“Nah. Like I said before, I’ve seen you. You’re way stronger than me, and besides, I’m a lover, not a fighter. Just ask your wife how good of a lover I am.”
“You know what? I’m on my way there right now to fuck you up. Say all this shit when I’m—”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. First off, everyone here knows I was fucking your wife. It’s all over the company, and she’s under investigation for it. You wouldn’t want to speed up the process and make her lose her job, now would you?”
I wanted to kill him. I hated him for fucking my wife. I hated him because he was so haughty about it, but most of all, I hated him because I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t kick his ass, because I would risk Karen losing her job. And even if I could, I would have only temporary happiness from hurting him, and it wouldn’t negate the fact that he had been with Karen.
I gritted my teeth and said, “Fuck you!”
“No, thanks. I get enough from your wife.” He laughed at me and ended the call.
My hands stung as I slapped the steering wheel. I felt humiliated. This all had started with Raheem. He was the source of my problem. He was the one she’d said she loved. I suddenly had an idea. I decided to text him as Karen so I could meet him in person.
Raheem, it’s Karen. My husband found out about us and destroyed my phone. I’m texting you from my new number. Meet me at the gym. I need to see you right now. I need you.
I sat in my car and waited for a response. It came a few minutes later.
Okay. See you at five.
He had responded pretty quickly, but it had felt like an eternity to me. I texted him back.
Meet me in front of the gym.
I drove to the gym, found a parking spot close to the entrance, and waited. Fifteen minutes after five, I saw a real pretty-looking guy—about six feet four and in decent shape—standing in front of the gym. He was wearing a gray tank top and black running tights. I watched him reach for his phone, and soon after I got a text.
I’m here.
There was my confirmation. This was the main source of my problems and my pain. I got out of my truck and walked toward him. He had no idea who I was when I stood next to him. He was taller than me, but I eclipsed him in term of my width. Muscle wise, he had nothing on me.
“Excuse me. Are you Raheem?”
He looked confused. “Yes. Do I know you?”
“I think you do. You’re fucking my wife.”
His expression changed from one of confusion to fear. Before he could do anything, I kicked him in the dick as hard as I could with my steel-toed work boots. When he doubled over, I grabbed him by the back of his head and kneed him in the face. Blood and snot squirted out of his nose. He landed on his back. I kicked him and stomped on him.
Gym members and pedestrians passing by saw the mayhem and ran inside to get help. I didn’t care who came. I didn’t care who saw me. I wanted Raheem to feel my pain. I needed him to take this and more because I couldn’t get to Tyrell to give him the same punishment. While many passersby saw what was going on, none of them helped him. Finally, two personal trainers from the gym ran out and grabbed me. One guy was about my size and weight. He looked like a younger version of me, like he could have been my son or something. Ken was written on his name tag. Joe was written on the other guy’s name tag.
“Get the fuck off of me!” I yelled.
Ken tried to restrain me when Joe let go of me so he could check on Raheem. Raheem was bloody and bruised. He was conscious, but I’d inflicted a lot of damage. I wiggled and squirmed, trying my hardest to break free from Ken’s grip.
“Sir, please . . . Stop. You gotta calm down,” Ken said.
“This guy fucked my wife! He ruined my life.”
Ken’s grip loosened a bit, which allowed me to break free and kick Raheem in the face again. Ken grabbed me, turned me around quickly, and looked at me as if he had realized something. Maybe he had seen Raheem and Karen together around the gym. He leaned in close to me.
“Look, I know you’re pissed about Karen, but no woman is worth going to jail for. You have kids, man. Do you want to do time for this shit? I’m going to let you go, but you need to get out of here. You understand? Get out of here,” Ken whispered.
I was taken aback by what he said. As one man to another man, I respected what he was doing for me. He was right. I was acting out of anger and other emotions and not thinking of the consequences. He loosened his grip on me, and I freed myself. I ran to my truck, started it up, and sped off.
As I drove, I thought about what Ken had said. He knew my wife’s name. He knew Raheem wasn’t her husband. I felt like the entire world knew she’d been cheating on me, and I’d been the dumb ass in the dark, oblivious to it all.
Karen
I swept up the pieces of my cell phone and the broken lamp. I poured the debris in the dustpan into the kitchen garbage can. Chris didn’t have to tell me he was disappointed in me. The hurt and pain on his face said more than any words could.
About ten minutes later I heard voices at the front door. My kids were home from school with Pops. The door opened, and the girls ran in. I looked in the hallway mirror and attempted to fix myself up the best I could, but to no avail. My eyes and nose were swollen and puffy from crying all day. My hair was a mess, and my clothes were wrinkled and disheveled. I tried to muster up a smile and look happy when my daughters saw me.
“Mommy!” they yelled excitedly.
“Hey. How was school?” I asked.
“We made this for you and Daddy,” Jocelyn said, waving a sheet of construction paper in the air.
“Isn’t it pretty?” Jaclyn asked.
At the top of the paper were the words My Happy Family. Underneath the girls had drawn a picture of the whole family, including Pops and Chloe. I thought about what I’d done and about how Chris had stormed out, and I started to cry.
“What’s wrong, Mommy?” Jocelyn asked.
“You don’t like it?” Jaclyn looked disappointed.
“No, no, I love it. It’s beautiful. Mommy is crying because she’s happy,” I lied.
Pops stared at me. I assumed from his glare that he suspected something was wrong. “Girls, why don’t you play in your room for a while? I have to talk to your mother about grown-up stuff.”
“Okay!” they yelled in unison and then skipped off to their bedroom.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Pops faced me. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Pops . . . I did something horrible. I don’t think I can tell you.”
“You cheated on Chris, didn’t you?” he asked calmly.
It stunned me that, that was his first guess. I nodded.
He sighed and looked at me. Pops had this stare that made you feel like he could read your soul. I hoped he could read mine.
“We were having problems. I never meant to hurt him—”
“Stop. I understand. I’m going to tell you something I haven’t even told Chris. Years back, I got orders that I was returning home from deployment. I wanted to surprise Chris and his mother, Eleanor, so I didn’t tell them I was coming. Chris was in school and Eleanor didn’t work, so I figured I would come home and surprise her first. When I walked in the house, I heard her moaning up a storm in our bedroom. I opened the bedroom door and caught her in the act with one of the military policemen from the base.”
My mouth dropped open.
Pops turned and stared out the window as he continued. “I was naïve. I believed that since she came from a military family, she knew what the role of a soldier’s wife was. I had neglected her. I hadn’t written letters or called her, because I had needed to keep my mental edge when I was in combat. I couldn’t think about being home or about my family, because I believed the moment I did, I’d get killed in battle. I had thought she understood that, but she had needed affection while I was away, and she’d felt that since I didn’t care to contact her when I was deployed, she wouldn’t care if she cheated on m
e with another man.”
For once, he looked like he was going to show some emotion, but he quickly composed himself and went on. “I got over it. Chris will get over it. I’ll talk to my son, and then you two can figure out how to make your marriage work. Your marriage isn’t about you two anymore. You have children. Everything should revolve around them. Where is he?”
“I don’t know. We argued, and he drove off. He said he needed to get away from me.”
“Call him.”
“He was so angry, he broke my cell phone during the argument.”
“I’ll call him.” Pops pulled out his cell phone and called Chris. The call went straight to voice mail.
“I’m worried about him,” I said.
“He’ll be back. I raised him right. He knows better than to desert his family.”
“Pops, can you watch the girls for me while I get a new phone and search for Chris? I know you said he’ll be back, but for some peace of mind, I just need to look for him.”
“I’ll watch the girls. Take care of your business.”
I hugged him. He acted so robotic at times, but for that one instant when he talked about his wife’s infidelity, he seemed human, emotional even. I saw how deeply it had hurt him.
“Thank you for understanding,” I said.
He nodded. I didn’t know if I was thanking him for understanding why I cheated, for watching the girls, or for giving me time to get a new phone and search for Chris.
I grabbed my bag and headed to the Verizon store.
* * *
“Mrs. Davis, your new iPhone is activated and ready for you,” said the cashier at the Verizon store.
“Thank you.”
I left the store, got into my car, and was bombarded with missed text messages. First, I got one from Tyrell that read, Your husband called me today. We had a nice little chat.
At first, I didn’t believe it. Chris didn’t have his number, but then I received several text messages from Raheem. The first text said, Your fucking husband pretended to be you and set me up.
My heart beat wildly inside my chest. I quickly read the rest of the text messages from Raheem.
He told me to meet him at the front of the gym at five.
The motherfucker came out of nowhere and called my name and attacked me.
The trainers at the gym broke it up, and your punk-ass man left before the cops got here.
I swear on my life, I’m going to get that motherfucker back!
I called Raheem after reading all the texts. He picked up on the first ring.
“Hello, Raheem? Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he had your number.”
“How the fuck did this happen?”
“He found out about us today, destroyed my cell phone, and left. I didn’t know where he was going or that he would contact you. I’m so sorry.”
“He caught me off guard, but if I see him again, I’ll be ready for his ass.”
Raheem was handsome, but he wasn’t a fighter. Chris had been an all-American wrestler in college. He and Pops sparred a few times a week to stay sharp. There was no way Raheem could beat Chris in a fistfight, but I let him talk tough.
“I’ll talk to him. I’m sorry he attacked you,” I said.
“Nah, I don’t want you to talk to him. I want to beat his ass. Karen, out of respect for you, I’m not going to have his punk ass arrested, but you tell him if he ever tries some shit like that again, not only am I going to fuck him up, but he’s also going to jail.”
“Thank you for not getting the cops involved. I’m going to go and try to find him now.”
“Yeah, you do that. Don’t forget to tell him what I said.”
I rolled my eyes. “I won’t.”
We hung up. I thought about searching for Chris, but I needed to know more about what had happened today. I called Tyrell. I needed to know exactly what he’d said to Chris. Chris didn’t usually do anything this reckless. Maybe Tyrell had said something to set him off.
“Hello, Tyrell,” I said when Tyrell picked up.
“Hello, yourself, Karen. To what do I owe the honor of this call?”
“What did you say to my husband to set him off?”
“I only told him the truth. The truth sets us all free.”
“Stop playing with me and talking in fucking riddles, Tyrell. This isn’t a game. This is my life! What did you say to him?” I yelled.
“First of all, calm down. He asked me how many times we’d fucked. I told him, ‘Countless times.’”
When I heard him say that, I felt a knot form in my stomach. I was filled with guilt and regret. I could only imagine how Chris felt.
Tyrell continued. “He asked me how many times you had broken plans with him to be with me, and I told him it happened all the time. He tried to threaten me. He wanted to stop by the office and teach me a lesson, but I let him know that wouldn’t be wise, with the investigation about you pending.”
I hated that Tyrell had this type of leverage against me. Information was spread too easily at my job. This situation brought out a nastiness in Tyrell that I hadn’t seen before. He’d never shown me his arrogance before, only his compassion.
“I let him know that while he might be able to beat me up physically, you needed me sexually,” he added.
“Don’t flatter yourself. You weren’t that good. I didn’t sleep with you for anything you did sexually. I needed you emotionally. That was it.”
“Oh please. I had you hollering and screaming for Jesus every time I touched you.”
“Truth be told, you’re small. Orally, you’re fairly decent, but other than that, you’re whack. Unless you were going down on me or we were using toys, you did nothing for me sexually.”
Tyrell made an irritated grunt that told me what I’d said hit a sore spot and touched home. I didn’t care. The situation had escalated because of what he’d told Chris.
“Well, I might be small, but there’s a big chance you won’t have a job soon, bitch,” Tyrell spat out.
“Don’t take your anger out on me because your wife is still cheating on your ass and I cut you off.”
“Let’s see how you feel when you lose your job and your family. You’ll be begging me to come back.”
“You think after all this, I would ever touch you again? You realize you’re at risk too, right? I guess you never read the code of conduct at work. If corporate discovers that anything happened between us, you’re going to get fired too. Then we’ll both be unemployed, and I’ll still have cut you off, and your wife will still be fucking around on you.”
There was silence on his end. I guessed it hadn’t occurred to him that he could get fired too.
“Did you purposely tell her about us?” I asked, breaking the silence.
Tyrell cleared his throat. When he spoke, his voice trembled, like he was nervous. “Yeah. I kept hearing around the office that she was still seeing other people, so I wanted her to know two can play that game. I didn’t know she was going to get corporate involved. I knew she was mad, but I didn’t think it would go this far.”
“Well, this is why I told you to keep your fucking mouth shut. Now we’re both in danger of losing our fucking jobs. Pray that your pride didn’t fuck us up and that we won’t be fired. Lose my number, asshole.”
I ended the call. I massaged my temples, gathered my composure, and drove past Will and Lou’s place. Chris’s truck wasn’t there. Next, I drove past Pops’s house to see if maybe he’d gone there, but his truck wasn’t in the driveway. After driving around for about an hour, I decided to head home.
When I walked through the door, Pops and the kids were sitting at the kitchen table. Pops was watching the girls as they colored in their coloring books.
“Did you get in touch with Chris?” Pops asked.
“No. I couldn’t find him anywhere. I’m starting to get worried.”
I didn’t want to tell him that Chris had fought with Raheem or that he had had an argument with Tyrell. Pops was a
lways hard on Chris, and I’d done enough to hurt him already. He didn’t need added aggravation from his father.
“This is unacceptable. I’m going to call him again, and he better answer me. He should be handling his problems like a man, not like some pansy.” Pops pulled out his phone, dialed Chris’s number, and put the phone on speaker.
“Yes, Pops?” Chris answered. He sounded apathetic.
“Boy, where are you?”
“Pops, I don’t need this right now. Karen has been cheating on me and—”
“I know what happened. She told me everything. Handle your situation like a damn man and get over it!”
“I’m not you. I can’t act like nothing happened. She hurt me and—”
“She hurt me,” Pops said, mimicking Chris. “Boo-hoo. Man up. Come home right now and talk to your wife. You should be here for your family, not running away like a brat. When you have children, your marriage is no longer about you or your wife. It’s about raising your children to be respectable and responsible adults. You should be leading by example.”
“I don’t need this lecture right now, and I’m not coming home. I’m not ready to see Karen yet.”
“Boy, if you don’t come home—”
“I’m not a child anymore, Pops. I’m a grown man, and I make my own decisions. I’m not coming home.” Chris ended the call.
“God damn it!” Pops slammed his fist hard on the kitchen table and stood up. The sound scared the girls; they looked at me to see if everything was all right.
Pops called Chris back several times, but the calls went straight to voice mail. After hanging up, Pops clutched his chest, and his breathing was heavy. He had a weird look on his face.
“Are you okay, Pops?” I asked, concerned.
“I’m fine,” Pops barked. He walked slowly to the kitchen cabinet with the glasses. His hands shook as he reached for a glass and then filled it with water from the faucet. He sat down at the table and drank the water. “I’m okay. I’m just a little upset,” he said.
I wasn’t sure if that statement was for the girls or for me, but I wasn’t angry at him for his outburst, because I knew he was frustrated.
Love and Happiness Page 11
