Page 26 of Love's Most Wanted
“Nothing.” She kept her eyes across the yard, refusing to look up at me. “I’ll be waiting.”
I stared at her for a bit, hoping she gave me some eye contact and trying to conjure up what the fuck to say, but I couldn’t. It seemed like I only knew what the fuck to say when I was talking to Kabrina for some reason. Before her, I never had many issues with Aurora nor Daisy, so deep or emotional ass conversations weren’t a thing the three of us had worked on.
I didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with me, but I knew I didn’t wanna be here right now.
Choosing to leave Aurora be, I went back inside the house, to my bedroom, locking the door before I ventured to my en suite to brush my teeth and shower before bed. Of course, I dozed off thinking about my secret wife and all the trivial but interesting shit she’d told me today.
FEW DAYS LATER…
Money being tight was an understatement.It was crazy how just a couple months ago, money was really nothing to me, but now I found myself penny pinching. As badly as I didn’t want to, I would have to find a regular job because the career that had paid my bills for the past few years was over with for good.
I tried to take regular clients for a bit, but the money was coming too slowly. Not to mention the constant complaints about my pricing, though I had dropped it far below what I felt like I should be paid. Now I was lucky to get one booking every two weeks, and that coupled with the low amount I was charging wasn’t enough to feed me for even a week or two.
Picking up my phone, I dialed my aunt Rosabel. She and my other aunt Rosette were all I had ever since my mother Roslyn, their sister, died from alcoholism when I was just twelve years old. It was a hard time for me, but if I hadn’t had them to at least clothe and feed me, there was no telling what would’ve happened to me.
Now, I talked to them weekly, mainly Rosabel or Aunt Bell as I called her, but our outlooks on life differed so that it kept us from being as close as I would’ve liked us to be.
“Hello?” Rosabel answered.
“Hey, Auntie. You busy?” I bit my lip nervously, not knowing what she would even say to what I was about to ask of her.
“No, just watching one of my stories. What’s wrong?”
I tried to chuckle it off, but it ceased shortly after it started.
“I wanted to know if you had any extra cash I could borrow.” I stood to pace, something I always did when I was feeling anxious.
“Extra cash? Kabrina, what are you talking about?”
“I skipped some stuff, huh?”
“Very much so.” Her worried voice went up an octave.
Last thing my aunt knew was that I had a well-paying career as a celebrity makeup artist and often lent her cash or paid for things she needed. So to know I was now in need of a loan was astonishing, and rightfully so. She didn’t pay much attention to news of any kind, so it wasn’t surprising that she hadn’t heard about the scandal.
“So, AJ is married, and I found this out along with the world. So now, the world thinks I am a side chick by choice, even though their asses didn’t know of his marriage either, and I can’t book a well-paying client to save my life. Normal people don’t wanna pay my prices, even when they’re low as hell.
“As you know, I stupidly depended a lot on AJ, and now I have to take over a lot of my expenses, so my savings dwindled pretty quickly now that I don’t have a revolving income. So now I need to take care of something time sensitive, and… I’m hoping you can help.”
I often broke my aunt off with two to three thousand dollars a month, just because I could, so I was hoping she’d saved most of it since she usually lived good enough off her pension and social security.
“Why do you have to take over your expenses, Kabrina?”
I was caught off guard by her question, causing me to sputter a bit. “I—I have to because AJ was paying and now?—”
“Was? Why did he stop? He should wanna pay that shit for lying to you.”
“I don’twanthim to pay, Aunt Bell. I don’t want shit from him. That’s why I got my own place and a different car. I don’t need him to do a thing for me.”
“Seems like you do need him to do a thing or two because you’re on my line trying to borrow money.”
I chuckled mirthlessly before inhaling and exhaling to calm my nerves. This was still my aunt, so I wanted to be respectful.
“No, I don’t. He is a married man, he played me, and I just… I don’t need him. Are you gonna let me borrow the money or not?”
“What did he say to you after all this came out?”
Rolling my eyes, I replied, “The same old bullshit most men say about how he loves me, and he is waiting for the right time to leave his wife for me.”
