Page 22 of The Big Catch

Belle stepped to the side to acknowledge my presence. “Carson, this is Holden, my man. Holden, this is Carson, my fake ex-husband.”

I stuck my hand out in his direction. “How are you doing, Carson? It’s nice to meet you.”

The surprise on his face was clear. He gave me a weak ass handshake. My daddy always told me to never trust a man with a weak handshake. “Oh, I didn’t realize you were bringing a guest with you, Belle. I wish it could just be me and you.”

“As you can see, that’s not an option, homeboy,” I told him. “Why don’t we all have a seat so we can eat and catch up.”

I pulled a chair out for my baby. She sat her pretty ass down, then placed her clutch purse on the table. I sat next, and Carson sat last.

“Um, Belle, I just wanted to see you. Like I told you in the message, I was surprised to see you on television with him at afishing competition.” He chuckled. “The Belle that I knew would never be caught dead in a place like that.”

My baby shifted in her seat with a smug smile. “Well, a lot has changed since I last saw you. The Belle you knew doesn’t exist anymore.” She glanced over at me with a loving smile. “I had to kill her to truly be happy.”

This situation was a lot for a relationship that was officially three and a half weeks old. I was counting our official date from the day that I told her she was coming with me on this trip. She counted it from yesterday when I called her my woman. We’d agreed to disagree on that. We’d just have two anniversary dates as far as I was concerned.

“Oh, okay. Growth is always a good thing.” He shifted his attention to me. “Holden, is it? It looks like you got the better, upgraded version of Belle.”

This man was letting all of his bitch out of the cage. “Nah, I just got the best and real Adabelle.” I leaned forward on the table. “Carson, is it? You got one more time to insult my girl and I’m going to flip this table over, take that steak knife, and see how you look with it in your neck. I don’t play about my woman, bitch boy.”

There was an awkward silence at the table. That was until a person eclipsed it. I thought it was the server, but from the fear in Carson’s eyes, I deduced that it wasn’t. “Kimberly, what are you doing here?”

I wasall kinds of pissed when Gunner casually told me that we were going to dinner to catch up with Carson. Like I said, I planned to tell him at some point after my shower. I aimed for after we got in the bed and fucked. Another reason I was upset was I didn’t know that Gunner knew the damn code to get into my phone. One thing that I picked up on about him was that he was observant. I just didn’t realize he was that observant.

He pulled a trump card when he gave me the code to his phone. I casually looked through it while he stood in front of me. Nadine told me that he wasn’t a social media person and that she was his social media manager. It didn’t surprise me that I didn’t see any social media apps on his phone when I grazed through it. Later that night, after we came back from our separate nights out, I fucked his ass to sleep. Once he was asleep, that was when I took the time to gingerly go through his phone. For an hour, I went through every piece of that phone and found nothing.

Today was another winning day in the books for my baby and Toolie. Those sour cream folks were not happy. Their faceswere so red with anger and envy. The groupie hos were ready to be chosen. I was ready to chop them in their fucking necks. Thepussyfishgirl was the boldest of them all. I could tell that many of the other anglers took her up on her offer, regardless of their marriage.

After the competition, Gunner told me that he needed a suit for dinner. I knew then that he was serious about this catching up thing. We found a suit shop where he was able to buy his suit and get it tailored in an hour. I was sure that the owner probably didn’t want us to come back because of the way I disrespectfully let Gunner fuck me in the fitting room. I had to admit after we left that I was loud as hell when we had sex.

Gabrielle and Toolie being here was both comforting and funny. It was funny because Gabrielle came up with the bright idea to disguise herself so that Carson wouldn’t recognize her. Once she put on a wig and did her makeup, she looked like a different person. It was comforting because Toolie had a damn armory on his person. That man was crazy.

Carson looked good, but I didn’t expect anything less. He’d always been a dapper man. The backhanded compliments that he gave out wasn’t expected. He acted like I did him dirty when it was the other way around.

When Gunner stood up for me in the most toxic of ways, I wanted to drop to my knees to suck the pigment off his dick right there in the restaurant, and not under the damn table. All these folks could witness me suck his dick with the power of a vortex. There was nothing better than a man who didn’t play about you. This man was everything. I was so happy that I got over myself to see it.

“Kimberly, what are you doing here?” Carson asked with a tremble in his voice.

My neck snapped in the direction of the woman that stood next to our table with a mean mug and crossed arms. For asecond, I thought she was about to show her ass, but she didn’t. She took a seat at the empty chair at the table. “What do you mean, honey? I want to catch up too. Your little Instagram messages notified your iPad, dummy.”

Oh, shit.Gunner tittered. “Damn, my boy. Everybody just here on their catch up shit.” He stuck his hand out to Kimberly. “I’m Gunner, and I think you might know my girl, his ex, Belle.”

Kimberly’s eyes bounced between Gunner, her husband, and me. “Actually, no, I don’t. I mean, I knew he cheated, but I never bothered to get the full details of who the woman was. I actually came here because I thought he was meeting with Daphanie.”

“Oh hell, who is Daphanie?” In all of this, we hadn’t noticed that Toolie and Gabrielle moved to the table next to us. I swear both of them were meant for each other. They were nosy as hell.

Carson looked like he was about to have a heart attack, stroke, panic attack, or something. I wasn’t sure who Daphanie was, but it was clear that he did. “Kimberly, what are you talking about? This is just an old friend.”

I choked on my own spit. “Nigga, don’t play with me.” Gunner’s hand squeezed my thigh. I took a breath. “Kimberly, I was with Carson for fifteen years. I found out over a year ago that we were fake married, and he was really married to you. He left me so that he could be with you and your family.”

“Aye, thank you for that too,” Gunner blurted. “If you’d never done that, her mean ass would have never come back home. I wouldn’t have been able to break her pretty ass down.”

Toolie held his hand up. “Cuz, now is not the time. We’re trying to find out who Daphanie is. Send that nigga a Black Expressions card later.”Why is he like this?

Kimberly readjusted herself in her seat. Before she could talk, the waitress came over to get us started with drinks. I needed a glass of wine. Kimberly ordered one as well, and Gunner ordered a whisky straight.

My laughter couldn’t be held when Toolie tried to order, and the waitress told him that it wasn’t her table. This fool told Gunner and Gabrielle to get up, which they did. He then pulled his table to ours. “Now we are your table. Like I said, I want a rum straight. Baby, what you want?”Why must he cut up in this high-class restaurant?

Kimberly tittered before she put her attention back on me. She sat back in her seat. “Explain to me what you mean when you say that you were fake married, or Carson, would you like to explain?”

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