Blurred

29

Capri Laurent

Two months later

"¡Eh! Esos no son juguetes, bebé. Ven con la abuela." Hey! those aren't toys, baby boy. Come to grandma. Paola glanced up from her place in the ground, her jeans stained with dirty and her head clad with a silk slip that Capri had bought for her last month.

In the past few months the little boy had grown quite a bit. A bit taller, and now more verbal Sonnet looked at Paola for a second before running back towards her with the small flower bulbs he had previously been trying to put into his mouth.

The cool ac tickled Capri's face as he watched the two from inside the house. He often found himself over here, after finding out about Harlem's infidelity Capri had completely shut himself off.

He thought that his friends of a lifetime would have been behind him 100% but he was soon met with Greg and Mei begging him to call Harlem after he cheated. Capri smacked his lips at the mere thought of them, he wasn't sure what hurt more the fact they chose someone they knew for months over someone they've known damn near their entire lives.

Staring down at his full plate Capri couldn't bring himself to eat, his heart was heavy and his stomach was knots.

But unlike most, Capri was a man of his word. He still looked after Paola, he spent every afternoon here with Sonnet making the woman laugh and feel less lonely with her sons away. She had taken a real likin' to Sonnet as well. She insisted that he would be her grandson despite whatever weird drift between her son and the baby's father.

Leaning back against his wooden chair Capri sighed looking up at the ceiling as if it had all the answers. He truly just wanted to know why.

Was it something he'd done wrong? Was his body not good enough? Maybe it was his temperament.

Capri squeezed his eyes closed counting to ten willing the tears he could feel building up away. He would take it all back if he could. All the snarky remarks, all the names he called him, the pointless attitudes he caught. He would take it all back if it meant that Harlem would have been faithful.

Those unwanted, ill willed thoughts plagued Capri's mind making him sick to his stomach. He caused this, if only he had been a better man. Not that it mattered anyway, Harlem had cheated with a woman which had a way of turning the knife in his gut even more.

Opening his eyes Capri wanted so desperately to take his mind off Harlem. He reached for his phone and went to the contact he always went to at times like this.

She picked up after two rings with that sickly sweet voice that had him suck all those months ago.

Hello?

Capri swallowed thickly, licking his bottom lip before finally opening his mouth. "Yo, you at home?" Yasmine didn't say anything for a minute before a soft giggle cracked the silence.

"Got tired of your fling so soon? You gon come runnin' back to me?" Her voice just as soft and seductive as Capri had always known it to be. He remembered so vividly falling in love with it.

Despite all the ugly the woman possessed she was truly a beautiful girl. From her caramel colored skin and hazel eyes to her big curly hair that Capri always found gorgeous. In so many way she had become a safety net for him, she was the one he always came back to.

Not because she was good for him, no, no it couldn't be further from that. All the pain she could ever put him through had already been normalized, she couldn't hurt him more than already had that's why Capri kept going back to her and she knew that.