Her So Called Husband

by Chenell Parker

  My finger was throbbing and bleeding all at the same time. I knew that this was far from over because Keanna was known for playing dirty. She believed in getting revenge if she felt that somebody had wronged her. I wasn’t scary, but I would have to watch my back since I knew I would definitely be on her list.

  Chapter 19: KEANNA

  I couldn’t believe those scary bitches jumped me. I didn’t claim to be the best fighter in the world, but I could hold my own when it was one on one. Cherika and her sisters couldn’t fight for shit so they were always jumping somebody. I was in my bathroom mirror looking at the damage they had done to my face. I had a small bruise under my left eye and a few scratches, but it was nothing that a little makeup couldn’t fix. Since it was three against one, I should have been in far worse shape than I was in. That was how I knew none that of them bitches had hands. It was far from over though. I would make sure I saw each and every one of them again, especially Cherika. I still had a few tricks up my sleeve for her nasty ass.

  I walked to my kitchen to fix myself a drink when my phone started ringing. I knew it was Troy because he had been blowing my phone up for the past few days. I kept telling him that I couldn’t come up with the money to get him out, but he wasn’t trying to hear that. I went to my walk in closet in search of the perfect outfit for later today.

  TJ, the owner of the building where I worked, gave me a VIP invitation to the grand opening of the club that he was leasing to his friend. Well he actually gave it to his dad to give to me, but I was still happy that he even thought of me at all. Troy and nobody else was going to ruin my day. I kind of wished TJ would have invited me to go with him, but I would take what I could get for now.

  Tonight was going to be the night that I told him how I feel. I was tired of crushing on him from a distance. There was nothing shy about me so I wasn’t scared to put my feelings out there. He never mentioned having a girlfriend so that was a good thing. Knowing how good he looked, he was probably a ladies’ man just like Dre.

  I finally emerged from my closet after settling on a black and gold Juicy Couture halter dress. I had a pair of black stilettos with gold spikes that would be perfect with it. I didn’t have that much ass, but I have enough breasts and a flat stomach to make it work. It was after two in the morning, but I still sat at my vanity and put a few flexible rollers in my hair. I wanted everything to be perfect and a curly up-do would be perfect with my chosen outfit. My phone started ringing again right after I put the last roller in my hair and this time I answered.

  “Hello,” I said trying to sound tired.

  “Your ass is not sleeping so you can stop faking,” Troy yelled into the phone.

  He called me all times of the day and night from a cell phone that one of the guards smuggled in for the inmates.

  “It’s late, Troy. What do you want?” I asked with an attitude.

  “Bitch, you sure been talking reckless since I been locked up huh? I ain’t going to be in this bitch forever, remember that,” he replied. “What’s going on with you trying to get me out of here? These people trying to make me do six months if I don’t come up with the bail money.”

  “ I already told you that I can’t come up with that kind of money by myself. I’m working a bunch of overtime trying to keep these bills paid.”

  If I did have the money, I wouldn’t have gotten him out anyway. He needed to be in there to detox. I was really feeling TJ so I didn’t care if he ever came home.

  “So you can’t ask anybody in your family to lend you the money? What about Dre? He spends more than that taking that bitch Alexus shopping. I know he got it,” Troy said.

  He was foul as hell for even asking me to go to Dre for help. Nobody in my family would give me a dime to help him out.

  “Well, maybe if you wouldn’t have been fucking his wife while he was in jail he probably would have helped you out. And besides, you was the one who stopped fucking with him, not the other way around,” I replied sarcastically.

  “What! Who said I fucked her? That’s a lie,” Troy said like I was stupid.

  “Ok Troy. Play dumb if you want to. Dre already knows everything. And he knows that Drew is yours too.”

  “Man you got me fucked up! That lil boy is not mine!” He shouted. I could see he was going to take this lie to his grave so I decided to put a stop to it now.

  “Troy I did the test myself so I know that you’re Drew’s father,” I told him. He was quiet for a while and I knew I had him right where I wanted him.

  “Baby look, it wasn’t even like you think. It only happened one time and I took her to a motel,” he lied.

  “One time, huh? So y’all never had sex in my bed or on my sofa or my kitchen counters?” I asked him.

  “That bitch told you that? She lying Keanna. She just trying to make you leave me,” he said trying to convince me.

  “Nobody is trying to make me leave you Troy. You’re doing a damn good job of that all by yourself,” I replied.

  “Baby she lying, I promise. I’m not going to lie; I did have sex with her, but not in our house. I wouldn’t do you like that,” he continued to say.

  “I was just a bitch a minute ago, but since you know your ass is busted, I’m baby now. And for your information, Cherika didn’t tell me anything. She’s a liar, just like you. I have my ways of finding out what I need to know,” I said as I hung up on his lying ass.

  I turned my ringer off and prepared to take my shower. I had a long day ahead of me and I wanted to be well rested before I met up with TJ. It would have been nice if I had somebody to go with me, but I didn’t have many friends and my cousins were still mad with me. They took Cherika’s side once they found out that I was the one who tested Drew. I came clean once I saw that all the evidence pointed to me. Nobody ever took the time out to ask me how I felt. After all, it was my man that she slept with and had a baby by. It didn’t matter to me one way or another. My goal was to get Dre to leave her and that mission was accomplished.

  ****

  I looked at my reflection in the mirror and blew a kiss at the bad bitch who stared back at me. My hair and makeup were flawless and the outfit I chose was on point. I was a little nervous about seeing TJ outside of work, but after a few drinks, the butterflies in my stomach would go away. I pulled my car up to the VIP section of the club and waited until the valet came to open my door.

  The club was in a nice area on Manhattan Blvd. on the Westbank of New Orleans. The exterior was well lit and the parking was plentiful. Before I walked inside, I popped a mint and sprayed on a little perfume. I wanted to smell as good as I looked. There was no line, so I handed the guy at the door my invite. In return, he gave me a neon green bracelet, allowing me to enter and exit the VIP area with no problems.

  When I walked into the club, my entire face dropped as I looked around in awe. The outside looked almost like a lighted warehouse, but the inside was simply amazing. The color scheme was royal blue and silver. There were mirrors surrounding the entire dance floor, allowing dancers to see themselves as they moved around. The floors were made of blue and silver tiles that gave the place and elegant look. A spiraled staircase led the way to the upstairs VIP section so I headed that way. The club was pretty crowded to say it was still early. I bumped into a few people as I made my way to the staircase.

  “Hey you,” a male voice said from behind me. I turned around and came face to face with Malik. “Hey yourself,” I spoke back to him. I guess I never it noticed before, but he was very handsome. I guess he had to be if Alexus dated him. A man had to look a certain way for her to even give them a second look.

  “I haven’t seen you in a while,” he said.

  “Yeah, I’ve been working like crazy,” I replied.

  “Where’s your friend?” Malik asked.

  “What friend are you referring to?” I asked.

  “Alexus,” was his simple reply. If I had been anywhere else, I would have given him a piece of my mind. He was only getting a pass because I w
as in a good mood.

  “That’s not my friend. She’s just my cousin’s girlfriend,” I said.

  “She should be the last person you’re asking about after what happened to you.”

  I heard about Dre getting some of our cousins to attack Malik and some of his friends at the bar a few months ago. Malik walked away from the brawl with a broken jaw. He was crazy as hell for worrying about Alexus.

  “Yeah, but that didn’t have nothing to do with her. Your cousin is just crazy,” he laughed.

  “Yeah, well she’s still with his crazy ass so you better keep it moving,” I told him as I walked up the stairs. It wasn’t as crowded in VIP as it was downstairs. I guess too many people didn’t have access. I strolled over to the bar while scanning the small crowd for TJ. I didn’t see him so I ordered a watermelon martini. I sat in one of the bar stools while my drink was being prepared. The atmosphere was nice and I could see myself coming here quite often.

  “I see you made it,” a male voice said from behind. I would recognize that smooth baritone from anywhere. I turned around and smiled up at TJ. To say he looked damn good was an understatement. His eyes were mesmerizing.

  “You look nice,” he said while looking me over. Nice wasn’t exactly the compliment I was going for, but I would take anything coming from him.

  “Thanks,” I replied. “You look good too.” Every time I saw him, he was rocking a fresh pair of Jordans and some jeans. Seeing him in his linen outfit and Cole Haan dress shoes made me want him even more.

  “Where are you sitting?” I asked him. I wanted to be wherever he was.

  “Nowhere at the moment. I’m waiting on some people to get here before I sit down.”

  “Oh, you got your lil boo coming to keep you company?” I just threw that out there, but I was hoping that wasn’t the case.

  “Something like that,” he replied to my disappointment.

  I really didn’t care about whoever she was. I had no problem competing for what I wanted. TJ and I sat around talking and sipping on our drinks. I was trying my best to let him know that I was feeling him without actually saying it. Everything I said seemed to go over his head. Either that or he wasn’t interested. Our conversation was flowing until he got a text message and excused himself.

  “I’ll be right back. I’m going to meet my people outside,” he said while getting up. I couldn’t wait to see who it was that had him smiling so damn hard. I ordered myself another drink and waited for him to return.

  “What you doing here?” I heard a female voice ask.

  I looked to the side and saw Jada standing there. She couldn’t stand me and the feeling was mutual.

  “Keanna?” another female voice said from behind.

  Why did Alexus and her flunky pick tonight to be in the same place as me? I conjured up a fake smile and looked her way. My smile faded immediately when I saw TJ with his arms wrapped around her waist. I couldn’t believe that this was who he was waiting for. After a few seconds, two other girls, who appeared to be twins, joined us at the bar.

  “Damn, y’all know each other?” TJ asked us.

  “Yeah. Me, Keanna and Jada went to school together,” Alexus replied. I noticed her sneaky ass conveniently left out the part about her being my cousin’s girlfriend.

  “Oh Ok. Well since I don’t need to introduce y’all, Keanna these are my lil sisters, Katina and Katrina,” he said. We exchanged pleasantries as everyone placed their drink orders.

  “How do you know Tyree?” Alexus asked me. I almost forgot that Tyree was his real name. TJ stood for Tyree, Jr. since that was also his dad’s name. Not many people used his real name and everyone in the office called his dad Mr. Tee.

  “He owns the building where I work,” I replied.

  “How do y’all know each other?” I asked her right back.

  “He’s Jada’s cousin. We met at a gathering at his mama’s house.” That really pissed me off. She had already met his mama and she appeared to be close with his sisters already.

  “This is my baby,” Tyree said while kissing her neck.

  “I’m trying to get her to make this thing official.” I wanted to vomit as I watched the two of them hug and kiss like they were newlyweds. This night was definitely not going like I wanted it to go.

  We all made our way over to an empty sofa and sat down. I was feeling like the odd one in the crew. Alexus and Tyree were damn near joined at the hip while Jada and her cousins talked amongst each other. Tyree’s sisters tried to include me in their conversation, but Jada made it her business to completely ignore me.

  “You’re staying with me this weekend right?” Tyree asked Alexus.

  I almost choked on my drink when he said that. She looked over at me before whispering in his ear. He was smiling like a damn fool. I felt sick to my stomach. I was so sick of her winning at everything. TJ had been on my radar for a while now, but this bitch had to mess it up for me. I now knew how Cherika would feel whenever her name came up. I was starting to hate Alexus just as much as she did.

  It wasn’t enough that she had one man falling all over her, but she had to have the one I wanted too. I had all kinds of evil thoughts running through my mind, but I settled on one in particular. I only had to make one phone call and Alexus and TJ’s weekend would be anything but pleasant. I excused myself from everyone and went to the bathroom. I took a deep breath and calledDre.

  Chapter 20: ALEXUS

  I was shocked to see Keanna sitting in the VIP section of the club when we got there. It had been a minute since I last talked to her. I know that Dre and his sisters were feeling some kind of way about her doing a DNA test on Drew, but that didn’t have anything to do with me. That was their family’s business.

  I noticed she would sneak peeks at Tyree and me, but I didn’t care. I wanted her to run back and tell Dre. That would make everything that much easier for me. As usual, he was ringing my phone off the hook every five minutes. He was probably trying to see when I was coming home. I hated to hurt his feelings, but I had no plans on going home at all this weekend.

  Tyree had been begging me for weeks to spend the weekend with him. He was mad when I went back home to Dre so I figured that was the least I could do. He told me he had something special planned for our night and I couldn’t wait to see what it was. I had a feeling that he wanted us to take our relationship to the next level sexually and I was more than ready.

  We had been kicking it for a few months now, but we never did anything more than kiss. I tried to take it there a few times, but Tyree would always say the timing wasn’t right. It didn’t matter what he said tonight, it was going down for sure.

  “I’ll be right back,” Tyree said, kissing me on the lips. He was back and forth taking pictures and talking with the club’s owner. He wasn’t the clubbing type, but since it was his building, he had to be in attendance.

  “Girl, Dre is going to kill you,” Keanna laughed.

  “Fuck Dre!” Jada spoke up before I had a chance to.

  “She is grown and if she wants to be with somebody else then so be it.”

  I knew this conversation was more personal for Jada seeing as how Tyree was her cousin. She saw how happy we made each other and she wanted us to be together. Besides that, she hated Dre and his entire family.

  “I’m talking to Alexus,” Keanna said to Jada.

  “And I’m talking to you,” Jada snapped.

  Tina and Trina were looking on in shock as the two of them passed words back and forth. They went from talking about me and Dre to talking about each other. I saw that the situation was getting out of hand, so I decided to intervene.

  “Ok y’all, let’s hit the bar again,” I said as I got up from my seat.

  I made a mental note to talk to Jada when Keanna wasn’t around. I knew how she felt about Keanna, but this was not the time or the place for drama. Tyree didn’t deserve to have his night ruined by them fussing and fighting. Jada never acted this way with anyone before so I knew it was serious. Sh
e was usually so calm.

  Keanna was acting kind of nervous. I noticed that she would get up every so often to use her phone. If she wasn’t on it, she was checking it. I wasn’t sure what that was all about, but it was pissing Jada off. “That bitch is a snake,” she kept saying.

  “Something is not right with her,” Katrina agreed.

  “I’m telling you, Alexus is the only one that can’t see she’s shady,” Jada replied.

  “You see how she did Cherika. They were friends, but she hooked you up with Dre. She is cut throat. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when that bitch crosses you.” Jada was going off. I just laughed as they went on and on about something that I didn’t even care about. Keanna was not a threat to me at all.

  “Guess who’s in here,” Keanna asked me when she came back to her seat.

  “Who?” I asked her.

  “Girl, Malik. He asked about you too. I told him that Dre is still crazy and he better keep it moving,” she laughed.

  I don’t know why she insisted on bring Dre’s name up all night. He was the last person I wanted to talk about. I kind of felt like she was doing it on purpose, knowing Tyree’s sisters were sitting right her with us. It wasn’t like it was a secret. Everybody knew that I was with Dre, including Tyree and his family.

  “Girl I’m not worrying about Malik, Dre and nobody else for that matter. I’m here with the man that I want to be with,” I replied.

  I could tell that she didn’t like what I said just by the look on her face, but I meant every word. Tyree was like a breath of fresh air. I never realized how unhealthy Dre was for me until I met Tyree. He didn’t treat me like a child. We had a lot in common and we got along good. I was starting to fall in love and it scared me.

  It wasn’t a question of if he felt the same way because I know he did. He told me he was falling in love with me weeks ago. I just needed to get away from Dre and stay away. For some reason he had a hold on me that I couldn’t explain. He wasn’t going to let me go without a fight and I didn’t want to involve Tyree in all of my madness. He told me that he could deal with whatever was thrown at him and I believed that he could. Dre was cut from a different cloth and I knew how he got down.