Game Over by Winter Ramos Page B

would still ring my phone from time to time, thinking he owned me just because he paid the bills at the spot. But shit, obviously he was doing his thing so I saw nothing wrong with doing mine. I had even hooked up with Jadakiss again despite the way he was throwing me shade in front of people. A part of my heart was still his but I wasn’t interested in trying to truly rekindle what we once had. I just liked being around him because of our history together. Every woman has that one man in her life who no matter how much she wants to forget him, she can’t. For me, Jason was that man. But Swizz and Chink were each like credit cards that I used when nothing else was available. Nothing personal. But I’d learned that it was always best to keep more than one man on hand because you never know when you might need a Gucci bag, a piece of jewelry, or a bill paid. I’d also grown pretty good at juggling niggas and keeping it quiet. I’d picked it up from Dame.
    Swi zz was cool and because he had major paper we could hit up a lot of places. He spoiled me and spent a lot of time with me. The only thing I didn’t quite like was his sexual habits. Swizz didn’t like to use condoms at all. That didn’t sit too well with me. It had me thinking, if he was fucking me with no protection, who else was he fucking with no protection? I wasn’t feeling that at all. The last thing I wanted to do was take a chance on catching AIDS or getting pregnant. I wasn’t ready to die and I wasn’t ready for kids so I insisted he use a condom. He tried to talk me out of it of course.
    Swizz and I began to spend more time together. Cassidy had gotten busy so Swizz and I became workmates often, keeping our relationship professional in front of others. Besides, Swizz had made it absolutely clear to me from the jump that he would never leave his wife under any circumstances. She would always be first in his life. For that, I respected him. He did everything he could to keep her protected and us a secret. That’s why I don’t quite understand why he did what he did one particular night.
    We were out at a restaurant grabbing something to eat after the club. We were sitting at a table when Cassidy’s boy Niko tried to holla at me. For some reason, as Niko continued to get at me, Swizz started acting strange. I mean, it was like he was getting jealous and it was obvious. He even kept bumping my leg underneath the table. Finally out of nowhere, he announced to Niko that I was his woman. The shit shocked the hell out of me more than everyone else.
    In all honesty, when he put it out there, the first thing I thought about was his wife , Mashonda. By him admitting to everyone the reality about us, I knew there was a chance it would get back to his wife. After all this time of trying to keep her protected, I wondered why he would take a chance on jeopardizing their relationship.
    Mashonda was around often. She was always showing support for him. Each time they were out, Swizz treated her like she was the most important woman in the room. I stayed in my lane. I knew my position and played it well, even when she and I worked on set during one of Cassidy’s videos. I worked just as hard to keep us a secret as he did so it just didn’t make any sense to me as to why he put us out there.
    Swizz was already starting to skate on thin ice with Mashonda just before the night at the club. I’d actually witnessed an argument between them while riding in the SUV headed to Philly for Cassidy’s show when Swizz’s phone rang. I knew he would answer; he always answered her calls. As soon as he picked up, she spazzed out on him, accusing him of fucking the R&B singer, Mya. I remained silent, ear hustling. When he finally hung up, I asked him if he’d been fucking Mya. I wanted to know since he’d been treating me like Mashonda and I were the only two women in his life. He didn’t answer. He just had that Simple Simon look on his face that I’ve seen a million times