Lies & Affairs

fifteen

"Who's the special lady?"

Ty'Quan looked at his watch before smiling. "My girlfriend. She's over there, isn't she pretty?"

"Stunning. Here you go."

"Thank you."

Ty'Quan took the box out of the bag and handed it back to the woman before slipping the box in his pocket. He leaned against the counter, watching Sapphire like a hawk. It wasn't in a controlling way, it was in a 'you look sexy I can't wait to get you home' kind of stare.

"What's the special occasion?" The woman asked.

Ty'Quan rubbed his chin. "Her birthday is Friday."

"Aww, she's going to enjoy it I can tell. I can tell you make her feel special."

"I try." Ty'Quan said. "She's a lot to handle but I think I'm managing pretty well."

It had been exactly one month since Ty'Quan and Marcus' altercation inside of his office and everything had went back to normal at this point. The media had went on to catch the next story and Marcus had left them alone for the most part. Ocean hadn't been heard from either and as for Milani and Greg, they still weren't on talking terms.

Milani absolutely did not want to talk to him until he and his wife were over. Until then, it was just strictly about their child.

Sapphire walked up to him with a huge smile on her face and her arms filled with clothes. She set the things on the counter and watched the cashier ring everything up.

"We're only staying for the weekend, baby."

"But I need options to choose from." Sapphire said. "So I got a lot of stuff because I'm indecisive."

"Two hundred fifteen dollars and fifteen cents."

"Damn." Sapphire muttered as she reached inside of her purse to grab her wallet, but Ty'Quan had already tapped his card on the reader and backed away.

"Ty'Quan—"

"You paid for your lipstick out of Sephora, that's enough. It's your birthday week, why are you trying to pay for everything?" He questioned. "I told you I got it."

The cashier put the long receipt inside of one of the bags and pushed them towards Sapphire.

"Thank you. Enjoy your birthday weekend."

"Thank you." Sapphire said, grabbing her bags and guiding Ty'Quan out of the store. "I'm paying for lunch."

"You're not." Ty'Quan said. "Let me take care of you, woman, damn."

"I don't want to feel like I'm using you."

Ty'Quan stopped walking and Sapphire stopped to look at him. "What?"

"You cook for me, wash my clothes, and you're sharing your body with me. You shouldn't be scared to ask me for anything, especially money. If you want it, I got it, I keep telling you this."

"I still feel bad."

"Continue to feel bad then because if I see your card going into any card reader while I'm around I'm going to spazz out."

Sapphire giggled. "Okay."

"Now," he asked, "where are we going next?"

-

"Not talking to me isn't going to work you do know that right?" Greg looked over at Milani.

She didn't respond.

"Because you can't avoid me on the whole trip with Sapphire and Ty'Quan." He continued. "And what we're fighting over is stupid, I can't make her sign the divorce papers, Lani. What do you want me to do, threaten her life?"