Love Me Through The Rain 4 Read online

  When he saw Damien’s name he pressed the ignore button and set it back down. It rang again before he could even get comfortable enough to go back to sleep.

  “Nigga, what?” Alex yelled.

  As soon as he heard Damien yelling something about him fighting his baby mama, he hung up. This time he put his phone on airplane mode and threw it on the floor. His eyes were closed and he was on his way back to sleep within minutes. That too was short lived. Someone was knocking on his door.

  “You have got to be kidding me.” Alex rolled his eyes and sat up.

  The only reason he was even getting up to answer the door was because he didn’t want whoever it was to wake Rain up. When he looked through the peephole, he wasn’t surprised to see Damien. Alex snatched the door open and stepped outside. He tried to close the door as quick as possible to make Damien think he had company.

  “Why the fuck we got to stand outside?”

  Alex folded his arms across his chest. “Because you can’t come in.”

  “Yo, you wilding the fuck out. You been showing your ass for the past few weeks, and I’m getting tired of the shit.”

  “Boy, I don’t care. What you want? Why you over here?”

  Damien stepped closer to Alex. “You know why I’m over here. Don’t play with me.”

  Alex smirked and looked at his freshly painted nails. “Nah, I really don’t know why. Tell me.” He looked up at Damien and smiled.

  “What was that shit at the store about?”

  Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. You tell me. Was that my competition or what?”

  Damien sucked his teeth as his nose flared. “I don’t have time to play games with you.”

  “Clearly you do because you’re here.”

  Damien reached around Alex, trying to open the door, but he sidestepped and blocked his hand.

  “Let’s go in the house. I ain’t trying to be standing out here like this.” Damien stepped back and stuck his hands in his pockets.

  Alex wanted to roll his eyes, suck his teeth, stomp his feet, swing his weave over his shoulder, anything to make himself stop falling in love with the nigga in front of him. Standing there with such a sexy and annoyed look on his face. Fresh haircut, smelling like everything that made Alex want to jump on top of him and stay forever. Just looking at Damien made him happy that he had beat his baby mama’s ass earlier.

  “I don’t know why you always on that shit. You know you want me to come in.” Damien half smiled, half frowned.

  Alex bit his bottom lip. “Only for a minute.” He turned around and turned his doorknob

  When they went inside, Rain was still asleep on the sofa. She had the cover pulled over her head with one of her legs on top of the cover. Damien stopped in his tracks for a minute and nodded towards the cover.

  “That’s Rain. Come on.”

  Damien closed the door behind them and followed Alex to the back of the apartment. Once they were in his room, Alex closed the door and sat on the bed. Damien was standing near the dresser looking at him.

  “She doesn’t pillow talk with Love about this shit, does she?”

  “Nah. She wouldn’t do that.”

  “How you know?”

  “Has she done it yet?” Alex waited for him to say something. “But for real, she’s my sister. She wouldn’t tell my business like that. Furthermore, I’m sure you are the last thing on her mind when she’s laying up with her man.”

  Damien kicked his shoes off and pulled his shirt over his head. He lay on Alex’s bed in his khaki cargo shorts and rested his hands behind his head.

  “Tell me what was up with today. Why you do that?”

  “Because she asked for it.”

  “How you knew it was her?”

  Alex turned around so that they were facing each other. “I have my sources. Why you break it up?”

  Damien chuckled. “Because you were beating her ass. I had to. That shit wasn’t fair though. You’re a nigga.”

  “So fucking what. She was bigger than me. She should have been doing something to keep me off her head.” Alex turned his nose up. “I see why you keep her ducked off. That bitch would lose her life out here trying to fight the hoes you be fucking. I dun seen a few of those ghetto bitches.”

  Damien laughed. “Name one.”

  “Little Miss Glitter Girl.”

  They both laughed when he said that. Damien knew just like Alex did that Alex was telling the truth. That hoe looked like she was straight from the gutter. She would probably drag Damien’s baby mama all over the damn city.

  “You better be glad you pulled me off of her. I would have done her a lot worse.”

  “Man, fuck all that. Come here.” Damien’s voice was down an octave, sounding a lot more suggestive.

  Alex already knew what he wanted, and only because he wanted it just as bad, he crawled over to Damien and began kissing his bare chest. He went lower and lower until he had Damien sounding as if he couldn’t catch his breath. The stuff that followed reminded them both just how much they’d been missing each other.

  Alex didn’t remember locking his door, but he hoped like hell Rain would knock before coming in. If not, that would be her own business.

  Chapter 2: Let Me Explain

  Love stood in the Family Dollar around the street from his job looking at the pale colored baby clothes. He had jogged over there to get him a Gatorade real quick and was halted by the mini section of toys and baby necessities. It hadn’t been long since Rain had lost their baby, and he was still very much affected by it.

  Though he didn’t show it on most days, that didn’t mean it didn’t still bother him. He had been doing everything he could to make himself feel better about the situation, but it was hard. He tried every day to look at the bright side of things, but even that got old. Especially with Rain moping around the house everyday, damn near ready to fall over into her grave.

  Keeping his own spirits up was enough trouble, without having to try to keep hers up as well. Love took a step back away from the baby area and walked to the front. He grabbed his Gatorade out of the cooler near the register and proceeded to pay for it. He also grabbed a box of apple Lemonheads for Rain just because they were right there and they were her favorite candy.

  He paid for his things and headed out the door at the same time a lady was coming in. She was so busy trying to get something off of her shirt that she didn’t even see where she was going. Love tried to step out of the way, but wasn’t fast enough. The lady’s head slammed directly into the center of his chest.

  “Oh my goodness. Excuse me.” She raised her head and looked at him.

  “You’re fine.” Love extended a smile and stepped out of her way so that she could continue on inside, but she didn’t.

  “I know this may sound weird, but do you have a sister?” the girl asked.

  She was light skinned and a little on the heavy side. Not too big, but she most definitely wasn’t small. She had big, red hair that was what the women he’d been talking to called natural. It was pushed into one of those big balls on the top of her head and she was sporting a fresh black eye.

  That question caught him off guard for a minute because he kept a pretty low profile, so it was rare that people stopped him. Especially asking personal questions like that.

  “Uh yeah.” He looked at her but pushed the door open so that he could go out.

  He wasn’t interested in any type of conversation she was trying to have. On top of that, he couldn’t make himself stop looking at the shiny purple and black bruise circling her eye. She didn’t seem to notice it was there, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off of it.

  “I know I must seem crazy, but you look like my sister in law. She told me she has a brother here that looks exactly like her, and when you smiled a minute ago, all I saw was her face.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Fallon,”

  Sister in law?

  “Oh okay, yeah. That’s my sister.”

  T
he black eyed girl paused with one of her hands on her hips. “Oh my goodness, you’re Dakota? She’s been telling me all about you.”

  “And who are you again?” Love opened his Gatorade and took a sip from it.

  “I’m Iesha, her husband’s sister.”

  Love nodded his head. “Oh, okay. Cool. Well it was nice to meet you.” He nodded and walked out the door.

  He was about to round the corner when he heard her call his name. He tried to fix the frown on his face before spinning around to face her. “What’s up?”

  “I’m having a cookout for my son’s father this Saturday. It’s his birthday. I would love for you to come. Fallon and my brother will be there. It’s going to be fun. Fallon has been telling me how much she wants you to be there. It would be so much fun if you do.”

  Love looked at her like she was crazy. He didn’t mean to, he just didn’t know her well enough, nor did she know him well enough to be inviting him to her house.

  “I know you don’t know me, but just talk with Fallon about it. She told me it’s just you and your girlfriend. I would love for you all to come.” Iesha was all smiles as she stood there trying to convince him to accept her invitation.

  “I don’t know, but I’ll holla at my girl and see what she’s trying to do.”

  “Okay, great. I hope to see you.” She waved and walked back into the store.

  He didn’t mean to be rude, but he was just getting to know Fallon. He didn’t feel the need to get to know her friends too. With his drink in his hand, he walked back to work. When he got back to the station, he went straight to the back and pulled his cell phone out. He scrolled through his call log and dialed Rain’s number.

  She didn’t answer the first time, so he called right back. This time, she answered and even sounded a bit groggy when she answered.

  “Aye, bae, where you at?”

  “At Alex’s house.”

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m cool. Just a little tired. What time you coming home?”

  Love looked at the clock. He had another eleven hours to go before he could even think of leaving the station.

  “It’s gon be a while. You want to come up here for a little bit? You could have Alex drop you off, and I might be able to leave long enough to take you home when you’re ready.”

  “Nah, I’m good. You remember what happened last time I was on my way up there?”

  Love sighed because he could already tell where her mind was about to go, and he honestly didn’t have the energy to deal with it right then.

  “Hey, we got invited to a birthday cookout this weekend. You down?”

  “I don’t really want to be around any of your friends.”

  Love laughed. “What’s wrong with my friends?”

  “Besides the fact that they all get on my nerves? Nothing.”

  When Rain laughed it made him feel better. “You be throwing shade on the low, shawty… I miss your ass, though. You sure you don’t want to come up here for a minute?”

  He could hear her yawning before telling him she would think about it. After that, she told him that she had to pee and would call him back in a little while. Love hung his phone up and went back to the front. He took a seat on the empty weight bench and proceeded to drink his Gatorade.

  He saw a few of his team members sitting in the front office playing the game, while a few others were on the other side using the other weight bench. Love leaned back and allowed his mind to wander to the person who could be doing all the horrible things to Rain. He had looked into all of his exes, and nothing had come of that.

  Let her and Summer tell it, she had no enemies, so there really was no reason for someone to try and harm her. In the beginning he had calmed himself down enough to let the police handle it, but it seemed as if they had lost interest in the case and figured Rain no longer cared about it because they’d stop giving updates.

  Either way it went, he was her man and he felt that it was his responsibility to make it all go away. It had been on his mind more lately because he wanted to ask her to marry him. The only thing that stopped him was how could he? How could he have her promise her life to him when he couldn’t even protect her?

  That just wasn’t right. He remembered talking about it to her the night of the fire and how excited she sounded. Those days seemed so far away now. If he could just get her back to that spot, then he would be doing something. For the rest of his shift he tried to think of what he could do that would put her in a good mood and keep her there.

  *****

  Across town, Iesha had just walked into her house with the hotdog buns and charcoal. She had volunteered to run to the store while Damien got the grill ready and Fallon kept the kids. They’d gone to the store earlier to get all of that, but had walked right out of the store without those two things.

  She figured it would only take a second, which was why she volunteered to go, but she should have known better. She had given Damien too much free time and now he was gone. When she pulled into her driveway she instantly got mad. His car was no longer in the spot where it had been and she was pissed.

  It didn’t matter what she was doing or where she was going, if she gave Damien five free minutes, he was either leaving or sneaking around on the phone. At first she would try to look over it, but it was starting to just get out of control now. He was getting too free with his little hoes on the side.

  She and Damien had been together for over ten years and had two kids. They had their son, Damien Jr., and their daughter, Damia. Iesha assumed that since they’d been together since high school that he would eventually straighten up and realize she was who he was supposed to be with. Clearly, he and she were on two different pages.

  Iesha walked into the kitchen with the bags and set them on the counter. Fallon walked through the door with Damia on her hip, just as Iesha was stuffing the bags in the trash can.

  “Where did that bastard go?” Iesha referred to Damien.

  “He didn’t say. He just said he had to run off real quick.”

  Iesha rolled her eyes to the sky. “You see what I mean? I swear I can turn my back for five seconds and that nigga gon slip past me in two.” Iesha quickly pecked Damia’s cheek and walked out of the kitchen with Fallon behind her.

  “Where you think he at?”

  “Probably with his bitch. Some hoe named Goddess. The shit kills me because he acts like he can’t leave her alone. It’s fucking pathetic.” Iesha dialed on her phone as she fussed.

  “Oh so you know the girl?” Fallon sat down on the sofa and situated Damia in her lap.

  “Nah, I don’t know her. Not like that anyway. I know of her. I’ve seen her. Hell, he’s the one that showed me pictures of her.”

  Fallon’s face frowned. “For real?”

  “We was arguing one night because I was going through his phone and he had been texting her all day. So when I asked who the fuck was Goddess, the muthafucka went off. I mean slap off. Like it was my fault that he was cheating. Screaming I ain’t have no business in his phone and stuff.” Iesha moved the phone from her ear. “After he realized I wasn’t letting up, he pulled out a picture of some brown skinned chick and showed it to me.”

  “Oh hell nah. I know you was mad.”

  “Mad wasn’t the word. But you want to know why I was really mad?”

  Fallon nodded.

  “For two reasons. One, because she was prettier and smaller than me. Two, because of the way he talked to her in those messages. It was just sickening. Like that nigga talked like he in love with the bitch. Practically begging for attention.”

  Fallon leaned down and sat Damia on the floor. “What you mean begging?”

  “I don’t know.” Iesha shrugged her shoulders. “The girl must have been mad about something because she was dissing him in those messages and he was still begging to come over. I mean sending back to back I miss you and I love you messages. It was sickening.”

  “I could see how it would be. That’s how
I be with your brother, but it’s different with him because it’s like no matter what I say or do, that nigga will not tell on his self. I try everything I can and he won’t open his mouth.”

  Iesha plopped down on the sofa. “I don’t know which one is worse. Telling it all or telling nothing.”

  “Either way, it’s fucked up.” Fallon leaned back next to her.

  “Who you telling. I bet that bitch that hit me earlier was one of his lil jump offs.”

  Fallon looked to the side and shook her head. “I highly doubt that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that was a nigga.”

  Iesha turned to face Fallon. “You lying?”

  Fallon shook her head. “Girl no. That’s my brother’s girlfriend’s best friend. Why he ran up on you like that I have no idea.”

  Iesha rolled her eyes. “Hell, I wish I knew too, but whatever. All I know is his ass is beat the next time I see him.”

  Fallon burst out laughing. “Iesha, who you think you fooling? If that was the case, that nigga’s ass would have been beat today.” Fallon laughed even harder at the look Iesha gave her.

  “I’m just saying, girl. That faggot beat your ass.”

  Iesha shrugged. “I don’t care. Everybody know gay boys can fight. I just wish I knew why the nigga was beating my ass.”

  Fallon and Iesha laughed as Fallon touched the black eye on Iesha’s face. When Iesha jumped back, she moved her hand.

  “Speaking of your brother, I saw him at the store a minute ago. I invited him to the cookout.”

  Fallon was looking down at her phone with her eyebrows scrunched up. “Oh okay,” she mumbled, as she continued scrolling through her phone.

  “Let me go make these hotdogs because you ain’t even listening.” Iesha got up from the sofa, grabbed her phone, and walked outside.

  She loved Fallon like a sister, but she didn’t want her to see her begging right now. Anytime Damien was gone too long, she found herself on his voicemail leaving all kinds of messages that sounded like begging to her. So she already knew it would sound even worse to Fallon. She dialed Damien’s number again, expecting him not to answer, but this time he did.