Seduced By The General by India T. Norfleet Page A

V.P. for Sweet Cheeks graphics!!” Brandie was beside herself with excitement. Her long, naturally curly hair was bouncing over her shoulders as she slammed  the front door, threw her purse and briefcase on couch and took the spiral staircase two at a time until she reached the second floor landing and headed for Kahlil's bedroom.
    “Baby, did you hear me, I got—”
    “Congratulations Bran, I knew you would get the job.” Kahlil said as he smiled a half smile that never quite reached his eyes before he went back to packing the two extra large black suitcases sitting on the edge of his bed.
    “Uh baby, what's going on? Why are you packing?” Brandie asked a very troubled looking Kahlil before glancing around the damn near empty room.
    In the three years that they had been a couple, Brandie had never seen him or his personal space like this. His usual classically handsome pretty boy features were now gloomy and painfully sad.   Her brows furrowed as an uneasy feeling settled over her while she waited for some sort of explanation.
    “I...I uh, have to go away for a while.” He mumbled while shoving his undergarments into the netted pocket inside of one of his bags.
    “Go away where, Kahlil? And why the hell am I just now finding out about this? Were you even going to tell me if I hadn't come home early?” Brandie asked. She was pissed but tried to control her anger as best she could.
              “Brandie trust me, now is really not a good time to come at me like this with all of these damn questions.”
    “You can't possibly be serious right now Kahlil?” A frustrated Brandie asked.
    “Brandie, I'm sorry but I have to do this for me.”
    “Do what? And where are you going that you need to pack like this? Is this about another woman?  Am I the other woman, Kahlil?” Brandie yelled.
    “I'm going to the military. I enlisted.” He said as he walked over to his closet. He grabbed the remainder of his clothes from the practically deserted walk-in and stuffed them in the suitcase. 
    “You're what? Wait, no. You know what, just tell me the truth. Just tell me that you’re leaving me because you’ve been living a double life and that you’re married with a wife and kids because I don’t believe that military bullshit for one minute. Cause I know that you wouldn’t dare make a life altering decision without us talking first.”
    “Cut out the drama, Brandie. You heard me. I’m serious and you know it.” His jaw twitched in anger as he zipped up the overstuffed bags.
    “Kahlil, why would you enlist in the army and not tell me until the day you're leaving? What in the hell did I do to deserve to be treated so harshly that you would make this kind of decision without any regard for my feelings?”
    “Brandie—I—don’t know. It slipped my mind.”
    “It slipped your muthafuckin’ mind?”
    “Brandie  watch yo’ mouth.”
    “Watch my mouth?”
    “Bran you my damn echo now?”
    “You're lucky that that's all that's come out of my damn mouth right now.” Brandie said ignoring his smart ass remark.   
    “Did you forget that we are or—excuse me—we were in a committed relationship? I mean, you could be killed in combat or an ambush attack!” Brandie shrieked through the aching knot of anger and despair trapped in her throat. Her eyes began to cloud over but she forced the heavy tears to stay behind her eyelids.
    “Yeah I thought about it but none of that is relevant right now. I don’t care about none of that.”
    “Kahlil everything I just asked you is-wait, I'm not relevant?” Brandie asked.
    “Brandie—no. You are not relevant to me right now. And I can be killed walking out the door or at a party or leaving work, or a muthafuckin’ gas station just like Dewayne did one month, two weeks, five days, four hours and thirty two fuckin’ seconds ago by some shady bastard who decided that they wanted to fuckin’ play God and take my life for fifty dollars and a gold