My Man's Best Friend III

Book 3: My Man's Best Friend

by Tresser Henderson

Genres: African American Urban; African American Women's Fiction; African American Romance

Synopsis

Tresser Henderson answers all the readers' questions in the finale to this mind blowing series that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster that will leave you turning the pages until the exciting end. The tragedies that hit Derrick back to back have changed the loving and compassionate person he once was. His relationship with his parents is strained, he's lost his best friend Jaquon, and Kea has declined his engagement. In trying to do everything right, Derrick's life has turned out all wrong for him. Now he's decided to play the field and see how it would to be to act like his ex best friend. Kea has accepted Jaquon's hand in marriage, but with so many people unhappy about it, she begins to question her decision. After all, he has been a player during their entire relationship, cheating on her with multiple women. Is Kea delusional to think Jaquon will change? Jaquon is determined to do the right thing by Kea no matter what, but when a fling from his past comes back to blackmail him, his faithfulness is tested. Should he tell Kea this is happening, or will he surrender to the temptation and revert to his old ways? Trinity is the wild card no one knows about. She's happy to have Derrick in her life, but when she finds out he's also seeing Zacariah, she goes on the warpath. She will do whatever it takes to get her man once and for all.

Release date: May 26, 2020

Publisher: Urban Renaissance

Print pages: 288

Sample

I stood outside the house as it went up in flames. With no shoes on my feet, lavender pajamas incased with the residue of smoke, and a blanket that a fireman wrapped around me, I stood and watched the flames try their best to reach heaven. The fire lit up the entire neighborhood as my neighbors were now standing outside and watching the firemen try their best to save the home I grew up in. But I knew it was too late. All the memories I had within those walls rose as if wiping away eighteen years of my life.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” the paramedic asked.

But, I had zoned out. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I felt a soft hand try to lead me away but my feet were planted to the cold, wet ground.

“Ma’am, come on. Let us help you,” the lady said, pulling me.

I slowly walked in the direction of the ambulance.

“Trinity! Trinity!”

I heard a voice call but I couldn’t see who it was with the crowd of people and the police trying to keep order by keeping them back.

“But, she’s my sister.”

I knew then it was my brother. I looked in the direction of his voice and saw him arguing with an officer. The policeman looked back at me and then back at my brother. He said something. I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Then the officer let my brother through. Steven ran to my direction. By now I was sitting on the stretcher with the paramedic trying to put an oxygen mask over my face.

Steven kneeled before me asking, “Are you okay?”

Tears filled my eyes when he asked me that.

“What happened?”

I shook my head.

“Where are Mom and Dad?”

I stared into his eyes and then turned my attention back to the fire. Steven turned to look at the fire with me. He dropped his head in agony.

“No. No. I’m going to believe they got out like you. Our parents are not in that house,” he said, pointing as the flames were starting to lose their battle with the water the firemen were spraying on them. “They are going to be okay,” he struggled to say.

“We are going to transport her to the hospital to make sure she’s okay. She may have inhaled too much smoke. We want to have her examined as a precaution,” the paramedic said to Steven.

“Okay.” He nodded. “But can I please find out if my parents made it out?” he asked. “Can you please wait for me to come back so I can ride with her, please?” my brother begged.

The paramedic nodded.

Steven went to one of the fireman and I could tell by the expression on his face he was shocked to hear someone else could be in the house. The solemn look let me know that there was no way they could have made it out. Not after the inferno that had captured our home.

I saw my brother’s head drop again. This time he began to weep uncontrollably. The fireman placed a comforting hand on Steven’s shoulder and was talking with him. The fireman then proceeded to walk Steven back over to me.

“Ride with your sister. As soon as I find out what happened, I will call you.”

Steven nodded and the fireman patted his back. He looked at us both sympathetically knowing deep down that we had lost both our parents today.

Once we were at the hospital, I was examined and was cleared to go home a couple of hours later. Steven did get the call he did not want to hear: that our parents didn’t make it out. They found their badly burned bodies still in the bed. Their deaths were ruled an accident due to smoke inhalation. Steven was devastated but I was numb.

He asked, “What happened? How did this happen? How did you get out? Where did the fire start? Why didn’t you try to get them out?”

I just stared at my brother with as much sympathy as I could muster. This was hard when I felt the people who died in this fire deserved exactly what they got.

Good guys do finish last. I’m a living witness to this fact. I obeyed my parents. I went to church. I believe in God. I tried to make the right decisions and was kind to others. I respected people and made women feel like the treasures I thought they were. I could go on and on. And look where that has gotten me. I’ve been stepped on, walked over, cheated on, and lied to. In a matter of months I went from this happy man who had it all together to defeated and not knowing what my true identity was.

They say a good start in life starts in the home. I thought the home I grew up in was the best home a child could grow up in. I had a mother and father who loved me unconditionally and who I thought were always truthful with me, especially with them being the pillars in our home church. Mama preached all the time about truth. I guess she never thought about practicing what she preached.

The lies she told me about who my true father was had destroyed me. The fact she didn’t want to tell me had driven a larger wedge in our mother-son relationship. I hadn’t seen or talked to her since I walked out on her and my dad. That was never me, since I had a habit of stopping by several times a week, checking up on my folks, making sure things with them were well. She tried to call to talk with me but I had nothing to say; not until she decided to tell me the information I needed to know in order to move forward.

Yes, I was a grown man now and shouldn’t have let the things that had been exposed affect me like they had. But, when the world you thought you knew and the new one rear their ugly heads, clashing with your reality, how are you suppose to come to grips with that?

I was going to become the person the universe was pushing me to be and that was inconsiderate, angry, unsympathetic, and a playa. Yes, I said it. A playa. I was going to play people and the first person I decided who deserved this more than anyone was Zacariah. She wanted me back and she got me. All that scheming and conniving worked, or so she thought. I gave her a stipulation with me taking her back and that was me being able to keep Trinity as part of my life, too. That meant, if I wanted, I could sleep with both of them. I knew she didn’t like it, but so what? Now she got to feel like she’d made me feel those years when were together. And so far, she didn’t argue with me too much about it.

Other than Jaquon, Zacariah was second in line to go after what she wanted, despite the consequences. She cheated on me with I don’t know how many men. Just so happens, one of those men was my best friend Jaquon. She shattered my life, also, by revealing to me and Kea that we were brother and sister. Later, we found out we really weren’t due to the fact she had a family member who worked in the paternity facility tamper with the results to make it look like we were related. This was Zacariah’s way of keeping Kea and me away from each other. And it worked because Kea decided to marry Jaquon.

Thinking about all of that, it makes me look crazy for taking her back into my life but I thought about some things; where I came from a home of love, even though later it was filled with lies, she came from a background filled with survival. Both her parents were alcoholics and didn’t love her like they should have, so she never had a demonstration of what love truly was; the only love she knew was loving herself. I don’t know if that was genuine, especially with her making herself disposable to men. No one who truly loves themselves allows themselves to be used. So, I knew a part of her couldn’t love who she was.

Zacariah explained to me why she did what she did, cheating on me and everything. As bizarre as it sounded, I understood where she was coming from. She always had to be one step ahead to survive so having me was too good to be true for her. Even though I provided everything she could ever need and want, she still felt it necessary to use men by giving them the only thing she felt valuable and that was her sex. In return she would rob them for cash and stack her papers for rainy days. She couldn’t see I was her rainy day. She was supposed to fall on me when she couldn’t stand on her own.

But there I was; Zacariah was back in my home with her clothes, baggage, and all. She was happier than she’d ever been. I have to say with everything else that had been going on in my life, I was glad to have her back despite the things we’d been through. I knew I was settling. Hell, why not? The woman I wanted in my life decided to accept my ex–best friend’s hand in marriage after turning down my engagement proposal. Talk about confused, hurt, and angry at her terrible decision. I was all of those things. Even after all Jaquon had done to her, he was who she chose. I guess she was a sucker for a broken heart. I still loved her but I couldn’t stop moving on with my life to wait until she came to her senses to know I was the man she needed to be with.

“I’m getting married,” fell out my mouth when Terry came walking through the door looking like she had been beat over the head by a ton of work. To other people she may have looked like she had it together with her all-white pants suit with a red cami and matching shoes. Her makeup was done to perfection and hair was pulled up into a cute little ’do. But her face said it all. Her eyes screamed, “I had one rough day.”

Now that she was back from Los Angeles assisting a trial, which she won, she came back home to more people wanting her to represent them. Yes, that meant more money but it also meant more work. Terry had been so busy lately that it was hard finding any time to hang out with her. We used to meet at least one day a week to do lunch or dinner before she went to Los Angeles. Since she’d been back we’d managed to start that back up before all this work began to bombard her. Little by little our once a week was lucky to see each other once a month. We’d talk on the phone but she didn’t have time to do that because she brought her work home with her. I knew Terry was increasing her clientele to start her own law firm, which she was very well on her way to doing, but I felt like I lost my best friend. I know it sounds selfish of me but I wanted her to take time out for her friend.

So, finally, after begging her for over a week to come see me, she decided to make time and drop by my place after work. Even though she looked like she could fall asleep any minute, I was happy to see my friend. I guess I was too happy since I blurted I was getting married to her, which immediately piqued her interest.

“You’re what?” she asked, staggering in my apartment like she couldn’t wait to sit down. She tossed her briefcase and purse on my glass coffee table. I prayed it would withstand whatever she was carrying. It seemed like she slammed it down, which didn’t help my table any. It sounded like she had bricks in it.

“I’m getting married,” I repeated, watching her face go from tired to gleeful.

“Congratulations, Kea,” she said, hugging me. “I can’t believe this. When? Where? What? Girl, you need to sit down and tell me the details,” she said, kicking off her five-inch red stiletto shoes.

“He proposed to me awhile ago but I haven’t been able to get a hold of your behind to tell you.”

“You have been talking to me on the phone. You could have told me during one of those conversations,” Terry said.

“I wanted to tell you face to face. Besides every time we talk you know your mind is occupied with the work you are doing when you supposed to be talking to me.”

“You have a point there,” she said, slumping deeper into my sofa.

“You are here now and that’s all that matters. I’ve been bursting to tell you,” I said with excitement.

“I knew my boy Derrick was going to come through and treat you like the queen you are,” Terry said, bringing her left foot to her right knee. She began to massage it for some relief.

My expression changed from one of merriment to one of despair. When Terry looked at me, her smile changed to a frown.

She asked, “You and Derrick are getting married right?”

“No, Terry, we’re not.”

“What do you mean no? Who . . . ?” she asked, pausing. I could see the answer resonate within her. Terry’s frown looked like it was starting to turn into anger.

I was almost scared to say Jaquon’s name knowing it would send Terry into an uproar.

“Spill it, Kea. Who are you marrying?” Terry asked, letting her aching foot fall to the floor and leaning herself back on my sofa. She crossed her arms and her legs like she was protecting herself from what she knew the answer was going to be. Her exhaustion caused her not to catch on as fast as she usually did but now her mind raced to furiousness as she blurted, “Please don’t tell me, Kea.”

“Terry, please be happy for me.”

Again she said, “Please don’t tell me, Kea.”

“Well then I won’t tell you,” I said, laughing nervously.

“You are not marrying Jaquon,” she shouted furiously.

I held my hand out and said, “Look at the beautiful ring he got me. Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“That’s a guilt ring just like the one Kobe gave his wife Vanessa after he committed adultery. The only difference in this case is this dog has been cheating before you two had a chance to say ‘I do.’”

“Terry.”

“What are you thinking? Why are you settling? What is it about this man that makes you lose all logic of common sense?”

“I’m thinking straight. All that matters is I love him.”

“Since when?” Terry asked, bouncing her foot in the air. “Just a few weeks ago you were in love with Derrick. You were doing him, too, right? What happened to him?”

“We’re friends.”

“The test did prove you two are not related, right?” Terry asked.

“Yes, Terry,” I said, frustrated that she was coming at me so hard.

“So, why haven’t you dumped this loser and gotten back with Derrick?”

“I was with Jaquon first.”

“So were half the women in this city. That man is a compulsive dog. He can’t keep it in his pants. Did he drug you or something? Is he blackmailing you into this marriage?”

“No, Terry. I made this decision on my own.”

“What does Derrick think of this?”

I was afraid to see him. Every time we got together, this desire always ignited between us causing me to do things I knew I couldn’t do if I wanted to be faithful to Jaquon. Just the thought of how easily I could fall into bed with him made me doubt accepting this marriage proposal to Jaquon.

“Kea,” Terry said, snapping her fingers at me. “Come back to earth.”

“I’ve been listening,” I said.

“So, tell me the last thing I asked?” she asked cockily.

“You wanted to know why I chose Jaquon and not Derrick.”

“Wrong,” she said loudly. “What I said was you haven’t told Derrick about this joke of a proposal, have you?”

“First, Terry, it’s not a joke.”

“Like hell it ain’t. I’m waiting for Krusty the Clown to jump out with Ashton Kutcher and say, ‘Terry, you’ve been punk’d.’”

“Why do you have to exaggerate things?”

“Because this is some bull, Kea. Straight up cow shit from the pastures of fields of VA. I feel like a part of you thinks so too since you haven’t told Derrick.” Terry scooted to the edge of the sofa to get closer to me and then asked, “Do you want him to hear about your engagement in the street? After everything you two have gone through, you doing him like this.”

“I’m going to tell him. I will call him up today.”

“This should have happened immediately but I guess Jaquon is your priority now. Why, I have no clue, because I guarantee you, Kea, you are not his.”

“He’s changed, Terry.”

“Oh, he’s changed all right, into an even bigger woof woof,” she joked but was serious as a heart attack. “You keep telling yourself that but I know he’s a liar.”

“How do you know?”

“Because men like Jaquon don’t change. They get off on the high of chasing other women and them falling at his feet.”

“He’s been faithful since we’ve gotten back together.”

“Maybe for now. Once that ring is on your finger he’s going to think he owns you. Then he’s going to go back on the hunt again, sticking that same ring that made you two husband and wife in his pocket or, even worse, up in some other woman.”

“Must you always be so dramatic?” I said, sighing at the visual she had now given me.

“I’m being me and I’m trying to be your friend right now.”

I nodded thinking I never should have told her. Trying to convince Terry that Jaquon was the one for me was like trying to convince Spike Lee he’s really Caucasian. I knew I couldn’t blame her for her opinion. She’d been the one here every single time Jaquon hurt me. Why would she support this matrimony now?

“Please tell me you are getting a prenup.”

“For what?”

“Oh my goodness,” she said, falling back and then sitting back up abruptly. “Really, Kea? To protect the money you just inherited. Come on, think,” she said, taking her finger and tapping at my temple.

“It’s not that much.”

“The amount you inherited is a lot of money. Girl, with this economy right now, you are rich. People would give anything to have a quarter of that money and you sitting here acting like it’s nothing. If it’s nothing, then give it to me. I’ll find a few things I could do with it. I’d rather spend it or put it away for you when that rainy day comes than have you let Jaquon get his grubby hands on it and spend it on himself or, worse, some other skank women.”

“My money is my money.”

“No. When you get married, your money is his money too in the eyes of the law. Why do you think people like Donald Trump get prenups? To keep what he’s earned. Look at Paul McCartney. That woman came with nothing and left with millions all because she wanted to stick it to him and continue to live a lifestyle she couldn’t afford before she met him.”

“Jaquon won’t do that to me.”

“That man will have you broke within the year. You need him to sign a prenup.”

“I want to go into this marriage able to trust him.”

“Like you have for the past several years when you’ve cried on my shoulders about him dipping deep into the crevices of other women. Come on, Kea. Wake up and feel the fleas biting you. He’s a dog and always will be one.”

I had to laugh at my friend. If I wanted honesty, I would always get that from Terry.

“This isn’t funny.”

“Wake up and feel the fleas biting,” I said, repeating her words to her.

“That’s right. Just wait. I hate to say it but it’s a matter of time before the true Jaquon surfaces again. You are going to be sitting here mad at yourself because you let a good man go.”

“Can’t you just be happy for me?”

“I would be happier if you dumped this loser.”

“But it’s not going to happen. I didn’t call you over here to hear you dog Jaquon. I called you over here to ask you to be my maid of honor.”

“I don’t know,” she said seriously. “I might object and then you would be mad at me.”

“You wouldn’t do that to me,” I said.

Terry’s expression, with mouth twisted up and left eyebrow raised, let me know she would.

“Please support me. Be there for me. Be my friend. Stand by my side and watch me marry the man I have chosen to be with. Can you please do that for me without objecting?”

Terry rolled her eyes and sighed her frustration.

“Please, Terry,” I begged.

She still didn’t answer.

“Kea, I’m sorry but I can’t.”

“Are you serious?” I asked, surprised at her reaction.

“Yes,” she said strongly. “I can’t stand up there in the house of the Lord smiling at this lie.”

“But it’s not a lie.”

“You keep trying to convince yourself of that.”

“I can’t believe you. All I asked was for you to support me and you can’t even do that,” I said, raising my voice a little.

Terry held up her hand, saying, “Wait a minute, Kea. Don’t sit here and act like I’ve never been here for you, because I have. So don’t trip.”

“You must be jealous. You don’t have a man and—”

“Hold up,” Terry said, sitting up on the edge of the sofa.

“No! You hold up. You either jealous or you want my man. So which is it?” I asked.

“I want your man,” she said, frowning.

“All you talk about is him. I think you are curious and want to try him out for yourself.”

Terry stood, saying, “I’m leaving before I say something I can’t take back.”

“Say it,” I dared as I stood with her.

She pointed, saying, “If you knew . . .” Terry paused like she was trying not to say what she was about to say.

“Knew what? Say it.”

“I’m done. I had a bad day and you made it worse by accusing me o. . .