna be nothing like your last relationship." His face was so serious, I had no choice but to believe him. "It's perks to this... I got you. Whatever you want, whatever you need. You need to know you're well taken care of." he says
"I feel this is going to be different." I say
"It is different." He hands me my phone, and walks away. I sit down and get on Instagram. I don't go to look at comments or anything. I post a picture from the other night when I was completely wasted.
Shawniemarie
shawniemarie Imagine not liking me and I don't even know you. 🖕🏽
As soon as I post my picture and caption, I turn my phone off and go back downstairs with Aubrey, Mercedes and my baby.
************
A few hours later, I had remembered I haven't spoken to my dad. I had to call him. I know he was worried sick seeing all the shit in the media. He always has a semi panic attack when my name is brought up on TMZ, or any media outlet for that matter. He texted me, but I haven't responded because I've been a little preoccupied with house hunting today. So now that everything is somewhat settled, I had to tell him what went down with Chris and explain why we broke up.
I sat down at the dining room table and called. We talked for a while about the baby, then we got on Chris. I had pretty much explained everything to him except for the part about Aubrey. He's already mentioned the pictures that came out but I just brushed over it, trying to finish what happened with Chris. I was saving that for last. Because I didn't know how that was going to go.
"So can we talk about Drake, or are you just going to continue to avoid that part of the story?" He asks
"We can talk about him. I just wanted to get through everything before I got to that. Do you have any questions about Chris?"
"What I have to say about him you don't wanna know. So don't worry about that. I will talk to him on my own time."
"Okay... So a couple of weeks ago Aubrey randomly texted me and told me he was in town. He knew I was staying in Chicago because, well, everyone else knows Chris and I have been in Chicago for months. As I told you, Chris and I have been fighting like cats and dogs for months and I honestly just wanted to talk to Aubrey. Neither one of us had any intentions on anything happening, we just wanted to get together and talk. And that's exactly what we did. After just driving around and hanging out in the sprinter, I did not want to go home so I ended up going to the studio with him."
"And?" He asks
"That's all that happened. Honest to God."
"Okay." He says
"When I came home Chris and I got into a argument about that and Mercedes made him leave. She also she made me call Aubrey and end communication with him. So I called him and the conversation went pretty well. Later on in the night, he called me and ended up coming over to talk again..."
"In the middle of the night?" He asks
"Yeah."
He takes a loud deep breath and lets it out. "Continue." He says sounding irritated.
"The conversation was...Interesting to say the least. To make a long story short, he gave me a lot to think about. I thought about how unhappy I was and I wanted to change that. Like our conversation really had me thinking and I just couldn't stop thinking about Aubrey too, so I kind of decided right then and there that I would see how things went between us.
"So no grey area, just Chris to Drake?"
"Yes, daddy. Believe me I know how it looks but in my mind, the relationship between Chris and I was over anyway. I just acted on it."
"But you can't just jump from one relationship to another."
"I know that but I also know how I feel and I know how Aubrey makes me feel." I say. "I know I should've ended things before I decided to start seeing to Aubrey, but I didn't. That was my fault and that's why things blew up how they did." I explain, feeling guilty. Chris' blow up was all my fault, again.
"You can't blame yourself for that." He says and I disagree.
"No, I actually can. I know I'm a trigger for Chris and regardless if we're on good terms or not, he will still flip. I should've been more mature about it but after all of that shit he did to me, I just couldn't let it go. I tried. And on top of that, I was really fighting the urge to want to be with Aubrey. Seeing him that night made things clear to me."
He sighs, "Why didn't you tell me that you weren't happy with Chris? I only gave him my blessing because I thought that's what you wanted." He says
"I did want it. I loved him, I still do. That's not going to go anywhere. I thought that Genesis would bring us closer together but it seems like me having the baby actually tore us further apart. I was really trying to make things work but he just wasn't letting it happen. Honestly Daddy, I was super tired of arguing with him and him just making everything seem like it was my fault. I was trying to help him out with communicating with his son but he just didn't want to. I was really stressed out. I tried to help him in all aspects that I could but he just gave me resistance every time. It got really bad in the end. I felt like I had no choice." I explain
"Well, if you weren't happy I can't be upset that you broke up with him. I was just hoping that he was it for you. You deserve everything you desire. You've been through a lot and I only want you to be happy. He had his issues and you know I wasn't too fond of his situation but I knew he loved you. That wasn't something that he could fake." He says
"I know and I don't doubt that he loved me, it's just that it was becoming more work to keep each other happy. I really feel Chris was growing disgusted with me, I could say the same thing myself. For a while in the end I started to develop hate for him. I honestly don't know what happened and where it went wrong, it was like a switch flipped and he didn't want me anymore." I say
"Okay, I will talk to him." he says, sounding very disappointed, or maybe feeling sorry for me.
"And Drake, are you two together?" He asks
"Kinda, but I'm going to make sure we keep things private for now." I answer
"You know I need to talk to him."
"Yes, I know." I say
"Give him the address to the restaurant. Have him meet me there tomorrow at 6."
"Okay." I say then we end the call.
I looked at Aubrey, who was sitting across from me at the dining room table. He hasn't taken his eyes off of me, since he sat down mid conversation with my Dad.
"What did he say?" he asks
"He wants to meet with you tomorrow at 6. I'm going to give you the address to his restaurant."
"He's going to kill me isn't he?" He asks, "He doesn't like me at all."
"He didn't say that." I laugh a little. "He was actually pretty nice. I don't think you have anything to worry about."
He takes a deep breath through his nose, then lets it out through his mouth. He sits up, lays his hands on the table, interlocking them. "Okay. I'm not worried. If he could win him over, I know I can."
I just smile.
"Anyway, more importantly, when am I going to be able to taste you again? It's been too long. I need that." He says smiling.
"We'll see."
He sits back in his chair, resting his chin in his hand. "You gonna make me wait again?"
"Let's see how things go..." I say
I don't want to give him any impressions of sex right now. Which I kind of think that defeats the purpose because here I am literally in his grasp, and we already had sex the other night but in not trying to be fucking on him like that. But like I said, we're gonna see how things go.
"I saw your post." He says
"What about it?"
"Nothing." He smiles. "I like that you said that. You need to remember these motherfuckers can't do what you do. Don't worry about their stupid ass opinions. They're nobodies. Keep living your life how you want. Ima teach you this business. Stick with me, ima upgrade your status. Like I said, this comes with perks. Ima you in some rooms with some execs, get the spotlight on you. Get you on some covers...and in some magazines." He says and I just smile.
I already know people hate me for my relationship with Chris. They're really gonna hate me once they find out about Aubrey and I. Aubrey is right, I shouldn't care about what people say. As of today, I'm done caring.
What did y'all think about this chapter??