My Bestfriend's Man (2 page)

Roxie

I’m always on CP time and I knew
my bestie was probably passed the point of pissed by now. She said she had a
surprise for me and she wanted to meet up for a late lunch. It better be good
since she’s been acting shady lately. The time on my watch read a little after
five and I was supposed to meet her at four. My cell phone began to sing and I
kindly ignored it without hesitation. I pulled into the Chili’s parking lot
nearly colliding with a Toyota Camry. Despite it being my
error,
I flipped the driver the bird and kept
it moving. I checked my appearance in the mirror while I parked. My lips looked
a little dry so I added some Mac lip gloss.

“Perfect,” I said out loud to
myself.

Of course, when I stepped out of
my all black Range Rover all eyes were all me. Yes, I was a bad bitch and I
knew it. With the body of a video vixen, green eyed, red bone and long hair to
match, Beyoncé ain’t got shit on me. I didn’t even acknowledge the car horn
that beeped at me as I stood outside of my Range and checked out my reflection
in the driver’s side window. I adjusted my Vera Wang dress that hugged me like
a second skin.

I started to make my way towards
the restaurant, but I forgot to grab my purse and cell phone. I really didn’t
need my purse because I knew my bestie was going to front the bill like she
always did, but it did compliment my dress, so I figured I’d grab it just for
show. I did a U-turn, quickly opened the
door
and grabbed both my purse and cell phone before heading back towards the
restaurant. It wasn’t really crowded, which was cool with me. After a long
night with my freak of the week, I wasn’t in the mood to be around a lot of
people anyway. My first initial thought was to cancel with the bestie, but I
decided not to. I haven’t seen much of her lately and I wondered what was up
with that. The hostess asked me if I needed any help, but I rudely ignored her
and scanned the crowd until I spotted my bestie waving her arm in the air.

“Hey chick,” I squealed as I
hugged her like I hadn’t seen her in years. I really didn’t want to let her go.
I missed her that much.

“Hey yourself,” she responded
with an attitude as she released herself from my strong embrace.

From the look on her
face,
I could tell she wasn’t happy. I couldn’t
really blame her though. I was late and I didn’t even give her the courtesy of
a phone call, but like always I knew she couldn’t stay mad at me for long. We
sat down and I immediately frowned at the half eaten plates that occupied the
table.

“You started without me?” I asked
feeling hurt that she didn’t wait for me. The fact that I
was late went
well over my head.

“Don’t start Roxie,” Savannah
said rolling her eyes. She sat back down at the table and began eating her
food.

She wasn’t the least bit worried
about my feelings and I was feeling some kind of way about it. I wouldn’t do
her like that, but I guess some people don’t show you the same respect that you
show them. I grabbed a piece of shrimp off of her plate and got over my
feelings. I could get a little dramatic at times and I knew that was something
I needed to work on.

“Anyway. Wait is somebody else
here with you?” I asked feeling my jealousy streak about to rear its ugly head.

I looked around the restaurant
before looking back at Savannah. She looked at me
sideways,
but I didn’t give two shits. She was the only bitch I
rocked with and I hated when she tried to add other chicks into the mix. It
never worked out and I wish she would stop trying.

“Oh, that’s someone special I
want you to meet,” Savannah said flashing her
kool
-aid
smile.

“Really Vee?
 
You know I don’t rock with a lot of bitches,”
I said agitated.

I looked around for the server. I
needed a drink and quick. This was starting off wrong already. I could feel my
inner bitch attempting to make an appearance. I took a deep breath and quickly
calmed her ass down.

“Why do you refer to females as
bitches?” She asked with a frown on her face.

“I refer to niggas as bitches
too.” She shook her head at my answer and I laughed. “No, for real, why do you
always try to add chicks into the circle. You know bitches don’t like me. I
mean come on, really, look at me. I wouldn’t like me either.”

She cocked her head to the side
and smirked. “Don’t worry it’s not a female and not everyone is jealous of you
Roxie. You might just want to re-evaluate your attitude.”

I waved her off with my hand. “I
don’t need to re-evaluate anything. As long as I got you
I’m
good.”

She gave me this look that I
didn’t particularly like, but I didn’t speak on it. Savannah was like the
sister I always wanted. When my parents finally died in a car accident, her
family welcomed me in as their own and we have been thick as thieves since.
Every now and then someone would try to come in and break the bond that we
shared, but I wasn’t having that. I hated sharing especially when it came to
Vee.

“Hey, baby.”

I immediately frowned at the
sight of this younger version of Morris Chestnut as he bent down and hugged
Savannah. I knew my emotions were written all over my face, but I didn’t care.
This is the shit I’m talking about. She can’t leave well enough alone. It’s
just supposed to be us two, but obviously I’m not enough to make her happy. My
feelings were hurt and I could feel my insides boiling.

“Heyyyyy,” Savannah squealed. She
had a huge smile on her face. My insides began to hurt because I haven’t seen
her smile like that since Brandon. “Roxie, this is Brian.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he
said holding out his hand. He actually held it there expecting me to take it.

I gave him the screw face and
turned to Savannah. “Really, Vee. So I guess this is the little surprise you
had for me? Is he the reason you been acting all shady lately.” People were
giving us odd stares left and right, but I wasn’t fazed. My emotions were
getting the best of me and I was about to go in full bitch mode. “I can’t do
this with you right now. When are you going to learn Vee?” I asked standing up
grabbing my purse and cell phone. “Holla at me when you finally come to your
senses.”

I stomped outside like I was a
five-year-old
child instead of a grown ass
woman. I made
it
to my truck within a
mere minute. I looked over my shoulder pissed that Savannah didn’t follow me.
My nostrils flared in anger as I opened the door and hopped in. My cell phone
still hadn’t bothered to ring and that pissed me off even more. I threw my
purse in the passenger side seat as I unlocked my phone and dialed Savannah’s
number. She didn’t pick up.

“Bitch,” I mumbled to myself. I
placed my phone beside my purse and shook my head. “Here we go,” I muttered to
myself.

I hated to put Vee through this
again, but she has always been one of those types who had to learn things the
hard way. Brian was like all the rest I could see it in his eyes. I knew this
would break her heart but like always I would be there to pick up the pieces.

Savannah

I was so embarrassed. I literally
wanted to crawl under the table and hide when Roxie decided to have a little
temper tantrum and stomp out of the restaurant. All eyes were on us and the
only thing I could do was apologize for my best friend’s behavior. She had the
nerve to call my phone. I rolled my eyes and kindly ignored it. She wanted to
act childish that was on her, but I refuse to entertain it.

I sighed as I looked up at Brian.
He is just as shocked as I am. I knew Roxie could be over the top, but this was
uncalled for. She has always been protective of me and I appreciate that, but
sometimes her presence could be suffocating.
It’s
like she wants me all to herself. My co-workers are always talking slick,
saying Roxie wants to eat my box, but I brush it off. Sometimes her behavior
put a lot of questions in my head.

“You okay baby?” Brian asked me
while rubbing my shoulder. I looked up at him and smiled.
 

“Yes, I’m sorry about that,” I
replied scooting over so he could sit down. He sat down in the booth beside me
and rubbed my arm. His touch alone sent a heat wave through my body. I cleared
my throat and tried to stay focused. “I did not expect for things to go down
like that.”

“It’s cool,” he said. I could
tell Roxie’s actions caught him off guard. “Is there something else-,”

I looked at him sideways. “Hell
no. I don’t get down like that,” I frowned pissed off at his question and
accusing eyes.

“I’m just playing baby. Dayum,
calm down,” he said grabbing me in a bear hug and kissing the back of my neck.

Here he was again invading my
personal space and it was getting harder for me to resist his touch.
Brian and I
have been dating for the past five
months and have yet to reach third base. I wanted to take things a little slow.
I recently had a bad
breakup
with my
boyfriend of eight years and I’m still trying to get over that.

I shrugged Brian off and scooted
over to put some space between us. I could tell he was a little upset, but he
knew the deal when we first started talking, I wanted to take things slow. From
the
look,
he just gave me I assumed he
didn’t realize that I meant this slow. I was feeling him and we do have good
times together, but I just want to make sure I’m ready to go there with him. I
don’t want to have any regrets later.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said
reaching into his wallet throwing a few dollar bills down on the table.

On the ride back to my
place,
I could tell something was up because he
was quiet. Too quiet. I say this because he can talk and at times it was hard
for me to get a word in edgewise. I looked over at
him
and watched as he bobbed his head to French Montanna’s “Pop That”.
The tension in the car bothered me and I wanted to know what was up. At first,
I figured it may have had something to do with Roxie, but my gut told me it was
something deeper than that.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” I asked
pressing the volume button turning the music down.

“Nothing,” he said shrugging his
shoulders before pressing the volume button to turn the music
back up
.

“Brian, come on,” I said turning
the music down again. “I said I’m sorry about Roxie. I had no idea she was
going to act like that.”

“This has nothing to do with
Roxie. Well, I mean, part of it does.”

“Well, talk to me. Let me know
what’s going on. Don’t shut me out.”

“But you can shut me out?” He
asked looking at me sideways. I curled my lips up trying to figure out what he
was talking about. “Don’t look at me like that Vee.”

When he called me Vee, I
instantly thought about Roxie. She was the only person who called me Vee. It
was a pet name she gave me when we were younger. If Roxie heard him call me
that she would definitely pitch a bitch. I shook my head and cleared my mind. I
will deal with Roxie later. I had another attitude I was dealing with at the
moment.

“Tell me what’s up then?”

“We’ve been kicking it for a
while now, but I don’t think you take this relationship as seriously as I do.
You’ve met my family, but I’m just now meeting your best friend and you haven’t
even mentioned your parents. I mean, I know you want to take things slow but
dayum
, what you waitin’ on the second coming.”

I snickered at that comment, but
I cleared my throat and ran my fingers through my hair because he was dead
serious. I sat back in my seat and looked out the window. Are we really having
this conversation? Is it me or are the roles a little reversed. Here he is
questioning me about meeting my parents and I’m not going to
front,
I still had some reservations about
that. Like I said, I’m feeling him and I really enjoy his company, but
something was holding me back from giving him my all.

Brandon my first love left a huge
gash in my heart. It still bleeds from the pain he caused. He was damn near my
first everything. I can’t say he was my first kiss, I gave that to my next door
neighbor, Richard Washington, one day after school when we decided to play
house. Other than that Brandon was first in everything including breaking my
heart. It’s been almost a year and every time I think about him and his
betrayal I still get misty eyed.

Sometimes I find myself watching
one of our all-time favorite movies ‘Love and Basketball’ and find myself
balling like a baby.

“Hello,” Brian said to me waving
his hand in front of my face.

“Look, I know how you feel. I
really do, but I’m just not ready. Besides it’s not like your mother likes me
anyway,” I said rolling my eyes.

“What are you talking about my
mother loves you?”

All I could do was look at him
sideways. His mother was on a different level and I wasn’t in the mood to go
there with him.

“I told you that I wanted to take
things slow. Can you just be patient with
me,
please?”

“I’m being
patient,” he snapped. He must have caught the look of surprise on my face
because he apologized. “I’m sorry Vee, it’s just that I’m getting a little
frustrated over here,” he said pointing his eyes downward.

I smirked and looked at him
sideways. “Is this what this little charade is really all about?”

“No Vee,
it’s
not just that. I’m really feeling you and at times I just get
the sense your feelings aren’t on the same level as mine.”

“Wait, why do you keep calling me
Vee?” I asked attempting to change the subject. He fell for the bait.

“I don’t know. Isn’t that what
you said ole girl calls you? And I have to ask what is up with her anyway. I
know you said you
did
n’t get down like
that, but what about her?”

I wasn’t about to put my best
friend on blast. Yeah, I’ve heard some low down shit about her, but that wasn’t
any of his business. “No, and if she did why does it even matter. I don’t think
that should be your main concern.”

“I’m just saying.”

“Anyway don’t call me Vee.
Roxie is the only person who calls me that, okay.”

“
Aight
,”
he said.

We pulled into my housing
development and I knew something was up because he didn’t even walk me to the
door like he usually did. He waited until I got in the house safely and pulled
off. As soon as I walked through the door my cell phone started singing. My gut
feeling told me it was Roxie. She needed to cool off some more, so I decided to
ignore it. A nice hot bath is what I needed to clear my mind. After my relaxing
bath,
I hopped in the bed and was out
like
a light
.

When I woke up the next morning
and checked my cell
phone,
I had nine
missed calls. Eight were from Roxie and one from Brian. I wanted to lay back
and enjoy the comfort of my bed. Monday would be the start of a
three-day
, twelve
hour
shift at the hospital. I’m a proud registered nurse, working
on the maternity ward at PRMC hospital located in the heart of Salisbury,
Maryland. I started out in the ER and I hated it. That’s actually where I met
Brian. A position opened up on the maternity ward, I applied and God showed me
favor because working on the maternity ward is one of the most sought after
positions and I was lucky enough to get it.

I yawned, stretched and
immediately sat up. I knew if I were to lay back down and close my eyes I
wouldn’t get back up. Since I had Sunday off I decided to go to church. I
wasn’t the deeply religious type, but I did believe strongly in the Lord. You
wouldn’t see me in church every Sunday, but when I could make an appearance I
would. It took me all of
thirty
minutes
to eat, shower and dress before I was on my way, but of course, I was still
late. Service went a little longer than I expected, but I still enjoyed the
word. Pastor talked about removing people from your circle. I couldn’t help but
to feel as if he were speaking directly to me.