Nouveau

Chapter 53: Missed

Tremaine

"L..." He slowly opened the door.

Laive had his shit all over the place. There was an empty suitcase in the middle of the bed while clothes where being thrown from the closet like left over rags. Tremaine paced towards her carefully, "Baby..."

L threw her clutch at his head and Tremaine ducked just in time for it to hit the wall behind him.

"Saniye, Javeah..." She slurred.  "Come...come get me I-"

"Laive."

When Tremaine yanked the balled up clothing from her hands, L begged into the phone. "Please! Please I can't stay here-"

An unfamiliar voice echoed on speaker, "Room service."

She stared at the handheld in confusion.

"This ain't even your damn phone." The force used to take the cordless receiver from her hands made the transition look effortless. Laive was all over the place as she frantically ran her fingers through her hair. Her eyes were low and almost red from her lack of sobriety. As soon as Tremaine tried to reach for her, L rushed to gather the rest of the clothing from the bed and pulled the luggage bag towards the floor.

"I...I'm not staying here with...with you. I wanna go."

"L, since when do you wear Calvin Klein?"

That wasn't even her shit. She was packing all his stuff up trying to leave. Laive clumsily maneuvered to the bedroom door to leave, but Tremaine blocked her path and slung the luggage bag from her hands.

"It's too late for this bullshit! What you doing?"

Fuck! Tremaine was frustrated. All he needed was time to explain, but at this point it would have been a waste of breath. L wasn't going to remember shit he said anyway. If Laive was sober, she wouldn't even be tripping on the discussion between him and Ava. Replaying the scenario with a sober Laive...baby girl probably would've stepped back and let him handle Ava while she went on about her business. That was one of the things he loved about her. L never felt the need to check a woman from his past about boundaries or respect. She claimed she didn't know them and didn't owe them shit, as long as Tremaine put them in their place and they didn't get disrespectful towards her, she was good.

He'd made sure she never ran across a problem like that with anyone.

Until now.

Until fucking Ava decided to pop shit off out of nowhere.

He had to be honest with himself. It never crossed his mind that Ava would do some crazy disrespectful shit like that. Tremaine had been ignoring her for a minute and really couldn't understand where the hostility towards Laive came from. He gave her the cold shoulder for months before he even agreed to sit down with her. So why the hell was Ava acting brand new? Then she started a fucking fight? He was going to have to go check her ass after dealing with Laive.

"Baby."

Laive's back was against the bedroom door as she struggled to get free, "You- , you're hurting me."

"I'm not hurting you Laive." He loosened his grip, " I just need you to chill out for a minute."

Tucking in her bottom lip, L exhaled hard and Tremaine didn't want to prepare himself for what happened next. L was about to start wailing. He rolled his eyes towards the ceiling because he had a hand in getting Laive so inebriated. She would always cry or get super frisky when she got too saucy. Maybe that's why she didn't really drink unless it was a special occasion. The last time she was like this was when he flew her friends in town to celebrate her finishing spring semester with all A's.