Page 21 of Ex- Factor
I shook my head and looked back toward the crowd. Donte and Sinica were on the other side of the lounge, standing by the bar. His eyes were on me.
I could feel them the rest of the night. Even when Jill came back out, even when the lights dimmed and the music picked up again.
“I’m about to run to the restroom before we leave,” I told Silas, grabbing my little clutch off the table.
“Want me to go with you?” he asked, glancing up from his phone. We had decided to have a few more drinks before we left, to give traffic time to thin out.
“No, man, I don’t need you to go to the bathroom with me.”
I moved quick, weaving through the thinning crowd and heading toward the hallway lined with glowing restroom signs. I needed a minute to breathe. A minute to process how the night had shifted—from sweet to messy in seconds—before I was stuck in the car with Silas. And I had to pee real bad.
Coming out, I looked up, and leaning against the wall like he’d been waiting for me was Donte’s ass.
I sighed. I had hoped he’d left.
I tried to walk right past him, but he stepped into my path.
“Really, Eshe? You move without saying a word, change your number, and then I see you for the first time in months and you’re cuddle up with some random?”
I exhaled, trying not to let his presence pull any more emotion out of me. “Donte, we’ve already done this back and forth. Can we just skip to the part where we pretend to be strangers?”
“No. I want answers.”
“You got them. At the reception. At your wedding. When you stood up there with her. When you married her. When y’all had a baby.”
“That don’t mean you had to ghost me. We were friends too.”
“You married my best friend!” I snapped. “You expect me to sit around and play friendly with you? Like you didn’t betray me in the most disgusting way possible?”
He shook his head. “You know that’s not how it went down.”
“I don’t give a damn how it went down. I care how it ended. It ended with my aborted baby. It ended with you saying fuck me. So now it’s fuck you.”
His jaw clenched. “You ain’t even give me a chance to fix anything between us.”
I could feel my blood pressure rising. It was moving so fast through my veins it was thumping in my ears.
“And you think now’s the time?” I looked him up and down. “You cornering me in a hallway while your wife’s at the bar and your baby at home?”
His face twisted, but he didn’t back down. “I just miss you. You don’t even look at me the same.”
“You’re right. I don’t. And I don’t miss you.”
“Because of him?”
I laughed—sharp and mean. “No, Donte. Because of you. I let go of you before he ever came around.”
Donte took a step closer. Too close. “You think he’s permanent? You think that man gonna love you the way I did?”
I reached up and mushed his head because the urge to put hands on his ass was too much to ignore. “I hope the fuck not.” I yelled louder than I wanted to. He had a lot of fucking nerve.
He didn’t get the chance to respond.
Silas walked up behind me, eyes locked on Donte, jaw ticking. I was seeing red, so my mind wasn’t comprehending what would probably happen—or I probably would have grabbed Silas and just walked away. Donte didn’t deserve the attention.
“You need to step back from her,” he said, voice low and steady.
Donte didn’t move.
