Page 29 of Divine

“Who the hell is this, Divine?” her date asked.

“Don’t play with me. I’ve been calling and texting your ass. Why did you turn your phone off?” I asked her.

“I wasn’t trying to avoid you, Liam. I turned my phone off to keep my brothers out of my business.”

“You know we’re better than this, Cookie. Why you playing with me?”

“I’m not playing, Liam,” she said, dropping her shoulders.

“The hell if you aren’t,” I snapped.

“My nigga, what the hell do you want with my girl?” her little friend asked.

Him referring to Divine as his girl almost made me burst into flames. Instead of ramming his steak knife into his shoulder like I wanted to, I dismissed him.

“Don’t worry about who the fuck I am, little one,” I said, giving him his one and only warning.

“Liam, relax.” Divine sighed.

“You’re really telling me to relax after you played me like a chump? I’m pretty sure you just got me fired, and you have the fucking nerve to tell me to relax?”

The way her smile seemed to melt away made me feel bad, but I had to stand my ground. Letting her manipulate me had gotten us into this situation. I shook my head before continuing.

“I’ll be outside.”

Me:

Got her, bro. Thanks again.

Psalm:

Yeah

It takes a lot to surprise me, but that’s exactly what I felt when a second message came through from Psalm with a link attached. When I hit the link it took me to a picture of a map with two red dots. One of them was here and the other was at Divine’s house—her cars. If Psalm was giving me the link to her location, then maybe this wasn’t my last night on the job.

Thirty minutes passed before Divine emerged from the restaurant looking around the parking lot for me before heading to her car. When she pulled out of the parking lot, I followed her. I was so pissed off I didn’t even turn on my radio as I trailed her home.

When we made it back to Divine’s, I parked in my designated spot and hopped out of the car. I followed her little ass, ignoring the fluid sway of her hips in that dress as she headed inside. My face was on fire as I did my sweep through the house.

“Liam, I’m sorry. OK?” Divine said, leaning against the kitchen counter.

The house was clear, so I stepped into the back yard and made sure everything was good there before going back through the living room toward the front door.

“Liam!”

“What is it, Divine?” I barked.

I spun around to face her. Her puppy dog eyes threatened to defuse my anger as she took careful steps in my direction. I had fallen for her wiles for long enough. I wasn’t about to let her play me again.

“Talk to me,” she whined.

“Oh, now you want to talk?” I asked her.

“Yes.” Her voice cracked, and it took everything in me not to rush over and pull her into my arms the way I’d wanted to do since the first time I laid eyes on her.

“Divine, you sat up there and played with me like you’re a fucking child. You keep saying that you want people to treat you like an adult. Well, why don’t you learn to act like one, and maybe they will learn the difference? I told you that you could be real with me. I told you that I wasn’t going to treat you like a fucking little girl. I made the mistake of trusting you and trying to be your friend, and you played me for a fool.

“You had the chance to talk to me, and you lied! I can’t rock with you, Divine. You showed me that I’m nothing but a flunky to you. That’s not on you. I should have listened the first time you told me how you felt. I’m the fool for thinking that we were friends. Now, I’m out of a job for trying to treat you like you claimed you wanted to be treated.”

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