“I don't think that's necessary,” I suddenly had to step in, as I could see the shock scribbled on Tamika's face. “We all came here for an amicable gathering of a family about to meet the fiancee of one of their best sons. This is not a goddamn interrogation.”From my past knowledge, I always knew that Dale would be a spoiler of the show. He just had a knack for ruining everything he could get his hands on. “Why are you so defensive all of a sudden?” Dale teased, as he had a mischievous smile on his face. “We are all family, and we deserve to know everything that we can know. It would be pretty bad if the Martin family gets involved with something or someone scandalous.”“Scandalous? You, the controversial Dale Martin, taking about scandalous?” I just got some self-restraint in place just at the right time before I would explode, and spill all of his dirty secrets right there and then. “Cut it out, you two,” Kayla ordered, putting out the fire of animosity between my brother and me.
“What’s going on?” I whispered my question to Dolph, wondering what had been responsible for the sudden change of mood at the table. “Your shit-headed ex is here…” Dolph said in silent anger, as he was a bit uncomfortable about what was happening. “But then, I’m not stopping this for anything.” It was quite amazing the way he had quickly regained his composure, and he turned back to face the table. He had ordered the servants to shut the blinds to keep the sounds out of the meeting, and that was pretty smart. But then, how had Randy found this place? Had he gone as far as following me all the way here? Wasn’t he aware that his getting in here wasn’t going to change a single thing? I had thought he had been so happy with his new girl, why was he suddenly becoming obsessive about me?“I apologize for that… shall we continue…” Dolph said as he sipped juice from his glass. “What’s going on?” Kayla wasn’t going to let that slide so easily. “You were all looking so troubled just a few mo
“Well…” I muttered, still searching for the best explanations that wouldn’t spill the beans about the contract marriage. I had to admit that she had me in a tight corner all by myself. “The thing is…”“Were you dating them both at the same time?” Kayla’s probing question gave me an idea and a way out of my hole. “Don’t tell me that you were just playing around with…”“The thing is that…” I decided to step in just before her inference would go further than I wanted it to. “I was at a point in my life where I was in between two very promising options of who I was going to take it further with.”Kayla listened attentively, and that was a good sign. Her body language showed a willingness to listen, and not a judgemental look, ready to nab me at any given loophole in my words. That gave me the courage to get those words out. “Randy showed more passion at first, and that made Dolph resign to the position of patiently waiting to see if I would have a change of heart somehow,” I hoped Dolph
I was feeling like the happiest man alive, as I drove to the casino after having my parents over. The confidence was brimming to the point where I had insisted on driving myself to work, instead of my men driving me. More than any other thing, I was thinking about the brief encounter between Tamika and my older brother who had been threatening to ruin the whole thing for us. She had warded him off so perfectly and so professionally, that I wished that I had caught the brief encounter on camera. It was quite amazing how just her words had shut him up. I just had to reward her with her phone. But then, I kept myself from thinking about her too much, as I believed that would become my greatest undoing. There were still a lot of things to do in those two years we would be together, and I would be ruining everything if I let my feelings get in the way.I took up my phone to check the GPS I had put on her to make sure that I hadn’t made the wrong decision by returning her phone to her. I
“All right... get yourself together, Tamika...” I said, psyching myself up for a few more moments, as I was about to turn on my phone. I was bracing myself for whatever it was that I would see there. But then, I was sure that it was bound to be nasty. There was probably a horde of messages from all sorts of people for me. Most of all, I was anxious to hear from my best friend and manager. Julia was probably worried sick about me, being unable to reach me after all those days, even after I had been trending all over the media.Just like I had predicted, I saw several missed calls and voicemails lined up waiting for me, of which Julia's was the most. I felt bad that I had made her that worried. She didn't deserve to go through all I had made her go through. It had all been because of my moment of carelessness. I carefully went through each voicemail from her, as I was bracing myself to read all the content that was flying around about me. That was going to be the last thing I would g
“Oh my...” Julia gasped in amazement, as she walked in through the front door. “You've been living in a mini paradise for the past couple of days.”“If that's how you want to put it...” I said, patiently walking her into the house that I was so proud of. Again, a part of me was wishing that all of this wasn't a lie. But then, I silenced that part of me by remembering the reason why I was doing all that in the first place. “Seems like all of this was just a perfect means to get you to move from the wrong man to the right one for you. I can almost see a script for this story.” Julia's cinematic mind was kicking in already, and that made me feel even more guilty than I had felt at first. The lies were just too perfect. “It's so nice seeing you again, Julia...” I took the conversation away from anything that had to do with the story, and that had my heart racing uncomfortably. Besides that, I wanted to end the meeting as quickly as I could, as I wouldn't want a collision between her an
“Who’s the beauty that she brought over?” Michael asked ecstatically, as we watched Tamika and her friend have their chat in the living room. “I still can’t believe this is the real Tamika Fisher right here in your living room.”I let his words breeze past me as I tried to bottle up the rage that was boiling up within me from Tamika’s defiance. Why would she bring someone over without saying a word to me? It seemed like she was already getting too comfortable. Perhaps it was the phone I had returned to her. “Why don’t we head over there and join them in the drinks?”“No…” I was almost unaware of how loud my voice had been when I let that out. Instantly, all eyes were on me, choking me with hot embarrassment. “I meant… no way, Michael.” The cover-up was even more shameful.“Are you all right?” Michael asked as he took a sip of his glass of cocktail. “You seem a bit tensed.”“Tensed? No, I’m not…” I said in subtle denial, as I tried calming myself with some cocktail. It was hard gettin
“Now, you’re being delusional…” I said to myself, as I drove at a slow steady space behind her car. Despite the possibility of her calling the cops on me, I persisted in following the trails that I believed she was leaving behind for me to follow.I had hurriedly left Dolph’s company as I had feared that I would never get the chance to run into the beauty that had captured my heart at first sight. There was no way I could go to Tamika for her number, as I thought that to be nothing but demeaning. I believed that I was on one of those journeys in which a man had to walk on his own without any assistance from anyone. “You’ve got this…” I muttered again to myself, as I kept a slow and steady pace. All through the journey, I was resisting the urge to just speed up to the side of her car, and just ask her her number. I just had to cling to my self-restraint as tightly as I could. I still had questions about how Dolph had been able to end up with the phenomenal Tamika Fisher. But then, I
"And yeah... I'm going to pay him a surprise visit..." I decided that as I was on the phone with Julia while trying to get out of bed. "That would spice things up as we would get to make out in his office...""You are naughtier than you sound on the radio..." Julia remarked as she was laughing hard over the phone with some music playing in the background. Soon enough, I was in the car on my way to the office. I was sure that Dolph was bound to be happy if he saw me showing up there. I was happy that I was going to be putting a smile on his face at that point. The air was simply cool all around me and it felt real good, much cooler than it would feel on a normal day. There were a lot of things that had me feeling like I was about to have a great day as I was about to make it all happen right there and then. I wanted to recreate the memory of the night that we had in his office on the night of the anniversary. There were just too many things that had me feeling like that moment in hi
"Hey, Dolphy..." I said as I was soon walking towards him with a walk that I made as seductive as possible. It seemed like I was about to face one of the most unimaginable moments that I would ever be in. Dolph was looking like a helpless prey in my hands at that point, as he was reeling from the effects of the drug he used to be so hung on. That moment had me wondering what exactly I would be up against in the next couple of moments as I was soon seeing the desires that were burning up in his eyes as he seemed to be sizing me up right at that moment. "What… are you doing here?" He sounded like he was out of breath like he was being eaten up slowly by a disease for which the only antidote to it was my body. There were a lot of things that had me feeling like I was about to be eaten whole. "Are you all right, Dolph...?" I asked, knowing that he was far from all right as he was looking to get his hands on me. "You don't look all right to me... you're looking like you are about to l
"Hello, Tamika's husband…" Michael reminded me of the title my mom had given me back then as I was driving to my office. It was bad that I had been called that by my mother, but then I wasn't going to tolerate that at all from Michael. "Call me that again and you're fired…" I said jokingly as I soon had the casino in view. I didn't know what it was that made everything seem much more beautiful after I had gotten married. That was my first time stepping out of the house after I had gotten married, and it was feeling quite awesome. The look of that ring on my finger was quite exhilarating each time my eyes came to where the steering was. It was almost hard for me to understand how I had been able to get it all to work out to the point where I got married to Tamika. There had been a lot of hindrances, but somehow we were able to get out of everything. "So, what's up? How's the newer couple in town holding up?" Michael asked as he was sounding like he had just woken from a long, event
"Are you sure it's that important?" I just didn't know what it was that made me feel cynical about Dolph's decision to go along with the visit to the office. He had just gotten married two days ago and there he was, suddenly trying to head back to the office when he was meant to be in bed with his wife. "It's not like important important, but I won't take long, I promise. Just need to get some files and I will be back with you, hun…" Dolph said as he went on with dressing up. He was dressing casually to the office in a bid to convince me that he wasn't going to stay long. But I still wasn't convinced by any of it. There were just too many things that had me feeling like I couldn't make it past those few moments without him by my side. It was hard for me to understand what exactly I would be doing all alone in those few moments that I would be all alone in there. "Tamika…" he said, as he put his arms around me after turning away from the mirror that time around. "You know I'll miss
I couldn't deny how lonely it felt, having to watch everything happen from the confines of my solitude which was eating me up slowly as I was almost losing it from watching the clips of Tamika's wedding online. It was quite a hard sight to behold but it ailed me greatly as I believed that all of this was meant to have happened between me and Ava. But that bastard Dolph had taken my place by her side and it was simply the hardest thing to watch. I just couldn't stand the sight of it. The jealousy had me burning up badly like I was having a fever. At first, I wanted to act cool and pretend that I was happy for her and all of that. But the pretentious act wasn't working as I had thought she wouldn't be happy with anyone else besides me. There were a lot of things that had me feeling like I was being mocked and made fun of with all those pictures and videos of them floating all through the net. It felt like she was trying to show me how capable she was to find happiness in the arms of
"But they just got married… how could you possibly be thinking of doing something that would cause them to split immediately? That's simply unfair." Amelia's words sounded like mere lip service to me as she almost sounded like she was just trying to show that she still had a conscience which was alive and breathing. Like she didn't want the same thing. "Quit acting like you were so happy with seeing that my brother had you replaced with her," I said, hitting her hard in places that I knew she wouldn't recover easily from. She was quite an egotistic one and I knew it was going to take way more than talk to get her to believe that the plan would be in her best interest as well. That would take a lot from me, but I didn't mind if that would be the case as long as she would end up agreeing to my request. It was hard for me to think of what I would be able to do at that point. "I understand, but still…" she paused a bit before restarting. "Are you going to make yourself come in betwee
It had been a refreshing moment being in the shower with Dolph, up until the moment he had made mention of the way we had met. It had me feeling awkward and it ended up ruining the entire moment for me. I wondered just how long all of that would go on. It was almost beginning to look like things would never get back to normal ever again. From that moment, I decided that I would be staying away from my phone and every external connection, as that had been mainly what had caused all of that. If I would stay away from Dale and all of his lies and frame-ups then I would surely regain the sanity I once had before have took it all away from me. "Let's just be happy…" I whispered to myself as I was about to leave the mirror which I had been staring at for the past couple of moments. I was feeling my confidence as it waned with each passing moment. It was bound to be another moment of putting up fake smiles for the cameras. It was almost like I would be airing on a show where I had to
I stood there in the shower, as I was breathing heavily as I had just dodged a major bullet from all that had just happened to me at that point. A lot was going on in my head as I was trying to figure my way out of that mess. It was hard to stay put that time around as I was realising that the effects of that drug in my system were about to cost me my marriage.That moment had me feeling impatient to go and find out what I had to do from Dr. Meyers. It almost felt like I couldn't do anything from that point onwards. It almost felt like my predicament was the most hopeless of all. There just weren't any means of identifying how I could be able to stay away from misbehaving until we had a lasting solution to that. There were no words to describe just how miserable I felt at that moment. All that our union was hanging on to at that point was Tamika's trust in me. I felt the desperate need to get her to trust me all over again, as the trust she had for me seemed to be wavering with each
It felt like my world had suddenly stopped and restarted hurriedly as I stood there staring at my screen. What was that I was looking at? It was almost impossible for me to keep a straight focus at that point, as I wanted to believe that what I was looking at was some sort of strange, unreal reality.I could bet that Dale was giggling victoriously wherever he was at the moment. There were just too many things that had me feeling like I was about to lose my mind from just watching the video. I turned off the screen at once as I was looking to keep myself from falling apart right there and then. Why was everything popping up right there and then?For the next couple of moments, I forgot that Dolph was in the room and it made me feel like I was about to lose my mind from the pressure that was coming on me slowly. The words he was saying to his mother over the phone were simply breezing past me as I was simply trying to get my mind off the video I saw. That one hit differently as I had s