When Levi got home that night from his job at the Blue Marlin, he met his house turned upside down from top to bottom. His only thought was that some bandits had gotten in, putting Drake and Sasha’s safety in jeopardy. Levi kept two licensed guns. One beneath the driver’s seat of his car and the other beneath his mattress. He swiftly spun around to retrieve the one from beneath the driver’s seat. He returned and began to carefully and quietly make his way through the mess.
Levi’s fear of Sasha being hurt, led him first to the guest room, only to find it empty and in greater disarray. Levi’s heart was slamming against his chest as he backed out into the hall. His inspection of other rooms in the house came up empty. Neither Drake nor Sasha could be found anywhere. And as Levi now turned his attention to his own bedroom, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to call the police. But no sooner had he stepped foot into his space, than an object came flying in his direction.
“In all the years I’ve known you,” Sasha growled. “I’ve never known you to be so heartless and so calculating.”
Levi stood up straight from his bended position. Whatever Sasha had thrown at him had nearly knocked his head clean off his body. But seeing that Sasha seemed to be okay, (in a sense) gave him a measure of relief. “When I saw my house in chaos, immediately I thought something terrible happened to you…Are you okay? Who did this?”
Sasha swatted Levi’s concern aside and screamed, “You’re just gonna stand there and pretend as if you don’t know what I’m talking about?”
Levi lowered his gun and stuck it in the waist of his pants. He looked around his room and was again amazed at the extent of clutter. His clothes had been pulled out of the drawers. Papers and books were scattered all over the floor. It literally looked as if a twister had been through his house.
“So,” Levi asked with a newfound respect for Sasha’s temper, which of course, he didn’t even know existed. Nonetheless, it was now quite apparent. “You did all this?”
“Stop asking these dumb questions and tell me why did you give Drake that note on our wedding day? Heck, I know why! You were hoping that note would have stopped the wedding, but it didn’t work.”
Levi shot Sasha a blank stare. “What on earth are you talking about?”
Sasha burst out in laughter, but it was filled with derision. “You must have thought you had this all figured out – this silly plan of yours. With Drake off to school, you took your chances trying to seduce me, constantly exposing your body. And when that didn’t work, you tried to feed my mind with negative thoughts about Drake. And when that didn’t work and you saw that I was still determined to marry Drake, you wrote that despicable note in hopes it would have ruined my relationship with Drake for good…”
“Is that what you really think of me, Sasha? That I would go to such lengths to destroy –”
Sasha tossed a notepad at Levi – the same notepad with the custom-designed insignia. “You can stop lying now. The truth is out! My only question is how and when did you take possession of that notepad?”
The notepad had dropped at Levi’s feet, but he refused to even look at it, much less pick it up.
“I found it under your mattress,” Sasha went on. “You are one sick and twisted person and I thank God that He gave me the strength to resist you! How could you do it, knowing that Drake was your best friend and I was his fiancée? You didn’t care, did you? You made your moves anyway, because you arrogantly thought you could pull it off…”
Levi stood there in silence as the barrage of questions and insinuations punctured his soul. But the only thing he could think about in that moment was how much he was in love with Sasha. A mantra started in his head and soon began to verbalize through his mouth, without him being able to control it.
“I love you, Sasha,” he said repeatedly. “I love you…if only you were mine to begin with, all of this could have been avoided…”
“This is not love, Levi! This is the epitome of betrayal and deceit and your egotistical pursuits! I regret the day I ever laid eyes on you! Losing Drake is the greatest loss I’ve ever experienced in my life and I don’t think I will ever forgive you for that!”
“What about your part in the blame? You kissed me first!”
Sasha picked up her steps and stormed past Levi with him following close behind her. He pleaded with her like a man on the verge of insanity. But Levi’s desperation didn’t faze Sasha one bit. With her belongings already packed in the trunk of her car, she simply continued walking until she got to the front porch. There, she fired her final words at Levi.
“Me kissing you could never justify what you’ve done,” she spat. “You single-handedly took away the opportunity for me to explain to my husband what really happened between me and you. And you know quite well that we did not have sex. How could you write such a bold lie in that note? The more I think about what you’ve done, the more upset I get.”
Levi reached out to touch Sasha, but she brutally swatted him away and marched toward her car. In no time she was en route to Paradise Blvd – some ten miles away where her friend, Hunter Rose lived. Hunter had called Sasha yesterday evening to tell her that she was back from her business trip. God always has a ram in the thicket, because Sasha couldn’t imagine going back to that cottage, even if the fumigation had been completed.
****
Levi jumped into his car to follow Sasha but at the last minute, he decided to return to the Blue Marlin. However, he did not go back there to work another shift, he went there to find a distraction that would erase Sasha from his memory. He sat on one of the stools as if he was one of the patrons, trying his hardest not to lose what was left of his sanity.
“Yo, Charlie!” he yelled to the bartender on duty. “Send down one of those bad boys…I will tell you when I’ve had enough.”
Bacardi 151 was not widely available, simply because of its high alcohol content. It was considered a drink not for the faint of heart. Charlie knew that if nothing else could make Levi forget his agony, certainly this concoction would. He’d mixed the rum into a cocktail and rested it in front of Levi – a shot glass that Levi scarfed down with one gulp.
Levi grunted, yelling at the top of his voice, “Keep ‘em coming, Charlie, keep ‘em coming!”
“It looks as if some silly woman has broken your heart…”
Levi didn’t need to look at the face to recognize the sultry voice of Mama Dee. She eased down on the stool next to him and draped an arm around his shoulder.
“You are so gorgeous, so sexy,” she purred. “You’re like a black stallion. What a fool – whoever she is who has driven you to this miserable state.”
“She’s not a fool,” Levi mumbled.
Mama Dee chuckled. “So, I’m right. It is a woman. Well, in my book she is a fool…look at these huge biceps…so hard…so strong. If only you were mine; I would handle you as if you were my favorite ice cream.”
Levi felt the tips of his ears getting hot as Mama Dee graze her fingers along his neckline. Soon, the entire room suddenly felt as if it were spinning and Levi didn’t know if it was the alcohol working or if it was his lust getting the best of him. In any event, the feeling was beginning to override the pain. He didn’t even bother to drink the refill Charlie had poured in front of him. Instead, he slipped off the stool, pulling Mama Dee along with him.
Mama Dee sensed it was about to go down between her and Levi. She couldn’t stop herself from grinning at her good fortune. “Where are you taking me, handsome?”
“Shut up!” Levi barked. “Before I change my mind…”
He pulled Mama Dee into the Champagne Room – a room where patrons were allowed to perform sexual favors with employees, while others sat back to watch the perverted scenes. It was one of the privileges that came with being a premier member at the Blue Marlin. It didn’t take long for Levi and Mama Dee to begin the initiation process, each trying to rip off each other’s clothing. However, Levi couldn’t go any further beyond the passionate kissing as vivid images of Sasha’s heart-shaped face began to flash through his mind. One month before Sasha’s wedding, Levi had paid her a visit at her apartment, begging her not to marry Drake.
“What are you doing here?” she’d lashed out at him. “I thought I told you that I don’t desire to pursue any sort of relationship with you.”
“Can we at least be friends?” Levi asked. “I didn’t come here to make trouble; I came here to ask your opinion.”
Sasha shot him a suspicious look. “My opinion? On what?”
“Can I come inside for a minute? This won’t take long.”
“No, you cannot come inside my apartment. Drake is now on the island and he could show up any minute.”
Levi sighed, going directly to what he really wanted to say. “Why are you afraid to admit that you have feelings for me too? Marrying Drake is not going to erase them. In fact, you may even regret marrying Drake…don’t marry him, Sasha. I beg you. Follow your heart and do the right thing.”
Seeing the pain and frustration in Levi’s eyes caused Sasha to pull back some of the bleakness in her tone. “Levi, you are a nice guy and someday I pray that you will find the right woman. But I’m sad to say, it won’t be me. You have to accept that I have chosen Drake to be my husband. I love him and I am doing the right thing by marrying him. Now if there is nothing else you came here to say, I suggest you leave – and I mean that in the nicest way possible.” When Levi didn’t respond, Sasha gave him a long hard stare and said, “Goodbye, Levi. I am so sorry, especially if I’ve led you on in any way. My intention was never to hurt you.”
Sasha shut the door in Levi’s face. He stood there a good two minutes before he turned around to leave. But instead of leaving, he walked over to a chair that was in the corner of the small porch. He was about to sit in it, but seeing a notepad with Sasha’s handwriting, he picked it up and began reading it. There was a custom-designed insignia at the top with the words, ‘ALWAYS & FOREVER’. Levi sensed that it was something special given to Sasha by Drake. Right then, envy seized his heart. He pushed the notepad into his pants pocket and moved hastily toward his car.
Mama Dee’s voice brought Levi’s mind back to the current situation at hand. “Kiss me, you big black stallion,” she urged. “I’ll make the pain go away…” She stuck a hand between his legs and grinned. “Just give me ten minutes…”
“Get away from me, you disgusting whore!” Levi pushed the middle-age woman into the sheetrock. But almost immediately, his roar turned into a mass of pitiable cries. His words were shrouded in memories of his beloved Sasha. “I love her…why can’t she understand that I did what I did because I love her?”
Anything and everything that was within reach of his hands or feet, he vandalized. The racket sent Mama Dee and several others screaming out of the Champagne Room. Several men, including the owner of the club rushed in and detained Levi, who was eventually dragged out of the building and left outside in the cold to regain his composure.