Page 25 of Hush Money & Hits
“You got somebody in here?”
“That’s none of your business. Tasha!”
She obviously ignored him because I saw a figure come around the corner, and her eyes widened with shock and horror. “Are you fucking kidding me?” she whirled around to face Pearce.
“Bro, fuck outta here,” he spat. “You left my ass like a thief in the night. You didn’t send a text message, letter, or bat signal. You dead ass walked away from me leaving me with questions that only you could answer, and you thought I was sitting around twirling my fingers waiting for you to come back?”
“And we see you didn’t waste any time,” she clicked her tongue. “Is this the woman your father said you were leaving me to marry?”
“Go ask that nigga since you let him get in your head. This isn’t the place that I want to have a conversation. I’m sorry. I paid too much money to be here. You gotta bounce.”
“My name is on this reservation too,” her voice quivered. “I came all the way here. What am I supposed to do?”
“That’s not my problem, Love.”
“Wow. Just wow,” she laughed angrily. “You’re more like Kalim than you want to admit.”
“Fuck outta here with that dumb shit,” he spat. Her eyes finally landed on the band on his hand, and her eyes almost jumped out of her skull.
“You are married! Oh my God! How could you do this to me?” she erupted into tears.
Clearly frustrated, Pearce ran one hand down his face. “Man, this isn’t that.”
“I really can’t believe I was so stupid. Wow.” Tasha angrily brushed her tears away.
Pearce didn’t respond. Instead, they had a brief but very intense stare off as I sat there with the sheet damn near up to mychin with my heart racing. I wasn’t scared of Tasha. I was scared of what the moment meant. As mad as he was, I knew there was no way that Pearce had stopped loving her. It wasn’t possible, and she was back. In the flesh. Our fun was going to more than likely end much sooner than I had anticipated, and that dead ass had me wanting to cry. I knew I was making a mistake by allowing myself to just have fun and go with the flow. That could be done with someone regular. Pearce wasn’t regular. At all.
Finally, she left, and Pearce grabbed the bottle of tequila he’d bought earlier and went out on the balcony. Awkward. I eased out of bed and went to use the bathroom and take a quick shower. I wasn’t sure if I should check on Pearce or if he wanted to be alone. My heart continued to drum in the shower because what was going to happen? Just because Tasha was back didn’t mean Pearce would stop protecting me. Did it? He said she didn’t even know about the house that I’d been staying at.
Prayerfully I’d be able to find a place that I liked in Florida because something told me that Tasha popping up was about to complicate the hell out of things. I had no desire to wait around for Pearce to dismiss me. There was a possibility that he would stand ten toes down and not deal with Tasha again. But there was also the chance that he would fold, and I didn’t want to be around for that. Complicated. The very thing it wasn’t supposed to be.
By the time I got out of the shower, Pearce was still out on the balcony. I got in bed and wondered where his head was at. After a few minutes, I got up and went out to check on him. It was dark out, but from the light in the room, I could see him staring straight ahead holding the bottle of alcohol by the neck.
“I wasn’t sure if I should give you your space or come check on you. You okay?”
Pearce looked over at me and chuckled. “I’m great.” I could tell that was a lie, but I didn’t want to challenge him. He stood up and took a swig from the bottle. “You smell good.”
“Thank you.” I gave him a small smile. It was hard to tell if he was deflecting or if he was really okay. I was sure the alcohol played a part in calming him down. Pearce gripped my waist with his free hand.
“Let’s go to bed.”
The next morning, we woke up and ordered room service for breakfast. I was playing it by ear and trying to determine the kind of mood Pearce was in. “You trying to go ride ATV’s?” he asked while I was looking for something to wear.
“Sure. We can do that. After breakfast or later?”
“We can go after breakfast. I’ll book it right now,” he grabbed his phone.
Since we were going to get dirty, I pulled out a pair of black leggings, a black fitted tee, and sneakers. My braids were old, so I didn’t care too much about them, but I was still going to put a scarf on. As soon as I got back home, I was taking them out. Breakfast was delicious. I felt a little weird studying Pearce to try and find context clues about how he felt, but he honestly acted like he was okay. And maybe he was.
“I tried real hard to go without it, but I can’t.” Pearce shook his head. “I’m going to have to find somebody that can get me some weed.”
“How long has it been since you smoked?” I chuckled.
“More than twenty-four hours, and my ass is over here feeling like a fiend. This food is good as hell, but I don’t reallyhave an appetite. And I don’t want to get irritable and start snapping on people.”
I didn’t want that either. Cabo was too beautiful for the trip to be wasted with negative energy. Breakfast grew quiet, and I hated that Tasha’s presence had turned our trip so…awkward. I couldn’t even be certain if Pearce was actually fine or just pretending really well. It shouldn’t even matter. But it did.
“You good?”
