The Wrong Husband

by B. M. Hardin

  My mind was still on the fact that Eddie had mentioned something to Polo about killing me.

  Hell, I guess I couldn’t be all that surprised since he’d told me that he would if he could to my face on several occasions.

  But what about the other comment?

  Like you did before…

  What had Polo done before?

  And to who?

  Though I wasn’t done going through the boxes, I figured that I’d seen enough for one day and now that I knew where to look, I could come back another day.

  I tried to straighten the boxes back up as they were.

  I laid the camera down in the exact position as I’d found it.

  I got the lid to the cologne and put it back on the bottle on the dresser.

  It was time for me to get the hell out of here.

  Just as I made it to the living room, I heard Polo talking.

  Oh no!

  He was outside of the door but I could hear him talking on the phone.

  What was I going to do?

  I needed to find somewhere to hide.

  Wait a minute…

  I had an idea.

  I didn’t like it, but it was the only choice that I had.

  As I heard his keys, I took off my pants and my shirt and laid on the couch in just my bra and panties with my legs open.

  Polo walked in.

  I startled him and he dropped his phone.

  Looking at me, he picked it up and said that he would call whoever it was back.

  “Sassi?”

  “I used Eddie’s key to get in.”

  He looked at me.

  “Um, where is your car?”

  “I parked up the road just in case Eddie rode by or something.”

  Polo walked towards me with an evil grin on his face.

  “Why are you here Sassi?”

  Polo looked hungry.

  Hungry for some of my good stuff.

  I didn’t want to have sex with Polo, but I knew that it was my only way out of this mess.

  “What does it look like?”

  Polo seemed unsure at first, but I knew that he wasn’t going to turn me down.

  He was undressed in a flash and let’s just say that it was the longest twenty minutes of my life.

  And it was the first time, the only time, that I hadn’t enjoyed sex with Polo.

  ~***~

  “We never really talked about why it happened,” I said to Eddie.

  “It doesn’t matter why Sassi. What matters is that it did.”

  “But can you hear me out? For once without getting mad? Without walking away or cutting me off? Could you just let me tell you?”

  I could tell that Eddie didn’t want to hear it, but he nodded his head anyway.

  “I felt like something was missing. You were always good to me, but over the years you changed. We didn’t have fun. We didn’t seem to have a lot in common.”

  “Then all you had to do was say that Sassi.”

  “I tried so many times, but you didn’t get it. It just seemed like we didn’t fit. We had great teamwork, but still yet, emotionally, even socially, it just seemed as though we weren’t the perfect match. And this was before the sex issues that I had been feeling that way Eddie. It wasn’t just as a result of the sex issue, no matter what you think.”

  “We could have gone to counseling or something Sassi. I was going through things too but I wasn’t sleeping around on you. Hell my business was flopping and I didn’t even know how to tell my wife because I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me. I didn’t want to let you down. So I was working overtime, anytime, hard just to try to make things work. But I failed anyway. I felt like a failure. And then to find out that you were sleeping with Polo, it all almost made me snap Sassi. I could have really hurt you.”

  His comment reminded me of what I saw on Polo’s camcorder.

  “You were mad enough to kill me Eddie? Like for real?”

  “Hell yeah! I mean I wanted you and whoever the man was dead because I knew that I was trying to be the best husband that I could be. And then when I found out that it was Polo. I didn’t want to believe. I just didn’t want to accept it. When I came there with the gun that day, I wanted to shoot both of you. I think I would have had not a quick memory of you having our first child crossed my mind. I have no idea why it did at that moment, but it did, and that’s the only reason that I didn’t shoot you Sassi.”

  Well, at least he was honest.

  But what about the other comment that he had made to Polo about him doing it before?

  What was that all about?

  I wanted to ask, but I knew that Eddie wouldn’t tell me.

  At least not right now.

  “Why Polo Sassi?”

  I took a deep breath.

  “He was there. He was easy access. He told me his feelings for me and I allowed them to actually mean something to me because I wasn’t happy. Even though I wanted to be happy, I wasn’t.”

  Eddie didn’t say anything.

  “I never meant to ruin your friendship with Polo or our marriage. I allowed things to go too. I could have stopped them but I didn’t.”

  “Both of you are at fault. But you know what, I forgive you and Polo. Polo and I can never go back to being how we were and you and I may never have what we had, but I forgive you. I have to forgive you for me. I’m tired of being angry Sassi. I talked to your mother and she made me realize that holding on the hurt only continues to hurt the person feeling the pain, while the people that hurt you are moving on with their lives.”

  “But I’m not moving on Eddie. It took me losing you to realize that I lost the best part of me.”

  “I just don’t believe that Sassi.”

  “But it’s true. You have to still love me Eddie.”

  “I’ll always love you Sassi, but that’s just not enough.”

  We both stopped talking and just sat there.

  I tried to think of something that I could say that might have a big impact on him or pull at his heart strings.

  Then I thought of something.

  “We both did things. You lied to me. I lied and betrayed you. But remember what we said when we took our vows? We’d said until death do us part, and you told me that no matter what I did and no matter what happened, that the only way that you would leave me was if you “woke up dead”. You said that you would literally have to die in your sleep because any other way, you would have found a way to live, you would have found a way to keep breathing, just for me. Remember?”

  Eddie looked down at the floor.

  “Now we’re sitting here divorced and I don’t want to be. I still love you, and I know that I messed up big time but I need for you to keep your promise to me. I need to you to keep your vow even though I broke a part of mine.”

  Eddie was speechless.

  I could tell that he had a million things going on in his head.

  “The second time around is always better. It’s always sweeter they say. Things will be different and better, I just know that they will.”

  I had to get Eddie back.

  And I was going to do it.

  One day.

  One memory.

  One word at a time.

  ~***~

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Oh, but I would.”

  Polo threatened to tell Eddie that we’d just had sex again

  I’d talked Eddie into going out to dinner with me.

  Well, I’d talked him into taking me out to eat since he was the one with the job.

  Polo must have a tracking device or something on one of us because out of nowhere, he popped up.

  He texted me and told me to meet him near the bathroom.

  “We are just having a meal.”

  “Looks like y’all are trying to work things out to me, but just the other day I had your legs up in the air and you were screaming my name.”

  Oh how I wanted to tell him that I faked it.

  But I kne
w that would piss him off and he would surely tell Eddie.

  “He won’t believe you.”

  Polo laughed.

  He walked off and headed for Eddie and I followed him.

  “Bro, long time no see,” Polo said.

  Eddie cringed.

  “I’m not your bro Polo. My brother wouldn’t have done what you did with my wife.”

  “Are we still on that? I thought we got past that.”

  “What is it Polo?”

  “I just wanted to come over and see how you have been. I saw Sassi the other day, but I forgot to ask about you.”

  Eddie looked at me.

  “What day was that Sassi? The day that you had on that red shirt and those killer white pants?”

  Of course Eddie had seen me that day, so he knew that Polo had seen me too.

  Polo opened his mouth and just as he did, in a panic, I picked up the wine bottle off of the table and hit him with it.

  Polo fell to the floor, knocked out cold.

  Everyone gasped.

  “What the hell is wrong with you Sassi? Why did you do that?” Eddie jumped.

  “I’m tired of him bothering us Eddie. He just needs to leave me alone. Leave us alone.”

  Really I’d hit him to keep him from telling him that we’d had sex.

  It was the only thing that I knew to do.

  The restaurant staff rushed over but Eddie told him that he had everything under control.

  He said that Polo was a friend of ours and that it had been an accident.

  He explained that I had a disorder and I’d thought that Polo was trying to attack me while having one of my spells.

  Eddie shook Polo.’

  Polo opened his eyes.

  “Eddie?”

  “Yeah man, let’s get you out of here. See, he knows me,” Eddie said to them and he helped Polo up and headed for the door.

  I followed behind them, still holding the bottle.

  “I’ll drive him home, you follow behind us in my car.”

  I wished that the blow to the head had killed him.

  But that would have been too easy and my life just wasn’t set up that way.

  We pulled up at Polo’s house and by then Eddie had told Polo that some girl that he probably used to sleep with came out of nowhere and hit him in the back of the head with a bottle.

  Polo was still shaken up and with the knot growing on his head, Eddie suggested the hospital, but Polo refused.

  He glanced at me in the car, but Polo didn’t say anything.

  Eddie helped him into the house and after some time, he came back out.

  I got out and headed to the passenger side.

  “Sassi, that was crazy!”

  “Ever since whatever he has been giving me such a hard time. Harassing me. Popping up. Calling me all the time. I told him over and over again that it was a mistake and I just want him to go away.”

  “You caused all of this. We all were fine. We had good friendships, we were married. But you chose to sleep with Polo.”

  “I know. Can you fix it for me? It was a horrible mistake, can you fix it Eddie?”

  “What?”

  “What is it that you know on Polo? Who did he kill Eddie?”

  “What? What are you talking about Sassi?”

  “Polo recorded a conversation between you and him. You told him that you thought that I was cheating. You said that if you found out that I was that you were going to kill me. And then you asked Polo could he do it for you…like he did before. Who did he kill Eddie?”

  Eddie looked as though he couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth.

  “Never repeat that again Sassi. Ever.”

  “What did he do before Eddie? To who?”

  “Sassi, just let it go. There’s no point in going digging around in past things that you have nothing to do with. I’ll make sure that Polo leaves you alone from here on out okay? Just don’t ever mention that again.”

  Eddie drove like a bat out of hell down the street.

  I turned to look out the window and smiled.

  Honestly, I didn’t care what it was; if Eddie could get Polo to leave me alone completely, then screw the little secret that they had.

  I was just fine with that.

  ~***~

  “I finished it,” I squealed in Micki’s ear.

  My book was finish and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

  “I’m so proud of you.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Now what, do you reach out to the company from the Patrice’s will?”

  “Yeah. I guess that’s the next step. Speaking of, found someone to start dating yet?”

  “Actually, I did. He’s a white guy. We had our first date the other day. He wants kids and a wife, so I’m hoping that we hit it off. And you?”

  “Girl, I’m gonna need more than a few weeks to break Eddie down. But we did have sex again the other day. We were both just horny I guess. But he’s still not bending all that much.”

  “It’ll work out.”

  “I hope so. But someone’s ringing the doorbell so I will call you back.”

  I got up off of the toilet, got myself together and ran down the stairs.

  I opened it.

  “Eddie, why didn’t you just use you key?”

  He looked at me as though I’d asked a stupid question.

  “I couldn’t get to it obviously.”

  He was carrying both of the boys.

  They were both asleep.

  He carried them in, laid them on the couch and started to undress them.

  “Sassi, what if I came to stay here? Like a roommate or something. I’m always here. I’ll sleep down here on the couch. My folks are driving me crazy. I’ll start looking for a place as soon as possible. I won’t be here longer than a month.”

  “Yes.”

  With him under the same roof as me and the kids, I was going to work some magic.

  I was going to make Eddie never want to leave.

  I was going to get my husband back.

  And twenty million dollars too.

  Eddie carried the oldest upstairs first.

  Once he came back down, I made a suggestion.

  “You know you miss us. Let’s just work it out Eddie.”

  “I don’t know Sassi. I just don’t know.”

  He picked up our smallest child and then he carried him upstairs too.

  In my thoughts, I thought about how many ways I could seduce him and how many ways I could tempt him and make him remember why he loved me and wanted to marry me in the first place.

  Wrong husband originally or not, he was all I ever needed.

  And I had twenty million reasons that would cosign to that.

  A knock at the door stole my attention.

  I figured it was Mama since she was supposed to stop by but I was wrong.

  It was Polo.

  I frowned but he smiled.

  He walked right in my house without an invite.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Eddie told me to meet him here.”

  What?

  “Eddie!” I screamed.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know Sassi.”

  “I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell him about…”

  Polo nodded behind me to Eddie standing on the steps.

  He walked down the few that he had left to go, slowly.

  He walked directly in front of me.

  He held up his hand.

  Damn it!

  I had been taking a pregnancy test while on the phone with Micki and had left it on the sink.

  I totally forgot about it.

  I hadn’t had a period in a while and figured that it was time to test.

  “You’re pregnant Sassi. Is it mine? Or is it Polo’s?”

  I looked back and forth between both of them.

  Though originally I was trying to put the baby on Eddie, no matter what, at that moment, and looking at the positive preg
nancy test, I had another plan.

  Eddie looked at the test, and Polo looked at me.

  I took a deep breath.

  “It’s not mine.”

  Of course it was mine, but they didn’t have to know that.

  “What?”

  “It’s Micki’s. She was here earlier and she took a pregnancy test. We started talking while we were waiting for the results and forgot all about it,” I lied.

  Eddie looked at me.

  Polo was staring at me too as though he was trying to decide whether he believe me or not.

  “Look, I’ll prove it.”

  I grabbed my phone to call Micki.

  She knew I was taking a test and she would lie for me and fall in line with the story with little to no details.

  That’s what friends were for.

  The phone ranged and I looked as the sound of her phone ringing came through the front door.

  Micki.

  “I was just calling you. Tell them that the pregnancy test it yours,” I said to her.

  She didn’t say anything.

  She walked over and stood beside Polo.

  All three of them seemed very strange at that moment and I felt uneasy.

  Suddenly, Eddie spoke.

  “She knows.”

  “Knows what?” Polo asked.

  “Vanessa.”

  Micki and Polo gasped.

  What?

  Who and the hell is Vanessa?

  I didn’t know a Vanessa and I didn’t have a clue as to what they were talking about.

  “How?” I was surprised to hear Micki ask.

  “She said she watched a recording of a conversation that Polo and I had.”

  Polo looked at Eddie and then at me.

  “Damn, you’re nosey.”

  “What the hell is going on? What are y’all talking about? Who is Vanessa?”

  I turned to face Eddie.

  Micki walked over and stood beside him and out of nowhere, Polo grabbed me from behind.

  What?

  He somewhat placed me in a choke hold.

  It wasn’t too tight where he was choking me but it was tight enough where I couldn’t get out of it.

  “Get the hell off of me Polo! Eddie? Micki? Get him off of me!”

  But they both just stood there.

  What the hell is happening right now?

  I squirmed for a few minutes more and then Polo took his free hand and it was though he was searching for something on my neck.

  He found the spot, and pressed firmly on some kind of pressure point, that I didn’t even know that I had.