Intertwined

Chapter Thirteen

Imagine thinking you know the ugliest things about a person and realizing you had no idea. Scarlet was in shock. She knew the entire story but had no idea the person he cheated with was Carmine. It all started making sense as far as her interest in their relationship. Stone was trying to talk to her but he was being bombarded with questions. Scarlet ordered an Uber and slipped out in the commotion. She didn't have anything to say at the moment. She put her phone in Do Not Disturb mode. She needed alone time. 

Humiliation wasn't close enough to the feeling Scarlet felt. Here she was networking and smiling one second to watching her man fuck the shit out of his "child hood friend" the next. He had her hanging out with the woman that had killed his baby. As an afterthought Scarlet wondered why she wasn't in jail. He claimed Bryce was his friend and line brother but hooked him up with his old hoe. That one detail left out of the story had her reeling.

Knocking at her door brought her from her thoughts back to reality. She knew it could only be one person and she wasn't in the mood to talk to him. She got back to her undressing ignoring the constant knocking. She took a shower and slipped into a satin pajama short set. She tied her hair up and put her nightly face cream on. The knocking was still coming at the door an hour later. She put the chain on the door and cracked the door. It wasn't Stone to her surprise. It was Carmine.

"Scar please let me in and let me explain." Her eyes and cheeks were smeared with the remnants of a mascara that probably wasn't as waterproof as advertised. "You don't owe me a single explanation. To be honest I am not in the mood to talk or listen." Scarlet gave her the evil eye. Of all the people she could be talking to why did she want to talk to her. "Scarlet please." Scarlet shook her head no and closed her door. She was tired of all the mess that came with Stone. She wish she had just fucked him and took her new confidence and self esteem and got the hell away from him.

She laid in her bed waiting for sleep to come. She wasn't sure if the knocking stopped before she went to sleep or if the sound just stopped breaking into her psyche. Sunlight was her alarm. Everything she felt before she went to sleep was back to greet her. She dressed in some exercise gear, put on her apple watch, did some stretches, put on her headphones and headed out the door. She almost expected Carmine to still be out there but the hallway was clear. She hit the pavement and began a brisk walk that transformed into a slow jog. The slow jog wasn't doing it for her. She started jogging faster. Before she knew it she was in a full on sprint.

Scarlet giggled to herself. She hadn't run since she was a teenager. She felt great despite the weight she had picked up since then. She focused on her breathing. Her lungs felt strong. She let the music and thoughts collide in her head fighting for her attention. She hit her normal turn around point and decided to expand her normal route. She ran another mile and a half before turning back. On the turn around she started feeling the physical strain to her body. She slowed back into a jog. Her thoughts and the music playing through the headphones started to fuse together no longer fighting for her attention.

Scarlet ordered some breakfast as she ended her morning workout with a power walk the last couple blocks. She had just enough time to take a quick shower before her food arrived. She turned down her block and saw the back of Stone going in her building. She wished she had another way into her apartment. She wished she was Spiderman. She went inside the building and waited for the elevator. She tried to map out how she was going to ignore him. She wondered if she had anything to say. Should she curse him out? Or maybe just tell him he was a piece of shit before slamming her door in his face.

She stepped off the elevator to Stone standing at her door begging her to open it and talk to him. "she's not home." She said dryly. He turned and immediately started walking towards her with open arms. "Don't you dare touch me." She put her hands out to stop him from hugging her. "Let me help you make this a short trip. I don't feel like talking to you or Carmine either for that fact. You told me everything but left out the who. In this case the who was probably the most important part. You have had me in meetings and having lunch, dinner and drinks with this woman. Before you say nothing is going on or what does it matter keep in mind what just happened yesterday. It was my choice to decide if I wanted to be chummy with your old side chick. It was my choice to decide if I wanted to be with a man who still associated with his old side chick. The woman who caused his wife miscarriage. These things were all my choice to make and you stole that from me." Scarlet took a breath. "Right now I am choosing my peace. Right now I don't want to be bothered. I empathized with what you put those women through and accepted that you did the work to become a better man. I accepted that your past wasn't pretty. I acknowledged that those things were behind you and had nothing to do with me. It was a separate lifetime. Little did I know it wasn't as separate as I thought." Scarlet stopped talking as her neighbor suddenly wanted to take a small trash bag to the compactor room. "You had me in a room full of our peers, full of people I spent the night asking to support my venture all to end my night standing in a room watching you fuck your friends girl. Watching your side chick confess to killing your unborn child." She continued after Rosie the nosy neighbor went back inside.