Shawnie's POV

It was now two weeks later, and we all were in San Francisco. Mercedes, Dori, Trey, Jasmine, Oliver, and Chubbs all made it. Of course, Chris and Aubrey's security is here, but they only brought two guys a piece and Joe, of course. I'm still very confused about how we all were able to get three days, unbothered, at the same time. Maybe the universe really wants us to get it together.

Chris literally had three days off of his tour, and he came here to entertain Aubrey and whatever he had planned. I'm very surprised that Chris made the trip because he is not fucking with Aubrey in no way, shape, or form. But I know Chris is willing to put things aside for our kids and that's all that matters. 

To keep everything as civilized as possible, Aubrey rented out two separate houses, in which they were down the street from each other.

In one house, it was me, Aubrey, Joe, Oliver, Chubbs and Aubrey's security.

In the other house it was Chris, Jasmine, Dori, Mercedes, Trey and Chris security. 

Once Aubrey and I got to our bedroom, I closed the door and sat on the bed.

"So, rules..."

"Rules?" He turned around and looked at me.

"Yes. I need to set some boundaries because I don't want you to think this is something it's not." I say sternly, "First, I'm not having sex with you. I almost want to sleep in another room."

"You don't want to fuck me?" He asks with a straight face.

"No."

"No head?" He smiles

I roll my eyes. "I'll think about it..." I laugh. "No."

"Aw come on."

"No, because I think that confuses you. You think that's a way to get in with me but sometimes I just be wanting dick with nothing attached to it, but you take it as something else."

"I can give it to you." He smiles

I sigh and roll my eyes. "Second rule, no arguing with Chris. Chris and I are good. I don't want you screwing that up."

"If he—."

I cut him off, "He won't. He's here with his girlfriend, he doesn't want all of that, and I understand. She doesn't need to see all of that. I think we can keep our fucking mouths shut, and our shit together for longer than a few minutes. We've been putting distance between us and the friendship is working. So if at any time you get very upset just please try to hold it in. " I say

"I guess the friendship works better when y'all have sex." He sits down on the corner of the bed.

"What?" I say.

"I know he's the last person you were with."

"I—. Well. It was only that one time. It's not ongoing—."

He cuts me off. "You don't need to clean it up. It's okay. I'm hurt but I understand. We ain't good and I'm trying to fix that. So I was hoping on this little trip we could reconnect and spend some time together. Just us."

I nod my head. I agree to it because I'm looking at him and I can see that he's sincere in what he's saying.

"We can try it." I say

"Good." He says with a sale. "So I would like for you to call Chris and see if he and his girlfriend want to go to dinner tonight."

"Hold up! I don't know if I'm ready for that yet." I say

"We only have so much time. We're only here for three days. We have to start now. I don't know what extra beef you have with his girlfriend but I know the obvious beef. She's his new girlfriend, you're his ex. If y'all's friendship is working, that's great but if he's that into her she can shut all of that shit down. I think we should just have dinner and start the dialogue."

I look at him and see that he is serious about this and it's a little shocking to me because this is completely different from what I've been getting from him. I'm happy to see it but it's also kind of like why are you doing this now?

"Damn, you're serious about this, huh?"

"Yeah. I want all of this to go well because I'm really trying to get back in a good place with you. I know this is a big deal for you so me and him need to get back to a level where we can somewhat communicate and not wanna fight each other every time."

"I agree with that for you guys." I say

"And you too. You gotta do it for your daughter, just like I'm trying to do it for our son." He says

I really didn't wanna do this right now. I didn't know that he wanted to put the four of us in the room as soon as we got here. It's not the same thing. But I see what he's trying to do, so I have to go with it. I can't expect him and Chris to get along and me hate everybody.

"Okay." I say pulling my phone out to text him. I already know this shit is about to be awkward.

Me: Hey Aubrey and I would like to have dinner with you and Jasmine tonight so we can all talk.

I nervously waited for his response. I figured they were busy unpacking but to my surprise, I got a response within two minutes.

Chris: I guess we can.

Me: OK I'll text you the address when I find out where we're going.

"He said okay." I say

"Aight." He looked as if he had something on his mind.

"What?" I ask

"Do you think you can come by yourself and not bring Joe? I'll have security there anyway."

"Um, no. Joe will be there with me." I say firmly.

"What is it with you and him?"

"Nothing. He's my security and that's something that I am not willing to be lenient on. You know exactly why I have him and you know exactly why he's always with me, and will continue to be with me, So stop it."

Joe is something that I am not gonna compromise on so if he has an issue with it that's something that he needs to deal with on his own because he's not going anywhere.

"....Aight."

I glance over at him and he's looking at me with that look.

"I said no sex, Aubrey."

"Come here." He smiles, scooting to the edge of the bed. "This isn't about sex." He pats his lap, signaling for me to sit on it.

I slowly walk over to him. I don't know what he's thinking. I climbed onto his lap and put my arms around his neck. He just stares up at me.

"Yes?" I smile, looking him in the eyes.

He takes a deep breath and places his hands on my thighs. "I love you so much."

I smile. "I know you do."

"What will it take for us to end all of this? We gotta come to a resolution. I just want my baby back." He kisses my chin.

I peck him on the lips. "I miss you Aubrey...but what's been going on, I can't let go."

"Just tell me what to do." He says, "I'll do anything."

"Will you be willing to sit down with my dad? He was here for a week and you made no effort to come see him, or even call."

"He hates me." He says

"True, but I want you to do it because you want to be with me. You need to. And I want you to apologize for the way you've been acting." I say

"Shawnie, I will do whatever you want me to do if that means having you back in my life. I'll do it." He says

"What about yanking some time off for your family?"

"I will announce it right now if you want me to. I told you, I will do anything."

I kissed him. He grips my thighs and snakes his arms around my waist. He stood up, keeping me in his lap, then he laid me down on the bed, while getting on his knees.

"I said no sex."

"I know what you said..." he reaches under my dress and pulls off my panties. "...but just a little bit..."

He was focused as he quickly spread my legs and went to work. He closed his eyes and moaned in contentment. I mean, it was nice and I was really enjoying it. About 10 minutes had gone by and I had already came once and was working on the second and someone knocked on the door.

"We're busy." I yell rubbing Aubrey's head.

"We got a meeting with that tech company in an hour." We heard Oliver say on the other side of the door.

"Meeting? You're working?" I look down at home.

"Shit. I completely forgot about that." He says

"Thought you wanted to have dinner with them?"

"Yeah. I wasn't thinking." He says to me, then yells "Cancel it." He looks back at me. "No, I'm not working, and yes, I want to have dinner with them. I wouldn't have suggested it."

"I'm not canceling..." Oliver says. "I'll go by myself but they were looking to meet with you too."

"I'll catch up with y'all after dinner. Thanks Oli." Aubrey says

"Yeah, whatever..." We hear him say.

"Hold on.." Aubrey gets up, but I pull him back down to my lips and lick his lips then kiss him.

"Mmm I love when you do that..making my dick hard."

He stands up and wipes his face and mouth with his shirt and walks over to the door. He cracks it open. "What is the problem?"

"We have a meeting and you're too busy to come because you're locked in the room with your wife? Come on, do better." Oliver says

"Ima let this slide because I'm in a good mood. I forgot about the meeting. I made other important plans. Go to the meeting, apologize for my absence, and get shit done. I will see you after my dinner." He says sternly.

"Alright."

Aubrey closed the door and walked back over to me. By this time, I was looking for my panties.

"No, one more time."

"We have to meet with them soon." I say. "How is it supposed to be a mini vacation when you're taking meetings?"

"I thought I could squeeze it in." He confesses

"Well, this isn't a business trip." I walk into the bathroom and close the door behind me.

I'm upset. I really thought he was trying to fix the situation. I knew he couldn't stick with it.

**********

About an hour later, we went to dinner with Jasmine and Chris. I was still upset that he decided to make business plans while on this trip. Not gonna lie, I had a little attitude but I was still trying to go through with this. I was also nervous because I simply didn't wanna do it and it actually was giving me anxiety to have to sit at the table with the three of them at the same time. I knew I would be okay because Joe was there with me and I knew he wasn't gonna let anything happen that would put me in danger.

The restaurant set it up to where we could have privacy and so they blocked off the patio from the general public. The patio was quiet and free from everyone. They set up a table and everything for us. I'm sure it was Aubrey's idea just in case anything got crazy but it was very nice.

When we got there Chris and Jasmine were already sitting at the table having a drink. His security was off to the side, sitting at the table. Aubrey security, and Joe set at another table. As soon as we walked up Chris got up and said what's up to Aubrey but asked me to step away and have a conversation with him. I said hi to Jasmine and walked off.

"What up. I'm Aubrey." I heard him say as we walk off.

"Why is he all smiles? Everything good? Why you late?" He asks

"Everything is good. He's happy because I let him eat my pussy."

Chris burst out laughing. "You gon let me eat your too?"

"Christopher!" I slap his arm.

"I thought you said you weren't going to do it anymore?"

"What can I say, I like getting head, and he's great at it. I couldn't turn it down."

"He better than me?" He asks

I laugh, "I'm gonna go with the safe answer and not answer at all."

"Yeah, Aight...fuck around and have a pussy eating competition." He says and I burst out laughing but he has a serious face. "Anyway, so how are we going to do this?" He asks

"He's serious about getting all of us together and getting on the same page so I think you should be nice and genuinely try to work things out with him. Me on the other hand, I'm pissed off at him so it's whatever for me." I say

"What you wanna do?"

"Make him mad." I smile

"Aight. Are you gonna talk to Jasmine?" He asks

"I guess. I kinda don't have a choice." I say

"I want you to. From my understanding, which is what she tells me, she just wants everyone to get along. She says she's willing to apologize if you do."

"Later on in the dinner, I will. Let me get comfortable first."

"I feel you." He says

I glanced at Joe. He was sitting a few tables over from us, on his phone.

"Let's go back over to the table and just try. We have to see where this goes."

"Aight." I say

We walked back over to the table and we sat down.

"Well, I'm sorry to leave you guys but Jasmine, this is my husband Drake. Aubrey, this is Jasmine, Chris's girlfriend?" I look over at him for confirmation.

"Something like that. Not officially." He says

"We've been sitting here, we met." Aubrey says

"Whatever, We're all here. At the same table." I say, grabbing the bottle of champagne out of the ice bucket. I pour myself a glass and quickly drink it down, and pour another.

"Yeah. We're gonna need more alcohol." Chris says and everyone laughs.

"Where do we start?" Jasmine says

No one says anything.

"Okay, I will. Jasmine, let me start by apologizing. I was way out of line for treating you how I did when I was at Chris's house that day."

She smiles. "Thank you. I accept your apology and I would like to apologize as well. I shouldn't have talked to you that way either and I should've listened to Chris when he asked me to leave for you guys to speak in private."

"Apology accepted." I look at Aubrey.

"Aight. Um...Chris... I tried to come to you that day, man to man, after you kissed my wife. I wanted to get some insight on how you were feeling and why you felt the need to do so. I feel like the conversation was going in a good direction but then I started feeling like you wanted to keep shit going."

"Look, I wasn't trying to keep shit going. Just like I said that day, you came to my house to check me." Chris says

"Just like you showed up at my house pretending to drop off Genesis when all you wanted to do was start shit with me. You came to check me that day." Aubrey says

"Okay, hold on." I cut in. "Nobody came to check nobody." I say

"No. He really did come to my house to check me." Chris says

"Agree to disagree." I say

"Aight." Chris says, sitting back in his chair.

"So Anyway, I just feel like you keep hanging around because you are waiting on me to do something so you could try to get her back. I don't even think you care if we're married or not, you're still going to try to get her back.

"You've already done a lot of shit and you're still here. So, not necessarily, but continue." Chris says

"I don't think there was any reason for you to come up to the hospital either time. She had our son and you were there, we had a miscarriage and you were there. Why do you always feel the need to try to be there for her? That's what I'm supposed to do."

"THEN BE THERE. I'm a friend to her first. I think you get it twisted because we used to be together. I make sure she's straight regardless of who she's with. We're good at co parenting because we have a good friendship. Everything else, relationship wise, has nothing to do with our friendship. Yeah, shit gets a little blurry sometimes but we are friends before anything. We know each other...inside and out." Chris laughs

Jasmine hits him and I gasp. Chris just can't help himself.

"Chris, that's not necessary." I say

"It's the truth though. If something is wrong with her, I'm going to check on her to make sure she's good. And this is information both of y'all need to know." He looks at Jasmine. "Let's get this straight right now." He pauses for what I feel is a dramatic effect. "If anything happens to her I'm going to be there. Regardless. I might even call her dad because I told that man I was gonna take care of his daughter, and I meant that shit. You don't even communicate with him." He says to Aubrey. "How is he supposed to know what's going on with her?"

"Aubrey don't say anything." I say. If he opens his mouth to say something is going to be a smart comment so I think it's better that he just listens.

"We're family, regardless of our relationship status. I'm not going anywhere. So me and Shawnie are trying to figure out a way to have separate lives and significant others. So you may be her husband, and I may be her ex, but our kids are siblings. So we gotta figure this shit out because what if she drops dead tomorrow? We gotta pick up the pieces and we got to come together."

"That's true." I say

"You're right and I'm trying to work with you. That's why we're here...but you can't tell me that y'all don't be fucking. I know you do." Aubrey says and I throw my hands up. I give up. I knew he couldn't keep the smart comments to himself.

"And that's your problem right there." I chime in. "You're always worried about shit that doesn't have anything to do with the situation. We're trying to get this together because there are changes being made, right now. If I remove myself from this, it's only you two who need to communicate. I would like for y'all to get to that point. It doesn't matter who I'm fucking. And if I want to fuck my ex boyfriend, I can."

"Excuse me, can you?" Aubrey says, looking at me like I'm crazy. That pissed him off.

"You ain't nothing to me, remember? Oh yeah," I look at Jasmine. "we're getting a divorce."

"Oh." Is all she says. "That explains a lot."

"What? No we're not." He looks at me confused.

I smile at Chris across the table. "Yes, we are. And since were on the subject, I just might tonight. You're looking extra good tonight."

Chris smiles and looks at Aubrey.

"Am I not sitting here? I'm confused." Jasmine says

"You can join, Jasmine. We won't leave you out." Me and Chris laugh.

"Wait...What the fuck?? You've lost your fucking mind." Aubrey says

"So let's put everything on the table. Aubrey you wanted this, so you got it." I say

"Not this." He says

"Nah, you wanna know if Chris and I are fucking. Let's be truthful. It's just the four of us, we should be honest, right?"

"Yeah." Chris says

"The short answer to that question is no, but we have. Sorry if that's news to you Jasmine. Truth be told, Chris and I probably won't ever stop having sex. That doesn't mean we're going to do it all the time, that doesn't mean it'll happen again. It's just the truth. You want me to be honest, I am. There it is." I say

"That's what this is." Chris says. He turns to Jasmine. "I wanna be honest with you...she's not going anywhere. I know you have concerns and I will try to voice those concerns and keep you informed as much as possible. I know we had a conversation about this. This is me telling you that what I said still stands but there may be certain situations that I can't stand by that."

"She gotta get used to that anyway."

Chris laughs, "I'm easing her into it....stop."

I just shake my head. "How is she supposed to want to be with you if she doesn't know? It's just been the two of you?"

"What are you guys talking about?" She says

"Chris is into certain things—That's y'all's personal business. I'ma shut up." I say

Chris laughs

"Unbelievable." Aubrey says. "Can we not talk about that shit right now?"

"You uncomfortable? You like all that shit too...just not with me. Well maybe you do and blame it on blacking out. I don't know." I sip my drink.

I am being a complete bitch on purpose. He thinks I don't know everything that he be doing, and with other women.

"So this isn't about me and him, this is about me and you. You're being a bitch on purpose." Aubrey says.

"Watch your fucking mouth." Chris calmly warns him.

"Okay..Hold on." Jasmine cuts in. "I understand you and Chris are close and you had sex before and I really do understand what you're trying to do. Your delivery might not be right but I understand. But looking at the big picture, and processing everything that you guys are saying, you guys do realize you're picking each other over Drake and I, right?"

"But we're not. We're just being honest. Like I said that doesn't mean we're gonna be fucking all the time." I say

"Right. Chill." Chris says

"I'm not down with that." Jasmine says

"Well then y'all ain't gonna last honey." I say

"He likes to have threesomes, sometimes foursomes and if you're not okay with that, you're gonna have to get over it, or not be together. Chris, have you seriously not talked to her about this?"

He shrugs

"Listen, I came here to hash things out with him as best as we can. Let's change the subject." Aubrey says. "You and I will discuss this in private, and so should they. What I want to talk about is how we move forward. I don't want to sit here and watch you guys give googly eyes across the table, or flirt. Let's get down to business."

"We're not giving googly eyes. Dude, get some security." Chris says

"You literally can't keep your eyes off of each other." Jasmine says.

Aubrey just gets up from the table and leaves.

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