“Chi?” I heard someone say as I was walking to the Uber pick-up area. I stopped and slowly turned around to see Wayne with a duffle bag in his hand.
“Wayne?” I said as I walked up to him. He grabbed and hugged me.
“I haven’t seen your little ass in a long ass time.” He said, still hugging me.
“I know. You know I moved to Cali with my dad.”
“I know, but I didn’t think your ass would stay.”
“Me, either,” I said as we finally ended the embrace.
“You back?”
“Yeah, for a little minute. You know I was missing my bestie and god-daughter!” I smiled.
“I know they’re happy that you’re home. You gotta come to a family dinner.”
“Bre told me about them. I’ll be there.”
“Hey, fool. You gon’ introduce yo’ friend or what?” I heard someone say. I looked behind Wayne and saw a fine ass brown skin dude approaching us.
“Chianne, this is Roon. Roon this is-”
“My future wife.” He said, licking his lips. I blushed.
“Nah, dawg. She’s Bre age.”
“She’s eighteen, right?”
“That doesn’t matter. She’s the little sis.” Wayne said while shaking his head.
“And if Wayne can’t talk to me because of my age, then you can’t talk to her.” This female who appeared out of nowhere said. Just then, a brown skin chick came from behind Roon. She was gorgeous.
“I thought we agreed to not bring the past up anymore,” Roon said, shaking his head. I was confused.
“I need to be headed in soon. Wayne, can you walk me in?” She asked while giving Wayne flirtatious eyes. He smiled, but Roon didn’t seem happy.
“I thought I was going to walk you in?” Roon said to her.
“You drove me. I want Wayne to walk me in. Nothing personal, big brother.” She said as she walked up to him and hugged him. He tried to act mad, but he quickly gave in and hugged her back. I looked at my phone and saw that my ride was arriving soon.
“My Uber is arriving, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you around,” I said and quickly gave Wayne a hug then walked away. I walked down a few feet then waited for a red car to pull up.
“Chianne?” She asked as she pulled up with the window down.
“That’s me. Christy?” I said before entering her car.
“Yes.” She said then opened her trunk. I opened the back passenger door after putting my bags in and got in. She drove off and I finally decided to check Eric’s message.
“Hey, Chi. It’s been a while. I know you’re probably still mad at me, and I’m the last person you want to talk to. I don’t know if Bre told you about me leaving today, she probably mentioned it because I told her to. Anywho, I thought about you because I feel like we have some unfinished business. I don’t know what it’s going to take for you to forgive me, but I hope one day you can. I fucked up, and I’m sorry about that. I’ll probably spend the rest of my life regretting that because you didn’t deserve that. I guess I’m nervous about joining the Navy and somewhat afraid about what’s to come. I don’t know if I’ll come back or if I do, I’m afraid I won’t be the same. So I just want to get this off my chest while I’m still here and myself. I’ve spent this past year figuring out why I hurt you, and the only thing I could come up with was tha I was being childish. You were my first, and instead of cherishing that, I got greedy. I guess I vowed never to let that be me, seeing how life worked out for my mother, Wayne, and Bre. I didn’t want to settle with my first and regret it years after having kids and being together for a long time. I know it sounds stupid, but it made sense to me. Anywho, I should have told you how I was feeling instead of feeling like we were on the same page. I knew that you wanted a relationship with me, but I put your feelings aside for my own physical needs. It’s a lot that I can say, but I know this voicemail is not that long. I don’t want to annoy you and call back, so I’ll just end it and say that I did really love you, but I didn’t know how to love you. And to be honest, it wasn’t hard because you always told me what you wanted and you always loved me for me. I appreciate that, and hopefully, I can come home one day and show you. Love you, Chi.”
I put my phone down and stared at it. Part of me wanted to call him back, but my pride was in the way. If something was to happen to him while he was away, I would be devastated because of how we ended. However, Eric wasn’t the only one who was feeling bad about how things turned out. I was holding on to a secret that would hurt several people that I cared about, and I wasn’t ready for that. Especially since I was trying to do something with my life and become better. I know I probably need edto tell Eric, but I’m just not ready to. So instead of calling him back, I just put my phone away and stared out of the window.
35. Wayne
It was a coincidence seeing Chianne at the airport at the same time we were dropping Mikayla off. Mikayla finished high school earlier this
