His Betrayal Her Lies (13 page)

“Man, I fucked up,” Ari admitted.

“How?”

The keys in Ari’s back pants pocket began to
stick him. He twisted around on the couch so he could reach them.
Tossing them on the table, he gave his brother the short version of
the day’s drama. “Taylor just found out about Maci, or should I say
she has known about her for a year or—”

Jay broke in, standing and pointing his index
finger. “Man, I told you a long time ago to tell Tay about Maci,
but no, you wanted to do it your way.”

Ari covered his face. “If I would have told
Tay about Maci, I wouldn’t be married today. I should’ve just
stopped having sex with Maci after Adrianne was born but the sex
was so good.”

“So you kept cheating ’cause the sex was
good? Unbelievable, man. Unbelievable.”

“Yeah, man. Tay never wanted to have sex when
she got home from the office. She was always talking about how
tired she was. Maci was just …” he searched for the word,
“convenient. She always made me feel wanted. Tay was trying to run
her own business and never had time for me when I came home from my
trips.”

“Well you knew this shit was going to come
out one day.”

Ari sat up straight on the couch. “Yeah, man.
But that’s not the worst part.”

“Do I need to get a drink for this?”

“Yeah, and pour me one.”

Jay went to his mini bar and poured them both
a shot of Remy. He handed Ari his drink. “Okay, what’s the bad
part?”

The entire shot his brother gave him was
downed in one swallow. Ari hissed at the slow burn going down his
throat. “Tay and I were heading to get something to eat this
morning and Maci followed us.”

Jay bucked his eyes. “How the hell does Maci
know where you stay?”

Ari raised his hands up in defeat. “Man I
don’t even know. It seems I underestimated how resourceful she is.
I didn’t even know she cared so much.”

His brother took a sip of his drink and sat
forward. “Bro, you are stupid. I thought I schooled you on women.
You’re the father of Maci’s daughter. There isn’t a woman in the
universe who doesn’t want to try to have a relationship with their
child’s father.”

“Man, I don’t give a fuck what she wants.”
Ari’s arm sliced through the air with his angry words. “She knew
the deal; that I didn’t want to be with her.”

Jay started to laugh. “You thought she knew
the deal but you two were clearly on a different page.”

Fed up with his brother’s smart comments, Jay
said, “Yeah man, whatever. Can I finish?”

Jay nodded.

“Tay was driving and I didn’t even notice
Maci was tailing us. I was talking about something and the next
thing I knew, Tay pulled into a Wendy’s and the back window was
being smashed. Maci was out there swinging a bat.” He told Jay the
rest of the story. When he was done, Jay shook his head back and
forth.

“So Taylor put your ass out?”

“Yep, she did. But I think after she calms
down, I can get her back.”

“You
are
a fool. Man, it’s not going
to be that easy. Tay is hurt over all this.” Jay asked Ari if he
wanted a refill. When Ari declined, he asked Ari to give him a
second to get himself another drink. Returning to the living room,
he picked his brother’s brain. “I’m kind of confused on why she
didn’t tell you she knew about Maci in the first place.”

“That’s easy,” Ari replied. “She said
something about hoping it wasn’t true and she was waiting on me to
come clean.” He looked at his brother’s skeptical face. “I’m in
deep shit, huh?”

“Well, you can use the spare room as long as
you need to. I’m sure it will be a while before Tay listens to
anything that comes out your mouth.”

Ari lay back down on the couch and stared
into space. Jay left the room to go to bed.

The one tear that escaped from Ari’s eye
didn’t stand a chance; he quickly wiped it away. Two women had
busted him. The player had gotten played.

***

Maci sat in her living room licking the back
of the manila envelope that contained the sex tape of Ari and her.
American flag stamps littered the envelope’s top right corner. She
smiled to herself. The contents of this envelope were about to give
her all she ever wanted. She had dreamed of the three of them being
a happy family. Ari just couldn’t see the future she saw but she
had enough faith for the both of them and deep down in her heart
she knew Ari loved her. She was the mother of his daughter; how
could he not?

One obstacle stood in her way and it was
about to be moved permanently. This was the final nail in Taylor’s
coffin. Maci had already made herself known and she was sure Taylor
would never take him back after the little fight that went down
earlier that day. Rehashing her thoughts she had staked out Ari’s
residence that morning after dropping Adrianne off at her play
date.

Her plan was just to trail them for a few
hours and plot her next move but when she saw Taylor and Ari come
out the house giggling, hugging, and kissing like two love-struck
teenagers she felt her stomach twist in knots and a sharp pain
pulsate in the middle of her chest. She started to
hyperventilate.

Taking control over her breathing, she
whipped her car out in traffic behind them and trailed closely
until Taylor pulled over. Grabbing the first thing her hand landed
on in the backseat was a bat. She jumped out of the car with
vengeance in her heart and death on her mind. Rubbing her swollen
left cheek Maci begin to daydream about Ari’s and her wedding

* * *

Taylor sat at the sizeable oval table in her
office’s conference room and watched the PowerPoint slide
presentation Pam was giving on behalf of the advertising
department. Taylor saw each slide that appeared on the screen but
she had no idea what Pam was saying about them. Her mind was on two
men: William and Kalon Knight. She had contacted William a week ago
and given him the name of Ari’s lover. He assured Taylor he was
coming close to uncovering some vital news. Meanwhile, Kalon was
still invading her dreams every night, and she knew something had
to be done about that.

Someone at the table cleared their throat
loudly, and Taylor looked up from her paper. Everyone was looking
in her direction.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Can you repeat that?” Taylor
asked tapping her pen on the table.

Pam locked an intense stare on Taylor. “I
asked if you have any questions about the presentation.”

Taylor looked down at her notes. The only
thing on the paper was William and Kalon scribbled across the page,
then crossed out. “Umm no, everything sounds good.”

When the hour-long meeting finally ended, the
colleagues of Dynasty Magazine left the room engaged in small
conversations among themselves.

Taylor was the last person to leave.
Gathering her note pad, she heard, “Hey, Tay, can we talk?” It was
Pam, by the projection screen gathering the last of her
belongings.

“Sure, wazup?”

Pam stepped toward Taylor and grilled her. “I
noticed that your attention was elsewhere today. You haven’t been
your normal self in a while. Are you good?”

Taylor began to worry until she saw the
corners of Taylor’s mouth turn into a slight smile. Then she let
down her guard a bit. “Yeah, I’m good, just a lot on my mind.”

Stepping closer to look into Taylor’s face,
Pam added, “Are you sure?”

Taylor slipped her note pad under her arm and
headed for the door. “Yep.” She walked briskly to her office and
closed the door. With no one around, she thought how close she had
come to spilling everything to Pam. She picked up her office phone,
started to dial, then hung up. She tried to place the call again,
only to hang up again when her hands began to shake badly. She was
over-thinking this whole Kalon thing.

“Just place the call. There’s nothing wrong
with having a friend,” she said out loud to herself. The
anticipation was killing her. She needed to have one date to clear
this infatuation she had with him.

His cell number was etched in her memory from
the many cards he’d given her. She decided against calling him on
her office phone. She took her cell phone out her purse and dialed
his number. She immediately remembered she forgot to push star 67
to block her number.
Damn
.

After four rings, his voicemail picked up.
“Hi. You have reached Kalon Knight. Please leave a detailed message
and I will return your call at my earliest convenience.” Beep.

Taylor instantly hung up. She was not going
to leave a message out of fear of someone intercepting that call.
It was probably for the best that he didn’t answer.

As she pondered her next move, her Blackberry
started vibrating in her hand. She looked down at the number and it
was him.
Oh my gosh, what should I say?
She gained her
composure before answering. “Hello, this is Taylor.”

“Hello, beautiful. Glad you finally
called.”

She felt herself becoming lightheaded at the
sound of his sexy baritone voice. “Oh, so you were looking forward
to my call?” she said through a deep smile.

“Taylor, I’ve been looking forward to your
call since the first day I met you.”

Taylor shivered. “Well,” she said
tentatively, “I thought we should go out to dinner or something if
you are free tonight. If not, I understand. I want to learn more
about your company.” Maybe she didn’t need a cover to feel less
guilty but she did.

“Sure. I did have a meeting but I can move
some things around to have a date with you.”

Taylor interrupted him. “Oh, this is not a
date, Kalon. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.”

Kalon started to laugh arrogantly.
“Beautiful, why would I get the wrong impression? You just told me
you want to talk about the company. I’m pretty clear on your agenda
tonight.”

Taylor let out a sigh. “Okay, great. How
about eight o’clock?”

The sound of papers being shuffled came over
the line, followed by Kalon’s voice. “Yes, that sounds fine.”

“I was thinking we could go to Ohio Street,”
she ventured.

“I love that restaurant. That’s a plan.”

“See you tonight then,” Taylor said.

“Until tonight,” he said.

Taylor hung up with a grin on her face. She
had an alibi if anyone saw her with him. She would just say she was
on a business meeting. She rapidly returned the phone calls she had
missed while she was in the advertising department meeting and
signed the documents Mrs. Tab had given her earlier.

She was focused on hurrying home to get ready
for the evening; it would be a good distraction from the chaos that
was going on in her marriage.

* * *

Kalon was excited. He had waited two weeks
for her to call and had begun to give up hope. Now that they had a
date—or meeting, as she wanted to call it—he was over the moon. It
was very clear that Taylor wasn’t interested in his company but he
didn’t care what her reason was, just as long he got to see this
stunning beauty that had invaded his dreams and thoughts since the
first day he saw her at that magazine conference.

He had meetings lined up until nine o’clock
that night so he called Ephraim into his office. He would throw his
work load in his partner’s lap. He couldn’t miss the opportunity to
go out with Taylor.

Ephraim came strutting into Kalon’s corner
office. “Wazup, bro. You summoned me?” He chuckled.

I hope he’ll still be laughing when I
finish.
Kalon stood up and started firing off commands. “I need
you to take my six o’clock appointment with the Daley Brothers’
Corporation and my nine o’clock dinner date appointment with
Livingstone Magazine. I sent the gist of what the meetings are
about and a little bit about the companies to your email.”

Ephraim put his hands into his tan Docker
pants and narrowed his eyes to slits. “Kalon, in the ten years I’ve
worked with you and knew you, you have never asked me or anyone to
handle your work. What’s going on with you? Are you in
trouble?”

It was Kalon’s turn to laugh. “Naw, man.
Something just came up and I can’t do all of this myself. You’re
second in command and I know you’re able to handle this. I’ve
already emailed them and told them that my business partner will be
handling their accounts going forward.”

Ephraim gaped at Kalon. His expression said
that he knew something was going on but he just couldn’t pinpoint
it. He gave Kalon the benefit of the doubt with, “A’ight, bro, I
got you. I hope you can confide in me about what’s going on with
you.”

Kalon smiled at Ephraim as he grabbed his
briefcase. Patting Ephraim’s back as he walk by him, Kalon
promised, “In due time my friend, in due time.”

Chapter 11

Taylor was thirty minutes late. Kalon rubbed
the back of his neck and looked at his Gucci watch again. He
wondered if she stood him up. He decided to give her another twenty
minutes.

The table he was seated at was close enough
to the door to hear someone asking for him. He glanced at the
entrance. Taylor was a striking beauty in a purple dress. It didn’t
show too much cleavage or too much leg but it fit her like a glove
and made his mouth water. Black pumps added another four inches to
her five-nine frame. She had decided to wear her hair down around
her shoulders, letting the soft curls lay against her skin. She had
the most beautiful silky hair. He almost didn’t recognize her with
her hair down. Every time he saw her, it was pinned up into a tight
bun. She looked good enough to eat, with her cocoa brown eyes, legs
that seemed to go on forever, and skin the color of a smooth Milky
Way candy bar.

The hostess pointed her in his direction.
Kalon felt his legs becoming weak.
Legs don’t fail me now
.
He stood and walked around the table to pull Taylor’s chair
out.