by B. M. Hardin
“Let’s just work on being good parents right now. I’m trying to work and move up in the company. I’m trying to just figure out everything as I go along. You’re out of work, so I’m just focused on making sure that the boys are straight. And in order for them to be straight, I have to make sure that you are straight too.”
I’m glad that he mentioned money. Eddie turned his back to me but suddenly I got an idea. If he wouldn’t give us another chance because I was asking him to, maybe he would consider it with a little incentive.
“Eddie? If you won’t give us another chance for love…would you do it for money? Twenty million dollars to be exact.”
Eddie turned around to face me.
Well, now that I have his attention…
****************************
Chapter 3
I explained Patrice’s will requirements to Eddie the other day, but I’d added a few things of my own.
I’d told him that not only did we have to be married within a year, I lied and told him that we would receive half of the money and that we had to stay married at least one year after in order to receive the other half. Of course that part was a lie, but if I could convince him to marry me again in the first place, by the time that year was up I would have definitely found a way to get him to love me again.
I also said that there were little things in there such as we had to be faithful to the marriage the entire time and things like that; just to make him a little more comfortable about me, considering my recent whorish ways. I wanted to assure him that I wouldn’t step out on him again.
Sure Eddie loved to work and make his own money but let’s be honest; who wouldn’t want to be a millionaire? But still Eddie hadn't agreed to give us another try or anything. But I was sure that he was thinking about it. And that was a start.
I walked outside just in time to see Polo passing by…again.
Mr. Obsessive turned the corner and headed up the street.
I just wished that he would go away, but I knew that he wouldn’t. He was the only thing standing in the way of me and Eddie. If Polo didn’t feel anything for me, Eddie would have probably taken me back a long time ago. I was sure of it.
I just had to find a way to get rid of him.
Getting settled into my car, I called Micki.
“Hey Micki.”
I hadn't heard much from her since she’d started dating her mysterious white guy. I could only assume that it wasn’t all that serious yet since she hadn't introduced him, but he sure had been getting a whole lot of her time because she had been out of sight and out of mind for quite some time.
“I’m never going to get married!”
Uh oh.
“What happened?”
“Girl everything was fine for a while. He even acted like he was falling for me. When I would ask for a commitment he would only say that love is patient and it is kind. But that was a damn lie! Love is blind! And girl he had me seeing all kinds of mess that wasn’t true. And guess what, he was still married. He was lying the whole time. His wife called his phone while he was sleeping, in my bed, and I picked it up. She told me everything. Hell and I told her the truth. I told her that I thought her husband loved me. And the bitch laughed in my face. She said to send him home when I was done,” Micki said disappointed as I gasped.
“Oh no! And what did you do?”
“Girl, I pretended that I was going to go down on him and I went down alright. I tried to bite the head off of it, and then I did just as his wife instructed me to do. I sent his lying, cheating ass right on home to her.”
Good girl.
As if I had room to talk. I’d just kissed Polo not too long ago and secretly I’d wished that he had kissed on something else.
Immediately, I shook away the thought that had just crossed my mind and replaced it with a thought of Eddie.
Eddie.
I love Eddie.
“So, I guess it’s back to the drawing board for me. Why did Patrice have to be so damn difficult? She could have just left us with the money for putting up with her obnoxious, spoiled, bitchy self for all of those years. She’s dead. It ain’t like she can spend the money or something,” Micki managed to laugh as I agreed.
But it wouldn’t have been Patrice to make things so easy.
“Well, I’m still working on Eddie. Time is moving so fast. Even if I don’t get the money, I still want Eddie back. I wouldn’t care if I had to go back to work. Hell, I’m bored out of my mind anyway.”
I hadn't found a job and to be honest I’d stopped looking. With everything going on, I hadn't even thought about it. Eddie always made sure that the boys and I had plenty since he’d gone back to work. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gave me his whole check. He was still so good to me; despite what I’d done and despite how hard he tried to hide it with his words and his attitudes. And I couldn’t forget that Patrice had set up a publishing company to look at my book. I’d finished it a while ago but I’d wanted to go back over it. I just hadn't found the time or the energy to do it.
“Everything is going to be fine,” I said to Micki.
She didn’t respond.
“Hello?”
“Sassi?”
“What?”
She took a deep breath.
“There’s something that I have to tell you.”
“What? What is it?”
Micki started to say something and then the phone went in and out as though someone was calling on the other line.
“I’ll call you right back,” she said and with that she was gone.
Placing the phone in the passenger side seat, I wondered what it was that she had to tell me. We all knew that Micki couldn’t hold water, so there was no telling what kind of beans she was about to spill. But I couldn’t wait to find out.
The phone started to ring again, and I reached for it thinking that it was her calling right back. I answered it without looking at it.
“Hello.”
“I was thinking that there’s no harm in us chatting on the phone. As long as I stay away,” Polo said as I looked at the phone and saw that he’d made sure to call private.
“No. I don’t want to talk to you Polo.”
“Then why do you keep answering the phone?”
“You got a point there,” I said and I hung the phone.
I blocked Private Calls and sat the phone down.
But as I drove, I picked it back up and unblocked them.
I cleared my head and drove to the grocery store to get a few more ingredients to go with that night’s dinner.
I always made sure to cook when I knew that Eddie would either be coming over to see the boys, or to pick them up or drop them off. I needed for him to miss what it was like being at home.
With me.
With us.
Arriving at the store, I headed inside in a hurry.
“Excuse me?”
I looked at the lady as I grabbed a cart.
She was dirty, thin and my guess was that she was homeless. I reached for my purse assuming that she was about to ask for spare change.
“Are you still with Eddie?”
I looked at her confused.
“Excuse me? What did you say? Do I know you?”
She shook her head.
“But you know my husband?” She nodded.
Of course Eddie and I weren’t still married, but she didn’t need to know that. I waited on her to explain as I tried to reach her a few bucks.
“I don’t need your money.”
She could’ve fooled the hell out of me. She was dressed in rags but looking at her face I could see that she was actually really pretty and she had the whitest teeth that I’d ever seen and she smelled good too.
Nope. She was definitely not homeless.
“I’m only dressed like this because I’m a senior in college and this is a part of a study for a paper that I’m writing.”
I nodded.
“How do you know Eddie?”
/>
“I don’t know him personally. My sister does.”
For some reason I got a bad feeling all at once and I started to look around me. Maybe she was going to reveal that her sister was Eddie’s new woman or something.
I wasn’t sure. But I was listening.
“Maybe I shouldn’t say anything.”
“Please do. To be honest we are divorced but working on getting back together and by all means if there is something that I need to know please tell me.”
She breathed.
“I don’t know if I should.”
“Don’t worry. What’s said here will stay between me and you. I promise,” I could tell that she was a little timid.
“Well I would hope that our conversation didn’t get back to him. Hell if he’ll try to set up his own wife, there’s no telling what he would try to do to me.”
What was she talking about?
Eddie tried to set me up?
How?
When?
“Did some drugs mysteriously end up in your purse one day? A while back?”
“Yes. How did you know that?”
“Your husband, well, ex-husband now, was responsible for that.”
What?
I knew exactly what she was referring to.
The time that I’d found the weed in my bag and assumed that Polo had somehow put them there.
“I was in the car with my sister. Eddie paid her to put drugs, a pound of weed in your car one day and then instructed her to tip off the police afterwards. He’d told her that you always leave your car doors unlocked so we’d followed you here, to the grocery store. The only problem was that for whatever reason that day, you actually did lock your car doors. So she had to come up with another plan. We’d watched you go into the store and everything. That’s how I recognized you. Stella, my sister, got the idea of trying to see if she could slip some of the drugs in the big purse that you were carrying. I told her that she was crazy, but she’d said that he had already paid her, so she had to figure out how to get it done. She’d said that she didn’t have a choice. So she took half of the weed, and went into the store behind you.”
“No. Wait a minute. You have to be mistaken.”
“I promise you…I’m not.”
“So you are telling me, Eddie, my husband at the time, the father of my babies and the man that I was married to for years, tried to do something to get me put in jail?”
Hell no!
I just couldn’t believe that it had been Eddie and not Polo that had been behind the drugs in my purse.
“Yes. It was Eddie. A minute or two after going in after you, she came back out and said that she’d done it. I don’t know how in the hell she pulled it off but she had. She came out without the weed and said that she’d managed to get it in your purse. She called the police and said that a drug deal was taking place at the store and she had proof. We left just as the first cop and dog arrived. She wasn’t sure that they believed her since they’d only sent one cop, but a picture of the cop was the proof that she’d needed to send Eddie to let him know that the job was done.”
What!
I couldn’t believe my ears.
Eddie had done that to me?
He’d really tried to have me thrown in jail?
As hard as it was for me to believe it, I knew that she was telling the truth.
And I was pissed the hell off!
“How much?”
“What?”
“How much did he pay her? And why would your sister do something like that?”
I wondered if whooping her ass on her sister’s behalf was a bit much but somebody had to pay for what could have happened to me.
“$10,000. And she did it for me. I didn’t know it at the time. As I said, I’m a senior in college, but I also work full-time and go to school in the evenings. I’d mentioned some tuition trouble, and I was complaining about figuring out how I was going to work overtime to get the money. One day, she came to me and handed me the rest of the money in full. It wasn’t the whole ten grand but it was a few thousands. I didn’t ask any questions. Since it had been just the two of us since our parents passed away, she always made a way. But then only two days later, we followed you, she told me why she had to go through with it and no matter what I’d said, she’d done her part. Her reasoning was that she’d already spent most the money. The part that she’d given me and the part that she’d kept for herself.”
I was so mad that I wanted to cry.
Eddie was so sweet and kind, I just couldn’t imagine him doing something like that.
Of all people…Eddie?
He just didn’t seem capable of something like this.
“How does she know him?”
“I don’t know how my sister knows Eddie. I think that she said that she met him through a friend. Or maybe he was a friend of a guy that she used to date. Something like that. She’s years older than me so I’m not sure. Maybe your age or his. But I just thought to say something when I saw you. I always wondered what had happened to you. I didn’t know your name but I’d wondered if you’d gotten caught that day and gone to jail or something. But seeing you, I knew that whatever plan that he’d had, probably hadn't worked. I’m glad that it didn’t.”
She half smiled and started to walk away but she turned back around.
“I don’t know the situation, but if I were you, I would get far, far….far away from him. Doesn’t seem like the kind of man that I would want to be married to or trying to work things out with,” she said and she walked away.
Tell me about it!
Unable to focus, and seeing red, I left the cart where it was and headed back to my car.
Once I was safely inside, I started to scream.
What the hell! You have got to be freaking kidding me!
I screamed, cried and even pressed on the horn a few times.
I know I’d had an affair with his best friend, but damn!
What was he thinking? I could’ve ended up in jail, or in prison with some kind of felony or something.
Why would he want to do that to me?
He’d tried to have me shipped off to prison or something and he hadn't cared if he’d had to pay to do it.
And $10,000?
Where in the hell had he’d gotten $10,000 when he was having so much financial trouble that I didn’t know about? Mentally I’d answered my own question as soon as I’d asked it.
Polo.
Maybe that’s why he’d forgiven him so damn fast! He’d needed to borrow some money from him to get rid of me!
I’d heard him say out of his own mouth that he’d wanted to kill me, but I didn’t actually think that he’d meant it. I didn’t actually think that Eddie had the guts to do something like that. He was harmless. Hell he wouldn’t even spank our kids, let alone trying to do something to put me in jail.
So what now?
I continued to bang my hands on the steering wheel in frustration and my soul damn near left my body once someone started to bang on my window.
Polo.
I should have known that he was somewhere lurking!
Without hesitating, and with tears racing down my face, I got out of the car.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Uh…”
“Following me again weren’t you?”
I was still sobbing and Polo looked concerned.
“What’s wrong?”
“You gave the money to Eddie to try to set me up with some kind of drug charges or something?”
Polo looked at me.
“Yes.”
What?
I smacked the hell out of him so fast that he didn’t even see it coming. I thought that he was going to hit me back or something but he didn’t. Instead, he smiled.
“I didn’t know what it was for until afterwards.”
“Why? Why would he do that to me?”
“He was upset Sassi. He was hurt. He did
n’t mean it. Hell, I would have done worse.”
I bet like hell he would have!
“I didn’t know what he needed the money for. I never asked. I never do. But he told me afterwards. That same night. After he saw that you were home and that nothing had happened to you. He was so relieved. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking. Trust me. He’s sorry. He can’t tell you. But I’m telling you for him. He’s sorry about that Sassi.”
I was just over the whole Eddie and Polo show!
There was just entirely too much that seemed to be going on involving the two of them and after finding out that Eddie had tried to get me in some kind of legal trouble, I was done.
“Bye Polo.”
“Wait.”
He tried to touch me and I jerked my arm away from him.
“Don’t be upset. People do crazy things when they are upset.”
“You do crazy things all the time whether you are upset or not,” I said sarcastically. He was trying to defend Eddie but I didn’t want to hear it.
“Everything that I do I do for a reason or a purpose believe it or not. Eddie didn’t mean it Sassi.”
“Screw you and your best friend!” I said and I reached for my door handle.
“I still can’t keep you off of my mind. No matter how hard I try. I always find myself watching you and wondering about you. Even though I can never have you. I wish there was a way that I could have you Sassi.”
Polo half smiled and turned his back to me.
“You can have me now.”
Did I just say that?
You damn right I did!
“What?”
“Let’s go. To your place. Any place. Right now. I want you to touch me Polo. I want you to make me feel better.”
Polo stared at me.
“You’re just upset right now Sassi.”
“So. I’m upset and I want you to touch me. Will you touch me Polo?” I said to him.
Screw Eddie and his feelings!
Polo just stood there and I continued to plead with him.
“Follow me,” he said finally.
I got back into my car and sped out of the parking lot behind him. At that moment all I could feel was hate towards Eddie. Maybe I’d played my part, but who cares!
Who freaking cares!
Polo turned down a side street with me still following behind him. I tried to ignore the voice in my head, but it only grew louder and louder. No matter how mad I was at Eddie, sleeping with Polo was nothing but trouble.