by B. M. Hardin
Going into the house I noticed that she’d redecorated.
Of course she had a good bit of money to do as she pleased from me and on top of that she still got benefits that were left behind from Daddy. But I could see that she’d been spending her money on bringing a little color and life back into her home.
“Go Mama!” I said aloud.
That penis must be magic! Mama had been so stuck in her ways, for so long, and it was nothing like a new, good piece of wood, to make a woman bend.
I watered her plants and stared at some of the family photos on the wall. I wondered how her life would have been had she stayed with her first husband. That she’d told me about.
Had she not ruined her marriage by sleeping around with Daddy, I could only imagine that she would have probably been happier. That drunk of a father of mine ruined her life.
I headed to look around at the rest of the house, just to see the other improvements. I opened the door that used to be my room. It definitely didn’t have a thing that belonged to me in it now. Now it was some kind of theater room or something. And a hell of a nice one might I add. There were two recliners, nice paint, a bar, a huge TV and even a popcorn machine. I smiled as I recalled what few happy, childhood memories I could remember.
I headed to Mama’s room next.
Her room of course was rather lavish. It was comfy, cozy, and everything in it screamed expensive. Hell that million dollars that I’d given her was going to be gone in a flash if she kept buying like this. I looked at the clothes and the price tags that were on her bed. I guess she was making up for lost time.
She had a bag full of sexy bras and underwear.
“Eww Ma,” I said aloud with a frown as I pulled out a pair of thong panties.
She knew better than that!
I held them as though they weren’t brand new and opened up her underwear drawer to put them inside. I noticed a bag in the corner and dropped the panties and picked it up.
Opening it, I pulled out a pair of black gloves.
They were clean, but crumpled together as though they had been worn. There was one other thing in the bag so I pulled it out. Immediately I recognized it.
It was Patrice’s necklace.
I gasped.
What the hell was Mama doing with Patrice’s favorite necklace? It was the necklace that her mother had given her only months before she’d died. Patrice used to wear it all the time. Not every day; but often.
“You’ve never been good at following directions,” Mama said behind me causing me to jump.
“I was just,”
“Just being nosey. Like always.”
“I thought you were on the road?”
“We were but he suggested that we ride up to some of the casinos. I figured that I was probably going to need my license for that,” Mama nodded towards her wallet on the dresser.
Mama walked closer to me.
I tried to hide Patrice’s necklace.
“Go on. Ask me.”
“Why do you have Patrice’s necklace? And these gloves?”
Mama stared at me.
“No. Ask me what you really want to ask me Sassi.”
So many thoughts were running through my mind but I opened my mouth and asked for the truth.
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“Then what’s with the gloves and why do you have her necklace Mama?”
Mama walked closer and took the gloves and the necklace out of my hands, grabbed her wallet and headed back towards the door.
“Mama, answer me. If you didn’t kill her, who did?”
She looked back at me.
“I didn’t kill her. But yes. I know who did,” was all she said and she headed out the door.
What!
~***~
Mama promised to explain her comment once she was back in town. No matter how much I begged or even threatened her, she wouldn’t tell me and only said that it was a conversation that we would have face to face. So the whole tumor thing really was a lie. Patrice had been killed. And Mama knew who had done it.
But how?
I wasn’t sure but I couldn’t wait for her to get back and explain herself.
“A penny for your thoughts?” Eddie asked sitting beside me.
“I was just thinking about life. Us. The boys. The money. We’re going to be okay aren’t we?”
Eddie nodded.
“Yeah. I believe we are.”
Eddie kissed me and walked out of the room to answer his phone. It was probably Polo.
I stood up and glanced at my laptop and headed to open it. I headed to my book that I hadn't looked at in quite some time.
The title “The Wrong Husband” was perfect, but for some reason as I read over my work, something was missing. Without thinking twice about it, I deleted every single word of it and started again.
“What’s a woman to do when she marries the wrong man? Is it possible that life would have been better if she’d married her husband’s best friend?”
I smiled as I finished the sentence. Yeah. That sounds much better.
I smirked as I typed and started from the beginning. I got lost in my words for the next few hours as I put my story, a more embellished version of it on paper.
At the next sentence I giggled to myself.
“His best friend was charming, and fine. And secretly I wanted him to be all mine,” I typed.
Hmm...
The truth is the truth. No matter how hard a person tries to deny it.
~***~
“Still following me I see,” I said to Polo.
“Uh, I was here first,” he said as he waited on his sub.
“Oh yeah. You were huh?”
He didn’t say anything for a while.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Everything. I know how loyal you are to Eddie, but you are the only one in my circle who tried to explain anything to me. I thought I was losing it for a minute.”
Polo breathed and then walked really close.
“No problem.”
“Patrice was murdered. Mama knows who did it.”
“What?”
“She didn’t die from a tumor. The police were suspicious a while ago but they didn’t have any proof. But Mama says that she knows.”
The look in Polo’s eyes said something but I couldn’t exactly tell what they said.
“Ride with me,” he said.
I looked at him.
“Ride with you where?”
“To my place.”
“Uh, no. We both know that isn’t a good idea Polo.”
“I want to show you something. I promise I won’t try to touch you. Unless you want me to,” he smirked.
“See, oh no.”
“For real.”
I smirked at him.
Don’t go Sassi, I said to myself.
But I couldn’t help but wonder what it was that Polo wanted to show me. I nodded at Polo and he smiled.
Oh shit.
This was a bad idea, I could feel it. But being that Eddie was home with the boys and probably had no plans on coming out, I figured that I could go see whatever it was right quick and come straight back.
“I’m leaving my car. Just in case Eddie decides to ride out or something. Or pop up at your house. I can hide my body; but not my car. Right there and right back Polo.”
“You have my word.”
We walked out together and a few minutes later we pulled up at Polo’s house. Our new house was closer to his.
I rushed him inside and he led me to his bedroom.
“I want you to see something.”
He disappeared into his closet for a while and then came back out.
“You know what, you might be right. I may have a few stalker tendencies,” Polo joked.
“Tell me something I don’t know already,” I said bluntly.
“Hey, the first step is admitting that you hav
e a problem. Sassi you are my problem. You have been for years.”
I didn’t respond to him as he put in the DVD.
“I have a confession. The day at the gas station wasn’t the first day that I saw you. I’d saw you once before then. But that day was the day that I fell in love with you and I didn’t even know you.”
Polo pressed play.
“Originally, I recorded this on my phone and transferred it later on. As I said, I’ve always been into recording and watching beautiful things. I just found this footage the other day.”
It was weird how he made stalking seem almost sweet.
I watched the TV.
I’d gone into the store. I was actually with Patrice.
Of course it was before I’d met Eddie and I seemed to be laughing but I couldn’t remember what it was that was so damn funny. The smile on my face was priceless. I had such a glow. It was almost like I was watching someone else and not a video of myself
“I knew you were the one for me the first time I saw you but this day, this moment, at that laugh and at that smile, I felt nothing but adornment. I was actually passing by and saw you and pulled into the store. I sat there and just recorded you so that I could go home and just watch you.”
“Polo this is unhealthy. And a little scary.”
“You never have to be scared of me. I would never hurt you. I should have an approached you, but I couldn’t figure out what to say. It wasn’t like I did with other women. Hell, I make it clear what I want from them. Even with my ex-wives, initially, it was just about sex. But I knew with you I would have wanted more, and I didn’t know how to approach you or the situation, properly.” Polo said.
I heard him. And though it was scary but cute, we were past this already. There was nothing that we could do about the past.
Polo put another DVD in.
It was of my wedding. The first one.
The camera zoomed in and I didn’t have that smile or that glow that I had on the other video.
I was frowning more than I was grinning. I looked scared. I looked unsure. Hell, I looked down right sad.
He had the camera close on my face as Eddie and I danced our first dance as husband and wife.
I danced as though I was dancing with a stranger or like I was dancing with the most unpopular boy in high school that smelled but I lost a bet and had to go with him to the prom or something.
I just didn’t look happy at all.
“Your face told me that you’d made the biggest mistake of your life. That should have been me. You married the wrong husband Sassi. You should have married me.”
I’d never admitted it to him, but I figured that it was about time that I did.
“You’re right. I did marry the wrong husband Polo. But at this time in my life, he’s just right for me. So, I guess it all worked out just fine. And you wanted us to work it out remember?”
“It wasn’t that I wanted you to. It was just what was best. You know if something was to ever happen to Eddie, not saying that it will or anything, but if it did, I wouldn’t let the opportunity pass me by again you know that right? I never make the same mistake twice.”
He always knew just what to say.
“Polo we’ve made more than enough mistakes with each other. I ‘ve lost count.”
“What we shared wasn’t a mistake to me Sassi. It was a dream come true.”
Aww.
“Okay. Let’s get you back to your car. I just found these tapes the other day and I just wanted you to see them.”
“For what?”
“So that you could see you, through my eyes. So you could see what I saw when I looked at you.”
“Well where are the copies of us having sex? Let me hold them.”
Polo laughed.
“Not a chance in hell,” he smirked.
He waited for me to stand and walk towards his bedroom door.
I stopped.
“If something was to ever happen to Eddie, I promise you, my only choice would be you,” I said to Polo.
Did I really just say that aloud?
And especially to somebody like Polo. I didn’t want to give him any ideas.
Polo touched my back.
I turned around to face him and I beamed at him.
“This is goodbye Polo,” I said to him knowing that this was it. Eddie would never allow us around each other and as of this moment the private phone calls and periodic conversations had reached the end.
I was going to invest every ounce of my heart and love into loving Eddie. I’d come into this marriage all wrong and it was finally time to do it right.
Polo kissed me and I allowed his lips to dance with my mine until we both had to come up for air. I smiled at him as we headed out the door.
We didn’t so much as speak the whole way back to pick up my car and I didn’t look back at him once I was out of his car, and as I heard him drive away.
No more looking back.
I was only going to look forward.
Eddie and I were about to start enjoying ourselves and truly living with no regrets and no restraints. And it was time for me to start loving him with my whole heart and nothing less.
I’d been gone for about two hours and Eddie hadn't even called. I called him but he didn’t answer so I headed in that direction.
I started to cry and smile at the same time.
But they were happy tears or maybe tears of relief.
Things were going to be better than ever from now on.
Mama called me and though I’d been waiting for her call so that she could explain her comment, I sent her to the voicemail. I could call her back.
I was trying to get home to Eddie.
My husband. And soon to become my best friend.
“Eddie? Baby? Where you at? Boys?”
The house was quiet. Too quiet to be my house.
Soon Eddie appeared.
“Hey, where are the kids?”
“My mother wanted to get them for a while.”
“Oh. Why didn’t you call and let me know?”
“I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
I didn’t. But usually Eddie called to at least let me know something like that.
“We are alone for a few hours. Let’s do something. Something different,” Eddie said pulling handcuffs out of his pocket.
Oh, okay! We hadn't done anything kinky in so long so I was all in.
“I’ve been a very bad girl daddy. Arrest me.”
Eddie pulled my hands in front of me and handcuffed them together.
“I love you Eddie,” I said as he sat me down on the couch.
“I love you too Sassi.”
Eddie walked out of the room for a second and came back.
“The problem is that I love you too much. Way more than you have ever loved me. That’s why I have to do this.”
Eddie sat right in front of me on the edge of the coffee table.
He was holding a knife.
“Eddie? What’s going on? Why do you have a knife?”
“You’re just like Vanessa.”
Excuse me?
Vanessa?
Did he just admit to knowing Vanessa after denying it all that time?
“What did you say Eddie?”
“You heard me. You’re just like her. You are just like Vanessa,” Eddie stared into space as he twirled the knife.
Fear started to set in and I tried to wiggle free of the handcuffs, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“I’m a good man. But every woman that I love…loves him.”
I already knew that he was talking about Polo.
“I tried to give us another chance, but you still love him. I watched you leave with him today and go with him to his house.”
Huh?
“The kids wanted ice cream. The ice cream shop right beside the place that you and Polo came out of. When I spotted your car, I was just about to call you until I spotted Polo’s too. And then I saw you two walk out together and dr
ive away.”
Oh hell.
“Eddie it’s not what you think. I swear no sex or anything was involved.”
“You smell like him.”
“You know being too close to him always makes his scent rub off on you. Nothing happened.”
Eddie still didn’t look me in the eyes.
“Instead of taking the kids in for ice cream, I followed both of you to his house and once you went inside, I called my mother to get the boys. They didn’t need to be here for this. You don’t love me Sassi. You love Polo. Just like Vanessa did. And now you’re going to end up the same way that she did. Dead.”
I started to panic.
“You know she was just using me to get close to Polo. I was nice to her. I treated her like a queen but really she only wanted to get close enough for Polo to take notice of her. She didn’t want me at all. She wanted him.”
Eddie finally looked at me with eyes that I didn’t recognize.
They were dark. They were cold.
“Is that why Polo killed her?”
“What? Polo didn’t kill her. I did.”
“Wait, you killed her?”
“Yes. I killed her.”
Huh?
Automatically, I knew that Polo had lied to me just to cover up for Eddie.
“Polo tried to save her but he was too late. Polo has always watched people. That’s his weird thing. He and I were roommates at the time. Before you. Before us. Anyway, he had cameras all around the house. Vanessa came to visit one day and I’d been working hard to impress her and make her love me. She had me working for it, but I didn’t mind. I thought that she was worth it, but just as we started to kiss she stopped me with a confession. Her confession was that she was really more interested in Polo and not me. She said that he was just more her type and she didn’t want to be anything more than my friend. I tried to reason with her but she only wanted to talk about Polo since she’d gotten it off of her chest. Anyway, that wasn’t the first time that I’d been in that situation before and I just snapped. I grabbed her by the neck and started choking her. Polo happened to be spying on us, as always, and came running but he was too late. By the time he got my hands off of her neck, she was dead. But he helped me make it look like an accident.”
I breathed heavily.
What the hell is Eddie talking about?
“It worked too. He watched enough of that crime stuff and had done enough snooping to where he actually managed to pull it off and save me from prison. I only had to go to that place for a little while.”