Page 50 of Cause When You Love Someone
“I have new hair. I see you have a new ring and bracelet. I guess we’ve both been busy.”
She straightened her hand and admired her new pieces. “I thought I would treat myself instead of slipping into depression since my brat ran away. Where is Ishmael?”
Unsure of how to respond, I broke the fourth wall and peered into the lens when the cameraman focused on me. Ishmael and I didn’t have a label or title, and I wasn’t ready to share him with the world. I knew part of the reason I had been living in a fairytale was for that very reason.
“Hello? Clarke! Are you going to answer my question?”
“I gave him the day off.”
“Excuse me! Who gave you the right to do that?”
“Theright? He works for me.Youwork for me.”
“I don’t want to hear that shit. He should have been here, just like he should’ve been on your ass when you disappeared for a week.”
I curled a piece of hair behind my ear as flashes of our times together played in my head. “How do you know he wasn’t?”
Sage’s hand sprang up to his lips. “Oop!”
“You can shut your mouth, Sage,” my mom spat out. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“Stop talking to him like that! Sage isn’t your assistant, and from now on, he’s not available to you. You need an assistant, hire one.”
“Wow,” she muttered. “You get a new haircut and some new dick, and you forget who runs the show?”
“Actually, a real man spoke life into me, and I remembered my power.” My vision switched to Jerry. “What’s next?”
The producer fumbled with a few pages in his notebook. “Let’s move into the Chaz segment.”
“That man doesn’t get a whole segment; he gets a few sentences. The relationship is over.”
Simone freed a gentle puff of a laugh. “We’ve heard that before.”
“See!” My mom slammed her palm on the nicely decorated table. “Even your best friend knows it. You and that boy love to break up to make up.”
I started to correct her on Simone’s position in my life, but I thought it was more important to set the record straight about Chaz.
“This time is different. I’ve dealt with too much to put up with more. The people around me will treat me right, or they’ll be cut the fuck off.”
By the end of my rant, my gaze landed on Simone.
“I don’t know why you’re staring at me. I haven’t done shit wrong.”
The love I had for Simone kept me from pointing out where she fucked up.
“Simone, we can havethisconversation in private.”
“No the hell y’all won’t.” Mama Bear chimed in. “This is good for TV.”
“Okay, I’ll go first,” Simone started. “You’re pissed at me when I’ve been a good friend to you. I’ve defended you when people talked shit. I’ve wiped your tears anytime you got in your feelings. Don’t get me started on how I had to accept being your sidekick.”
“I’ve never treated you like a sidekick. I put you on a pedestal. When I treated myself, I treated you.” I scoffed. “Even when you ruined your reputation by being a thief, I let you use my credibility to walk in rooms people dream of. You want to talk about accountability? Just like I chose to stay with Chaz, you chose to ride my coattails.”
“Clarke, please. I put you first because your sensitive ass needed a friend like me.”
“Simone, you have a big mouth, but I have strong hands. I never needed you to protect me. Trust me, I hold my tongue because I know the damage words can do. I experience it every day!”
“Oh, this is good,”I heard someone say in the distance.
