Miss Opportunity - Ch. 32.2

With anger reverberating through his body again at Cami’s latest disclosure, Millsap took another deep breath and forced himself to stay calm. “Are you trying to tell me that your own mother stole your child’s father from you?” he asked, withdrawing slightly to look into her face.

“Yep. I caught them in bed together myself,” Cami replied, taking a deep breath of her own to calm down. “Like a fool, I let it slide, allowing Mandrake to sleep with us both.”

“At the same time?” Millsap asked, wondering how much worse this could get. And he thought his mother was bad news. Bonnie Monroe didn’t have anything on Cat Edison.

“No!” Cami hissed as she swiftly exited the bed. “What kind of freak do you think I am?” she said, starting to pace the floor herself now, just as nude as Millsap had been during his pacing. All of her tears had ceased in her ire.

“I was hoping not that kind,” Millsap replied, watching her from the edge of the bed where he’d moved to sit.

“Well, I’m not.” Cami stopped pacing to glare at him. “No, Mandrake slept with us at different times. I can’t vouch for him separating the days though.” She frowned with disgust at the ridiculous situation she allowed herself to be in back then. “Anyway, I only stayed with him after that incident, because I didn’t want to lose the comfortable life I had with him. He was a baller, too, you know.”

“Oh, baby,” Millsap whispered, realizing just how low her greed had taken her. How detrimental it had been to her self-esteem.

“I know I was stupid for staying with him after all that, but that’s where my mind was back then.” Cami shrugged, as if relieving herself of a heavy weight. “I felt even stupider when I lost everything anyway on account of that case Mandrake caught.”

“Is Little Man’s father still in prison?” Millsap asked, also realizing how little they’d actually talked about such things. For one thing, he hadn’t wanted to discuss any of her former lovers and vice-versa. For another, they’d been too busy having fun with their new love to discuss the things that made for a real relationship. They were getting it done now though…in spades.

“Yes, Mandrake might never get out since he can’t seem to stop getting in trouble behind bars, too,” Cami replied, moving to sit beside him on the bed. “He ain’t wrote our son back in years. Says he still don’t think Little Man is his, because the boy looks so much like me. And this is despite the fact that the DNA test proved otherwise a long time ago. Whatever.” Cami shrugged that off, too.

Millsap frowned at the fact that her son had been laden with a dead-beat father, as well. His ex-flame Daysha had the same problem, although Jeremiah’s father was not in prison and so really didn’t have an excuse for being so negligent.

“When was the last time you saw or spoke to your mother?” Millsap asked, focusing on something else, anything else besides Mandrake and this no-named rapist that he wanted to kill, chop up into small pieces, and feed to his mother’s vicious pit-bulls.

“About seven years ago, the same year Mandrake went into the joint. He was Mama’s Mr. Money Bags, too. When the well ran dry with him, she split and left the whole state of Texas. Didn’t even say goodbye. I took Little Man and came to Georgia to live with Dee.” Cami let out a disgusted breath before adding, “And then ended up doing the same thing to her.” She shook her head. “Dang, I am just like my mother.”

“In some ways, yes. But you don’t have to stay that way,” Millsap said, speaking from experience as he draped a comforting arm about her shoulders. “For instance, my mother is materialistic to the bone. Although I love having lots of money, too, and will floss from time to time, I don’t go overboard with my personal spending. In fact, in order to stay humble, I live in that small apartment instead of some of the bigger places I own.” He chuckled and added, “My mother calls me a miser.”

“You don’t seem stingy to me,” Cami replied, starting to feel a lot better now. Confessions truly were good for the soul. Cleansing tears, too. Not to forget the love and comfort of a good man. “Matter of fact, you’ve been very generous to me,” Cami shared, giving her man the proper credit he deserved.

“That’s only because you didn’t ask me to be,” Millsap explained. “For some reason, as soon as expectation and obligation comes into play, I clam up and get tight-fisted.” He shrugged. “I guess that comes from having my mother constantly around me with her hand out.”

“E-Blade’s mama was like that, too,” Cami replied. “Greta always had her hand out, not even caring if he had bills to pay at home with Dee and the kids. And she never said thank you to him for anything he ever did for her.”

“My mother does say thank you, but they’re just empty words. There is no real gratitude in them.”

“I’ll try not to be like your mother and my mother,” Cami said. “Matter of fact, have I thanked you properly for this trip yet?” she asked, revealing her change of mood.

“I remember getting thanked several times before we left Enfield and then again not thirty minutes ago.” Millsap let out a husky chuckle, glad that she was feeling so much better now. “But hey, if you’re in a particularly generous mood, you can thank me all over again if you like.”

“I like.” Cami grinned, before deliciously attacking him with another dose of thug passion just the way he liked it. This time, free of all negative emotions.

© 2008 by Suprina Frazier