Her So Called Husband

by Chenell Parker

  “So how long have you been talking to Tyree?” Keanna asked.

  “Long enough to know she loves me,” he said sitting down next to me, laughing. Keanna tried hard, but she failed to mask the envious look on her face. I was starting to take heed to some of the words that Jada spoke.

  “I’ll be right back,” she said getting up from the sofa.

  “I think you got a secret crush,” I told Tyree.

  “Who, Keanna?” he asked.

  “Yes, Keanna,” Jada said.

  “Don’t act like you don’t know. She has been mean mugging my friend on the slick all night. She about to get her assed whopped if she keep it up.” Jada was in rare form tonight.

  “Don’t start nothing in this man club Jada,” Tyree said.

  “This is his first night opening the doors.” I had to make sure I stayed close to Jada just in case she had other plans.

  I had a funny feeling about something and I was ready to go anyway. Being here was important to Tyree so I had to wait until he was ready.

  “How long you have to stay here?” I asked him over the music.

  “I can leave whenever I’m ready. I just wanted to show my face. You ready to go?” he asked. I hated to say yes, but my first mind was telling me that it was time.

  “Yeah, I’m hungry,” I replied. I didn’t want to tell him about the feeling I was having, so I left it at that. Tyree stood up and grabbed my hand,

  “We’re about to go y’all, come on,” he said to his sisters and Jada. Trina was talking to one of the bartenders and it didn’t look like she would be ready anytime soon.

  “Y’all go ahead. I know why y’all rushing to get out of here,” Jada laughed.

  “Hell no, you not staying in here so you and Keanna can shut this man’s club down,” Tyree told her. “We got her. She’ll be alright,” Tina said.

  “You sure?” I asked Tina.

  “Yeah, y’all go ahead. Nobody not trying to be in here fighting like children,” Tina said while looking at Jada.

  Tyree grabbed my hand and we headed down the staircase. When we got downstairs, it was packed to full capacity. Tyree pulled me close so I wouldn’t get lost in the crowd. We were almost to the exit when I felt somebody tapping me on the shoulder. I stopped walking to turn around only to come face to face with Eric. It was as if all the wind was knocked from my body. He looked from me to Tyree, then back at me again.

  “What’s up Alexus?” Eric said with a smirk on his face.

  “Hey,” I replied nervously. He was looking at Tyree like he was trying to figure out who he was.

  “Is this your boo or something?” Eric asked while still looking at us.

  “Or something, nigga. Let’s go, Lex,” Tyree said while pulling me along.

  “Nigga, I wasn’t talking to you. Mind your fucking business,” Eric said to Tyree.

  “Nigga, she is my business,” Tyree said standing in front of me.

  “You good fam?” One of the bouncers asked Tyree.

  “Yeah, I’m straight,” he said as we started walking off again.

  “We’ll see each other again,” Eric said to Tyree as we walked out of the club.

  My first mind has never let me down. I knew it was a reason for the weird feelings I was having. I was so happy that we were leaving. Knowing Eric, he was telling Dre about me and Tyree at this very moment.

  Chapter 21: KEANNA

  When I got back to the table, TJ and Alexus were gone. “Where did Lex go?” I asked one of Tyree’s sisters.

  “She and Tyree left,” his sister told me.

  “She trying to be alone with her man,” Jada said, putting emphasis on the word man.

  I couldn’t stand that heifer and she knew it. She was always trying to get under my skin. This time it was working. It was killing me to know that Alexus and TJ were together. I had been calling Dre for an hour before he finally picked up. He said he was on his way, but he hadn’t showed up yet.

  I was wrong for getting him involved, but I was desperate. I wanted TJ and that was the bottom line. I knew that if Dre showed up, he would drag Alexus out of the club and no one was going to stop him. Once that happened, I would be left alone with TJ and I could make my move.

  that was supposed to be the plan. I didn’t think they would leave so soon. I was pissed with myself, but I was even more pissed with Dre. If he had come when he said he would, they would probably still be here. That wasn’t like Dre at all.

  Now I was wondering if everything was alright with him. Usually when something involved Alexus, he would drop everything to get there. I grabbed my purse and got up from the sofa, preparing to leave. I looked around the VIP section one last time just to be sure they weren’t in there. I walked down the spiral staircase and was met byEric.

  “Hey cuz. What you doing in here?” I asked him. I could tell he was pissed, just by the look on his face. He looked at me, but didn’t say anything. I knew he wasn’t mad with me like his sisters and Dre was, because we still talked regularly.

  “You good cousin?” I asked again.

  “Man, I don’t know who that nigga was that Alexus was with, but he was about to get fucked up!” Eric fumed. I knew he was talking about TJ, but I wondered what could have happened.

  “Let’s go outside. It’s too noisy in here,” I told him as I led the way out of the club.

  “What happened?” I asked him once we were outside.

  “That nigga was in there popping off like he wanted to do something. We gon’ see each other again. Believe that.” Eric said angrily.

  I didn’t want to tell him that I knew TJ. He and Dre could be crazy at times and I didn’t want anything to happen to Tyree. It wasn’t his fault that Alexus was a hoe. He just got caught up with the wrong one. Dre was not about to let her be with somebody else as long as he had breath in his body. I don’t know what the hell she did to my cousin, but I hope she never got the chance to do the same to Tyree.

  “Dre needs to leave her sneaky ass alone. That hoe got his nose wide open,” Eric said. He had to really be mad because he was one of the very few who liked Alexus.

  “I saw her upstairs with a dude. I called him and he been said he was on his way, but he never showed up,” I told my cousin.

  “I called him too, but he never answered,” Eric replied.

  “He could have stayed with his own wife if he wanted to deal with some bullshit,” he said.

  “And you right cousin,” I cosigned.

  “That nigga don’t want you to say nothing about her, but she a straight up hoe. I’ll tell him to his face and I don’t care if he gets mad. At least Cherika waited until he got locked up before she fucked around,” Eric said.

  “He just need to go back home to his family,” I said, but I didn’t mean that shit at all. That was the last thing I wanted him to do. If anything, I wanted him to be with Alexus more than ever now. At least that would give me a chance with Tyree.

  “Well, I’m about to go. Who did you come here with?”

  “I came with some of my friends, but I’m riding back with you. I’ll text them and let them know. I don’t even feel like partying any more. Then they ruined my damn high,” Eric complained. I called the valet over and gave him the ticket to retrieve my car.

  Eric was still trying to call Dre, but he still didn’t answer. I don’t know what the problem was, but something had to be wrong. I could see him not answering for me, but he never ignored Eric’s calls. When the valet pulled up with my car, we got in and left out of the parking lot.

  “He’s still not answering?” I asked Eric as we drove off.

  “Nope; I don’t know what’s up with that dude. You know how he act when somebody tell him something about her. He might be waiting for her to come home so he can beat her ass,” Eric said.

  “Well according to her and ol’ boy’s conversation, she’s not going home tonight,” I replied, repeating what I heard them say.

  “What! Dre gon’ end up killing her ass,” Eric rep
lied.

  “I hope my cousin don’t get himself in trouble playing around with her ratchet ass,” I said. I never knew Alexus to be a hoe, but she had been proving me wrong lately. First, it was Malik and now she was with Tyree. Even after all of that I knew that Dre would never leave her alone. He was forever making excuses for her.

  “I hope he don’t get in no trouble either,” Eric said, breaking my thoughts. He started to say something else when his phone rang.

  “This that nigga calling me right now,” he said.

  “Where you at, man? I have been calling you for a minute.” I don’t know what Dre was saying, but it couldn’t have been good, judging from Eric’s face.

  Chapter 22: D’ANDRE

  After I put my kids to bed, I grabbed my bottle of Patron and my blunt and stretched out on the sofa. Alexus went out with some of her girls so I was on my own for a while. Our relationship seemed kind of off lately. I tried doing everything that I could think of to put a smile on her face, but it never seemed to be enough.

  She complained about the smallest shit. She was getting tired of my kids being here so much so I slacked up with their visits. That still didn’t work. She always found something else to be mad about. It was crazy that I went out of my way to please her and I had a wife who was willing to do the same for me. I ran after Alexus like Cherika ran after me.

  I know I did Cherika wrong, but I just didn’t love her any more. It was wrong of me to even spend nights at her house and even worse that I slept with her. In her mind, we were getting back together and I know I led her on. She wanted more from me than I was willing to give. I asked her for a divorce a million times, but she wasn’t trying to hear me.

  Our entire marriage was doomed from the start. She had me by the balls when I was locked up so I really didn’t have a choice. I tried telling her that we’d get married when I got out, but she knew that was a lie. Lately she had been on some stalker shit and I ended up having to restrict her calls because she called me so much. She didn’t care what time of the day or night it was, she would ring my phone off the hook. Alexus was fed up with her so I had to block her from calling.

  Just recently, she started calling from somebody else’s phone with her bullshit. She ended up finding out about me and her sister. Alexus told me that she let it be known when they followed her in the mall. I wasn’t mad at her for telling it because she would have found out eventually. I was more worried about Lex finding out that it happened since we’ve been together. The situation was fucked up, but it was too late for regrets. Like I told her, her sister could have turned me down so she was as much at fault as I was.

  Sometimes I didn’t understand how or why Cherika even wanted me. I did things that no married man should have ever done. She lowered her standards so many times just to please me, but it was never enough to keep me from wandering. Another woman had done something that she could never do and that was make me fall in love. That was something that I swore I would never do.

  I loved Cherika, but I was never in love with her. I loved her for all the wrong reasons. She accepted things that Alexus or no other woman would ever put up with. She made me more of a priority than herself and my kids and I hated that. Cherika’s self-esteem was low and that was unattractive to me.

  Alexus had more confidence than women twice her age. That was one of the things that drew me to her. She made it known that she wanted me, but she didn’t need me. She was demonstrating that now since I had been calling her phone nonstop for over two hours without getting an answer. I had a feeling that she was on some bullshit again. She was never home anymore and when I asked her anything about her whereabouts, she would blow up.

  I promised her that I wasn’t going to put my hands on her any more, but she was making it hard. I didn’t want to think that somebody else was in the picture, but that’s what all the signs pointed to. Jada probably knew everything that was going on, but I couldn’t even be mad at her though. Her loyalty was to Alexus and not me. Knowing Jada, she probably encouraged her to mess around.

  I was about to pick up my phone and call this chick that I met a few days ago. I needed something or someone to get my mind off of Alexus and our problems. Before I could dial her number, my phone started to ring. I got excited for a second, thinking it might be my baby. That was only until I saw Keanna’s number flash across my screen. Out of all people in the world to call me, I couldn’t believe it was her.

  I hadn’t talked to Keanna in a few months. I wasn’t mad at her for doing the DNA test, even though I wish she had come to me first. I was pissed about how she played both sides when it came to Cherika and Alexus. It never crossed my mind that she was the one who put Cherika down on everything that went on with us. Especially since she was the one who brought us together in the first place. I guess that was her way of getting back at Cherika for dealing with Troy. I was still wondering how she found out about that in the first place. I know he didn’t volunteer that information and Cherika would have died before she said anything. The only reason she told my family the truth was because she wanted their help in getting me back.

  I looked down at my ringing phone that displayed Keanna’s number for the sixth time in a row. Something was telling me to answer, but I let it go to voicemail once again. I wondered what could have been so serious that she would call me. After Cherika told me that she was the one who supplied her with all of her info, I cursed her ass out and told her I was done with her. One thing I hated was a snake. And she was the worst kind. She had me fooled and that was damn hard to do.

  My phone started ringing again. This time, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to pick up to see what she wanted. I know it couldn’t be anything wrong with the family because somebody else would be calling me too.

  “Fuck is you blowing my phone up for!” I yelled into the receiver.“I told you I don’t fuck with your snake ass any more.” I could tell she was shocked at the way I answered because she paused for a minute before she spoke.

  “I know I’m probably the last person you want to hear from, but it’s kind of important,” she said. I didn’t know where she was, but the music was loud as hell in the background.

  “What Keanna?” I said in an impatient tone.

  “Um, are you and Alexus still together?” she asked hesitantly.

  She had my undivided attention now. Keanna was messy as a muthafucka, but when she gave you some info, she was always right on the money. I had a feeling that she was about to tell me something that I didn’t want or need to hear.

  “Why you ask me that? What’s up?” I asked.

  “Well I’m at the grand opening for my friend’s club and she’s here,” she replied. I knew there was more to the story, but I played along until she got to the point.

  “Ok. I already know her and Jada went out. What’s your point?” She was starting to piss me off with all this beating around the bush.

  “Well Jada here too, but ole girl is in here with a dude.”

  My heart dropped when she said that last part. They always say females have intuition, but I sure as hell needed to know what it’s called when a man had the same feelings. I knew something was up with her ass. The attitude change and constant complaining was a dead giveaway. It was cool though. I had something for her and that nigga she was with.

  “What club y’all at Keanna?”

  “It’s a new club that just opened today. It’s called Club Manhattan. It’s on Manhattan Blvd. in Harvey,” she replied. That was all I needed to know. I was on my way to shut that shit down.

  “I’m on my way over there. Call me if she leaves,” I told her before hanging up.

  I jumped up from the sofa and went to my walk-in closet. It was hot outside, but I threw on some black sweat pants and a black hoodie. I wanted to be comfortable for whatever might pop off. I grabbed my keys and my gun from my dresser drawer and prepared to head out. I stopped in my tracks when I heard coughing coming from the other bedroom.

  Damn! I was so bu
sy rushing out of here to go see about Alexus, I almost left my kids in the house alone. I went into the bedroom to check on them and they were all still asleep. I hated to do it, but I had to wake them up. There was no way they could stay in here by themselves. I would just have to bring them home before I went anywhere. It was going to delay me a few minutes, but it had to be done.

  “Where we going, Daddy?” My daughter asked me sleepily.

  “I’m bringing y’all home. I have to go handle something right quick. I’ll come get y’all again later on,” I replied.

  “Where’s Alexus?” she asked.

  “She’s not here. I’m about to go get her now.” I picked Drew up, while the rest of them followed me out to the car. I called Cherika to let her know that we were on our way.

  “Hello,” she answered on the first ring.

  “Yeah, open the door. I’m about to bring them home,” I told her. I used to have a key to Cherika’s house until Alexus found out about it. She had a fit and I ended up throwing the damn thing away. I was getting mad all over again when I thought about her. I made changes to my life to make her happy, but she still wanted to fuck over me.

  “Why, what’s wrong?” Cherika asked shaking me from my thoughts.

  “Nothing is wrong. I have to handle something and they can’t be inside by themselves,” I replied. I knew she was about to start bitching and I was absolutely right.

  “Dre, it’s almost two in the morning. What could you possibly have to handle at this hour?” she asked. “What your bitch don’t want your children at y’all house or something?” I knew that was coming, but I really wasn’t in the mood for it right now.

  “you can miss me with the bullshit, just open the door. I’m on my way,” I said disconnecting the call. I was already pissed off and I hoped and prayed that she didn’t make it worse. She had a bad habit of popping off at the wrong time.