“T, I’m sorry, it will never happen again. You know how much you mean to me, don’t let this hoodrat bitch break up what we have.”
“Tony, if this is the end for us, always remember that it was YOU that let this hoodrat bitch break up what we had. I didn’t stick your dick in her, you did.”
He looked at me all stupid and pitiful like I was supposed to embrace him and tell him not to let it happen again. He had the wrong chick.
Suddenly an old Acura Integra sped up in front of us and this ghetto bitch jumped out of the car.
“Tony!” She squealed walking in our direction..
I began walking toward her and the old Tiara surfaced early!
“Who the fuck are you?” I asked
She stopped walking and answered me. She was moving her head like it was gonna fall off her neck.
“I’m Ashley.”
C hapter Three – Plan B
When Ashley stated who she was, I looked back at Tony and then turned back in Ashley’s direction and continued walking toward her. I was going to beat the shit out of her. She actually had the nerve to show up at me and my man’s place of business. This bitch had the game wrong. When Tony snapped out of his state of shock, he ran in front of me realizing what was about to go down.
He snatched me up. “Come here T!”
He managed to push me behind his back but I was fighting to confront Ashley. He had a firm grip on my hands like he was a police officer about to put me in cuffs. Ashley was standing with her hands on her hips hollering. “Let her go, she wanna fight me because her man comes to me, then let her dumb ass go.”
At that point I tried to smuggle my way in front of Tony with all my might but he knew that if he let me go, then it would have been a wrap for Ashley. She came out her mouth a little bit too much to the wrong chick. I screamed from behind Tony’s back as I was tussling to break away from his grip.
“Bitch, trust me, you don’t want him to let me go. You came to my place of business looking like you made that whack ass dress out of a pair of curtains and you don’t think you're gonna get your ass whipped? You got me fucked up. Stay in a sluts place bitch, whatever you did with my man was done because you were convenient, go fuck with the next chick’s man because you’ll always be someone’s number two.”
Ashley was countering a whole lot of bullshit back at me and continued to play tough because she knew that Tony wouldn’t let me go so the bitch kept popping off at the mouth.
“Please believe, Tony wasn’t complaining when I was meeting him up here before, or maybe those were the days when you weren’t working,” she said sarcastically.
In my mind I was thinking, no this muthafucka didn’t have this bitch coming up here for lunch but I wouldn’t let her know that the shit she was saying was getting to me so I cut her short.
“Bitch, fuck all that! What the fuck are you coming up here for today?”
Tony asked her the same question, “Yeah, why the hell are you up here?”
“Don’t play dumb Tony, you know why I’m up here. She peeked at me.
“So you must be Tiara, are you wifey Boo?” she asked trying to be funny,
I tried to compose myself and asked Tony calmly. “Baby, can you please let me go? I just want to talk to Ashley for a second.”
That shit didn’t work, Tony wasn’t letting my ass go for shit. He knew that I was boiling at that point and if he would have let me go, I would have dug all in Ashley's ass.
“Tony, let this bitch know something for real,” I demanded.
Tony was pissed.
“Ashley, you know this is my fiancé, I don’t know why the fuck you was telling her all types of lies and shit. You need to be the fuck out, don’t come back up here!”
Ashley chuckled and began walking back to her car talking shit. “Tiara you can believe him if you want to, he’ll keep coming back, trust me. He must not love you and his little family too much as much time as we spend together.”
She sat in her car and rolled down the window and put on her fake Chanel glasses, “I’ll holla.” She sped off and Tony finally let me go.
I started pounding on his chest with my fists as hard as I could as if he was Ashley.
“So that’s the bitch that you only fucked one time? I can’t believe this bitch came up here telling me that she be spending mad time with my man! Do you know how that feels to a woman? You let another bitch have what’s mine you fuckin’ asshole? Get away from me right now Tony I hate you!”
I took a deep breath, my heart was thumping and I was so hurt but I somehow calmed down a bit.
“You know what, it’s over, this isn’t a light wound here Tony, this cut is deep. You got yourself deep in a situation and got a bitch head over heels for you and she knows where you work. There is more to this and I’m not sticking around to find out. I’m taking the baby and I’m moving out.”
Tony looked dumfounded but he let me talk the whole time without interrupting me. He sat there like a typical nigga who got caught up and didn’t know what the fuck to say. As soon as he heard me say I was taking the baby and leaving it got his cheating ass attention quick.
“You ain’t taking my daughter nowhere.”
“Watch me,” I said.
I went back into the office, snatched my purse off my desk and told them I was going to be gone for the remainder of the day. I assigned my assistant Susan in charge of all duties that I was supposed to take care of for the day and I left. Tony watched me from his office as I walked out. He stared at me with his face twisted up like he wanted to fly my head off and I sashayed out of the door.
I got into my car without a single destination in mind. Who the hell was I fooling, I didn’t have anywhere for me and my daughter to go if I were to really leave Tony. I drove around thinking and sobbing. My ass knew there was more to Tony’s relationship with Ashley. I knew that he would never leave me for her but just the thought of him fooling around with someone, spending time with another chick and making her think that she was something special to him was enough to hurt me, enough to hurt any woman. I questioned the depth of their relationship. How did she know where he worked? Tony was so secretive and private when it came to outsiders, why after all these years was he getting sloppy? I thought back on the times when I used to wonder where Tony was when he took long lunch breaks or had so-called lunch meetings that lasted until the end of the day that I didn’t remember scheduling. He must have been with Ashley all those times. I felt like shit and I was a straight mess at that point.
I was Tony’s Queen, how the fuck could he do this to me? Ashley was ghetto as hell but she wasn’t that bad looking. She wasn’t a dime or anything but she was decent. He told me that she didn’t have a job because she got fired so she hustled which meant that she was convenient to have access to at all times of the day. While I bust my ass at the office, this jobless bitch was convenient enough to be around to let Tony have his way with her while my faithful dumb ass was grinding for our family putting in the work for his business. I cried while banging on the starring wheel, how the fuck could he give my love away to some hoodrat bitch who wasn’t worth standing in the presence of what’s mine. This shit really hurt me, he betrayed me in the worst way and I didn’t deserve this.
My cell phone startled me. I picked it up and it was Renee calling me back. I wiped my tears and tried to sound like everything was cool.
“Hello?”
“What up T?”
“What’s up Renee, did you find out anything on that chick Ashley?”
“Yeah girl umm.” She paused.
“I hate to say this T but I found out that that bitch is fuckin’ with Tony hard. I heard that when he got out, he linked up with her and they have been messing around ever since. You sure she was fuckin’ someone’s man from your office or was it your man she was fucking?”
I couldn’t lie anymore, I was caught. I should’ve known Renee would find out more than I asked.
“Yeah Renee,” I admitted. �
��I found out that she was fuckin’ with Tony. She even told me herself. I didn’t want to tell you because the shit is embarrassing ya know?”
“I feel you girl but you don’t have to hold anything from me, especially some shit like this, this is the perfect time where your friends come in at. But honestly, I’m not surprised at all. A nigga is gonna be a nigga. But you wifey so don’t even worry about that smut, he don’t want her.”
“It ain't the fact of him wanting her or not, he wasn’t supposed to be stepping out on me ya feel me? Matter fact, she just came by the office on some disrespectful shit, she straight crossed the line with me.”
“What!” Renee shouted. “T, I found out where she lives so you just give me the word and we’ll be over there ASAP. I hope you beat her ass?”
“Nah, Tony was holding me back. She was poppin off at the mouth and I wanted to tear her ass up. She was talking good shit too, then after a while she got in her car and left. I told Tony that I was good with him and I bounced out of the office. But girl, I was talking out my ass, I don’t have nowhere to go.”
“Well you know you always have me.” She offered.
“I know you got my back but I can’t move my daughter back in the projects. Shit is starting to get hot around there again and she don’t need to be around all that.”
“So what are you gonna do?”
“Good question. I was thinking of just going to the crib, packing up some shit for me and the baby and check in at a hotel and for a few days.”
“You know that nigga’s gonna go wild, with wifey gone and his daughter? Man listen!”
“Fuck him, let his ass go crazy, I don’t want to see him right now.”
“I feel you T, well just call me if you need me for anything, you know I got you.”
“No doubt, thanks girl, I’ll call you later.”
I pulled into the driveway of my house and headed straight upstairs to pack up some clothes for me and Shayonna. I called the Holiday Inn and made reservations for three nights. I grabbed my Louis Vuitton duffle bag and stuffed our clothes inside. I left the house just in time to pick up Shayonna from school.
“Hi Mommy!” She said cheerfully getting into the car.
“Hey Baby, how was your day?”
“It was good, I had fun at recess.”
“That’s good baby, you got any homework?” I asked.
“Nope, I did it before we left, it was easy, it was my favorite subject, math. One plus one is two, two plus two is four…”
I felt so bad as my mind drifted away from my conversation with my daughter. I was wondering if Tony called Ashley. If they still had something going on and if he was going to use my time away to be with her. This shit was stressing me something bad.
“Why are we at a hotel Mommy?” Shayonna asked as I was checking us in.
I knelt down to my daughters level, “We are going to stay here for a few days ‘kay’?”
“Is daddy coming?”
I stood back up to my feet. Her daddy questions were starting to become more and more painful. As I looked at her I wondered how he could risk losing our family and risk not living at home watching his daughter grow. I felt like he was selfish and plain dumb and I was starting to dislike him even more.
The hotel clerk handed me our room key and we walked toward the elevators.
“No baby, Daddy isn’t coming.” I finally replied.
She grinned poking out her bottom lip and I knew just the thing to cheer her up.
“They got a swimming pool here, me and you can go swimming.”
Her face lit up and she smiled. “Yaay, did you bring my swimming suit?”
I smiled, “I sure did baby.”
We went into our suite, got settled in and changed into our swimwear. I spent the entire night with my daughter worry free.
After swimming, she occupied my time by telling me about her friends at school, she showed me some of the steps she learned from dancing school and continued to be the sweetheart that she was. It was amazing at how smart she was. She was blossoming and getting older and it showed in her conversation. She was already a very intelligent student and took school very seriously. I wondered if she knew how much she meant to me.
I lost everything five years ago and God blessed me with her and I felt like she filled the void that was left when I lost my family. So many people had let me down throughout my life and this was the one person who was purely innocent and loved me unconditionally. I made a vow to myself that no one else mattered and it was all about my daughter and me.
I turned off my cell phone and when I turned it back on in the morning, I had about fifteen messages from Tony.
“Baby, where you at call me? Stop playing T call me! Okay T, I’m getting mad as shit now.”
I deleted all of his messages and went on about my day. I dropped Shayonna off at school and I called Susan at the office and told her that she was in charge again and that I’d also be taking off two more days. She agreed to take care of everything but she told me she needed my help with some bills so I told her that I’d handle everything when I saw her and I headed back to the hotel.
Susan was cool as shit. She was a very bright and articulate young white girl from South Boston. I hired her because she had years of experience working with various mortgage lenders as a loan originator. Her father worked for the Boston Police Department and I knew that she would be a valuable asset to our company because she possessed a lot of skills that we needed to keep our small business afloat. Her and I were like each other’s mentor and we learned a lot from each other.
When I got back to the Holiday Inn, I laid on the cold hotel bed pondering my future; I needed a plan. I needed something stable for Shayonna and me, something fool proof and permanent so that I wasn’t depending on Tony. I beat myself up for putting my all into a man and depending on him like shit would last forever. I thought I was living the hood fairytale, my drug dealer boyfriend turned legit. We were engaged and he once treated me like a Queen. Who would have ever thought that I would get shitted on.
I realize now that he was like every other selfish, cheating ass nigga and this was one lesson I’ll pass on to my daughter, never put all your eggs in one basket. And more importantly NEVER depend on a man. But I guess I had blindfolded myself thinking that what we had was deeper than what it really was. He knew what all I had been through, I thought that he would always have me up on a pedestal and let no one come between us and no more heart break float my way. I was dead wrong, but lesson well learned.
One thing came to mind that I knew would certainly set myself and my daughter’s future straight and that was property. I knew how to get the lowest interest rates and after being in the business for a few years, we even had connections with foreclosures. All the money that I had saved since Tony paid all the bills was going to help me finally gain some stability. It wasn’t much, it was a good fifteen grand but I was going to use a FHA loan program so that I would only have to put three to five percent as a down payment. There was no better time to start than now.
I called in the office to talk directly to Susan and she told me that Tony was a wreck and had been asking about me all morning. She reminded me again about the pending bills that she needed help with but I disregarded the bills and told her not to let Tony know that I was on the phone. I made her take out the foreclosure list to find me something in Quincy that looked luxurious but was reasonably priced. She found a three family home for two hundred thousand dollars and from the details didn’t need much work. Jackpot! She gave me the address and I left to go and view it.
It took me no time to locate the house and when I did, the real estate agent for the property allowed me inside to examine it closely. The house had minor cosmetic work that needed to be done. The porch needed to be painted, some of the floors needed to be shellacked and some of the moldings needed replacing but other than that, tenants would be able to move in right away.
They were all three bedroom apartments and the
way the market was in Boston, I would be able to get two thousand dollars in rent off each floor. The mortgage payment on a two hundred thousand dollar loan would be somewhere like seventeen to eighteen hundred a month with taxes and insurance included if I got a good rate. Nothing was stopping me. I was buying this house and coming up. Houses like these were worth about four hundred grand so that was two hundred G’s in equity already. It was a gold mine. I smiled at the thought of my daughter and I being well off without Tony. I spent that day signing and faxing my offer letter and contingencies and set everything up with Susan for a good program and hoped that if all went well, I could close on that house in thirty days.
A Hood Chick's Story pt. 2 Page 4