Three Is A Crowd

by Chenell Parker

  Juanita had always been there for her nephews, even when her brother wasn’t. Memphis couldn’t recall her ever asking them for anything even though she knew that she could. He was always giving her money just because and he loved doing it. She stepped in when she didn’t have to and he appreciated her for that. As long as he had, she would never go without.

  “Good evening,” Memphis spoke when he walked into the house.

  Juan and Jonah looked like two bums sitting on the sofa while Junita flipped through the pages of a magazine. They both had the nerve to have frowns on their faces as if Memphis gave a fuck. His auntie couldn’t even go to them for financial help and they lived with her most of the time.

  “Hey my baby. I really appreciate you doing this for me Memphis. I didn’t think the problem was as big as it is. I thought a few hundred dollars would fix it,” Juanita said.

  “It’s all good auntie. Keep your money and do whatever you want with it,” Memphis said as he kissed her on the cheek and handed her a wad of cash.

  “This is way too much Memphis,” Juanita said when she thumbed through the money.

  “Go shopping or do something nice for yourself. You fed us and made sure that we were straight when nobody else did. It’s never too much,” Memphis said, directing the comment more to his father than her.

  Jonah was furious as he got up from the sofa and stormed to the back of the house. Memphis shook his head and laughed at how childish and pathetic he looked. Memphis walked out the door and Juanita walked him outside to his truck.

  “Your mama still not speaking to you?” Juanita asked her nephew.

  “Nope. She don’t say nothing to me or JJ,” Memphis shrugged.

  “Valerie needs to be ashamed of herself. How can she get mad with y’all for not wanting to take care of Jonah’s overgrown ass?” Junita argued.

  “She got her mind right real quick when the bills came through. I was dead ass serious about cutting her off as long as he was there,” Memphis replied.

  “And I don’t blame you. Him and Juan are pissed with me now because I told them that they can’t stay here tonight or no other night. I’m retired and I’m supposed to be enjoying my grandkids right now. I’ve raised all my kids and I don’t have time to take care of two grown ass men. I got a twelve hundred dollar plumbing bill that they can’t even help me pay. More than likely it was one of their asses who caused it in the first place. I don’t give a damn if they never speak to me again,” Juanita fussed.

  “Juan better go kiss Lila’s ass like he usually do,” Memphis said.

  “That ain’t gon’ do him no good. I heard that she lost her job for calling off too much. She ain’t paid the taxes on that house in two years and she’s probably gonna lose it,” Juanita noted.

  “That’s a damn shame. All that money that girl had. Gone with nothing to show for it,” Memphis said while shaking his head.

  “I love my son but you gotta be a special kind of stupid to let Juan sucker you out of your money,” Juanita replied making Memphis laugh.

  “I tried to tell her to invest it,” Memphis noted.

  “How is your wife? That’s a beautiful lil girl,” Juanita smiled.

  “She’s good. I’m on my way home to her now. I’m trying to make some babies auntie,” Memphis replied.

  “Aww, I surely hope you do. That’s gonna be my prayer every day and night until it happens,” Juanita replied.

  “I appreciate that. Call me if you need anything,” Memphis said as he kissed her cheek and got into his truck.

  He thought about what his auntie said about Lila and shook his head again. She was too stupid to have spent up all her money the way that she did. Memphis knew without a doubt that Layla would have been trying to help her sister out had she still been alive. Being that was what his wife would have wanted, he would have been obligated to do so. Since Jersi was the leading lady in his life, Lila could choke on a dick and die as far as he was concerned.

  “One more trip and that should be it,” Memphis said as he put the last of Jersi’s shoe boxes in their walk in closet.

  Dray agreed to keep the condo until he found another house. Jersi decided to just rent the place out furnished because she didn’t have anywhere to store her furniture. Memphis thought her furniture was too feminine but her house was tastefully decorated. Hopefully she could find a woman to rent to because no man would want to be sitting on a pink leather sofa every day.

  “This closet is huge. I had to use the closets in both rooms at my condo. I got all my stuff in here and there’s still a lot more room,” Jersi observed.

  “Don’t worry about it baby. You can get the black card and fill this bitch up,” Memphis replied as he kissed her lips.

  “Thanks boo, but I’m good. I’m about to fix you something to eat before we go get the last of my stuff,” Jersi said.

  “You don’t have to cook baby. Let’s go out to eat,” Memphis replied.

  “That’s even better,” Jersi replied right as Cat called her phone.

  Memphis told her to invite Cat and Phil out to eat with them and they both agreed to come. Cat had just landed a job working at a private school and she was excited. Even better was her son got half off tuition and she couldn’t wait to transfer him the following school year. She still hadn’t introduced her son to Phil but he wasn’t rushing her. He and Cat stayed at each other’s houses when her son was with his father on the weekends. BJ finally got it through his head that he and Cat were over and he started doing him too. He’d always been a hoe anyway. Now, he didn’t have to answer to anybody when he did his thing.

  “No baby news yet?” Cat asked once they were seated in the restaurant.

  “Girl no. I was cramping bad as fuck this morning,” Jersi replied.

  “It’s gonna happen boo. Y’all haven’t really been trying that long,” Cat pointed out.

  “Yeah, it’ll happen when the time is right. We’re almost done with the house, so we’ll be ready,” Jersi replied.

  “How’s your mama Memphis?” Phil asked him.

  “Still stubborn but she’s alright,” Memphis shrugged.

  “She’ll come around eventually,” Phil assured him.

  “It don’t matter to me one way or another. It was fucked up that my entire family came to our wedding dinner and she didn’t. I would be wrong if I stoop to her level and stop paying her bills and shit. It’s not even that serious to me though,” Memphis said.

  “How can she not like Jersi? This bitch is one of the nicest people I know,” Cat said making Jersi punch her arm.

  “She never tried to like her. She don’t even know my wife good enough to form an opinion of her one way or the other,” Memphis frowned.

  “I’m not married to your mama so I really don’t care. Hell, I don’t even like my own biological mother so yours don’t stand a chance,” Jersi said as they all fell out laughing.

  “I guess that’s why she wasn’t at the dinner either,” Cat said speaking of Tabby.

  “She wasn’t there because I didn’t invite her,” Jersi corrected.

  She told Memphis about the conversation that she had with Tabby as well as the argument between her and Talena. He was wondering why she didn’t invite them and she told him why. She and Memphis didn’t hide anything from each other and they swore that they never would. That was the only way that their marriage was going to work. As crazy as it sounded, she felt like she had a deeper connection with Memphis than she ever had with Blake.

  “Thanks for dinner guys. It’s always good to catch up with y’all,” Cat said as she gave Memphis and Jersi a hug before they all went their separate ways.

  “Where to now?” Memphis asked her.

  “By Dray and then home. I wanna take a hot bath and pop some more pain meds,” Jersi replied as Memphis rubbed her stomach.

  He was kind of down when her cycle appeared but he quickly snapped out of it. He wasn’t trying to rush God’s blessing and he knew it was coming eventually.

&
nbsp; When they pulled up to Dray’s house, Memphis parked illegally behind his car. They were only coming to get two more boxes and that wouldn’t take long.

  “You don’t have to get out of the car baby. I got it,” Memphis told his wife.

  “You already know how Dray is. He’ll say that I’m acting funny if I don’t,” Jersi replied.

  They both got out of the car and walked up the steps. Before Jersi had a change to ring the bell, the door opened and Dray and some man were standing there hugging and kissing. It wasn’t until Jersi cleared her throat did they stop. When they broke apart, Memphis was shocked to see that Dray’s companion was his friend, Max. Although Jersi already told him about it, it was a different story for him to witness it. The entire scene was uncomfortable and Memphis wished he hadn’t seen anything. He knew that Max was embarrassed and the look on his face showed it.

  “Uh…hey,” Max spoke up uncomfortably.

  He wanted to kick his own ass for insisting that Dray let him come over. He hadn’t seen him in a few days and he missed him. Jersi didn’t have to say anything because Memphis saw it all for himself. Max wanted to disappear but the cat was out of the bag now. He hated that the man he caught feelings for was now related to one of his close friends. He was so happy when Jersi and Memphis broke up. That didn’t last very long and Memphis ended up marrying her. Now, Dray was his brother-in-law. Max had already said that he would have to be extra careful but he obviously wasn’t careful enough.

  “What’s up? My bad Dray. I was just coming to get the last of Jersi’s stuff,” Memphis replied.

  “No, it’s cool,” Dray said as he stepped aside and allowed them to come in.

  Jersi stood by the door as Memphis grabbed the two remaining boxes. Dray had walked Max out to his car and he was coming back inside when they were leaving out.

  “Call me later sis,” Dray said while kissing Jersi’s cheek.

  “Okay,” Jersi replied while walking back to the car.

  Max was still sitting in his car but he got out and walked over to them. Jersi got inside the car and let her husband and his friend have what she knew was going to be a difficult conversation.

  “I know shit seems mad weird but I can explain,” Max stated.

  “No need to bruh. You’re grown and I know how to mind my business. No judgment over this way,” Memphis assured him.

  “Thanks bro, I appreciate that. This is not the kind of thing that I need to get out. I mean, I got a wife and shit,” Max replied.

  Memphis only nodded his head but he didn’t reply. Max and men like him were the kind that he didn’t respect. Dray kept it all the way real but not everybody was like him. Max was the reason why women snapped and did crazy shit. He was living a lie and his wife didn’t deserve that. If he wanted to identify as bisexual, she should have been the first one to know.

  “Told ya. I’m so happy that I’m off the market. I couldn’t imagine running into a nigga like him. I’d be doing hard time,” Jersi said when Memphis got back into the car.

  “You damn sure are off the market. And just think, you get to marry me all over again,” Memphis smiled as he leaned over and gave her a kiss.

  “Yes, and I can’t wait,” Jersi replied.

  They had the colors and the venue picked out already. They didn’t care about the other minor details but Dena was on it. Her baby was going to have the wedding of her dreams and she was making it possible. Jersi really didn’t care what her mother did as long as it made her happy. She already had the man and that was all that she ever wanted.

  “I don’t know how much more I can take. Are y’all trying to make sure that I’m unable to show my face in public again? People are already starting to whisper about us. This is just too much,” Eva argued.

  “Calm down ma. I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Blake replied.

  “It’s bad enough that both you and BJ are getting a divorce. Now I have even more shit to cover up,” Eva raged.

  “What are you talking about ma?” Blake asked in a frustrated tone.

  His mother called him going off but she never told him what was wrong. She was talking in circles and getting on his last nerve. After pulling a double at the hospital Blake just wanted to take a shower and get in the bed.

  “I’m talking about your wife. People are talking Blake. Some common drug dealing thug has been riding around in the Lexus truck that you paid for,” Eva fumed.

  “Who told you that?” Blake questioned.

  “It’s been the talk of the hair salon. Your wife is on drugs Blake. She’s already ruined her life. Don’t let her ruin yours too. You should have had her ass arrested when she tried to kill my grandkids. Being sympathetic gets you nowhere with people like Mariah. I have to find somebody else to do my hair now. There’s no way in hell I’m going back to that salon. People are looking at me with pity all because of your wife. I never liked her ass for a reason,” Eva yelled.

  Blake stood there and thought about what his mother had just said. He remembered when he was with Jersi years ago and she used to always say how Mariah was a pill popper. He never saw that side of her and she became an entirely different person when they got married. Suddenly, Blake thought of something else that had been bothering him since he last saw her a week ago. He knew for sure that he had about six hundred dollars in his wallet. He remembered because they were all big bills that he got from the bank. When he went to go spend them the day after he saw Mariah, he only had three. Blake had been working like crazy, so he knew that he hadn’t spent any of them. The only other person he’d been around was his wife. What his mother was saying made more sense to him now. Maybe sparing Mariah from jail wasn’t the right thing to do. The guilt from being the one to drive her to the brink of insanity was the only thing that stopped him.

  “I’ll take care of it ma,” Blake assured her.

  “And exactly how do you plan to do that? I told you from the first day I laid eyes on her that she wasn’t right. Thanks to her, we lost some of our best friends. Eva and Jacob barely answer the phone for us when we call them. All because of the mess that you made of things,” Eva fussed.

  “I said that I’ll take care of it and I will,” Blake snapped right as his phone rang.

  “I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. At least Jersi had class and knew how to carry herself. You and BJ just had to scrape the bottom of the barrel,” Eva chided.

  She couldn’t believe the nerve of Cat to serve her son with divorce papers. He was the best thing to ever happen to her unappreciative ass. Unlike Blake, BJ was dumb enough to let Cat put some things in her name. Her car was in her name but the credit cards that she’d spent thousands of dollars on was in his. Eva was so disgusted with her family that she didn’t know what to do. Then, on top of all the bullshit from her kids, her husband was still bringing shame to the family name. Braxton had a problem keeping his pants zipped and he had yet another bastard child on the way. Eva dared him to speak of it in their home. Finances were the only thing that would link him to the outside child and that would only be after it was proven to be his.

  “No, I didn’t try to make a purchase in that amount. I haven’t used that card in over a week,” Blake yelled angrily and he flipped through the many credit cards that were in his wallet.

  He remembered not being able to find one of his cards when he went to Macy’s the week before. Looking for his missing card had slipped his mind because he had been working like crazy. He had about fifteen of them so it wasn’t a big deal at the time. Now that he thought about it, the card wasn’t missing at all. It was stolen right along with his money. He was happy that he’d had a limit set to where he had to be notified by the company if a certain amount was used.

  “What’s going on Blake?” Eva asked in concern. Blake held up one finger, telling her to wait a minute.

  “No, I don’t authorize the purchase. That card was stolen and I want it cancelled. Can you tell who’s trying to use it and where,” Blake asked.


  Eva waited impatiently while her son talked on the phone with his credit card company. For some reason, the entire situation had Mariah’s name written all over it. When Blake finally got off the phone, he was angered beyond words.