by B. M. Hardin
And at that moment, and after finding out that Eddie was lying about my existence to a woman that he was obviously interested in, more than anything else, I wanted to feel desired.
I opened the car door.
Polo didn’t say anything.
He just looked concerned.
I wondered what was on his mind but I couldn’t tell.
I stepped out of the car and just before I closed the door, I bent down to look at him.
“Come on,” I said.
After a second or two…Polo got the hint.
*******************************************
CHAPTER 8
“Oh no,” I mumbled.
I didn’t even want to speak on it; I just had to come up with a plan.
I waited for Eddie to come into the house with the boys.
“They have already eaten. They just need baths and they should knock right out. I can stick around and give them one.”
Eddie admitted to denying that he had an ex-wife and kids.
He said that he wasn’t comfortable with telling people that he was divorced yet and that he and the woman had been becoming quite friendly.
But I was determined to mess all that shit up.
I asked him how he was going to explain it to her if they had ever truly started to date.
All he said was that he hadn’t thought that far ahead.
I wished that I had at least talked to him about it first, instead of acting on my feelings and having sex with Polo.
I did it because I was angry and even though it was good, I knew that it was the wrong thing to do.
They weren’t really friends anymore and I wasn’t married, so I guess it wasn’t as bad as it had been previously, but I was sure that Eddie wouldn’t appreciate it.
But having just looked at my calendar before Eddie walked in, it appeared as though I had sex with Polo on one of my ovulation days.
I wasn’t on birth control, and my tubes weren’t tied.
And though we’d had sex with a condom, it broke during the 101 positions that Polo had put me in and we didn’t notice it until the end.
At least I didn’t.
I’m sure that he did.
I hadn’t been pregnant since our youngest son strictly by keeping up with my ovulation and my most fertile days.
It doesn’t work for everyone, but it had been working for me for years.
If I was ovulating or fertile and Eddie wanted sex, he would either wait, or wear a condom on those days.
And it had worked for us.
But I made a mistake.
I wasn’t planning on having sex with Polo that day, or anybody else for that matter, so I hadn’t been keeping up with it.
And I had a feeling that I might have made the biggest mistake of all.
It was too late for the morning after pill, so now I had to do something scandalous.
I had to find a way to make Eddie have sex with me.
I be damned if I had a baby by Polo and if I did, he would never know it.
Having sex with Eddie would be only a couple of days away from when I’d had sex with Polo, and I needed to make this happen between Eddie and I.
Someway.
Somehow.
Because with my bad luck lately, I had to make sure that I was two steps ahead of the problem, and if I turned up pregnant and wanted to pin it on Eddie, I at least had to make sure that he had gotten the goods.
“You never told me what you were doing with Polo that day?”
“He took me to an interview. I was having car trouble and he drove by. I was running late so he took me and called a tow truck to get my car home. After I didn’t get the job, he offered me lunch. That was it.”
Eddie looked at me.
“Oh.”
“I will never ever deal with Polo, again. You never have to worry about that.”
“If you did, that’s your business Sassi.”
“I wouldn’t. He’s your friend.”
“That hadn’t stopped you the first time. And we aren’t friends anymore Sassi. When I divorced you, I divorced him too in a way.”
Polo hadn’t told me of any recent conversations of him and Eddie but I assumed that was how he had heard about the divorce.
From Eddie.
“You want me to bathe them right quick?”
I walked closer to him.
I wrapped my arms around him.
“Losing you was the biggest mistake I have ever made. I never meant to hurt you. I loved you so much and I still do.”
“Move Sassi,” Eddie said.
“I love you Eddie. And I miss you so much. I’m so sorry.”
“Okay. It’s the past. I’m just trying to go forward. Oh, did you need any money?”
He kept trying to change the subject as he tried to pry my fingers away from his neck.
“I love you so much. Do you still love me?”
Eddie looked irritated.
“Do you Eddie?”
He didn’t say anything.
I tried to kiss him but he turned his head.
I took one of my hands and headed down to his jimmy.
It wasn’t on hard like it used to be when I touched him.
But I was going to work on it.
“Kiss me Eddie.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Why would I?”
Ouch.
“Because you love me.”
Eddie looked at me as if he was saying so what, I love my mama too.
As though his love for me no longer meant anything to him.
I gave up and Eddie headed upstairs to give the boys a bath.
He really didn’t want me.
I guess if some kind of pregnancy situation came up, I could go get it taken care of.
And Micki obviously knew a place since she had gone with Patrice to get rid of my brother or sister.
I could use some of the money that Eddie gave me because he always gave me more than enough.
So, I guess sex with Eddie wasn’t the only option.
After a while, I headed upstairs to see the kids bonding with their father so I left them alone.
He was still an amazing dad even though he wasn’t home with us every night.
That was all that really mattered.
I got comfortable and laid across the bed and entertained my thoughts.
Sometime or another I must have dozed off.
“They’re asleep. I’m about to go.”
I just looked at him but I didn’t say anything.
He just stood there and finally I turned my head.
I was only wearing a t-shirt and though I couldn’t see him I got the feeling that he was looking at my bare ass.
I wondered if he had been with anyone.
Considering his little problem, he probably hadn’t.
After a while I heard his footsteps come closer and closer.
Everything was still for a while, quiet and then out of nowhere, he grabbed a hand full of my hair.
Hard.
“Eddie, ouch!”
“Shut up.”
He turned me flat on my stomach and I heard him undo his pants.
He motioned for me to get on my knees and once I was, it wasn’t long before I felt Eddie inside of me.
Eddie started to stroke and I waited for him to cum but he didn’t.
He kept going.
He kept pumping and after a while, I started to get into it.
It felt different.
It felt better.
He grunted and rammed his cock inside of me, angrily, as though he was trying to hurt me or something.
As though he was trying to make me bleed.
But I actually liked it so I cooed.
Why did sex have to be like this after we’d divorced?
He hadn’t even taken a pill and he was lasting long enough to remind me of why I’d married him in the first place.
“Oh, I’m about to cum. I’m about to cum.�
�
I felt Eddie start to release, but I was right behind him.
“Yes! Yes Polo. Yes!”
Wait a minute…who?
I couldn’t even concentrate on the explosive orgasm that I had just gotten because I knew that I had just called Eddie Polo’s name.
Maybe he hadn’t noticed.
Eddie got up, put on his pants and called me a bitch.
Uh oh…yes he did.
What the hell Sassi!
He stormed out of my bedroom and down the stairs.
He yelled bitch one last time and then slammed the door behind him.
If he didn’t hate me before he damn sure hated me now.
There wasn’t a chance in hell that he would ever take me back.
Entering the bathroom and wiping the aftermath between my legs, I knew that I was going to have to apologize.
But at least I got his sperm.
~***~
“I miss you.”
To be honest I missed Micki too.
I guess I couldn’t be mad at her; after all she hadn’t really done anything, except run her mouth, as always.
“I miss you too girl,” I said.
She sat across from me.
“Have you talked to Patrice?”
Micki looked uncomfortable by the question.
“Yeah.”
“She told you what happened between us?”
“Yeah.”
“She still in Brazil?”
Micki was hesitant.
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s back here.”
“Why? I thought she was moving to Brazil.”
“She changed her mind about staying I guess.”
I could tell that Micki didn’t want to talk about Patrice.
Maybe she didn’t want to feel torn or obligated to say much so I let the subject go.
And she was more than happy to change the subject.
“So, how do we get you and Eddie back together?”
I shook my head.
“He don’t want me girl.”
“Why not?”
I hadn’t girl talked with her in a while, and though I was sure that she wasn’t going to be too happy with what I had to tell her, I was going to tell her anyway.
“I called Eddie Polo’s name during sex.”
“You didn’t.”
I shook my head up and down.
“How could you do that? How did that happen?”
“I don’t know. He was killing it from the back and had me screaming and all kinds of stuff. And the wrong name came out.
Micki shook her head.
“Well, he ain’t gonna take you back now.”
“That’s what I said.”
Micki’s phone started to ring and she looked at it but didn’t answer it.
I leaned over to see that it was Patrice.
“Answer it.”
“No. I will call her back.”
“Answer it.”
Micki rolled her eyes.
I stared at her and finally she smacked her lips and answered the phone.
“Hello?”
I couldn’t hear what Patrice was saying but Micki listened to her for a little while.
“Yeah. I’m with Sassi right now.”
Micki listened for a long while again.
“Okay.”
Micki hung up the phone.
“What did she say?”
“Nothing.”
Micki was definitely hiding something and it was killing her to hold it in.
She grabbed her purse and stood up.
“I gotta go.”
I was sure that it was something to do with Patrice but she went on her way and I was left alone.
One day she would break down and tell me whatever it was.
I was sure of it.
I headed back to take a seat..
I was so bored and I was tired of sitting around the house with nothing to do.
I was ready to go back to work.
The kids were staying overnight with Eddie at his parents, so I was going to die of boredom all day and night if I didn’t find something to get in to.
I wasn’t ready to start dating yet, even though I was probably going to have to get ready sooner or later.
Eddie wouldn’t even come in the house since I’d called him Polo’s name during sex.
He now made me bring the kids outside.
Speaking of Polo, I hadn’t really heard from him.
He hadn’t been as worrisome as I thought that he would be after screwing him, so I could only assume that he was doing other things or other women too.
But that was okay with me.
I headed to get my laptop and decided that writing would be the perfect way to pass time.
I reread some of my writing and then opened up a new document.
I had a better story to tell.
My own.
I thought of a title and then it came to me.
“The Wrong Husband”
Yeah.
I could definitely write one hell of a story about that.
~***~
“I need you to ride with me,” Micki said.
“Where?”
“Just come on. And you don’t need to bring the kids.”
Eddie was at work but I called his mother to ask if she could get them for me.
She acted like she hated me too, but she didn’t mind watching her grandkids.
We dropped off the kids and then Micki drove for a while.
She was silent for most of the ride and then we came to a stop.
It was a house; well a business that looked like a house.
Immediately I noticed that it was some kind of lawyer’s office.
“What are we doing here?”
Micki didn’t answer me, so I followed her inside.
She spoke to the receptionist and then had a seat beside me.
“What’s this about Micki?”
“You will see.”
After a few minutes, we were led to a back room and we took a seat at a big round table.
An old white man finally came in the room and sat in front of us.
“Good evening ladies. Let’s get started.”
“Wait. Could someone tell me what’s going on here?”
“I’m sorry. You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Patrice died Sassi,” Micki said.
My heart sank into the pit of my stomach.
“What? When? How?”
“She had a brain tumor. She had it for years, which is why she had been traveling like a crazy woman.”
I shook my head.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“No one knew. She just told me a little over a month ago when she came back. She found out that the tumor was more aggressive and that she didn’t have long to live which is why she was going to go to Brazil and marry some foreign man just to have the experience. But she couldn’t do it. She left for only about a week and then she came back. She’d said that she wanted to die at home, around the few people that she knew cared about her.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She told me not to. She told me that you hated her and said that you never wanted to see or speak to her again, and she wanted you to have your wish. Your mother knew too because she made me bring her to the hospital so that she could apologize for lying on her husband. Your mama even went to the funeral with me. But she kept Patrice’s wish and left it up to me to tell you.”
Forget what I said, someone should have told me.
Patrice had betrayed me and lied to me, but at the end of the day I still had love for her.
And now I wouldn’t be able to tell her that I forgive her.
“But she told me to tell you that she loved you. She said she always loved you. And nothing had changed that. And nothing ever would.”
I wanted to cry but I didn’t.
I should have reques
ted to speak to Patrice the other day when she’d called Micki.
That was my chance and I’d missed it.
“Shall we proceed?”
“Why am I even here?”
“Well, according to this, Patrice left both of you everything. All of her money, straight down the middle.”
I opened my mouth.
So did Micki.
I knew that she was going to ask and I waited for her to.
“How much?”
We both knew that Patrice had money.
From running her mother’s clothing business she had made a fortune, on top of the fortune that he family already had.
“Twenty million dollars. A piece.”
Micki damn near passed out.
I started to cry.
Even after all that, she had left me her money?
I just didn’t know what to say.
“But there are conditions.”
Micki and I looked at each other.
“Micki, you have always been a good friend. I love you so much and even all of this money can’t express or show the love that I feel for you. But you need more. You need real love. You have a year to find it and marry it. And then you and your new husband and those bad ass kids of yours can enjoy all of this money together. Money means nothing without love. Money is nothing without family. Trust me, I know. Kisses to you from Heaven, or wherever the hell I am. You know that I had some things that needed to be forgiven so hopefully I make it in. I love you girl. Don’t ever forget it.” the lawyer read Patrice’s last words to Micki.
Micki nodded and started to cry like a newborn baby.
The lawyer started to read again.
“Sassi, I love you. I’m so sorry I hurt you. If I could change what I did in the past I would…I didn’t like his sex all that much anyway. I should have told you. But despite what I have said and despite that you think that Eddie is wrong for you, he is actually the right man for you Sassi. I couldn’t see if before, but on my dying bed, and because Micki has kept me up to date with what’s happening with you (You know that bitch can’t keep a secret. Except the one about me being sick, I hope) Eddie is the right one for you Sassi. Is it possible for love to be so wrong, yet so right at the same time? Absolutely. And is it possible for someone to be somewhat wrong for you, yet in some way be the best thing that ever happened to you? Sista’ you are living proof. You have one year to make it work. I hear you are divorced well you better un-divorce then. Figure it out. You’re smart. Put that big brain of yours to use and get your husband back. In a year you had better be married again, and then have him quit that new job of his. Take him back to Hawaii…and this time get pregnant. I love you. Oh, and P.S. here is some information for a publisher to publish your book when you get done with it. And you better finish. I took care of everything; and by that I mean I made a generous contribution to the publishing house for one of their new sub-companies. Legal agreement on file just in case. But when you are ready, she will publish your book for you. I know it’s going to be good. I know it will be because I know you. Do me a favor, dedicate it to me why don’t you. Hell, send a sista’ a shout out to Heaven or something. I love you boo. Good bye Sassi…again.”