Page 40 of Jagged Edges

Melonie:Are you okay? I found a spot for you. Please call me back. I love you.

Waking to the first notification of the day being from my best friend, whom I’d been avoiding for the last five days while living in utter bliss with her uncle was the type of betrayal that I didn’t feel like I could come back from. Redemption felt too far-fetched at this point. I’d never earn it.

Not with Melonie. Her heart was too pure and her intentions were too good. I felt like the ungrateful, slutty friend that needed to be outcasted immediately, especially with her uncle pulling his semen-covered chocolate from my insides as I read the message. There was nothing I wanted to do more than runand hide in the furthest corner of the world until I could look at her pretty face, again.

“I’m going for a shower. You joining me?” Bello asked, making his way to the bathroom.

My slipperiness coated his shaft, which bounced with each step that he took. As much as I wanted to deny him, I couldn’t. Bello had done nothing wrong. It was me. I was the culprit. So, with a wet tail, I slipped out of his bed from underneath his sheets and joined him in his shower. The water was already running and he was already in when I opened the door.

“What’s the matter, baby?” Bello pulled me underneath the water with him.

The knotless braids that he’d paid for me to get installed had been lifesavers. After complaining about how much I hated combing my hair after every sweaty sex session or impromptu shower, he suggested I put it in braids. I’d never had them before because I could never afford them, but they were everything. The convenience was enough to get me back in the salon chair, again.

“I just feel awful, Bello. I can’t face Melonie, yet, but I miss her so much. I’ve never gone this long without talking to her, at least. She knows something is up with me. I know she does.”

“Then tell her what’s up.”

“I can’t do that to her, Bello.”

“I don’t understand, Brisk. If you don’t want to, I will. You’re not the only one involved. She’s not going to be feeling me keeping this a secret from her, either. I have no earthly reason. You’re a consenting adult and so am I. What’s the issue?”

“I’m just not ready,” I revealed, grabbing the loofa from the wall.

“Prolonging this won’t make you any more prepared than you are now, baby.”

“I’m just trying to figure this all out, Bello. You don’t understand how much of a friend Melonie has been to me.”

“I don’t, but how much of a friend are you being to her right now? Keeping this fat ass secret from her when you literally don’t have to.” His frustration was apparent in his voice and the way he stepped away from me to reach the other end of the shower.

“It’s not that simple.”

“Because you’re making it more complicated than it has to be. If you’d told her the first day or the next day or even the day that you begged me to take your virginity, this shit wouldn’t feel so damn wrong to you. Because it’s not.”

“You don’t understand, Bello,” I replied.

“You’re right. I don’t,” he nodded, keeping his distance as he began to make suds of the soap on his towel.

For the remainder of the shower, Bello was silent, leaving me with my thoughts.Really, he didn’t understand. The lone fact that I didn’t believe Melonie would do the same thing to me as my friend kept me quiet and contemplating my decision to take things with Bello to any level other than friendship. It was foul and totally out of order on my behalf.

“Turn around,” Bello spoke for the first time since he’d put the unnecessary space between us.

Doing as instructed, I turned until my back was facing him. He removed the loofa from my hand and brushed it over my back. From the top of my neck to the crack of my butt, Bello scrubbed. The care he took of me caused such a deep sense of gratitude that it brought tears to my eyes.

“Is this how it feels to fight?” I probed.

Bello sneered from behind but remained silent otherwise.

“I don’t like it.”

After he finished washing my back, he rinsed his body as I watched, soundlessly. His long limbs then stepped out of theshower as he held the door open. The urge to call after him stalked me, but I didn’t know exactly what to say. So, I said nothing and allowed him to leave the shower in peace.

When I finally decided to exit the shower twenty minutes later, my skin had wrinkled and the fog on the mirror was thick as honey. Though I felt refreshed, my thoughts were still jumbled. All that time in the shower hoping I’d come up with a solution, and I’d come out at square one just as I’d gone in.

I need to get some fresh air. It dawned on me that Bello and I had been glued at the hips since the night of my birthday. Though desired, his presence was clouding my judgment. With him around, I simply couldn’t think straight or make sound decisions. If I was going to break the news to my best friend that I was sleeping with her uncle, then I needed to clear my head before that happened. And, until it did, I simply couldn’t continue laying in his bed.

Bello’s loft was eerily quiet when I stepped out of the bathroom. Instead of simply calling his name to pinpoint his location, I walked the entire residence to find him. My search was in vain and my suspicion was confirmed. He’d left.

Gathering my emotions, I took off for the closet where my belongings were still scattered on the floor. I collected them and tossed them in the new designer overnight bag that Bello had gifted me. It was gorgeous but too expensive for my taste. However, I wasn’t complaining because it wasn’t my pockets taking the hit.

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