Chardonnay: A Novel by Jacquilynn Martine Read Free Book Online Page B

red crushed diamond forming a C on it.
Myron got a kick out of wondering how long it would take me to realize it was
in there.

    Of course I
was a little taken aback that he hadn’t told me it was in there, yet I lost my
fudging mind once I found it and promised I would never let him go. Even
knowing he had flaws. But...not this time. I was
standing my ground.
    “How do I know you truly mean that?” I said.
    I had heard it all before.
    “You know how many girls would love to be in your shoes? I chose
you. And you go do dis shit to me?”
    “You know how many girls have been in my shoes? And your
parents chose me, you didn’t”
    “Man, I don’t need this.”
    He hated the truth. But it was reality.
    “And I don’t either.”
    “Chardonnay, look. I wasn’t supposed to say anything,
but my mother is having an engagement party for us and a rally party for the
first round pick tonight. It’s all in one. I need you to be there.”
    I snapped my neck at him and a sheer look of disgust filled my
face. He looked me dead on. The look in his eyes said, “You’re going to this
fuckin’ engagement party.” But he never said the words. Instead I believed he
saw the entrapment in my eyes for the first time.
    He bit his top lip while anguish and bitterness was becoming us.
The time speed of the people we were when we fell in love and the people we
were now-what a damn difference. The world even looked different. I hadn’t
noticed it until now. Stopped paying attention to how blue the sky was and how
green the grass grew nine years ago. I just looked straight ahead. Neither up or down, because he was my main focus. Now I’m in
a whole new world that I don’t recognize.
    “Look, let’s just play this thing out until....”
    “What? We break up?” A part of me regretted saying those words two
seconds before they flew out my mouth.
    “I don’t know?” he said.
    “I’m tired of you using me.”
    “I’m not, but everyone knows we’re supposed to be getting married.
How crazy would that look, you not being there?”
    “I don’t know. We’ll see tonight.”
    The thought pissed him off even more as he started his ignition
and made a U-turn, pulling off fast onto the lonesome trail of rocks crunching
under his 22’s. As I sat there still shaking from Myron’s out of control
reaction, he stared straight ahead at the road, this time gripping the steering
wheel tight.
    A lump of some sort was caught in my throat. I couldn’t speak and
in that moment I knew...what he and I had was through. Albeit I knew this, the
hard part would be getting him to realize it. There was no way I would be
showing up to the engagement party. I had to find a way out of it. Just then I
remembered having to meet with a friend of mine the next day. I looked at Myron
and touched his arm trying to play his defense. He stopped at a red light and
slowly looked at me.
    “Baby...I—I have to meet with a friend of mine about my internship
at Vogue today. I just remembered. I have to go there before this party starts
and...I can’t go in these clothes.”
    I forgot Myron’s type and how smart he was. His Escalade made a left   and headed
towards The Country Club Plaza to one of my favorite stores. Armani Exchange. I
closed my eyes and screamed inside. He pulled to the curb, fixed me up like I
was a child and he was the perfect domestic mother, touching my face gently and
then piercing my lips with his tongue lovingly. After doing so he handed me
three crisp hundred dollar bills.
    “Go pick up something nice. What time is the meeting with your
friend?”
    “In thirty minutes actually. I won’t have time to shop, Myron.
Just take me by my parent house and then we can get there and to the eng—”
    “No. I want to take you to the meeting.” he said interrupting me
and discombobulating my plans.
    “But Micah and I—”
    “Micah? A dude?”
    “Yes, and he’s my friend from Lincoln, remember?”
    Myron sat his head back on the head rest