It's Only Love (The Matthews Family)

“Never. Not even close.”

“Damn, man, I’m sorry. Not that you never cheated on Vanessa, but for putting you in that position. I would have never introduced you to her if I had known it was gonna cause you some type of moral dilemma.”

“It’s not your fault, Vic. I knew what I was doing. Knew it was wrong and I did it anyway.”

“Why did you?”

“You really wanna know, Vic?”

“No, Paul, I just asked you that to see if you were listening.”

“I wanted her. Since the first time I saw her fine ass.”

“She was on you and she wasn’t afraid to say it.”

“I know.” Paul paused. “And I couldn’t resist her.”

“Yeah, well, get over it, Paul. She isn’t worth going through no changes about.”

“You’re right.”

“That’s right. So let that shit go. It would be different if you were still messin’ around with her. But you’re not. Are you?” I asked again.

“No, Vic, man. Like I said, not since the last time.”

“You aren’t messin’ with anyone else, are you?”

“No!” Paul shouted.

I was glad to hear it because he was getting out of control with Bria. I couldn’t believe it when Paul told me that Bria came to his apartment when she knew Vanessa was there. When Vanessa opened the door, Bria told her that she was a friend of mine and she was looking for me. Then she had the nerve to go to dinner and the movies with them.

Bria was out of control.

I like Vanessa. She’s a good girl and she is good for him. And when you find the one for you, there shouldn’t be anybody else. Because no one else will do. And that’s where I am with Natasha. She is the one for me. Now the problem is, how can I show her that I am the one for her?

When I got to Rhonda’s house, I let myself in. Rhonda always said, “You got a key, what you ringing the bell for? Just come on in.” Since she never let any man layup in her house that made me confident I could just come right on in.

As I entered her living room, I saw Rhonda moving around like The Flash with her checklist in hand. She was making sure all that she needed was actually packed and ready for her departure. I almost laughed, but didn’t. These were the same organizational skills that Rhonda used to keep me and Stevie in line, our whole lives. She was the responsible one. But I wish she would relax sometimes. But Rhonda can’t do that, her family is her life. Always has been.

I cleared my throat to get her attention, which made her look up. She smiled and came and hugged me tight.

“Hey, Victor.”

It didn’t matter what type of mode she was in, she was always a very loving and caring person. I wish my sister could find the right man for her; one that would take care of her. But I understand her need to be in charge of everything.

She handed me a piece of paper. “That is a list of all the arrangements I made for tomorrow. Please make sure that everything is done the way I arranged it,” she said, and then she went back to zipping up her luggage. “I paid good money for it to be a beautiful event.”

“You mean a better event than last year’s.”

Rhonda stopped moving, her fists hit her hips and she looked at me. “Don’t even talk to me about the mess Debbie planned. There weren’t enough rooms blocked off, she didn’t have enough food and, for Christ sake, if you say dinner is at four, the least she could do was to serve it sometime around four o'clock.”

“Not seven.”

“She knows that Aunt Claire needs to eat at a certain time,” Rhonda said, and started moving again. “The last thing I need on this trip is for your Aunt Anita to call me, drunk, and complaining because everything was a mess.”

“You know she will.”

“All she does is complain and criticize. She gets on my nerves sometime.” Rhonda stopped and held up her right hand. “But I love my aunt.” The motion began again and she finished packing. “So I’m depending on you to make sure everything goes the way I planned it, baby brother.”