The Realest Ever (18 page)

“I want somebody to put an end to this Kyra nonsense!” Beverly cried.  “I been telling you to leave that girl alone since you was a little boy, Donovan. 
Why won’t you listen?  I’m not scared to admit when I need some help.  I was hoping that if Brianna knew how you and Kyra really feel about each other, maybe she can say something that will make you come to your senses.”

“You don’t know how me and Kyra feel about e
ach other!” Donovan shouted.  “Even if we were doing something wrong –
which we aren’t
– you don’t have the right to butt into my life like that!  What is it gonna take to get that through to you?  Maybe it’s my fault for telling you so much in the first place.  Maybe I shouldn’t call you at all.”

Donovan was bluffing, but Beverly didn’t know that. 

“I, I’m sorry, Donovan.  I didn’t mean any harm.”  Beverly was frightened and uncharacteristically demure. 

Donovan knew he couldn’t hold a grudge against
his mom, but he let her simmer on the hot seat, so she would know how royally she screwed up this time.

“Bye, Mama
,” he snapped.

“Donovan, wait.  What are you gonna do?”

“Why should I tell you?  So you can run and tell my business again?”

“Donovan, I said I was sorry.
  Please don’t be angry with me.”

“Alright, fine, Mama.  I gotta go.  I’ll talk to you later.”

“Will you call me today, to let me know what happened?”

“I’ll call you when I’m not mad anymore.  Better yet, I’ll call you when you stop hating on Kyra.  How about that?  Goodbye!”

Donovan disconnected.  He was pretty sure God didn’t approve of him hanging up on his mother, but damn it felt good.

CHAPTER TEN

LIAR LIAR

Donovan pulled into his driveway ten minutes later.  He barely had time to change out of his church clothes and feed the dogs before Brianna rang the doorbell.  Donovan answered wearing canvas shorts with a tee shirt.  Brianna wore tight Capris with a little, pink tee shirt that showed her midriff.  She didn’t have on any makeup, but her hair was flawless.  And to Donovan’s surprise, she wasn’t crying.  She looked angrier than a swarm of killer bees, but her eyes were dry and piercing.  Overall, she looked very sexy.

Donovan
stepped aside and Brianna sauntered into the living room.  She had the air of a woman who finally had the confidence and ammunition she needed to accomplish her goals.  She’d been thwarted multiple times in the past, but the cat was out of the bag now.  Donovan lied to her, and she had him dead to rights.

The situation with Kyra had been a thorn in her side from the moment Donovan mentioned her wretched named. 
We’re best friends.  She’s like my little sister
.  Yeah right!  Brianna went along with that nonsense for nearly a month, although every day was like her personal torture chamber.  Each time Donovan called and told her he was going to stop by Kyra’s house, Brianna bared her teeth.  Her claws sprang to action.  She almost slit the tires on her man’s car when Donovan told her he put Kyra’s hooptie in the shop and was footing the repair bill.

And when he tried to break up with her… that had to be the
worst day of Brianna’s life.  Donovan told her point blank that Kyra was going to be in the picture, and if Brianna didn’t like it, he would dump
her
– not Kyra.  It was humiliating and it was ludicrous.  Who did Donovan think he was?  Didn’t he know that he belonged to Brianna?  Nothing was over unless
she
said it was.

There were two things that kept Brianna sane during the days Kyra casted her dark cloud over their relationship.  The first was that Brianna knew she was more awesome than Kyra in every way.  She had the looks, the finances, her own home, and no rug rats!  There was no way Donovan could be interested in a basic chick like Kyra.  The second thing that kept Brianna
from going completely bat shit was Donovan’s promise that he wasn’t attracted to Kyra and that he had never been.  Brianna asked him specifically if he and Kyra ever kissed, and Donovan gave her an emphatic
No
. 

But that was a lie.  And even though it hurt
like hell to find out she’d been deceived, Brianna wasn’t terribly upset with her boyfriend.  She could actually thank him, because Donovan’s gigantic lie gave Brianna the power she needed to regain control of their relationship, like in the old days.  She felt like Maury Povich with an envelope filled with DNA results.  She felt like Johnny Cochran waving a bloody glove at the jury. 

She took a sea
t on Donovan’s couch and stared into her boyfriend’s eyes.  He warily sat next to her with the classic
BUSTED!
look stamped on his face.  The only thing that kept Brianna from smiling was the fact that she was supposed to feel hurt and betrayed right now rather than haughty.

“Okay,” Donovan said with a sigh. 
“What did my mom tell you?”

“What do you think she told me?”

Donovan frowned.  It was clear Brianna was getting a lot of satisfaction out of this. 

“You came all the way over here to play a riddle game?” he asked.

“Yes, I like riddles,” she said.  “Here’s another one:  What starts with ‘
You’
and ends with ‘
Lied’
?”

Donovan shook his head.  That was a good one.  If he wasn’t sure that one of them would be crying
within the next five minutes, he might have laughed.

“Okay.”  He nodded.  “I did lie to you.”

“About what?”

“About Kyra.  I told you my mom kicked her out because she didn’t trust us together.  Obviously you now know that wasn’t the whole truth.”

“That wasn’t the truth at all.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“Say what you did.”

“You sure you don’t want to do it yourself? 
You seem to have a flair for dramatics.”

“Actually you’re the one who’s been giving the performance of a lifetime,” Brianna countered.  She offered three very sarcastic hand claps.  “Bravo.”

“I kissed Kyra,” Donovan said, growing tired of her antics.

“When?” Brianna asked.  “Yesterday?  Last week?”

“I kissed Kyra fifteen years ago,” Donovan stated, “when she was living with us.  It was only one time.  My mom caught us, and that’s why she made Kyra leave.  That was the only time we ever kissed.”

His confession did little to slow Brianna’s roll.

“The only time you’re admitting to now…”

“What do you mean by that?”

“If you lied to me all this time about that kiss, who’s to say you’re not still lying?  Who’s to say you didn’t kiss her yesterday, or the last time you saw her?”

“You, um, I guess you have to trust me.”

“Ha!”  She laughed in his face.  “Trust
you
?”

Donovan felt like he was applying for a loan at the snobbiest bank in the
country.

“Uh, yeah.  You have to trust me.”

“I don’t get how you can say that with a straight face,” Brianna replied.  “Trusting you is the
last
thing I can do right now, Donovan.  Maybe never again.”

He didn’t have a response for that.

“And according to your mother, it wasn’t just a kiss,” Brianna continued.  “Do you want to tell me what else happened that day?”

“You mean fifteen years ago?”

“Or yesterday, or the day before.  Whatever.  Who knows what you and your little girlfriend have been up to?”

Donovan shook his head.  “Okay, Brianna.  I
know you’re having fun with this, but you need to get to the point.  Yes, I lied to you.  I kissed Kyra a long-ass time ago, and both of us have regretted it ever since.  We’ve never touched each other again since that day, and we aren’t kissing or sleeping together right now.  I lied because I knew you wouldn’t like the truth.  But now you know.  Fine.  What’s the bottom line?  Where are you going with this?”

Brianna’s
blood boiled.  How dare he rush her?  But Donovan was right.  This was all leading to a final solution, a
real
ultimatum this time:  “Obviously I can’t trust you around Kyra anymore,” Brianna said.  “I want you to stop seeing her.”

Donovan didn’t miss a beat.  “I can’t do that.”

“What?”  Brianna didn’t expect that at all.

“Listen,” Donovan said.  He reached into her lap and
held her hand.  Brianna looked down, expecting him to slide an engagement ring onto her finger.  That was about the only thing that could save him at this point.

“I did lie to you,” Donovan said.  “But Kyra and I are just friends.  I’m not lying about that.  I promise you.”

“But I can’t trust you.”

“I know,” Donovan said.  He rubbed her hand
tenderly.  “But the truth is you couldn’t trust me before Kyra moved back down here.  That’s why I didn’t want to move in with you.  You make me feel crowded, always on guard, like I did something when I know I didn’t.  Things spiraled out of control with Kyra in the picture, and that’s when I saw how truly ugly the situation is.  That’s when you lost the little bit of control you had over your emotions.”

What the hell
?  Brianna’s eyes narrowed.  Was he trying to turn this shit around?

“The bottom line is this,” Donovan said.  “You want to use Kyra as a scapegoat, but I know that your insecurities have nothing to do with her.  Even if I stopped being Kyra’s friend, nothing would change.  That’s why we have to break up.  I care for you, Brianna.  But we’re not good for each other.  I’m sorry.”

Brianna stared into his eyes, her big, brown orbs widening by degrees.  She couldn’t speak right away.  She couldn’t breathe, either.  Did he break up with her?  This was not the solution she had in mind when she came here.  This wasn’t even on the radar.  Brianna felt her heart rattling in the back of her throat.  Her eyes blurred, and she had a tick in the corner of her mouth.  The tick grew bigger until it pulled her lips down into a scowl.

Donovan
continued to hold her hand as Brianna’s pompous attitude dropped from 100% to negative 150.  It hurt him to watch.  It was like an abstract artist took her beautiful visage and turned it into something weird and melancholy.  Brianna’s eyes began to squirt tears, but Donovan steeled his heart, knowing this would be the last time he ever caused her pain.

“No!” she wailed.

Donovan pulled her hand towards him, and gradually Brianna fell into his arms.  She laid her head on his chest and sobbed loudly.  Donovan put his arms around her.  His hand moved to the back of her head and disappeared into her lovely mane.  He rubbed her head tenderly. 

“I’m sorry, baby.”

“Please, Donovan.”  Brianna’s voice was muffled against his shirt.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean it.  You can still be friends with Kyra.”

Donovan
held her tightly.  “I’m sorry, Brianna.  But there’s no going back this time.  We’re not good for each other.  We have to break up.”

“Why, so you can be with
her
?” she wailed.

“
Brianna, I know you don’t believe me, but Kyra and I are just friends.  We made a mistake when we were kids, and we’ve regretted it ever since.  If we tried some mess like that now, it would ruin our friendship.”

“Okay, I believe you, Donovan. 
Let’s, don’t break up with me.”

“Brianna, are you, would you look at yourself
?…” 

He took hold of her shoulders and gently pushed her away.  Brianna resisted.  Being in Donovan’s arms was the best security blanket in the world
.  But he was stronger than her, and resistance was futile.  Brianna kept her face down rather than meet his eyes.

“Brianna, do you not know how beautiful you are?” Donovan asked.  “That’s why your behavior is so baffling to me.  You got a great
career.  You’re an independent woman.  You got it going on on so many levels.”

She looked up at him tentatively.  She wiped her face, knowing she looked a mess.

“You should be with a baller,” Donovan said, “or some rich business owner.  Your man should be picking you up in a Lamborghini.  I know guys are lining up at your feet.  Why are you getting so upset over me?  I’m a school teacher.  I don’t make a lot of money, and I drive a truck.  That’s not your lifestyle.  Maybe if I would’ve made it to the NFL, I’d be on your level.  But I didn’t.”

“I don’t care about that stuff,” Brianna said.  “I love you.”

“And I love you, too,” Donovan said.  “But that doesn’t mean your life will stop if we’re not together.  Brianna, you need to look deep inside yourself and try to figure out why you have such low self esteem.  Why are you insecure?  Maybe you should consider counseling.”

Brianna sighed.  This is why she loved
this man so much.  Where she was wild and irrational, Donovan was calm and assertive.  He always knew what was best for her.