People, alarmed by the commotion, turned their attention to us. The only reason I noticed was because of the abrupt halts in my peripheral view. I could not give a damn. Azmir grabbed my upper arm and pushed me into an adjacent room that was to the right of where I’d stopped. I could tell he wasn’t happy with my outburst. He closed the door behind him and gritted through his teeth, “What’s the problem?” He perched himself on the edge of a small conference table in the damn near 8x8 sized room.
“The problem is nobody asked for you to save the day by minding my business! How did you know what was going on between Sebastian and me anyway?” As soon as those words left my mouth, the answer came to mind. Turning a seething glower onto him I whispered, “What in the hell did I say to you the other night? You took advantage of my drunken condition. What in the hell else did you take?” The acerbity in my tone was deliberate.
“Hold up. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. I think you know I don’t need to manipulate my way into getting ass. And if you are referring to the money I sent over to Dr. Adams on your behalf, I simply thought I was doing a favor for a friend,” he said calmly yet firm. And sexy...this man oozed sex. Azmir shook his head apparently exasperated. “Rayna, you did divulge personal information that night while drunk but I didn’t exactly consider myself a stranger or an uninvited party. If that were the case you would have made that clear the morning after when I had my chef over preparing you meals as a means of taking care of you,” he said sharply.
Oooh! He was being sarcastic and I felt a twinge of arrogance. I didn’t like that all too familiar attitude coming from a man who had done something for me that I couldn’t have done on my own. Like with Sebastian. I refused to get into debt with another man. I didn’t care how much Azmir earned, I was no damsel in distress whose dignity could be deeded out.
“Listen here; I am nobody’s charity case. Okay! I can take care of my own affairs without having Captain Save-Her paying off personal loans. I work for crying out loud. Did it ever occur to you that I could take care of this with the money I earn?”
“Sweetheart, no one said you couldn’t do it. You said you didn’t know how it would get done. It was no big deal. Trust,” he spoke in an even tone, resolving to calm. Azmir was always calm. He remained so smooth.
“It was ten grand! Oh excuse me…fifteen thanks to your interest!” My arms shot in the air. “Well, you may view that as chump change or petty cash you can blow at a poker table in Vegas but to the majority of the free world, that amount is significant!” I screamed.
He collapsed his head for a few seconds as if he were searching for the right words to say. “Listen, I am who I am and I don’t apologize for that. Yeah, maybe I have a little change but let’s not forget your boy the “Ped” isn’t exactly in dire straits either…not running his own practice and all. Ten grand ain’t no money to be harassing a woman over. Fuck that herb. He got his money. You got him off your back. End of story.”
I could tell his patience was wearing. The way that he put it about Sebastian just harassing me struck emotionally. It was exactly what I’d been feeling all along. The worst part about it was that I felt like I was back at square one, just with another man. I couldn’t afford to pay Azmir back the money and there was no way that I could just take it as a gift. Overwhelmed by the prospect, I burst into tears. I walked over to the corner of the small room facing the window mad as hell that I let him see me cry.
He walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. I was too weak to remove it. I felt disoriented and emotionally exposed. The only person I’ve cried in front of in damn near ten years was Michelle. This Azmir Jacobs has had privy to me and parts of my life that were classified and I never shared with anyone. I felt like my back was up against the wall—literally and figuratively.