Page 77 of Intercept My Heart

“What do you want to talk about?” Her arms were folded as she stood in front of me.

“You tell me. I’ve been calling and texting you, but you’ve been giving me your ass to kiss. What’s up?”

“I don’t see the need in us talking unless it’s important. Cashynn and Cashmir have their own phones, so you should have no issues getting in touch with them.” Anger laced her words, but I had no idea what she was upset about.

“Sunny, I’m not with the bullshit. I can see that you’re upset with me about something. At least be woman enough to tell me what I did wrong,” I pressed.

“Woman enough?” Sunny scoffed. “You’ve got a lot of nerve talking about me being woman enough. Why weren’t you man enough to tell me the truth?”

“What truth?” My stomach twisted because I had a feeling this talk wasn’t going to go well.

“You’ve been fucking and sucking on every part of my body all this time, and not once did you mention that you were engaged! You don’t even have your ring on right now. What did you do? Take it off before you came?” she vented, disgust evident in her tone.

“Sunny, I?—”

“Don’t. Don’t even fix your mouth to lie to me. You really played me. Here I was thinking that there might be a future for us, and you’re already planning your future with someone else. And not just anyone! You’re marrying the woman you cheated on me with. What kind of fucked up shit is that? You destroyed me when I found out you cheated on me. I finally got to a place where I thought I was good enough for someone to love, and you fucked it up by breaking my heart. Now you think I’m about to play side chick when I was the main chick in this situation? You’re crazy as hell.”

“It isn’t like that. I?—”

“You what? You fell in love with her? I mean, I guess it makes sense because you created life with her. I guess I wasn’t as special as I thought, huh?” She chuckled angrily.

“I messed up.” Sunny began to walk away, but I grabbed her arm to turn her back to me. “No. We’re gonna talk about this.” Both of our chests were moving rapidly as we faced one another. “You’re upset, and you have a right to be. I should have told you about Harper a while ago.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“To be honest, I was so caught up in having you back that nothing else mattered to me. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of us reconnecting, so I pushed my situation with her out of my mind.”

“So, you’re a fuckboy? Got it.”

“Call it what you want, but I’m telling the truth. You were the only person I wanted to protect. Shit, if I’m being honest, I never thought about my engagement when I was around you. You left me and took my heart with you. I thought I would never see you again, so I’m sorry that I had tunnel vision when it came to you. In my heart, you were mine, and I didn’t care about the consequences; I just wanted to be with you. You can make me out to be the villain, and I’ll take that.

“I fucked up when I left you in the dark about my engagement, but to be honest, I wasn’t even sure there was gonna be a wedding.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Classic. You talked about me holding things in, but you’re doing the same thing.” She stood there with her arms folded and a frown covering her beautiful face. In all the time we’d known each other, I’d never seen her so upset with me. It seemed like I couldn’t get anything right lately, and it was damaging to my pride.

“The truth is, I love you. I’ve never stopped loving you. If I had it my way, you would have been my wife, and we would have been raising our family together. Life got in the way, though. I’m trying to do right by everyone, but it feels like I’m failing on every end. Things have to change. I’m realizing now that being a father comes with more than I even knew. Moolah was right to be upset with me tonight.”

“No, he wasn’t. He overreacted because he?—”

“Because he feels like my intentions aren’t genuine. It doesn’t sit right with me that my own son has to question my motives. When it comes to you, I tend to have tunnel vision. I can’t see anybody but you. It has always been that way with us.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I need to get my shit together. Our sons are still tryna get to know me, and I can’t let anything get in the way of that. Not even this thing between us. I want you to be happy, but right now, it seems I’m doing more harm than good.”

“Wow. Well, I appreciate you for making things clear. I agree with you wholeheartedly. Our attention should be focused on them and them only. In order for us to effectively co-parent, we should keep our distance from one another. If it isn’t about our boys, then we don’t need to speak with each other.”

“Sunny, I?—”

“Don’t. I’m glad you made things clear before it got too deep. I almost forgot who I was dealing with for a moment. You’re the same lying ass nigga who left me behind, and it’s time for me to accept it.”

“Sunny, you’re not being fair. You have no idea how all of this affects me. I don’t want to hurt you, but that has no bearing on how I feel about you.”

“Keep your feelings. The only things that could come from them are lies and shattered hearts. We’ve already been through that before.” Her delivery was cold and void of emotions. I put on a cool front, but every word she spoke chipped away at my heart. I wanted to say fuck it all and sweep her into my arms, but I couldn’t. As a man, I made a mess of things, and until I got myself right, I would not be able to be the man she needed. The man she deserved.