Marshall's P.O.V.
It's kinda corny, but I had wanted to surprise Aisha. I knew she was kind of upset that I couldn't make it to her show cause I had to stay at the studio and work on some songs for the new album, but I was just fucking with her when I said that. Of course, I was gonna come watch her perform. It's a huge deal for her to headline her own show for the first time in years, instead of sharing the stage with me all the time. Cause let's face it, yeah, that whole power couple thing is cool, but my girl deserves her own time to shine. And she's worked her ass off for it and went through so many struggles for it.
So yeah, long story short, of course I came to support her.
Matter of fact, I jumped on a flight that left right after her flight took off.
Paul has arranged it for me to stay as inconspicuous and under the radar as possible so that the paps in New York City don't catch wind of me arriving there as well as Aisha, so that she would have no clue.
And I had stayed well hidden backstage from the audience during her show so that I won't take no attention away from her.
Aisha did some of her old songs from back when she had fist started her career as well as some new ones. She really killed it onstage, even coming out on stage with a damn snake on her shoulders at some point, which was extra as fuck but she looked hot as fuck doing that. Ans she ain't never even told me she was gonna use a damn snake. This girl that's so fucking scared of them.
Shit. I might have to ride a damn giraffe on stage during one of my own concerts just to show her I can hang... Nah, actually fuck that shit, man. I'm never going near a damn giraffe.
Not that it matters. What matters is that my wife killed it tonight and I'm proud of her.
When Aisha runs backstage for a small intermission in her show and to change into a different outfit, she stops in her tracks when she sees me.
"Marshall, what are you doing here?!" She looks at me with huge eyes, and she's got the same mixture of excitement and nervousness all over her face like how she always gets when she has to perform in front of huge crowds. Even after all these years, she's still shy and gets small anxiety attacks from it, even if she does love to perform. I know exactly how it must feel for her cause I'm exactly the same.
"You didn't think I would miss this, did you?"
I chuckle a little, regarding her as she starts to run towards me, but stops in her tracks, remembering the snake on her shoulders. Two stage hands then rush towards her and remove the snake.
My wife then jumps into my arms.
And just as quickly she has to rush to her dressing room and change her clothes. And I ain't even gonna lie, whatever she puts on, she looks good in. Yeah, I still got a lil jealousy in me when the whole world sees her in all these revealing outfits they have her on during her show, but fuck it. The whole world ain't in my girl's bed, I am. So fuck them drooling ass motherfuckers.
Aisha finishes her set and comes backstage again, for good this time.
She still looks excited and pumped but she looks at me sort of sheepishly.
"You didn't think it was maybe too much?" She asks me.
"Nah, baby. You did great out there," I reassure her.
I do grab a huge towel and wrap her in it though, cause I'm still a jealous motherfucker like that, sue me.
Laughing softly, Aisha let's me walk her to her dressing room and we shut the door behind us.
For a few minutes.
A little quickie never hurt nobody.
"So, there was supposed to be an After Party afterwards, but now that you are here with me, I guess we could just skip it," Aisha suggests afterwords, fixing her hair in the mirror and changing into some casual clothes.
"Don't you wanna go?" I suggest with a raised eyebrow, watching her reflection in the mirror.
"I mean, I was going to before, but like... There's going to be alcohol there, obviously. Won't it make you uncomfortable?"
"Nah, it's all good," I scoff. "Ya make me sound like an old man or some shit. Just cause I don't partake in that shit no more, doesn't mean I'm stopping you from partaking in it, you know that. Let's go have fun."
"Okay," she smiles, giggling a little when she noticing me still staring at her, biting my lip. "What, boy?!" She laughs.
"Nothing. It's just that you are gonna be the death of me one day, Aisha."
"So dramatic," she rolls her eyes playfully, and walks past me.
I slap her butt and she turns around and glares at me.
"What?" I smirk. "That's how we've first met, ya know. It was all cause I slapped your ass that day at The Source Awards. Now every time I do that, it's like our anniversary or something shit," I say evilly, knowing it will annoy her. But annoy her in a good way, you know what I'm saying?
Aisha rolls her eyes again and quickly turns her back to me so I won't catch her smiling at my crude dumb joke.
"Always so romantic," she huffs with fake exasperation. "Okay, let's go!!" She sounds really excited about going to that damn party, and her excitement is damn contagious, not even gonna lie.
.........
Later on at the party, my wife quickly gets loaded.
Aisha can't really handle her liquor. Never really could to be honest, but hey, she still enjoys it sometimes, I guess.
Now, I'm even more glad I came along with her, so I could watch out for her drunk behind and keep an eye on her.
The party is being held in one of the local clubs as usual, and there's plenty of other industry people here, some might not necessarily associate with Aisha like that, but they are all here anyway.
I smirk when I spot the two very familiar faces as Bizarre and Kon Artis make their way to the crowd to were Aisha and I sit on some nice comfy sofas in the V.I.P.
"Aisha, baby, congratulations on finally breaking away from this fool career wise, now all you gotta do is leave him altogether and get with me," Bizzy jokes and gives my wife a hug, while I narrow my eyes at him. I know he ain't mean that shit, but he still lucky I ain't a crazy motherfucker like back in the day (well, for the most part) or I would've knocked his ass out for even playing like that.
Denaun just smirks and rolls his eyes at Bizarre's antics. I swear this dude never stops clowning.
"But Bizzy, you already have a wife," Aisha giggles absent-mindedly, moving around her hand with a drink in it a tad bit too fast, damn near splashing all of us with it. I chuckle and gently take the drink out of her hand, placing it on the table.
"I'm a big dude, girl, can't you see all of this body," Bizzare then winks at her. "There's plenty of me to go around."
"Aight, that's enough, big dude," I say mockingly, knowing Bizzy is just playing around, but still, he was about to get himself fucked up just now.
"Chill dawg, before Slim really loses it. I see his eye is starting to twitch and all," Denaun jokes.
Aisha just giggles. She's one of those people that when she's really drunk, everything is funny to her.
"Excuse me, boys," she then says getting up from her seat. "I'll be right back," she states, swaying a little.
"Yo, where you going?" I frown, watching her barely able to stand and getting up as well.
"Marshall, I need to pee," she practically whisper yells at me.
"Ya want me to go with you to the restroom? Cause you look like you can barely..."
"Yes, Marshall, OH my God!! I'm a big girl, I can handle it," Aisha giggles again, but her tone is firm.
"Damn, dawg, let your wife breathe. I see you still be acting like you her damn daddy sometimes," chuckles Bizarre and I flip him off.
"Shut up, you fat motherfucker," I smirk. By the time I turn back around, I see that Aisha is already gone.
I don't really like her wandering about by herself when she's all loaded like this, but I force myself to take a seat next to my boys and chill. I need to stop being so overprotective of her for real. But it's just hard for me to shake off my old ways sometimes.
The guys and I spend a few minutes catching up on some stuff, then I spot Aisha making her way back from the ladies room.
Just as she's walking though, some dude suddenly approaches her. He grits her and they hug briefly.
I frown and stare hard at the cocksucker as I'm starting to get up from my seat again, simultaneously realizing that the dude looks real familiar for some reason.
And once it fully kicks in exactly why, I feel my left hand unconsciously ball into a fist at my side as I'm starting to cross the room in two long strides.
That's that same motherfucker from that damn movie she did. Something with vampires in it. And the goddamn asshole had his hands all over my bitch in it. Now he's fucking here at her After Party?! Who the fuck invited the dick, and the fuck is he...
By the time I make my way over to her, Aisha's little boy toy from the movie is already gone, and she looks completely oblivious to my anger.
But the damage is already done, and in that moment, paranoia takes over me and I'm back to the old me. See, somewhere at the back of my mind, I realize that she is not like that, not how my brain is all of a sudden painting her out to be. I know she's loyal to me, I know she would never play me or disrespect me, and I know that damn movie was just work to her.
But none of that reasoning matters to me right now, cause my old paranoid self takes over.
"Marshall," Aisha says sweetly, and she is, like I said, completely oblivious. She's in a really good mood and she goes to wrap her arms around my neck, but I quickly remove them, grasping her by her elbow instead and start dragging her away from the crowd, somewhere I can speak to her privately and not cause a huge scene cause I still don't wanna fuck up her After Party.
"Marshall, what are you..."
"Shut up," I state. "Cause we need to talk, right now."
I end up actually pushing her inside one of the restrooms and locking the door behind us.
"Marshall, what's wrong with you?" Aisha then frowns, crossing her arms over her breasts.
And frankly? I don't even know what the fuck is wrong with me, but seeing that dude just walk up on her like that and hug her after what it looked like they was doing in that movie...
"Let me ask you something," I'm staring her down hard. "Fuck is that clown doing here, who invited him."
"What, who?!" She frowns again, clearly looking like she is sobering up by the minute, my anger quickly blowing off her buzz.
"Don't play dumb with me, Aisha," I sigh even if I myself am starting to feel pretty dumb at the moment. I know I'm overreacting like a motherfucker but I simply can't stop myself right now. Guess my resentment of her doing that damn sex scene with another man in that movie has been building up for a while now. "Ya little lover boy from that cheap ass horror flick you starred in."
"What, Stuart?!" She then asks me incredulously and then giggles. "Oh my God, are you still jealous, Marshall?"
She hits it right on the nose. Which pisses me off even more.
"Oh my God," she repeats again, sighing and rolling her eyes. "Marshall, the label invited him. They thought it would help promote both the movie and my new album if my costar was at my After Party."
"And you ain't think to tell me about it?"
"I um... honestly didn't think it was a big deal," Aisha then shrugs, looking all innocent.
And I'm just about to ask her if she's fucking him, when my phone rings.
Squinting my eyes at the screen, the only reason I even take it out of my pants pocket is to shut it the hell off, but then I read Paul's number on the caller ID. Something tells me it might be important, cause Paul knows better than to bother me right now with some bullshit.
"Yo?" I huff out angrily, still eyeing Aisha, who stands right in front of me, regarding me as if I'm crazy, which I suppose I kind of am.
"Marshall, have you seen the news?" Paul asks at the other end of the line urgently.
"What?!" I frown as I practically bark at him. When imma have the time to watch the news today?! "Nah, why..."
"It's Kim," Paul then sighs. "She's been in a car accident. It is now belived to have been a suicide attempt, actually. She was trying to resist the EMT workers that arrived at the scene and were trying to administer first aid to her. She's at the hospital right now, and there were traces of drugs and alcohol in her system."
"Fuck," I mutter, dragging one of my hands down my face.
"What is it?" Aisha whispers to me, but I just shake my head.
"Marshall," Paul then continues. "Your daughters are there at the hospital with her. Hailie and Alana both, Betty took them to see her and make sure she's alright."
"WHAT?!" I bark, now sounding even angrier then before, if that's even possible. "What was Betty thinking?! I don't want them in there and to see..."
My mind flashes to back to that time I had nearly died from an overdose and it was one of my little girls that found me on the bathroom floor that day having a damn seizure.
And they've been traumatized enough by that image, they don't need to see Kim in whatever condition she's currently in right now. Which, I ain't gonna lie, I am concerned for her, I'm not a heartless bastard, but my daughters and their mental well being concerns me a bit more.
Fuck, I'm gonna have to fly back over there and get them. Right now.
"Paul, book me a flight over there," I sigh, hanging up the phone and shutting my eyes tight for a minute.
When I open them, I see Aisha's concerned face right in front of me.
"Baby, what's going on?" She asks me gently, grabbing my hand.
And that's when it happens. When I do one of the dumbest things I've ever done in my life.
I should've just told her what's happened and why I had to leave. She probably would've left right along with me, and then none of this shit would've happened to her.
But me still being petty over some stupid shit that wasn't even worth me getting all angry about to be honest, I look her right in the eyes, removing my hand from hers.
"It ain't nothing, Aisha," I say through a clenched jaw. "You just stay here, aight, have fun with ya lil boy toy at ya lil party, keep being a slut to further your career," I state, then walk out of the door.
You all don't even know how much I regret that shit, just leaving her there like that.
But at that moment, it felt good being petty towards her and leaving her in the dark about what was going on.
I thought she was safe there anyway. She's had half of my security team in there with her after all.
But I ain't realize just how determined those damn Cuban Cartel motherfuckers were.
And that tonight was also exactly a month past that deadline they gave her to pay off her mother's debt to them or else...