"You smell so good," Nanti is dancing with some guy in the club and her hands are roaming.
However she does not think of this guy, she thinks of Élan.
But he does not smell like him or look like him or sound like him so she stops dancing with him.
"Are you okay?" Tamia, her best friend, looks at her with a wrinkled, judgmental forehead when she returns to their booth.
She is not okay because she cannot stop thinking of Élan and she hopes he is home and not out with that skank he slept with.
"Élan cheated on me. Yesterday he cheated on me." Nanti confesses and Tamia is truly astonished at this revelation.
"Old reliable cheated on you? Wow, never thought I would see the day. What did you do?"
"I burned him," She cringes at her own statement.
"Bitch, for real? You realize that shit is abuse? I'm surprised you even care because the only thing I recall is you talking about how marriage has trapped you, as if Élan isn't a good man. What are you mad at him for, anyway?"
She is not sure if she can answer.
"I don't know. I feel like an extension of him. I don't even have my last name anymore."
"Did he steal it from you or did you not willingly accept the vow? Don't lie, bitch, I was there."
She shakes her head and laughs.
"I know, I know, but I'm starting to think this is a mistake. What if I'm not cut out for marriage?"
"I don't know, Miss Nanti. But I do know that if you didn't love Élan, you wouldn't have to try and forget him. You would forget him unconsciously."
Nanti looks down.
"I know you're hiding something, Nanti. In the end, though, you've got to ask yourself what you are afraid of,"
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When Nanti returns from the club, a sigh of pleasure escapes from her.
Élan is sleeping with a half-eaten bag of popcorn in his grasp.
She has such conflicting emotions when it comes to him; she is angry and sad but also this inconceivable love overwhelms her because he is here.
She had always been more so ruled by action and fiery, red passion.
He always balanced her tumultuous, brazen disposition.
She runs her fingers through his hair and he stirs a bit in his sleep.
"Oh, you're back?"
Suddenly she starts crying and she feels so feeble.
It is amazing to finally hold her after several months.
She feels so warm and smells so good, though he is worried that she is crying so much.
"Why are you crying?" He asks, rubbing her back.
"I don't know!" She states angrily and he decides not to question what outlandish force has brought her to his arms again.
Élan wonders how cheating on his wife could repair a relationship.
He embraces her and continues to let her tears wet the crook of his neck.
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Nanti appears at his law firm around noon in a fiery red dress that clings to her every curve. Her shoes are dainty and impractical with a high heel. Every man at the law firm is looking at Nanti because they physically cannot look anywhere else when a gorgeous girl demands attention in a room like she does. Élan clenches his jaw out of unconscious possessiveness. Faye is across the room, watching his wife. Her mouth is to the floor in disbelief.
Nanti walks up to Élan and even his boss is giving her The Eye and he realizes he wants to flip over every desk and beat his chest because this is his fucking wife they're looking at like that.
"Which one is she?" Nanti says, placing a hand on his tie to straighten out the wrinkles.
Her voice is low enough so only he can hear her in the room vibrating with the sound of typing keyboards and printers.
She's making him nervous, especially since he cannot read her expressions anymore.
Élan doesn't say anything at first, so she tugs at his tie until her mouth is up to his ear. "Which one is she?"
He would be embarrassed if he wasn't so turned on by her and everyone watches, still.
He lifts his gaze across the room to Faye, Nanti follows, quirking her brow.
"Really Élan? You could have done so much better."
She hands him lunch from his favorite restaurant. Élan is almost bewildered; he forgot he was about to go on his lunch break before Nanti's appearance.
"Are you hungry, baby?" It sounds like she says it with a mic because of the abnormal hush.
He looks at her and swears he can see fire in her eyes.
YOU ARE READING
MAD BLACK WOMAN
Romancein which she must deal with her husband's infidelity and the love she still has left for him. in which he must find the broken pieces of the love that fell apart.
