His Work Wife

by James, Sapphire

  “Kadeema, look! I’m not about to go back forth with you in regards to my wife and kids! You knew what it was before you became involved with me!” I reminded her.

  In the middle of our argument, I saw headlights shine through her living room window.

  “Who the hell is that at two o’clock in the damn morning?!”

  I laughed nervously. “That’s my wife.”

  “How the fuck does she know where I live Ty?” She tied her robe in a knot.

  “Please! Presley ain’t stupid! She’s probably always known where you lived because she is intelligent as hell. When she sets her mind to do something, she does it!”

  I won’t lie. I was scared as hell. I didn’t know what to expect from Presley once I walked outside. I heard her kicking my truck and I knew she was livid.

  “Ty! Bring yo’ ass out here!” she screamed.

  Apprehensive, I walked outside.

  “Presley, baby, let me explain. You kicked me…” Before I could finish, Presley had popped me in the head, knocking my cap off. I wondered if she realized I was already dressed when she got here and was about to come home that night.

  “Explain?” she repeated. “How do you explain being over here with this bitch and HER muthafucking kids? Really, Ty?”

  Kadeema stood in the doorway while Presley and I argued. Well, Presley argued, I just listened. I was hoping she would just keep her damn mouth closed because Presley was proving she wasn’t to be fucked with. However, Kadeema just had to put her two cents in.

  “Presley, you need to calm down before you wake my neighbors. This is an older community and I don’t need no problems,” she spoke.

  “Aye, you don’t need to say shit to me because my problem really ain’t with you, it’s with Ty. So gone on, Miss Thang. This ain’t your fight…unless you want it to be!” Presley threatened.

  “Kadeema, please don’t make matters worse,” I pleaded. “Let me handle my wife.”

  “Handle me? You got me fucked up!” Presley shrieked. “You ain’t handling a damn thing because if you were I wouldn’t be here and yo’ ass wouldn’t be either!”

  “Presley, we can all go into the house and discuss this,” Kadeema suggested.

  “Oh really? We can go in the house and discuss how you fucking my husband? Bitch, please! And wait a fucking minute! Is that a muthfucking space between your two front teeth? Ohhhh my God!” Presley laughed. “Ty! You fucking a bitch that has a gap in her teeth the size of a damn canyon? HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I can’t believe this shit! And she rocking some nappy ass braids? I done seen it all!”

  I walked back into the house to make sure Kadeema’s sons didn’t wake up from all of the commotion. I would hate for them to witness all of this. However, Presley hated for me to walk away from her and I should have thought about that before I did it.

  “Ty, I know you not walking away from me,” she wailed. “Don’t you dare walk away from me!”

  Presley was approaching me as I had my back to her. I guess Kadeema thought she was about to attack me, so she stepped in front of Presley. What the hell did she do that for? Presley two-pieced her ass in the face, wrapped her braids around her fist and drove her head into the ground! I ran back outside to get Presley off Kadeema. This was truly some Jerry Springer shit.

  “Presley! Let go!” I yelled. “Let go. Let. Her. Go!”

  Kadeema was screaming, saying she was going to call the police, but Presley didn’t give two fucks about the police. This was a side of my wife I never knew existed. I guess one could say I brought the worst out in women at this point.

  Presley seemed to have the strength of a thousand men. She had managed to turn her body so that she was sitting on top of Kadeema as she continued to pummel her face. I could no longer recognize Kadeema’s face. With all due respect, I had warned her not to say shit to Presley. She was already angry and Kadeema just added fuel to the flame.

  By now, the neighbors were making their way outside and someone had apparently called the police due to the sirens I heard.

  “Presley! You have to stop! The police are coming!”

  Finally, she let go of Kadeema and got up. Presley’s white tank top was drenched with blood and her red cargo sweat pants from Bebe had holes at the knees. She was breathing hard from beating the brakes off Kadeema and for some strange reason, I was turned on. I was trying hard to keep my dick at bay!

  Presley pulled out her phone and called her sister. “Jani, I’m about to go to jail. I’ll need you to bail me out. Take the boys to mom’s. I’ll explain when you get here. Hurry up!”

  By the time Presley disconnected the call, the police were driving up and she was ready to be handcuffed.

  Chapter Twenty: Presley

  “Bitch, whatchu do?” Jani hugged me. She met me downtown at Harris County Jail.

  I knew she was going to be full of questions when she finally saw me. I had already prepared myself for that. We walked in silence as we made our way to the pay parking lot around the corner from the jailhouse.

  Once inside of her black 2008 Ford Explorer, I began to explain in detail. Now that I was recapping the story, it was actually kind of funny. All Kadeema had to do was shut up and leave me the hell alone, but she wanted it with me and she got it.

  “Sis, where do I begin?” I laughed. “All I remember is she said some shit and I told her my problem wasn’t with her. Ty walked away from me and before I knew it, he was trying to get me off her ass! I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”

  “Woooow!” Jani chuckled. “You know Cora’s going have a field day with this, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah…I know. I just want to get to my babies. I’m glad you kept them for me while I handled my shit. Thanks a bunch.”

  “How you feel about all of this though? Isn’t it all becoming too much? I mean, you riding out to the other side of town and beating hoes down and Ty ass standing there like he’s big man on campus! That shit ain’t right. What if you had gotten hurt? You can’t just be showing up where people live, sis!” she reprimanded. “Why the hell did you go out there anyway?”

  “Jani, I don’t expect you to understand because you and Mark ain’t been through no shit like this, but I couldn’t help it. I called Ty several times and he wasn’t answering my calls,” I admitted. “Yes, I know I put him out, but before he left, he told me he was going to stay with his homeboy Tim. So if he was at his friend’s house, why couldn’t he answer the damn phone…unless he was at her house? So I drove out there, beat that ass and the rest is history.”

  No sooner than we drove up to my mama’s house, we saw Ty waiting for us. Jani got out of the truck and pretended not to see him. She made sure I was okay with her facial expression and I nodded my head yes. Jani proceeded to go inside of Mom’s when he called her name.

  “Jani?”

  “What do you want?” she scowled.

  “I just want to pay you the bail money back and thank you for doing that for me.”

  “Umm, it was five hundred dollars and make no mistake; I didn’t do that for you! I did it for my sister! If it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t be going through any of this shit. But you know what? I’m going to refrain from saying anything else. So just give me my money so I can go inside, thank you.”

  I sat on my mama’s front steps and rested my arms on my knees. Curiosity was getting the best of me. What did he have to say? How could he possibly explain being over there when him being with her is the whole damn problem? Ty stood at the foot of the stairs rubbing his head. He didn’t know where to start and I knew it, so I initiated the conversation.

  “So where’s your bitch? Why aren’t you with her? At this point, she needs you more than I do. I’m good.”

  “Presley, I’m sorry. I know you probably hate me, but I was actually getting ready to come home when you showed up,” he cried. “Do you still love me?”

  He was pathetic! Was he serious right now? He picked this moment to ask if I still loved him? He was trying to b
ait me and I was not falling for that shit this time. I decided to ignore his question. He didn’t deserve an answer to that just yet.

  “Ty, look, I don’t have time for this shit. I’m tired and all I want to do is get the boys home and rid myself of this funky jail cell’s odor. I’m ‘bout to go inside. Either you coming in or you leaving. Which one is it?”

  “I’m coming in,” he replied, holding the screen door for me.

  I took a deep breath before greeting my mama. I was ready for her to pick me apart. She was sitting at the table drinking her morning cup of coffee and eating a slice of toast. Just plain old toast. I thought that was so damn nasty. The toast needed some plum preserves or something on it. But that was her thang and she was too set in her ways to change.

  “Hey, mama; thanks for watching the boys for me. Did Harper keep you up?” I inquired.

  “Child, naw. He was too tired. His little but tried to stay up and play, but I gave him a bottle and put him to sleep,” she grinned. “So, what you got going on? What trouble you done got into? This is out of character for you.”

  My heart wanted to pour out every sordid detail of Ty’s affair, but I just didn’t have it in me. Besides, he was sitting right there, and as much as I disliked him, it wouldn’t have been right for me to have that conversation with him sitting right there. I guess Ms. Cora read my mind because she asked to speak to me privately.

  “Ty and Jani, make sure the boys get something to eat. I need to show Presley something upstairs. We’ll be a few minutes.”

  As I followed my mom to her room, I admired how pretty she was for fifty years old. She had beautiful waist length hair, an incredible smile, and a cute shape. I laughed to myself because Jani and I were the spitting images of her!

  “Close the door and sit down,” she instructed.

  “Mama, what is this about? I’m exhausted and I just want to go home and pretend last night never happened.”

  “Listen, little girl, do you still love your husband?” she asked.

  “Yeah, but…”

  “No buts. If you still love him, then fight for him. No one ever said marriage was easy. Yes, he made a stupid mistake, but that man loves you and those boys. I can see it all over his face. You DO realize he didn’t have to come over here this morning. That says a lot. He dropped that bitch off at the hospital and came right over here.”

  “Mom, I’m tired of dealing with this. It’s been over a year. He loves her. I mean how can I compete with a woman he spent so much time with?” I wept.

  “Girl, SO! You don’t realize you have the upper hand in this situation. YOU have those babies and you know he is never going to leave you assed out while you have those babies. You know better. Listen and listen to me good. A man is a man all day, but if he really wanted to leave he would be gone already,” she pointed out. “It doesn’t matter how many kids you have and how long you have been married; if he wanted to leave he could have done it way before you kicked him out.”

  My mom was very wise and the knowledge she was spitting made sense, but my heart couldn’t take any more heartbreak. And the recent events have been way too much to bear. See, mom wasn’t aware that he had hit me.

  “Mama, we got into it and he hit me,” I revealed.

  “Uhn uh, tell the entire story, Presley. I know he is doing some less than satisfactory shit, but that man would never hit you. If you want to save your marriage, you have to start by telling the truth.”

  Ugh! She gets on my nerves with that shit, I thought. My mom was the one person who could see right through me.

  “Okay, okay. I hit him first and it very well could have been a reaction. I’m not sure.”

  “Girl, stop! That is something else you need to work on. Keep your hands to yourself! Hell, I’m surprised he ain’t knocked fire from your ass way before this because you always hitting that man. You need to control that.”

  “Damn! Whose side are you on?” I frowned.

  “Watch ya mouth,” she snipped. “I’m on your side. But, you love that man and I damn sure wouldn’t hand him over to the next bitch. Shit, you making it easy for him to be with her. Baby, every time he steps out that door I would be right on his damn heels, showing him I’m in for the long haul.”

  We had been talking for a good twenty minutes before I realized my mom was cussing. She must have been serious about this talk because she never used profanity.

  “Mama, I’m just so hurt behind all of this. Ty had nothing when I met him and I loved him anyway. That was the one time I decided NOT to be shallow and follow my heart. What did it get me? A world of fucking heartache!” Oops! I didn’t mean to cuss, but I was very emotional and mama would have to understand.

  “Guurl, Ty ain’t going nowhere… trust me on that,” she assured me. “All men get into shit. What? You think ya daddy was faithful one hundred percent of the time? Hell no!”

  As I hugged a turquoise pillow from her bed, I sat confused. My heart was telling me to fight for what I wanted and that pissed me off because I felt stupid. After all of the hurt and tears he had caused me, I should've wanted to get as far away from him as I possibly could, but that wasn’t the case. I wanted my husband. I wanted my family that I had worked so hard to create and it was just not in me to give up. Besides, I didn’t give a damn who he ended up with if this didn’t work. There would never be another woman to love him the way I did!

  “Mama, you are right as usual. I do love him and I need to know that I gave it my all before I just throw in the towel. I just gotta figure out what my next move is. This situation is so perplexing I can’t think straight. He has me all topsy-turvy.”

  “Well, y’all need to go home and discuss it.”

  “Okay.”

  I went back downstairs where Ty was rocking Harper to sleep and Jani was keeping the boys occupied. It melted my heart to see him with Harper in his arms.

  “Ty, can you take us home? I’m too tired to drive back,” I admitted. “We also need to talk.”

  “Sure,” he smiled. “Let me get Harper’s car seat while you get Darren and Tyler ready and we can be on our way.”

  The drive home was inaudible. Neither of us knew the words to say nor did we want to have this conversation while the kids were in the car. The thirty-minute drive seemed to take forever. I was desperate for a Calgon moment.

  When we pulled into the driveway, Ty got out and unlocked the front door for me. I made a mad dash to start my bath water while he got the boys out of the car. Aromatic scents of brown sugar and vanilla took me to a place of serenity. The hot water felt wonderful as it pelted my body, but I had to hurry because Ty was still waiting for our talk about what had taken place last night.

  After drying off and applying my brown sugar vanilla lotion, I put on a floral print maxi dress and threw my hair in a messy bun. Ty walked into the bedroom just as I was finishing.

  “Hey.”

  “Uhh… hey,” I replied.

  “Presley, I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I keep doing things to hurt you. I should be home loving you and telling you just how beautiful you are to me every damn day.”

  “How am I supposed to respond to that?” I sighed. “No, really, what do you want me to say to that? I just got home from a night in jail because I had a physical altercation with your mistress at her house! So please tell me how am I supposed to feel?”

  Ty backed me into a wall and cupped my face. “I love you, Presley. You have to believe that. You have every right to feel the way you do, but baby, I love you.”

  A beautiful smile appeared on his face, one that I’d not seen in a very long time. Honestly, I forgot how handsome he was when he smiled, especially since we had spent the last year arguing every day.

  “Why are you smiling at me?”

  “I’m smiling because you look so fucking sexy in that dress. It is taking everything in me to keep from lifting it up over my head,” he flirted. “Tell me, what color is your G-string? Or do you have one on at all?”

&n
bsp; Oh my God. I was too vulnerable for this and Ty knew it. My juice-box was ready for him to take a sip. After all of the shit he had put me through, he still had this effect on me. My breathing became shallow and my voice became throaty as Ty’s hand traveled the length of my body.

  “Ty…” I moaned. “Stop.”

  Ignoring my request, he slipped his tongue deep inside of my mouth, causing me to reciprocate his actions. Our tongues embraced each other as my body gave into him. I was lost in the moment. The room quickly filled with unrequited passion as Ty eased down slowly, lifting my dress over his head. He licked my creamy center as if I was a caramel-filled Hershey’s Kiss.

  “Can I taste you, Presley?” He licked, not waiting for my answer.

  “You’re… already… tasting me,” I managed to respond with each breath.

  “I know, baby, and this pussy taste so fucking good to me!”

  My body was on the brink of explosion. My knees buckled and guttural noises escaped from within me. Ty circled his fingers inside me as he held my orgasm in his very hand. He sucked my clit and tongue fucked me into uncontrollable submission. By the time he was done, his shirt was soaked, his arms were doused with droplets of my honey-flavored nectar and his goatee and chin were dripping with glaze.

  Yeah, we would have to talk another day. He had worn me out and after last night, I was going to sleep like a baby. Ty would have to watch the boys while I caught up on my sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-One: Chase

  I’d been keeping to myself since my nephew was born. Kadeema’s mentally unstable ass had been blowing my phone up every day for the last month. She needed to understand that I handled shit in my own damn time, not hers.

  Evidently, Kadeema had left so many messages that my mailbox was full to capacity. I decided to check them to make room for my many women I often ignored. Most of the voicemails were of her asking me where I’d been and why hadn’t she heard from me. I didn’t have to listen to that shit, so I was getting ready to delete the remainder of her voicemails. However, the very last message I listened to was music to my ears.