Read Online Heaven Forbid by Lutishia Lovely - Free Book Online Page B

available. It had been two years since she’d talked to him, and now she remembered the reason. Because no matter how much her mind said she was over him, her body always betrayed her. She thought seriously about hanging up the phone.
    “Princess? You still there? Don’t hang up, baby.”
    “What do you want?” Princess asked, gripping the phone as if it were a lifeline.
    “Just wanted to talk to you, baby, to hear your voice.”
    “Don’t ‘baby’ me, Kelvin. We’ve been over for a while now.”
    “Don’t matter. You’ll always be my princess.”
    “I’m going to hang up now, Kelvin. Please don’t call my parents’ house again.”
    “No, wait!”
    Against her better judgment, Princess remained on the line. “What?” She didn’t mean for her voice to get whispery; it did so of its own accord.
    “I’ve been thinking about you, Princess. I just wanted to find out how you’ve been, what you’re up to. Just because we’re not dating anymore doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”
    Princess closed her eyes against her feelings and the memories his voice evoked. She searched for a memory that would be useful in this moment. And then one came to her—Fawn. “No, Kelvin, we cannot be friends. I’m living a different lifestyle now, a Christian lifestyle, and my friendships reflect my values.”
    “I’m a Christian. Remember the rev baptized me after I moved into his house, during my junior year of high school.”
    Princess remembered. Her play-uncle, Derrick Montgomery, had baptized Kelvin shortly after moving him into the Montgomery household, which was shortly after finding out he was Kelvin’s father, the product of a casual relationship before he’d married and took a church. She could have looked no further than her uncle to see the grown-folks pain that came with grown-folks pleasure. But she’d been eighteen with a bullet the summer she moved to Los Angeles. Nobody could have told her a thing.
    “Being a Christian and being Christ-like are not always the same thing. Are you still getting high, Kelvin? Drinking, fornicating…”
    “Forna-who?”
    “Having sex outside of marriage. The people I hang around now don’t do any of those things. And neither do I. So I really don’t see what we have in common to constitute a friendship.”
    “We loved each other once.” Kelvin’s voice dropped and stroked Princess’s ear. “I still love you.”
    Jesus is my boo. Jesus is my boo! “Somebody else has all my love right now, Kelvin.”
    For the first time since they started talking, Kelvin’s voice became stern. “Who is he? Is it that dude you used to date back in high school, the one at KU? I bet he’s home for the holidays, talking a good game and whatnot. Baby, come spend Thanksgiving with me. I can give you the world, Princess, treat you better than any other man can even think about treating you. I’ll buy you whatever you want: cars, furs, diamonds, trips, you name it, baby, and it’s yours.”
    “See, this is the difference I’m talking about, the one you can’t understand. I’d rather have Jesus, Kelvin, than silver and gold.”
    Damn, her voice sounds good. “Baby, why can’t you have them both—”
    “Kelvin, where are you?!” In the background, Fawn’s voice could clearly be heard. “What are you doing sitting in the dark? Who’s the bitch on the phone now?” Her high-pitched voice rose even higher as she yelled louder. “Whoever you are, he’s mine, bitch. I ain’t going nowhere so you might as well back your shit—”
    That was the last word Princess heard. She did what she should have done moments earlier—ended the call. But she’d heard enough to know that Kelvin was still Kelvin, the big baller with all the chicks, all the weed, all the money, and all the baby mama drama.
    Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for reminding me what I left, and why I left it. Princess lay down the phone, picked up her laptop, and looked at the title of Chapter Two: “My First