K A S H M E RE
"If you gon' do this you got to act like shit is cool. Don't be giving him the side eye or getting an attitude wit him."
"I wont," I thought he was done but he continued on.
"I don't need you looking at him funny or saying no slick shit."
I sighed and rolled my eyes and let him continue rambling on. Today was Memorial Day and like every year before Mace was having a party at his place and of course we all were invited. I didn't want to go but I had to because Mace called me up with a personal invitation, me and Kaliyah and whoever else I wanted to bring. I didn't want to be around him so I damn sure didn't want Kaliyah around him but I had to play cool. I even had Braeden and Danielle tagging along with me. The more the merrier.
Two weeks ago when I showed up to see August unannounced I wasn't expecting him to drop that bomb bomb on me. At first I thought he had to have gotten it wrong because I just didn't want to believe it. Yes me and Mace got off to a rocky start when I first met him all of those years ago but he redeemed himself in my eyes. I got to know him better an he was smart, someone that I could look up to. He looked out for me when August got locked up and even before then. He was the last one in August's crew other than Trey I would suspect of disloyal and betrayal.
Guess I was wrong and if I was taking the news hard I could only imagine how August was feeling. After his dad was killed Mace stepped up and was acted like a father to him. He told me about Mace looking out for him and his mom after his dad was killed and how Mace took him in and taught him everything he knows about the street life. Anytime he had a problem one of the first people he would always run to and could rely on to give him advice was Mace. I knew he was angry I could see it in his face and demeanor every time someone mentioned Mace's name around him.
No one could figure what his motive for having Jayceon kidnap me was but no one thought that it had anything to do with me. They thought that it was bigger than me and it was a part of some kind of grand scheme. They didn't want to just kill him because they didn't know who he had on his team and who was working for him. Mace was obviously hiding something but he was keeping August and everyone else that was close to him at arms length, except for me.
"Kash? Are you even listening to me?!"
"What August," I snapped.
He clenched his jaw and shook his head. He didn't want me involved in this at all and was annoyed that I volunteered to help even though the rest of the guys didn't have any problem with it. Since then he was literally on my ass day and night. If it was up to him he would have me, Kaliyah and his mom shipped out of the country somewhere which was his plan anyway. He threatened that as soon as it got hot that's exactly what he was going to do.
He suspected that not only was August keeping tabs on him but everyone around him, including me as well. August just wanted to kill his ass and get it over with but not me. That was to easy, I wanted to bring down the people around him and his whole empire. Make his life hell like he made ours and then once I was satisfied then he could die.
I felt bad for snapping at me because I knew he was under a lot of pressure but I was to. As soon as I pulled up to Mace's I had to play my part, we all had to play our parts or else none of this would work.
"I know your worried but don't be. We talked about this and I told you everything is going to be fine," I assured him.
"I'm just tryin' to make sure shit goes smooth. Were going to be in his house, he's going to have eyes and ears everywhere."
"I know and everything is going to go smoothly. I have to finish getting me and Kaliyah ready and go pick up Danielle and Brae and we'll see you soon okay?"
He looked like he still wanted to fuss but didn't, "Okay were already on our way so when you get here we should already be here."
"Be careful please."
"I will, you to."
I ended the Facetime call soon after and sighed. I couldn't deny that I was a bit nervous but I pushed all of that to the back of my head. I rubbed down my body in my favorite body butter, it not only made me smell good but kept my skin moisturized and gave it a nice glow. Once I was rubbed down I grabbed my swimsuit and put it on. Although it was a one piece it was far from boring. I'm sure there would be plenty of eye candy there dressed in barely anything I already knew I was going to stand out from the rest. From the front it looked like any old one piece but my whole back was expose and so were the sides exposing some side boob.
I combed my hair up in a semi neat bun and let my baby hairs lay where they may and put on a small gold chain and bracelet combo that August had got me some years ago. Along with some gold midi rings and gold diamond studs in my ears. I threw on my coverall and tied it loosely at the waist and slipped on my black turquoise and gold Valentino Gladiator Sandals and I looked at myself in the mirror. I already put on my makeup one I got out of the shower, eyeliner, mascara and some Mac lip gloss.
I grabbed my purse after deciding I was good to go and went to go check up on Kaliyah. I got her dressed first and she was chilling on the couch watching TV. She had on a pink skirt one piece and I had her long hair braided back in two thick braids and she was wearing her clear glitter jelly sandals.
"Is it time to go," she sat up.
"Yes."
She smiled and turned the TV off and got off the couch and grabbed her bag with a change of clothes and her towel and other things. If anyone was excited to go it was her, she loved swimming. Honestly she loved any kind of water in general. Parents complained that there kids hated bath time but not Kaliyah. She loved splashing around in the tub and usually stayed in until the water got cold.
I grabbed my bag and soon we were walking out the door and I sent a quick text to Danielle telling her that I was on the way. Once we got to my car she got in and after I made sure she was buckled up I handed her her shades and she slid them on her face and I slid on mine as well ready to get this day over with.
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When I pulled up to Mace's house the party was already in full swing. Danielle helped Kaliyah out of the car and while we walked to the front door and Danielle and Braeden talked about the house like they've never seen it before I was checking my surroundings. Mace had a gated entrance so when we pulled up there was a guy standing there. I recognized him from a few times I've been here and he waved me right in.
We walked through the house and inside I noticed a few people hanging out but none I recognized so I kept it moving. Once we got outside l looked around. Mainly kids were in the pool along with a few adults and for the most part everyone else was chilling out pool side talking and doing whatever else. With my shades still on my face I looked around until I spotted August who was already headed our way.
"Here comes your boo," Danielle joked and I wanted to say not for long but he didn't know about what we had planned for today. It was to bad because as he made his way over I checked him out from behind my glasses and couldn't help but sigh. He had gotten a hair cut last time I seen him but his hair was still long enough to grab on just like I preferred.
Like the daddy's girl that she was Kaliyah closed the distance between them and he picked her up and hugged her kissed her cheek. They both had smiles on there faces and seeing them interact always brought a smile to my face but I tried not to smile to hard because I could literally almost feel the eyes on us.
"You ready to get in the pool," August asked Kaliyah.
"Yes," she cheered. He laughed at her and then turned his attention on me just as I took my shades off my face.
He said hey to me and then said hi to Braeden and then Danielle and then looked back at me. I turned my attention elsewhere and looked around. I was glad to see that there wasn't an abundance of skimpy dressed chicks but of course there was more than enough for me to shake my head at especially since a group of them were staring our way.
We were supposed to act casual but it was hard to do that when he looked so good and on top of that I could smell his cologne. We hadn't really talked about our relationship because we were both distracted. But the way he was staring at me gave me butterflies like I was 18 years old again.
"Is it cool if I take her over there with me," he asked me.
"Of course," I handed him her towel out of her bag and she handed me her shades so she wouldn't lose them.
"Mommy are you going to swim to," she asked me.
"Later," I told her, "You have fun."
I already knew she was by the smile on her face. I waved bye to her as they both walked away and I watched them go. We found some seats and I sat my bag down and wondered if I should take off my coverall right now or just chill.
"Here comes your other man," Braeden spoke up just as I was about to take a seat. I looked in the direction he was staring at and noticed Mace making his way over to us. This was the first time since finding out the news that I was going to be standing face to face with him. I could hear August's voice in my head telling me to be on my best behavior and I put on my best smile but was careful not to over do it.
"Hi."
"Glad you could make it out," he opened his arms and I excepted his hug with no hesitation. As bad as I didn't want to hug him I needed him to think that everything was great. If he sensed that something was wrong I knew he wouldn't hesitate to ask questions or get suspicious.
"Thanks for inviting us," I told him as we pulled away he said hello to Braeden and Danielle.
"So how is everything," he asked me.
"Things are fine," I told him.
No thanks to you, I wanted to add. I still couldn't understand why he orchestrated the whole kidnapping thing. Because of him I was raped, because of him I lost my baby.
He looked at me for a bit before nodding his head, "Well I want you to relax today. Swim, eat, have fun and if he need anything I wont be to far away."
"Okay," I nodded and he touched my shoulder. It was in a comforting manner but then he reached up and ran the back of his hand across my cheek in a slow and intimately. I fought the urge to jump back from his touch but just as quick as he walked up on me he was walking away after giving me one last smile. I got chills and not the good kind when he ran his hand across my face. Bold move to make when August was several feet away, it was to personal and it was like he was trying to get a rise out of August.
I sat down and when I looked up I locked eyes with August across the way and I could see the clench in his jaw all the way from here. I sighed and laid back and closed my eyes trying to get myself together because the plan wasn't even in motion yet.
After sitting and talking to Braeden and Danielle Kaliyah made her way over to me. She had already been in the water and when she walked over I already knew what she wanted from us. Braeden grabbed her hand and they walked towards the pool stairs. Me and Danielle hung back, I took off my sandals and stood up and untied my coverall and pulled it off and sat it on my chair.
I could hear August's mouth now but if I was going to play the role then I was going to do it right. Danielle had on a orange bikini and as we walked to the pool edge I felt like all eyes were on us and when I looked around I was right. I knew we were going to get stared at but I didn't expect any of them to be bold enough to walk up on us until some guy walked up putting his arm around the both of us.
"Do I know you," I mugged him removing his arm from around me and Danielle did the same.
"Not yet but we can change that," he licked his lips as he stared at me. He was a thugged out white boy and he wasn't ugly or anything but he also wasn't August.
"I have a man so," Danielle told him. I knew she was lying but he didn't know that.
"Shoot we can change that to baby. I love me some chocolate and when I seen ya'll," he hooted and shook his head, "I'm trying to be the cream in between know what I'm saying?"
"No. I don't," Danielle shut him down and I laughed.
"That's cool, I'll see ya'll two later," he called after us as we walked away.
"He was cute," I admitted to Danielle.
"He was," she agreed, "But I prefer milk chocolate not white chocolate."
Once I was in the pool I let my guard down and almost forget that we were here to do a job until I locked eyes with August. He was giving me this look and I knew that he had something to say about something. I played around with Kaliyah for a but and swam around until Trey swam over to take Kaliyah from me and told me that August wanted to come in the house in a few minutes to the downstairs bathroom.
I locked eyes with him and he was already out of the pool and headed in now. I gave it some time and told Danielle I was going to run inside and made my way inside to meet August. Mostly everyone who was inside was in the den with the TV, mainly some loud guys and a few girls. I walked in and headed towards the bathroom.
He was already in there chilling with his phone in his hand and was I was in I closed and locked the door behind me. He turned on the water I guess to drown out our voices and I looked at him.
"You know this is risky right," I asked him. I'm sure some people saw him get up and me follow a few minutes later.
"I know," he said but he looked like he didn't care.
"Well," I looked at him wondering what he wanted but all he did was stare at me and then a frown appeared on his face.
"Why do you have that little shit on?"
I rolled my eyes, "Really, that's all you called me in here for?"
"What you mean that's all? Your ass is hanging out and your titties."
"It's a bathing suit. I don't look half as bad as half those girls out there."
"I don't care about those other girls. Your my girl and all I care about is you," he spoke sternly but I couldn't hide my smile at his words.
"I'm your girl?"
"Why you acting surprised. You changed your mind about being with me?"
"No. We just haven't talked about us lately so I wasn't sure if we were together or not."
"So that's why you wearing this?"
"I would of wore this if we were together or not."
"I doubt that," he shook his head looking at me in a way that made me want hide my face.
"We probably should go back out there," I told him never taking my eyes off of him.
"What you rushing for," he inched towards me and wrapped his hands around my waist and just as I was about to ask him what he was doing he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.
The last time we kissed was weeks ago when Deja showed up at his house and that was all for show. I wasn't really in it because my main concern was trying to make her mad but this was different. This was just me and him and probably our first real kiss in over two years.
He pulled away after some time and looked at me to see if I was okay. He leaned back in and this time we both got carried away. His hands were roaming and gripping my ass, sex was the last thing on my mind since all of that went down a few months ago but with the way I was moaning you would of thought otherwise. We were making out like two teenagers and before things got to crazy I pushed him away.
We were both breathing heavily and I needed to catch my breath. Right off the back he apologized because he thought I pushed him away because we were going to far but I assured him that wasn't the case.
"This is the last place we need to be kissing. You said it yourself things need to go smoothly and we can't if were making googly eyes at each other and your walking around with my lip gloss on your lips," I reached over and handed him a tissue to wipe his lips and watched as he did.
We stood there in silence for a while and the just stared at me.
"Why do you keep staring at me like that?"
"Cause shit is about to get crazy once we leave this bathroom."
I nodded my head silently agreeing with him.
"And I just want to make sure that whatever happens isn't real."
"I know. You have to play your part and so do I."
"I didn't plan on us coming to the bathroom and I'm sure everyone knows were missing by now."
"We can just use it to our advantage. I'll leave out first."
He nodded but looked like he didn't want me to go but we had no choice. He leaned in and kissed my cheek and I gave him one last smile before putting on my game face and leaving out of the bathroom and storming through the house and back outside. I walked over to the chair I was sitting in earlier and sat down.
A few minutes later I watched as August came out the house with a beer in his hand and I rolled my eyes in his direction before looking away. It didn't take long before everyone noticed the tension between us and when it was time to eat it was good that we were in line behind a group of girls that I knew were listening to us.
"Why do you keep giving August the stank eye," Danielle asked me.
"Because he gets on my nerves."
"I saw you two disspear in the house," she gave me a smile but I frowned.
"It wasn't anything like that. He saw that white boy hugging all over me and jumped to conclusions. Then on top of that he started going off on me about how I shouldn't of came out the house like this, as if he's my daddy and I'm not a grown women."
I hated lying to her but the less people that knew the truth the better.
"I thought you two were doing good."
"I thought we were to but you I guess not that good. Plus I'm still not sure that I'm truly ready to give him another chance. I love him but maybe were just not ready."
I talked loud but not to loud to draw to much attention to myself. It got the job done because I seen several females looking at us and whispering and looking in August's direction and I'm sure word was going to get back to Mace soon.
The rest of the time I ignored August. After eating and swimming around some more the kids went inside the den to watch movies Kaliyah included and as soon as the kids were out of sight the music turned up, drinks started flowing, smoke started filling the air and the ratchet started coming out. Me, Braeden and Danielle were talking when some Travis Porter song came on and the females started twerking.
They were thirsty and putting on a show and nigga's being nigga's watched on. The way they were dancing you would of thought that we were at a strip club and some guys even started throwing money. I noticed one girl pushing up on August and she was doing the most. Swinging her weave around and twerking all on him. The look of disgust on my face was real especially when he slipped money in her bikini. Instead of being insulted by the act the girl kept on dancing and smiling like she was having the time of her life.
"I think he's drunk," Braeden tried to speak not so much in August's defense but to spare my feelings.
"I think he's lost his damn mind," Danielle shook her head as we all watched on.
I knew it was now or never so I stood up from my seat and put on my coverall and secured it around my waist.
"Where are you going," Braeden asked me but I didn't answer him because he would soon see.
"Do you need back up," Danielle yelled after me but I knew either way she was coming to have my back, especially when there were so many females around. I walked over and when one of the guys saw me coming they nudged August but he didn't look fazed to see me.
"So this is what you do? It doesn't bother you that your daughter is in the house and could come out here at any time and see you. It doesn't bother you that your doing this right in my face?"
The girl who was twerking on him stopped and stood up full height to stare me down. I just hoped that she was smart enough to keep her mouth shut, she was just a pawn but if she acted big and bad then she could get it to.
"Man," August sucked his teeth avoiding eye contact with me and the music cut low and all eyes were us and the scene we were making.
"So you don't have anything to say for yourself?"
"No I don't," he looked me in my eyes.
"So it's cool for you to act a fool and do what you want in public but not for me?"
"I think I'm going to go," the girl that was dancing on him tried to walk away but August caught her by the waist and she fell in his lap.
"Nah," he told her and then turned his attention back to me, "What did you just tell me earlier? You single remember, I'm not nothing but your baby daddy and I can't control you. Well you nothing but my baby mama, I'm single I can do what I want and you damn sure can't control me. I'm a grown ass man and I'm done playing games with you."
My feelings would be hurt but they weren't because I knew this was all apart of our plan but they didn't know that. I looked around at everyone and they looked at me like they were waiting for me to either blow up on him or burst out crying. I turned around and walked away and made my way quickly into the house.
I could hear Danielle going off on August until I disappeared into the house and into the library type room that was always vacant. I sat on the couch and knew that it wouldn't be long before someone came looking for me and I knew exactly who that person would be.
I put my hands in my face and luckily for me its always been easy for me to just cry unprovoked. Before long my eyes were filled up with tears that were spilling down my face in abundance. When I heard the door open I acted like I didn't hear it and continued crying.
I felt an arm wrap around me to comfort me and just from the cologne alone I immediately knew who it was. I let him comfort me as I cried on his shoulder and confided in him about my feelings and the 'problems' that me and August were having. He didn't interrupt he simply let me keep on talking and I made sure I laid it on thick but no to much.
"I don't know. Maybe were just not meant to be. One day were getting along great and then it's like the next we can't stand to be around each other. I told him I wanted to take things slow and I think he's sick of waiting around for me," I sniffled ended my rant. I waited for him to say something and I thought that maybe he wasn't going to say anything until he finally spoke.
"If he really loved you then he would wait for you, wait as long as you needed him to. Sometimes you have to learn when to let go."
I looked up at him after wiping my eyes, "You think I should let him go?"
"I think that if he can't see how much of an amazing women you are by now that he doesn't deserve you. He definitely doesn't deserve your tears," he reached out and wiped the few tears that lingered on my face and pulled his hand away, "But it's not about what I think it's about you, do you think you should let him go."
I acted like I was thinking about what he said before I spoke again, "He's my daughters father."
"And he will still be her father whether you two are together or not."
"Your right but I can't help but feel like things are different because of what happened. That he looks at me differently now and its not like its something I had control over," I brought back on the water works and he ate it up, "I wish I could go back in time and change what happened but I can't."
He consoled me and told me not to cry. I leaned into him as he rubbed my arm and I kept up the act.
"You can't change what happened to you and you didn't have any control over it. I wish that motherfucker was alive so I could kill him all over again. I'm sorry for what he did to you and what you had to go through but what he did to you doesn't take away from anything you become," I sat up so I could look him in his eyes and he had to be one hell of an actor because I almost believed that felt sorry for what happened to me.
"Remember when I first met you," he asked with a small smile on his face.
"How could I not. August introduced you as a father figure to him and you hit on me."
I confessed this to August a few months after we moved in together all those years back and he told me that it was his idea for Mace to come to me like that. He wanted to see if I was really loyal and back then I felt some kind of way that he was trying to catch me up but after seeing how thirsty this hoes acted to be around him and Mace I understood.
He chuckled and nodded, "August told me about you and he told me to fill you out. You wouldn't believe the shit females are willing to do to come up but even way back then I could tell that you were different. You were mature and intelligent, you had dreams and goals and you stood up for yourself. Overtime I watched you grow and your everything that a real man could ask for and more and if August doesn't appreciate you then to hell with him. You can do better than him, you are better than him."
The whole time he spoke he looked in my eyes and with every word he moved in closer to me. As bad as I wanted to move back or pull away but I held my composure.
"All I want is someone to love, respect and appreciate me and to not take me for granted.
Instead of answering he reached out and cupped my chin and before I knew it his lips were on mine. I didn't kiss him back because no matter how good of an actress I was I wasn't that good. When he pulled away he looked me in my eyes and I think that he didn't take me not kissing him back as rejection but more so shock and I was shocked. I knew he was bold but I didn't think he was bold enough to kiss me.
"Sometimes the perfect man is sitting right in front of you."
I knew after the kiss and that statement that I had him hooked and that's exactly what I needed.
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**Made a character collage that I hope you guys can see. Most of you know who plays the characters but for those who don't there you go. From top row left to right we have Kashmere, August of course, Kaliyah, Braeden, Danielle, Jayceon, Mace and lastly Mike.