𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬: 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐄𝐊𝐇𝐈

12. | B R E A D & B U T T E R

C H A P T E R | TWELVE
BREAD & BUTTER

𝙰 𝙸 𝙺 𝙾 𝙷 𝙰 𝙼 𝙸 𝙻 𝚃 𝙾 𝙽

HER hands pressed down hard against his sweat-laden chest as she rode him to what was supposed to be ecstasy but wasn't quite that. She tried hard to pretend, she couldn't wait any longer so she tried using her imagination - - invisioning it was him but knowing deep inside that it wasn't. It didn't feel the same when he touched her or when he talked to her; he was a man just like any other man but he wasn't THE man - - he was everything but him. Short and sweet, she knew it was so simple and knew that the equation wasn't hard to solve at all; he wasn't Carter.

Aiko closed her eyes as she sat with her long modelesque legs straddled apart in the lap of a nameless character - - his name didn't matter to her - - hell, he didn't matter to her. He was nothing but a fly in Aiko's dangerously deceptive web. She was only using him as a pawn or someone to fill the void that Carter left. Aiko didn't think twice about what she'd done that day at the store when she ran into Destini.

If Carter wanted to pretend like he didn't need her anymore she was going to show him what that pretending got him and knew that once she told Destini she'd be livid and she'd think twice about sticking around with Carter - - Aiko was convinced that she could make Carter see what he was missing with her and just knew that she could make Carter love her like she should have been loved.

She wasn't the type of girl who didn't get what she wanted so she didn't understand Carter's actions as of late; men would have killed to be with a supermodel so why wasn't Carter? His home life couldn't have been but so fulfilling - - obviously not if he was fucking other women, she thought. It didn't make sense how she went from being his everything in Milan, flaunting her around like she was new money and a fast car, to virtually some bitch that he treated like a common whore on the street. How did things crash down so suddenly on her head? She refused to believe that everything Carter told her was a lie when in reality it really was.

Carter had fed Aiko lie upon lie while they were in Milan together - - told her anything he needed to in order to get inside her and he'd done just that. He didn't respect her and how could he, she didn't even respect herself. From jump street Aiko showed Carter how she wanted to be treated and how she could be treated and he ran with that and stayed true to it. What did he look like trying to turn some bulimic celebrity hoe into a housewife? Carter refused to look like a fool - - if he was REALLY going to leave his wife it wouldn't have been for a bitch like Aiko Hamilton. She had too many miles on her for all that.

She'd never be Mrs. Mekhi and she needed to remember that, but often times she ignored those warning signs he threw her and took whatever piece of Carter she could get. That was Aiko's problem - - she just didn't care enough about herself to call Carter out when she saw that he treated her like shit. In Aiko's mind it wasn't him treating her badly, see she'd convinced herself that it was just Carter showing love in his unconventional way. Common sense should have told her that love didn't look, feel, sound like that but common sense was something that Carter had made sure Aiko went without; he had the power and it was all in his loins.

Of course she was beautiful and all - - he wasn't fucking with anything that wasn't a certified dime - - but she was just like the rest of them minus the good sex that she dished out yet that was all she was - - sex. He didn't want her for her mind, he didn't want her for her ambition, for her celebrity - - he wanted one thing and one thing only and that began and ended between her legs and if she couldn't understand that then, well, Carter could easily write her off and get another one. She didn't need his money like the other ones - - she had plenty of that - - but Aiko needed him in a different way. Regardless of how one looked at it, although it wasn't financial Carter was her bread and butter and he KNEW it.