Miss Opportunity - Ch. 43.1

February

There were mixed reactions to Cami and Millsap’s breakup. Women who wanted a turn or rather another turn with Millsap were happy that he was free again. Daysha in particular was overjoyed.

How did she even know about the breakup? Especially since Millsap had been so tight-lipped about the situation, barely talking about it with his best friends.

Daysha heard about the breakup the same way she learned Cami’s home phone number - Bonnie told her.

Millsap’s mother had been giving Daysha tips on how to win him back ever since her altercation with Cami in the restaurant. Bonnie even told her how to sabotage her own car and play the sympathy card just to get Millsap to buy her another one. Now Daysha was waiting for the right opportunity to seduce the heartbroken man, who currently was refusing to date anyone.

On the flip side of this situation, those who really wanted Millsap and Cami to make it were sad to hear about the breakup. Delia and the old crew were at the top of that list. Although they were sad, they were not surprised. Cami was known for messing up a good thing. Most of them were just glad she still held onto her job and business behind all this drama.

Towanna was extremely sad, as if she took their breakup personally. She cried with Cami for days, not saying much in her presence, just crying and hugging her close. She also bought Cami flowers for a week straight in an effort to try to cheer them both up. Towanna also started giving her friend free massages in order to help reduce her level of stress.

Frank and Little Man were sad about the breakup, too. Frank was also angry. He’d warned Cami not to do something stupid and she’d gone and done it anyway.

Yet Frank declined to confront his daughter about her failure to take his advice. Especially after she shared a few other things that he didn’t know about. Things like what else Millsap did for a living, which actually turned Frank’s sadness about the breakup into relief. He didn’t want his daughter with yet another drug dealer, no matter how nice Millsap had been.

Then there were things Cami shared from her more distant past. Horrible things. Things like how she lost her virginity and the situation involving Mandrake and Cat.

At that point, Frank’s anger shifted from Cami and Millsap to Cat. He blamed his ex-wife for their daughter’s tendency to sabotage her own happiness.

To be fair, Frank shouldered some of that blame himself. Had he not been so consumed with climbing the ladder to military success, he would have paid more attention to Cami while she was growing up. He might have even settled in one place and gained full custody of her, thereby making sure she turned into an emotionally healthy adult.

As for the reactions of Millsap’s crew, Franco began to walk on egg shells around his brooding friend. The man didn’t even want to hear Cami’s name spoken around him anymore.

Mike-Mike, who’d seen how detrimental schism among the ranks proved to be with the old crew, called an impromptu meeting to discuss the subject of Cami and how they should handle it.

“First of all, let me just say once again that I did not sleep with that girl. I wanted to, but I didn’t,” Franco said, looking relieved that somebody other than him had addressed the elephant in the room. He’d wanted to discuss the matter further with Millsap ever since that January incident, but each time he brought up the subject, he’d been told to squash it.

“I really don’t want to talk about this,” Millsap said, trying to squash the subject yet again.

“We got to talk about it before it messes with our paper,” Mike-Mike insisted. “With all the new problems we got, we can’t afford to be divided in any way.”

The problems Mike-Mike spoke of were the rising gang violence and the increase in lost shipments due to an increase in drug busts all over the southeast. It had gotten so bad that the generals had to send others to make the runs, putting them at higher risks for sabotage due to the trust factor alone. Not to mention the mounting legal bills from all the arrests they’d been having among their troops lately. As a result, something had to be done to change this tide of bad luck. Soon.

“Like I said before, I didn’t sleep with Cami that night or any other night,” Franco reiterated adamantly, showing his eagerness to clear the air between them in his tone. “She booked out of there even before I got off the phone with you. The twins told me that Cami said she had a change of heart. I respected that and didn’t press the issue. I wasn’t hurting for no woman that night. I still had the twins, remember?” he told Millsap.

“If you didn’t sleep with her, somebody else did ‘cause it took her the longest to come back home that night,” Millsap replied, only partly relieved about the possibility that Cami hadn’t slept with his friend after all. If she hadn’t hooked up with Franco, who had been her second go-to guy that night? Kobe?

“Maybe the girl drove around for a while before she got back to the house. A lot of people do that to clear their heads, including me,” Mike-Mike inserted, sharing how he dealt with stress at times. How he’d been dealing with it a lot more lately due to their recent problems in the game.

“Either way, Franco says he didn’t hit that and I believe him,” Mike-Mike continued. “You should, too. After all, the man has been upfront with you from the beginning about his attraction to Cami. He even called you for clearance before he ever tried to touch down on her landing strip that night. So why would Franco lie or try to cover up something now?”

Millsap took a deep breath and blew it out. “I guess I believe you, too,” he replied, finally surrendering to reason.

Although Millsap suspected that Franco was innocent all along for the very same reasons Mike-Mike had just given him, he’d wanted to be mad at somebody, anybody but himself. Even now Millsap wanted to place the lion's share of the breakup blame upon Cami’s shoulders.

“Finally!” Franco exhaled loudly in relief, acting as if he’d just received absolution from a priest. “In a way, I’m glad I didn’t sleep with Cami, ‘cause after seeing your sad sack face and getting the evil eye from you for the last few weeks, I see now that you really was in love with that girl. That Cami really wasn’t just a trick to you.”

“Cami ceased being a trick to me from the first night we hooked up.” Millsap took another deep breath and blew it out. “That girl became my queen.”

“If that’s the case, forgive the girl and go get her back then,” Mike-Mike suggested, hating to see his friend looking so grief stricken.

“Can’t.” Millsap shook his head resolutely. “The fact that Cami would even try to go to one of my friends when she couldn’t get her way with me tells me that she can’t be trusted with my most prized possession – my heart. If I can’t trust the woman I love with that, I don’t need her in my life.”

Even Mike-Mike had to nod in agreement with that. Cami had crossed a significant line by going to Franco. Fortunately, it was not a wide enough line for them to retaliate against her in violence, even if Millsap had allowed it. However, her punishment would still hurt. It would also be swift.

After agreeing that Cami would be financially and socially ostracized by them all, effective immediately, the conversation then switched to some of the problems they’d been having lately in the game.

© 2008 by Suprina Frazier