Page 32 of Coming Home for Love

I remembered the first day we met. He walked into one of my classes, and every girl in the room gawked at him, but he ended up befriending me. I knew he fucked with other girls on campus, but for whatever reason, he kept me in the friend zone, even though I could tell he was attracted to me. I guess he didn’t want to mess with me at the time because I had a boyfriend.

My boyfriend, Clay, was my everything, until I found him in our apartment taking dick better than me. There were no signs that he was into men unless I just missed them. Good dick and love would do that to you, especially when you didn’t know what true love felt like.

My parents never cared for me. My mother let her boyfriends do whatever to me, whenever they felt like it. My father, well, I wasn’t sure where he was. More than likely somewhere smoking on a glass dick if he was still alive.

Life for me sucked, but I still managed to get good grades in school and was awarded the opportunity to attend culinary school in Paris. After graduation, Clay and I moved in together, and I thought we would get married until that dreadful day.

Clay and the guy he was with didn’t notice I entered the apartment until they heard me puking my guts up on the living room floor. He tried to convince me that he wasn’t gay because he wasn’t the one doing the bending, but it didn’t matter how he tried to spin it—he was gay. I wasn’t judging him because he was gay either; it was the fact that he never told me, and he cheated on me.

That night, I ran into Osiris as I was drowning in my sorrows, and he was everything I needed and wanted. The liquor had nothing to do with it. Osiris had good dick and brains. He was kind and always treated me with respect. I just needed him to get on board.

I tried calling him again.

This is O, leave a message after the beep, and I might get back to you.

I almost threw my phone into the wall, but it rang. I rolled my eyes when I saw my best friend calling. Best friend was a term I used loosely, but she was the closest thing to it.

“Hey, Shan. What are you up to?” she asked when I answered.

“Nothing, sitting here watching television,” I lied.

“Oh, I’m surprised you’re not under Osiris.”

I rolled my eyes at the way she said his name. I was convinced she wanted to fuck him. I wouldn’t put it past her if she already did, or at least tried to. All the bitches out here wanted to fuck him, and probably the ones he was around in the States too.

“Nope, he’s still visiting his family.”

“Still. He’s probably got another girl out there.” She sucked her teeth, and I wanted to reach through the phone and punch her in the face.

How could she call herself my best friend but said the shit she said. Instead of putting negative thoughts in my head, she should have been encouraging me. But I knew what it was; she was jealous. Sometimes, I wondered how I remained friends with her.

“No, he doesn’t. I know his mother had some work for him to do, and it’s just taking him a little longer to finish.”

I put the phone on speaker so I could track Osiris’s location. He didn’t know it, but one day when he was sleeping, I sharedhis location from his phone to mine. Every day, I would see where he was going. I wasn’t sure where each place was, but it was two he stayed at the most.

“I guess,” she said.

“Did you want something?” She was frustrating me, and I needed to end this call because I had some things I needed to do.

“I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out this weekend.”

I checked Osiris’s location again, and it hadn’t moved in the last twenty-four hours. If I found out he was messing with someone else, we were going to have problems.

“Shannon, are you there?”

I rolled my eyes because, for a second, I forgot I was on the phone.

“Yeah. I’m here, but I can’t go out this weekend. I have plans.”

“Plans? Bitch, I’m your only friend.”

I hated when she constantly reminded me that she was the only friend I had. She only wanted to be friends when it was convenient for her.

“Whatever. I have to go.” I hung up the phone without giving her a chance to respond.

I tried Osiris one more time, and it went to his voicemail again.

“You want to play these games? Let’s see how well you play when I show up.”

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