Page 32 of Plea
Venus and I showered and got comfortable, and when she asked if we could eat in bed, I had absolutely no problem with that. I could see the exhaustion on her face and knew her ass would be going to sleep as soon as we were done eating, and that let me know I’d done a good job. More than anything, I wanted to make sure she enjoyed herself and had no regrets about choosing me.
She smiled, laughed, and kept telling me how much fun she was having, and that fueled me to do more and more. Not because I felt like I had to impress or earn her, but because it was nice being with a woman who appreciated what I was doing with and for her. A lot of women were so entitled to certain treatment these days that they didn’t show appreciation for it, and for a man like me, that was a turn off. That wasn’t the case with Venus, and she had no idea what that meant and what I had in store for her.
As I suspected, three minutes into the movie after dinner, she had already fallen asleep. I took that time to let the crew know we were back and that I’d be in for work in two days. It felt like I had a lot of missed time to make up for with Venus, just because of the time we’d spent out of each other’s lives. I knew we had forever to get to know each other and create memories, but I wanted to live in her skin and pussy for the moment.
When Kaos told me to call him, I knew it had to be something important. I unraveled Venus’s body from around mine as carefully as I could, smiling when she whined and pulled the pillow closer to her body, then went downstairs to make sure I didn’t disturb her sleep.
“Hello?” he answered after the third ring.
“Wassup? Everything good?”
Kaos sighed. “I hate to bring this to you on your first day home, but I wanted you to be prepared when you came into the office.”
“What’s going on?” I asked, sitting on the couch and closing my eyes. I was joking with Venus about her being sleepy, but I felt like I would crash at any moment myself. We spent the bulk of our time in Tulum drinking and partying, and my body knew it was time to rest now that I was back home. Tulum wasn’t as packed as it had been when I visited over the years, so it was like they appreciated us being there more, which led to more liquor and food than I’d paid for.
“You had the right idea asking for the DNA test because Asia acting like she’s missing a few marbles.”
“Asia?” I repeated, because I refused to believe she was on any bullshit. Things had ended peacefully between us, regardless of the foul shit she was planning to do. I thought since she’d been confronted about her lies that she’d quietly leave me alone. I was hoping he wasn’t calling to make me aware of something that suggested that wouldn’t be the case. “Fuck she doing?”
“Apparently, she has the smallest baby bump, and somebody asked her was she pregnant and she said yes. They knew she was messing with Dru and she told them he wasn’t the father. That you were. She came to the office looking for you, and when I told her you were on vacation with your girl, she said she wanted to warn you that she might have gotten you into some shit. I didn’t think it would be that bad if she just told one person, even if they were to gossip, but her ass was on Facebook live telling people you’re the father of her baby. I looked into the Dru nigga and…”
At that point, his words started going in one ear and out of the other. I’d put the call on speakerphone and got on Facebook, refusing to believe this woman was telling people I was the father of her child knowing good and damn well I wasn’t. It didn’t take a lot of scrolling for me to find the live, and an irritated sigh escaped me seeing that it already had five thousand views. I wouldn’t necessarily say Asia was an influencer, but because of her job, she spent a lot of timeworking with them on social media, which put a spotlight on her too.
The last thing I wanted was for people to think I had a baby on the way while I was fresh in a new relationship with someone else. Personally, I didn’t care about what people thought about me, but I did care about the image I put out into the world because of my profession. They would get the version of me I wanted them to have, but how they perceived or received it was up to them.
“So that’s why she’s trying to protect him apparently,” I heard Kaos say.
“What you say, brotha?” I asked, tuning back in to his words.
“I said he’s a married minister. That’s why she’s trying to protect him. A few people saw them out together a while back and rumors started to spread in the church, that’s why he cut her off. She did some research like women do and found out he was married. Now I don’t know if she’s already told him about the baby or not, but I’m assuming she has.”
“Yeah, she had to. What other reason would there be for her to publicly lie and say it’s my baby? He probably told her he wasn’t going to be there for her and threatened her to get rid of it or some shit.”
“What you gon’ do? We can always get the PR team on it to do crisis management, and seeing as she’s lying on you, we can sue her ass.”
“Let me look into it a bit more. I don’t want to respond drastically if I don’t have to. If she’s willing to take the live down and stop telling people the baby is mine, we can leave it at that. I might just get her to sign something alluding to the fact that if she continues to lie on me, I’ll escalate the situation legally. I don’t give a fuck if she’s trying to protect him or not. She ain’t gon’ have me out here looking like a premature deadbeat.”
Kaos laughed, but I was serious. The fact that her caption for the live was,“Yes, I’m pregnant. No, we are not together. And no, he ain’t gone be in my child’s life,”was sending me. She’d created a whole fake ass narrative. A part of me was hurt that she’d lie on me to protect a man that had lied to her and done her wrong, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. If she was willing to pin another man’s baby on me, there was no telling what else she would do. As long as her temporary lapse in judgment didn’t affect my business or relationship, I’d let it slide. But the moment either of those things changed, both sheandher baby daddy would have to see me.
Chapter
Twenty-One
Venus
I listened intentlyas Carson told me about the newest development concerning Asia. We’d been home for literally just a day, and the perfect, peaceful bubble we’d been living in had already been popped. I felt like she’d let things go a bit too easily, but I certainly wasn’t expecting her to blatantly lie on my man. And yes, he was my man. We might not have officially had a title, but he was my man. The longer he talked, the more possessive and protective I became. I hated that she was bringing unnecessary drama into his life.
Just off her word alone, people were already in the comments talking about how he wasn’t shit for choosing not to be with her and be there for the baby. I knew he didn’t care about their opinions of him, but not too many people would be okay with a person spreading lies about them.
“You want me to beat her up?” I asked, and even though I was serious, he laughed.
“Nah, sunshine. That won’t be necessary. I’m going to talk to her today and find out what happened between her and that nigga, because I know that’s why she’s lying. Either he threatened her or is paying her to take the attention off of him. I looked into him and he’s preparing for some kind of revival. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are in on it.”
“Hmm, now that sounds plausible. These church men be more scandalous than women these days. I’d hate to have to go to his service and expose him because she fucked around and played with my man.”
Carson laughed and pulled me onto his lap. I’d been pacing in his living room while he told me about her and the live she did.
“You don’t fight for me. I fight for you,” he said, and my head immediately shook.
