My mind took off like a bullet out of an automatic pistol, I couldn’t believe this asshole was living a whole ‘nother life with this hoodrat bitch. I mean, I’m from the hood but I got class, this bitch sounded like she was a straight gutter bird brain bitch. At that very moment, Tony came back out of the house to retrieve more bags from the trunk. He walked over to the passenger side and tapped on the window and spoke through the glass.
“Baby, why you still in the car?” I looked at him with a face full of evil, if I could’ve spit at him through the window, I swear I would have. Within that second I put on my game face and devised a plan. I smiled while opening the door and I handed him my cell phone and said, “Baby, it’s for you.”
He pointed to himself, “For me?”
“Yeah,” I said pushing the phone in his direction.
He took the phone from me and said. “Hello?”
“OH so you have a fiancé huh?” I could hear Ashley’s loud ghetto mouth through the phone. Tony looked dazed as if he had just seen a ghost and he froze looking like he was shitting in his pants.
“What’s wrong baby?” I asked sarcastically. He quickly tried to hang up the phone and I stood up out of the car and smacked the fuck out of him. “I thought you didn’t know anyone named Ashley you lying ass nigga!”
He held his cheek. “Tiara if you ever put your hands on me again, I’ll knock you the fuck out.”
“Tony, I wish you would hit me, save your threats for Ashley. Don’t get mad cause you got caught.”
“How did you get her number?"
“Don’t worry about all that.” I sassed.
He poked out his chest and brought out the cockiness in his tone.
“You know what? Shayonna told me that you was looking in my phone when y'all were in the hotel in New York.” He tried to grow angry and switch the blame on me like a typical nigga.
“So you’re looking through my phone now? What the fuck T, that shit is corny!”
“Don’t try to switch it Tony, you told me that you didn’t know anyone named Ashley but you’ve been talking to the bitch every day. You told that ho that you live with Shawn and you let her drive the fuckin’ car that’s in my name? And you be taking this bitch to hotels?”
“She’s lying T, you know she’s lying because I come home to you every night,” he said skipping over everything else that I asked.
“Nigga just because you come home every night doesn’t mean you’re not fuckin’ the next bitch on your spare time.
Tony threw the bags on the ground and walked over to the driver’s seat.
“Well fuck it then, you don’t fuckin’ believe me, I’m out, I don’t have time for this shit.”
I stormed behind him. “Tony how the fuck you gonna try to bounce and not answer why you lied about knowing her?” I screamed.
“So you fucked her Tony?” He didn’t answer me. He opened up the driver’s side door and sat in the car. I tried pulling on the door so that he couldn’t close it.”
“Answer me, you fucked her didn’t you?”
The bass in his voice echoed loudly. “T, get the fuck off the door!”
“No! Answer me Tony!” I kept tugging on the door until he became irritated and he yelled even louder.
“Get the fuck off the door Tiara!”
I finally gave up only because I didn’t want the neighbors to pry and I let him shut the door.
“Well fuck you then Tony, it’s over!” I screamed as he peeled off.
Shayonna came running out the house.
“Mommy where is daddy going?”
I started crying hysterically and I grabbed Shayonna while he sped away.
“Come on baby, let’s go in the house.”
Shayonna’s eyes were glued to my face. “Mommy, what’s wrong?” The worry in her innocent face exceeded.
“Nothing baby, come on.”
I led her in the house and I broke down immediately. I didn’t have the strength to walk my daughter to her room. I broke down right in front of her. Everything from my past that I kept buried inside of me came pouring out.
“Mommy, what’s wrong, why are you crying?”
I sat at the kitchen table and stretched out my arms and put my head down. “Baby just go to your room okay?”
I could hear her voice start to get squeaky, she didn’t understand why I was crying and she hated to see that I was hurt. She gently rubbed my back with her young hands.
“Mommy did daddy do it?”
I raised my head and took her into my arms.
Shayonna thought the world of her father and I would never steal her joy.
“No baby, Mommy’s just not feeling good.”
While embracing my daughter, I felt her love, genuine, real, authentic love that no man in this world could offer. I had to put my emotions aside and had to be a mother first.
I wiped my tears, got myself together and I prepared her a meal. Later, we went upstairs and I readied her for bed. I ran her bath water and put her in the tub and then prepared her clothes for school in the morning. While she was playing in the tub, I went in my room and stared at myself in the mirror. I looked deep into my own eyes and wondered what the fuck I did wrong. I pleased Tony physically and mentally. I was a freak in the bedroom, I ran his business like I had been in the real estate game for years and we barely argued. I cooked and cleaned, what the fuck else could he have wanted that I couldn’t offer? I been through too much in my life, I just knew that I left all drama in my past and that Tony was my savior from it all. This couldn’t be happening to me. New bullshit was unwelcomed.
My thoughts were interrupted by my daughter yelling from the bathroom.
“Mommy, I’m done.”
“I’m coming baby.”
I dried her off, applied her lotion, threw on her PJ’s and she tucked herself in bed.
“Good night baby.” I planted a kiss on her plump cheek and I went to turn the light out.
She stopped me before I left out of her room. “Mommy?”
I turned, “Yes Baby.”
“Is Daddy going to kiss me goodnight too?”
Her voice melted my heart and I swallowed a gulp of my pride trying to fight tears.
“Yes baby, he will kiss you goodnight too.”
I left my baby’s room hoping that I didn’t just lie to her. I didn’t want to see Tony’s face but I wanted him to come home for Shayonna’s sake.
I cleaned out the tub and ran my own bathwater. I wanted to soak and think. I turned on my old Beyoncé CD and pressed repeat on number six, Me, Myself and I and I started applying the lyrics to my own life situation. Me, Myself and I was truly all that I had to depend on because everyone that I loved in some form had let me down.
I sat in the tub drinking from the bottle of Chardonnay soaking myself in more tears than bath water. I turned on the bubbles to the let the Jacuzzi tub massage my body and relax me.
I cried so hard, you would have thought someone was killing me. I knew that I was stuck, everything we built together was for us. I never came into this thinking that I should have had a plan B.
I dried myself off, saturated my body in baby oil and laid on the silk sheets in our empty bed. For some reason that night more than any other, the bed smelled more like Tony’s Curve cologne making me sick to my stomach wondering if he was in Ashley’s bed with her at that very moment.
I ended up crying myself to sleep and the next morning I woke up to the same empty bed, without Tony. I woke up my daughter and readied us both for school and work. As we were walking down the stairs Shayonna happily blurted, “I was so happy when daddy kissed me last night.” I thought that she had to be dreaming until we got to the bottom of the stairs and walked past the living room.
He was passed out on the couch. I didn’t even try to wake him up. I smelled the liquor on him all the way in the kitchen. I damn sure wasn’t making him any breakfast. I made my daughter a bowl of cereal and I ate a nice bowl of stress thanks to him. I hadn’t ha
d an appetite ever since I had talked to Ashley.
I tried to sneak out of the house without saying a word to him but my baby ran up to the couch.
“Bye Daddy, I’m going to school.” She placed a kiss on his cheek. He woke up, his eyes were barely open and he looked up at me.
“Why didn’t you wake me up, what time is it?”
“It’s eight o’clock,” I said.
I didn’t utter another single word, I grabbed Shayonna’s hand and I walked out.
I dropped her off at school which her dad and I usually did together in the morning before heading to the office. But I didn’t want him near me nor did I care if he was on time for work or not. I was the one that opened the office and prepped the staff in the morning anyway.
When I arrived at the office, I sat at my desk and stared at my blank computer screen. I didn’t have the energy to do anything; I had too much on my mind. What was bothering me the most was the fact that Ashley said that they had been fucking for two years. Tony had only been out of jail for two years so I had to do a little bit more research on this bitch.
I called Renee, I didn’t want to tell her what was going on so I had to think of a lie.
I just couldn't tell her about Ashley and Tony because she thought I was the luckiest chick in the world for having Tony but I wanted her to do some hood research for me and find out everything there was to know about Ashley. Boston was big, but people ran in tight circles. I knew that she was bound to know someone who knew her.
“Renee?”
“What up T? Why you calling so early?”
Renee’s lazy ass didn’t have a job. For as long as I’d known her she never had any work ethic. She wanted a man to take care of her and didn’t mind staying with her mom until she found him. Most of her siblings moved with their fathers so she was the only old one in the house mooching off her mom.
”My fault, I didn’t mean to wake you up, but I need a favor.”
“What’s up?”
“I need you to find out about a girl named Ashley. Find out where she stays, where she be at and all that.”
“Who is she T? Do we have to beat her ass?”
I had to think of a lie quick! It was just too embarrassing to let my girl know that my man was fuckin’ the shit out of another bitch.
“Um, nah nothing like that. One of the girls that work here at the office found out that she was fuckin’ with her man so she asked me to find out about her.”
“So you don’t know how she look or nothing?” Renee asked.
“Nah, I just know she’s mad ghetto. Oh and I heard that Tony’s friend Shawn knows her, maybe you can try to get some info out of him. But make sure he don’t tell Tony that you’re asking. You know Tony will just tell me to mind my business and to let this chick do her own research, you know how he is.”
“Yeah I know. A’ight, well I’ll ask Shawn’s cousin Tyrone, he’s one of them gossiping ass niggas so he probably knows something and then I’ll holla back at you later okay?”
“A’ight cool, thanks.”
“No problem T, but I’ll call you later, a bitch is tired, I’m going back to sleep.”
“A’ight girl, talk to you later.”
Renee was a good manipulator, she could smuggle some info out of Shawn or his cousin easily, she had the gift of gab. So I hung up with her and waited.
An hour later, Tony came in to work. He headed straight for his office. His clothes were wrinkled because I hadn’t ironed them for him and he looked tired and annoyed and it was hilarious to me. I even snorted a giggle as he walked by because he looked totally dismantled. I shuffled through my paperwork pretending not to see him. The other workers greeted him and he ignored them all and slammed his office door behind him. He put down his briefcase and then opened the door calling out for me.
“Tiara can you come here for a second please?”
I walked in his office. “Yes Tony?”
“Baby, I couldn’t find my tie that goes with this suit or my Armani belt. Do you think you can go home and get them for me? I have a client to meet today.” His face read desperation and I just looked at him pitifully and realized that this man was nothing without me. And he must have lost his mind to think that I was going to be helping his ass out today.
I kindly looked at him and said, “Maybe Ashley can find them for you.” I turned around and walked back out of his office. Tony walked up behind me and before I could sit down, he snatched my arm and yanked me out the office. Everyone looked up at us but I tried to crack a smile pretending like everything was okay.
When we got outside, Tony was furious and he squeezed tightly on my arm. “Tiara, I told you that bitch was lying to you. Yeah I admit, I may have lied about knowing someone named Ashley but that was because she is no one to me!”
I snatched my arm from him.
“Bullshit! How could she be no one if you’re talking to her every fuckin’ day?”
”I don’t talk to that bitch everyday!” He griped confidently.
“Nigga, I looked in your call log, you talk to her enough. Why are you in my face still lying? Where did you meet her at to Tony? She said y’all was fuckin’ around for two years, two fuckin’ years yo!” I pushed him away from me and folded my arms.
Tony took a deep breath and was fuming with anger because he was being forced to confess.
“Okay T, here’s the truth. When I got out, I hooked up with her on some business shit. She sells weight and I was using her connects.”
“Business my ass Tony, so when did it turn into pleasure?”
“I only hit it one time I swear. One day me and you had an argument and I was vulnerable, she was always ready to throw the pussy at me so that one time I took it.”
“So every time a nigga get caught up they claim to only hit it once? Tony that’s straight up bullshit, do I look stupid? Do I look like one of these dumb ass bitches out here? And what is this shit about you telling her that you live with Shawn?” I was letting it all out on Tony with no chaser.
“Yeah I did tell her that,” he admitted. “I don’t trust that bitch, I wasn’t telling her where we lived.”
“And you be spending money on her bringing her to telly’s and letting her whip your car? You making me look like a damn fool Tony!”
Tony looked at me shaking his head. “Damn that bitch was on the phone running her fuckin’ mouth like it was really that serious.”
“Well it must have been that serious if it’s been going on for two years.” I cut my eyes at him, I was disgusted.
“A’ight T, she did drive my car once, it was when I was still hustling. She picked up some weight for me. I didn’t want to drive with that shit in the car so I had her do it for me. You know I don’t like to be too hot, and I had copped mad shit that day. She’s stupid T, one of them chicks that would do anything for a nigga. And we only went to the hotel that one time when I hit it.”
He sounded convincing but I wasn’t your ordinary naïve broad and I knew that a nigga would say anything to keep his family. They would lie until they were blue in the face and swear on everything they loved and some more shit just to make you believe them. But I also knew that bitches lie too. Especially when they know that they are just sideline smut ass bitches who would never be the nigga’s number one.
Even though Tony was supposedly explaining his whole other life that was new to me up until forty-eight hours ago, coming clean wasn’t good enough. I needed some time to think about if I wanted to forgive him or let him go. I mean, besides Derek, my first love who was taken away from me by murder at such a young age, Tony was the only other man that I had ever opened my heart to. Yeah I know it sounds stupid but I loved him and hoped that this shit wasn’t that deep. I knew no other chick could replace me in Tony’s life but just knowing that he was sneaking around on me made me feel so stupid.
Derek had slept with my best friend and I ended our relationship immediately but it felt different with Tony. I had a child with him and aft
er losing close bonds with so many people in my life, I felt like he was all that I had besides myself. I was never one to let weakness get to me, but I had a soft spot for Tony and this feeling wasn’t me though, this feeling wasn’t T, I was tough as bricks and now I felt weak. I knew that I needed time to get my head together because I’d put in too much work to let this man get over on me. I needed some space to think.
Tony looked at me, my arms were still folded and I was looking at the ground. He walked toward me. I had always known him to be cocky and overbearing but now his ass looked pitiful and sympathetic. He knew he fucked up, he fucked up bad. He tried to show in his face that he was sincere. He grabbed both of my arms and tried to look in my eyes. I lifted my head from the ground to look at him.
A Hood Chick's Story pt. 2 Page 3