Before he’d found out the Amir Aleesha was engaged to was that Amir, he’d actually been a fan. Suffice it to say, things had changed drastically. Marcus' face stiffened as he sized Amir up; Amir did the same.
When Amir made no effort to speak, Marcus asked, "Can I help you?"
Amir’s forehead knotted up at Marcus' question. Who the hell does this joker think he is?? Lord of the fucking manor? "Yeah…” he drew the word out as he continued to stare at Marcus. “Is Aleesha home?"
Marcus hesitated for a brief moment then took a step back. "Come in."
Amir's frown deepened at the "invitation" to enter the house he had, up until recently, lived in for the last year and a half. If he hadn't fucked up, he and Aleesha would’ve been living here as man and wife by now.
Ignoring Marcus, Amir walked in and glanced around. Damn, he missed this place. How did the saying go? You never realize what you have until it’s gone? He now knew he'd had everything he ever wanted and needed in Aleesha - but it was too late. His jaw tightened when he spied the tray with the food on it and a rose lying by the plate. Amir cut a look Marcus’ way and saw he was watching him with folded arms. The arrogant stance alone irritated the hell out of Amir.
"Ah, could you tell Aleesha I'm here?" Amir’s words were mocking and sarcastic.
Marcus answered Amir in the same tone, though his held a hint of a challenge. “Ah, and who are you?" He might be a doctor now, but he'd had to survive a harsh world on the streets of Philly. He wasn't about to let this fool try to punk him out. As the two alpha males stood glaring at each another, the air became tense and full of male testosterone. Each of them was determined not to give an inch.
"Just tell her Amir is here. That’ll be enough."
"Apparently you weren't – ‘enough’ that is." Marcus' mouth lifted in a mocking half smile which hinted at an inside joke where Amir was the punch line.
Amir didn’t find a thing funny and stepped towards Marcus. "What in the fuck do you mean by that."
Marcus unfolded his arms, prepared to meet him halfway until Aleesha came out of the bedroom. "What's going on? Amir? What are you doing here?" Marcus’ expression all but said the same thing.
Breaking eye contact with Marcus, Amir turned to Aleesha and swallowed hard when his heartbeat sped up at the sight of her. For the hundredth time, he called himself every kind of fool for letting her get away. "Aleesha, can I talk to you?"
Aleesha shot a nervous glance at Marcus. He was staring at Amir as if he would gladly throw him out on his ass at the slightest encouraging word from her. Not wanting to make a bad situation worse, Aleesha decided to find out what Amir wanted then get rid of him. "Marcus. Can you give us a moment? Please?"
Marcus pulled his eyes away from Amir and looked at Aleesha. He ignored the other man's look of triumph and walked over to Aleesha. "Are you gonna be okay?"
Aleesha’s eyes softened. "Yes. I’ll be fine." Marcus leaned down to kiss her on the lips before going into the bedroom and closing the door.
Aleesha was furious as she swung around to confront Amir. "I've asked you not to drop by without calling."
"Yeah, I see why now," Amir sneered as jealousy reared its ugly head. “So who's he? New boyfriend? Already?"
"Oh my God, you did not just ask me that! That's none of your business anymore, is it?" Aleesha snapped.
Amir could only stare in silence because, even knowing she was right, he couldn’t let it go. "I can't blame you, Leesh. I fucked up. We both know that. But come on, really? I mean, you're asking the man’s permission to speak to me, for Christ’s sake."
Aleesha’s eyes narrowed to thin slits. "I wasn't 'asking his permission', I was showing him some respect - something you know nothing about."
"I always respected you, Aleesha. Baby, I love you."
"Too bad you forgot how much you 'loved me' when you were fucking Simone in my bed, not to mention all the others I found out about later!"
Amir's voice rose as well. "And too bad you forgot you were my fiancée when you fucked a damn stripper you met in Vegas! I know what I did was wrong. Cheating on you was wrong. I made a horrible mistake, especially with Simone, but I swear to God that bitch was history after that weekend. Damn, Aleesha, I'm tired of you - and everybody else - making it seem like I'm the only one who screwed up. You're not exactly innocent here yourself."
Aleesha bit her tongue and took a deep breath. She refused to get into this with Amir - again. They’d both made mistakes.
She was trying move on with her life, but Amir didn’t seem to be making the effort to do so. "Amir, it doesn't do us any good to rehash this. I'm not going to change my mind. You need to accept that we’re over. I've met someone else."
Aleesha saw the hurt flash in Amir's eyes. No matter what had transpired between the two of them, she only wished the best for him; they’d been a big part of each other’s lives for a long time. She walked up to him and took his hand in hers. "Mir, marriage between us never would have worked. There was a reason why we both cheated. Better we find out now before we got married than after…right?"
Amir knew deep down inside that what Aleesha said was true. He just didn't know how to move on without her. No matter what he’d done, he’d never loved a woman as much as he loved Aleesha.
Beyond her shoulder, he saw Marcus standing in the doorway. In that moment, Amir conceded that, yes, she had moved on, and whether he liked it or not, he'd have to take those first steps to do so himself. He and Aleesha stared at each other for several seconds as a feeling of closure passed between them.
Amir pulled her close for a final hug. "Good luck, baby," he whispered.
"And I wish the same for you, Mir."
Amir gave her a resigned smile before leaving. When the door closed behind him, Aleesha turned towards Marcus and noticed him closely watching her reaction to seeing Amir. Aleesha smiled. Her past had just walked out the door. Somehow, she knew she was looking at her future.
Aleesha slowly went over to Marcus. He wrapped his arms around her and sighed in relief. Aleesha felt safe and at home as they held each other tight. The ringing of the phone reluctantly drew them apart. Aleesha reached up to kiss Marcus before going to answer it.
"Hello."
"Leesh? Hi. It‘s Jerra..."
"Jerra? Hi. Is everything okay? Have you been crying?” Marcus bit back a groan of trepidation when he heard Aleesha’s question. He knew it! Dammit, D!
"Leesh, I'm sorry. Marcus is still there, isn’t he? Look, just…just call me whenever you get a minute. I wasn't thinking."
"Wait! Jerra, what’s wrong?" Aleesha immediately became worried. Jerra didn't sound like herself at all. Hardly anything fazed her or got her upset. Between the three friends, Jerra was always the one who remained cool and rational in any given situation. The Jerra she heard now scared her. “Never mind. I'm on my way over."
"Leesh, can you come alone please?"
"Of course, honey, I'll be there soon." With her face reflecting her concern, Aleesha hung up the phone and brushed past Marcus with barely a word and hurried to the bedroom to get dressed. Marcus looked over at the now cold breakfast tray of food. So much for a quiet day of spending time together and getting to know each another.
Wait until I get my hands on you, D!
Chapter 22
Aleesha dropped Marcus off at the hotel to shower and get a change of clothing. They made plans to meet in a couple of hours. Leesh promised she'd call as soon as she spoke with Jerra.
Unlocking the door with his room key, Marcus didn’t break stride until he got to the door connecting Darrell's room to his. Darrell was lying on the bed with his hands folded behind his head staring up at the ceiling. He didn't move when he heard Marcus walk in. He had been expecting him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Marcus standing there wordlessly looking at him.
"Marcus, whatever you’re gonna say, save it. I don't want to hear it."
"D..."
"Marcus, I'm serious. I don't want to hear no bullshit right now, ai’ight?"
Marcus stared at him for a minute then threw himself down in a chair a few feet away. He noticed Darrell had his bag packed and next to the door. The return flight wasn’t scheduled for another two days. "You leavin'?"
"Yeah. No need to stay. I've handled my business."
Unable to keep quiet any longer, Marcus glared at him and said in a strained voice, "Handled your business? Yeah man, I heard about how you 'handled your business' when I was at Aleesha's house and Jerra called crying and asking Aleesha to come over." Darrell’s jaw twitched, but he remained quiet.
"D, come on, you know how I feel about this woman. I'm forever grateful to you for making this happen for me, but once I found out you were sleeping with Jerra, I pleaded with you on the flight over here: please don't fuck around with her and mess things up for me before I have a chance to make this relationship work."
Darrell threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He started pacing back and forth with agitated steps. "Oh, so Jerra calls and gives her half of a sob story, and you automatically come at me crazy, not even asking my side of things...!"
Marcus also stood up. "Your side, D? Are you serious, man? Jerra's a woman. You fucked her in Vegas. Wanted to fuck her again, so you fly out to Atlanta with me. You got some more pussy from her, and now you're done. She caught feelings and she's crying to my girl who happens to be her best friend. Did I leave anything out? Isn't that the way it usually works out with you and women?!"
Marcus and Darrell stood glaring at each other for a few moments before Darrell shook his head. "Not this time."
As Marcus studied Darrell closely, his anger disappeared in an instant. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Darrell sat down on the edge of the bed, placing his elbows on his knees. “Marcus, I usually don’t give a fuck what a woman thinks about me. You know that. After I get what I want, they can kiss my ass for all I care. But this one…this time….” Darrel snorted out a laugh. “She’s kind of thrown me for a loop.”
Darrell explained how he and Jerra had such a good time last night, but this morning, things quickly turned sour when she assumed he was only a stripper. “Wanna tell me I got no aspirations in life, talkin’ down to me like I’m some charity case…”
Marcus leaned against the dresser as he listened to Darrell. His sympathy for Jerra slowly dissipated with every word Darrell told of the story. He remembered how she had looked at him in Vegas, like he wasn’t good enough to even talk to Aleesha because she thought he was a dancer. And after the things she said to Darrell, he understood why Darrell had gone off on her.
“…so I lied and told her I’d made another bet with the fellas back home. I guess that hurt her feelings so she called Aleesha…“ Darrell’s lips twisted in a sardonic grimace. “I’m sure she’ll leave her asinine comments out of the version she tells, though.”
Marcus frowned. Did Darrell have feelings for…? Before he could finish the mental thought, he dismissed it. Nahhh…couldn’t be. But the more he listened to him a sneaking suspicion began to form in his mind. “You care about her, don’t you?”
Darrell’s head snapped up, denial on the tip of his tongue, but Marcus knew him better than anyone else in this world and would recognize the lie. “Care is too strong a word. I guess you could say I was feeling her a little bit, but hey…whatever. On to the next.”
Marcus folded his arms and stared at Darrell. He heard the words his brother was speaking, but more importantly, he looked past them and saw what he wasn’t saying. Darrell was more than ‘feeling’ Jerra whether he was ready to admit it or not. The two of them had known each other for over twenty years, and in all that time, Roni had been the only woman whom Darrell ever cared about - ever loved. When she died, Marcus didn’t think he would ever have feelings for another woman. And he hadn’t – not until now. Not until Jerra.
“D, hold off on leaving. Let’s try and sort this thing out first.”
“Wait for what Marcus? For her to find out that I’m not the person she thought I was, then all of a sudden I’ll meet her standards and be up to par?” Darrell vehemently shook his head. “Nah. I don’t think so, man. I don’t need a woman like that in my life. I’ve already rescheduled my flight. I just hope I haven’t messed things up too badly for you and Aleesha.”
“Don’t worry about it, bruh. It’s all good.” His cell phone rang and broke through the silence that fell between them. Looking at the caller ID, Marcus saw it was Aleesha and connected the call. “Hey, baby. Everything okay?” he asked her.
“No. Everything is not okay. What in the hell did your friend do to Jerra?” she answered in a freezing tone.
Inhaling deeply then slowly exhaling, Marcus looked over at Darrell. At the same time, they mouthed the word ‘Fuck!’ Marcus took another chest expanding breath. “Aleesha…”
“It’s bad enough the first night they met he made juvenile bets with his friends….”
“Aleesha…”
“…but to fly all the way here and do it again?”
“Leesh…”
“Marcus, please tell me you didn’t know anything about this!”
“What did Jerra say?”
“I just told you. You didn’t answer my question. Did you know about any of this?”
Marcus hesitated. “I knew about some of it.”
“And you didn’t think it was important enough to mention it to me?”
Marcus felt the conversation getting out of control and rapidly going from bad to worse. He tried to slow the roll of it down. “Aleesha, it wasn’t my place to tell you anything. Apparently, Jerra hadn’t discussed it with you, and to be fair, we haven’t had time for much conversation. If I remember correctly, we were busy with….other things.” When Aleesha became quiet for a moment, Marcus pressed his advantage. “This is really between Darrell and Jerra, isn’t it?”
“You don’t understand. This is not like Jerra at all. Darrell must have hurt her pretty bad to have her so upset. How can you call someone like that your best friend?”
Marcus’ ire shot up a couple of degrees. “The same way Jerra is yours. Aleesha, I was trying to stay out of this, but I see you’re not going to let that happen. I have a question for you. Did your friend tell you everything she said to Darrell?”
Hearing Marcus’ tone change, Darrell stood up. He didn’t want Marcus and Aleesha getting into an argument over something he’d done. Out of the two of them, Marcus was usually the one with the milder temperament, but when he got upset he could be just as bad as Darrell – or worse.
“Marcus…” Darrell wanted to stop him before words were said that he'd regret later. However, seeing Marcus hold up a terse hand to shut him up, Darrell threw his hands, palms facing outwards and let him handle his business.
“What do you mean?” Aleesha asked Marcus.
“I mean did she tell you about her stuck up, holier than thou attitude towards him? But that shouldn’t come as a surprise to you because she did the same thing to me when she thought I was just a stripper.”
Aleesha turned around to look at Jerra who, all of a sudden, avoided her eyes. “No. She didn‘t..."
“Seems Darrell’s good enough to sleep with but needs to get some ambition when it comes to his career choices. She said he should be embarrassed to tell people what he does for a living and that she could never take anyone like him seriously - outside of the bedroom, that is.”
By now Aleesha’s mouth was hanging open as she stared at Jerra. “Marcus…I’ll call you back.”
“Oh - and Aleesha. He didn’t make any other bets. He only told Jerra that after all the shit she said.”
“I understand. I’ll call you back, baby.”
Marcus snapped his phone shut. He was trying not to become irritated but knew he wasn’t succeeding. He understood Aleesha’s concern for her friend, but he did not appreciate the way she immediately jumped to conclusions, which in turn caused her to jump all over him.
He and his woman would most definitely be having a talk and getting some things straight the first chance they got.