by Lena Skye
“I swear to god, if you did something to her, I'm going to make you regret the day that you met me,” Reggie said through gritted teeth. His breathing was labored, he was seeing red, and he was mad enough to kill.
“Put away those baby canines, you're not going to do a damned thing. I already regret the day that I met your ass. I took you in when your poor country ass didn't have anyone. Your loser mom couldn't afford to take care of you and I footed the bill. The only reason your brother is still breathing is because I had mercy on him. I had them beat his ass as a message to you. Your wife has something in store for her too, and then, I'm going to deal with you.”
“This is between me and you, there is no need for you to involve anyone else. I'm the one that owes you the money.”
“Exactly, and that's why you're paying for it. I know how much you care about them and that's why I'm doing this. You remember how things work in this world right? You know that when you get into this game, everyone that you love is a target. If you didn't remember that part, I'm sure you do now. However, I blame myself. I coddled you too much and shielded you from the bad shit in this world, but that's okay, I'm doing my part to fix it. When you find your wife, give her my regards.”
Before Reggie could respond, the line went dead. The bitch hung up on him. His heart reached his throat and he felt nauseous. He finally pulled into his parking spot and ran to his condo. He didn't care about the stares that he received, he needed to see if his wife was at home. He fumbled with his keys and clumsily opened the door. He searched the house, but she wasn't there. He could smell the faint scent of her perfume. The sweats that she'd been wearing were in the hamper and her hair products were on the sink. He looked outside and her car was sitting down the street. She went somewhere because she'd gotten dressed but who did she go with? He tried her phone again and this time it rang, but she didn't answer. He left a voice mail and sent a text, but it still went unanswered.
He could find her phone through an app! He thanked God for having an iPhone and went straight to his laptop to see where her signal was coming from. He prayed that she was okay. If she wasn't okay, if one hair on her precious head was touched, he was going to put a bullet through Mimi's brain. Whatever happened to him after that wasn't his concern. No one fucked with his wife.
According to her phone's signal she was on the three hundred block of Broadway. He grabbed his keys and headed out of the door to see where his wife was. He headed back out to his car. He checked beneath the seat to make sure that his gun was still there and drove off to the area. The waiting game was killing him, he tried to call her again but once again it rang and went to the voicemail.
“Damn Tamika! Answer the fucking phone!” he yelled to himself.
The 25 minutes that it took to get to the area was pure torture. He parked his car and walked down the street. The first thing that he checked was the alley. Nothing and no one was back there. Then he weaved in and out of stores and bars. He couldn’t find her anywhere. Maybe her phone was in a garbage can. The neighborhood left a lot to be desired. He couldn’t understand why she would hang out in the area.
Then he spotted her. She was inside of the Trophy bar. It was a small dive bar, the seats were close together, and everyone looked like they were enjoying themselves. He had to admit it looked pretty nice on the inside. The lights were down low giving off a yellow glow, and the brown décor made it feel cozy. It was small but packed. Tamika was sitting at a table with Crystal and Kalena, laughing with a drink in her hand. He hadn’t seen her look that happy since before they lost the baby. Jealousy surged through his veins, why didn’t she laugh when he was around? They were able to bring her out of her shell and bring her joy, something that he failed miserably at.
He let out a sigh of relief because she was okay. She wasn’t dead in an alley or in a hospital with broken limbs. His wife was healthy and laughing with her friends. He walked towards the table and that’s when he spotted another familiar face. He watched as Tamika looked over at the table beside her and laughed. The gentlemen at the table were diverse, there was a white man, a Hispanic man, and an Asian. A fucking Asian, it was Jin. He was looking at his wife like he thought that she was the best thing since sliced bread. Their level of comfort was clear, and it made him feel sick.
He was out in the streets looking for her while she was ignoring his calls and grinning in her boss’s face. He knew that Jin wanted his wife; he’d known it since the day that he met him at their company’s Christmas party. Jin never treated him like any of the other spouses at the party, he treated him like competition. Reggie let it go because he knew that there was nothing that Jin could do that would compare to him. Besides, weren’t Asian men known for their small packages? There was no way that he would be able to satisfy Tamika, she was used to his huge package and mini Jet Li wasn’t going to measure up.
But still, watching him smile at his wife made his blood boil. He stalked towards Tamika and stood in front of her table. She was the last person to notice him. When she saw him annoyance crossed her face.
“Hi,” she said, “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been looking for your ass,” he replied. Everyone at the table fell silent. They didn’t greet him, they could feel the waves of negative energy radiating from his body.
“What is your problem? I called you multiple times and you didn’t answer, so don’t come in here and get ignorant. I don’t appreciate you causing a scene.”
“Really? You’ve been ignoring my calls and I’m not supposed to be upset? You could have been dead and lying in a ditch somewhere, I was worried,” he huffed.
“Welcome to the club! You could have been dead too, but here you are, ruining my night. Can I just have one fucking night without the drama?”
Reggie felt emasculated. She was treating him like an annoying wife and she was doing it in front of her friends and co-workers. This wasn’t the same woman that he’d first met. She wasn’t confrontational, but that clearly changed. He didn’t know what to say to her but he knew that it wasn’t the proper place to hash it out.
“Grab your things and let’s go,” Reggie demanded.
“Excuse you?”
“Grab your things and let’s go home,” he stated again. “We have quite a few issues that need to be discussed and this isn’t the place for it.”
“This isn’t the time for it either, so how about you just go back to wherever you came from and I’ll see you when the both of us are at home,” Tamika said. She held his gaze, she didn’t flinch, and she was ready for a full out verbal war.
Reggie put his hands up in surrender, “I’m about to head home, and I will be waiting for you. When you come home, we will talk.”
“Bye Reggie.”
***
Tamika stepped into the house; she considered getting a hotel room and not going home. She had such a great time with her friends and Jin, and she didn’t want it to end on a sour note. Her friends listened to her vent for a couple of hours and demanded that she do something with herself. She’d been trying to contact her husband, but he wasn’t answering, it made her feel worse. She didn’t want to go out with her friends, she wanted to stay on her couch but being ignored by her husband made her change her mind.
Everything worked perfectly because Jin checked on her right after his work day ended so she invited him and his friends to hang out with her. She needed to be surrounded by great spirits and people that wanted to see her smile. When she saw her husband in the bar, it pissed her off. He found her by tracking her phone, she felt stalked. Even though she had access to the same app, she never once looked for him using it. Instead, she trusted him to do the right thing. Also, he had the gall to be upset with her! He’d been acting like a complete asshole again, now he was mad at her, demanding that she come home with him.
The look of surprise on his face when he heard her snap at him felt good. She caught him off guard, he was used to talking to her however he wanted, treating her however he wante
d, and she was tired of it. He didn’t get to pick and choose when he was going to be nice to her anymore without consequences. She was done with taking his shit, with fawning over him, and with thinking that he could do no wrong. Life was too short to allow someone to do whatever they wanted to her.
She walked down the hallway, past the photos of them on their wedding day and into the living area. He was sitting on the couch, waiting for her.
“Hello,” she said as she sat on the La-Z-Boy next him.
“Hey, you’re back sooner than I expected,” he admitted.
“Well, the mood was ruined after you left. Everyone tried to push through it and have fun, but it was too late, the damage was done.”
“I’m not going to apologize for coming to find you.”
I’m not going to ask you to apologize, but I do want to know what the hell is going on with you. Why are you acting like such a dick to me?” Tamika asked.
“I’m not trying to be.”
“Do you understand that I lost a baby too? I’m the one that took a tumble down the stairs, I’m the one that no longer has a baby inside of her, and I’m the one that got her uterus scraped. I’m hurting too so treating me like I don’t exist has made me feel like complete shit,” Tamika explained.
“I know baby,” he explained and grabbed her hand, “I didn’t come to the bar to chew you out, and I’m sorry that things got so heated between us. I just wanted to talk things out with you, and I was worried when you didn’t answer my calls. So I will admit that I overreacted, but I’m not used to you not answering your phone when I call. You mean the world to me and if anything ever happened to you my world would fall apart. Things haven’t been going the greatest, but I promise that I’m going to be a better man for you.”
Tamika shook her head and pulled her hand from his, “What’s going on with your job? Apparently you haven’t been working there for months! When were you going to tell me? Where have you been going every day?”
He sighed, “That’s another thing that I wanted to talk to you about. I got fired from my job at the firm months ago. One of the senior partners referred to me in a derogatory way and I hit him.”
“What!” Tamika exclaimed.
“Just wait and hear me out. I’ve been working my ass off trying to find another job and it’s finally paid off. I start with a new firm next week, things are finally looking up,” Reggie explained with desperation in his voice. He didn’t want to lose his wife over his past mistakes, not when he could finally make things right. The universe couldn’t be that cruel.
“How can I trust you when you keep things like that from me?”
“Baby, I’m so sorry that things have been so out of whack for us lately. I just want our life back and I want to be the man that you’ve always deserved,” he pleaded. Tamika looked at him as if she didn’t believe him, that hurt. He’d never been on the receiving end of that pitiful stare before. She looked worn down and tired.
“I don’t know what to say right now,” she admitted.
“You don’t have to say anything, just give me a chance to make it up to you.” He got to his knees, positioned himself in front of her and stared into her eyes. He needed her to believe him.
“How in the world have you been paying the bills? Why would you buy me this ring? Where has the money been coming from Reggie?” she asked.
Reggie placed a chaste kiss on her lips, “I’m always going to take care of you.”
Tamika’s resolved softened when she felt his lips against hers. He always had the best kisses, his lips were full and soft. She loved his kisses; they made her feel comfortable and secure.
“If this marriage is going to work then we can’t have any more lies between us. I need you to be straight with me. You can’t shut me out of the important parts of your life, and you can’t come up missing. I don’t know how much more of it I can take.” Tamika said.
“You won’t have to put up with any more of it. Losing our baby and almost losing my brother made me put a lot of things into perspective. Nothing is worth losing my family over. I’m going to be a better man.”
“I hear you talking, but I need you to show me.”
“I will show you,” he promised before he kissed her again, slowly and sensually. His hand slowly slid up her legs and she responded to him. Her hand cupped the back of his head as she deepened the kiss.
She pulled away, “Wait, you know that I can’t have sex for at least another two and a half weeks.”
“I know baby, we don’t have to do anything. I just want to kiss, hug, and cuddle with my wife. Is that okay?”
She smiled, “Yes that’s okay.”
“Good,” he smiled and rose to his feet. “Then can I lead you to the bedroom for an intense night of making out?”
She grinned, “I think that this is going to be a good night indeed.”
“I’m glad that you see it that way.”
They walked hand in hand to the bedroom. Tamika was aware that Reggie avoided the question, but she didn’t want to fight anymore. The issue would have to wait until later. She just wanted to enjoy the company of her husband.
#Chapter5
“It’s time for us to bury the hatchet and move on.”
Nina
Kalena sat at the River Café and took in the beautiful view of the Brooklyn Bridge. She was in awe of how gorgeous everything was. She’d heard so much about the River Café but never had the pleasure of going. Reservations were difficult to get and they had to be planned well in advance. The dark wood and yellow and white striped awning gave the place a very warm feel. Her mouth was watering as she saw plates of delicious food being delivered to people.
Her attention was focused on her surroundings because being around her present company alone was awkward and weird. Nina sat across the table from her and they sat in silence. It was time for her to admit the truth about what happened between her and Daniel. Bringing up the subject after they’d been cordial over the phone seemed like such a shitty thing to do.
“So, I’m glad that you came,” Nina said nervously, “I know that things haven’t been the best between us, but I’m hoping that we can fix that.”
Kalena smiled, “I’m happy to be here too, how in the hell did you get reservations so quickly?”
Nina grinned, “Me and my boo were supposed to have lunch here today but I rescheduled with him for later. I figured that me and you were more important, he’ll just have to understand. Although he was acting like a big ass baby, but I told him to stay in his lane. It’s not like him to act so clingy so that shit caught me off guard.”
Kalena’s stomach sank; she knew exactly why Daniel didn’t want her to come out. He still hadn’t told his girlfriend the truth. It was just like a trifling ass man to put a woman through that. White men and black men weren’t different in that aspect. Being a cheating asshole was universal; it wasn’t exclusive to just one nationality. Her man was a snake and she thought that it was going to be easy to tell her that, but it was one of the hardest things that she had to do.
“I appreciate you thinking of me, I can’t wait to try all of this delicious food,” Kalena said.
“Girl, me too. I came here a few years ago and I was so anxious to come back. It’s delicious and this view is second to none. I was here for dinner and I had to keep staring out of the window.”
“I can see why.”
Soon the waiter came to them and they ordered their meals. He was cordial and a pillar of professionalism. As Kalena ordered she could just hear the sound of her bank account being drained. She hadn’t spent that much money on food in a while, but it wasn’t going to stop her from shopping. She was spending on one meal the same amount that she paid for a month’s worth of groceries. The experience was going to be worth it.
“So we may as well go ahead and get our talk out of the way,” Nina said, “What is it that you wanted to talk about?”
Kalena opened her mouth to begin and closed it promptly. She took a deep bre
ath and began, “I don’t even know where to start.”
“How about you start at the beginning?”
Kalena sighed, “Before I begin I just want you to know that everything that I’m saying is true and that I didn’t do anything maliciously.”
“Uh oh, did you sleep with my man or something?” Nina laughed playfully.
Kalena remained quiet and stared at Nina with a serious expression, it finally dawned on Nina that she pinpointed the truth.
“Like I said before, I didn’t know,” Kalena said.
“What?! You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Nina said in disbelief, “You just couldn’t leave it alone could you? You had to get back at me. I never slept with Richard! We only kissed and he kissed me first! Did you track him down or something? Oh my god, you tracked him down and did this on purpose.”
“Wait a minute,” Kalena said defensively, “We’re not even going to talk about what happened between you and my ex fiancé. I’m sure that you don’t want to go there. I came here to apologize to you about what happened between me and Daniel, and tell you the truth about what went on.”
Nina’s eyes watered up, the pain that she felt was immeasurable. She couldn’t believe that she was about to be friends again with Kalena. Some people just didn’t have it in them to forgive others, and Kalena was apparently one of those people. “Go ahead, rub it in my face and tell me the truth. We may as well get this over with.”
“No,” Kalena’s voice softened, “I’m not here to rub it in your face and in fact I feel terrible. When I met him I had no idea that he was with you. When I met him he told me that his name was Joseph. We had a great relationship for a while, at least I thought that we did. However, a lot of things didn’t add up about him. So one day when he was sleeping I went through his pockets for some information, what I found make me look online. When I did some digging I found out that his entire persona was a lie and that he was leading me on the entire time. I didn’t find out until that night that he was with you. When I found out, I doused him with water and put him out of my house. I would never do that to you or anyone else knowingly. I’m so sorry.”