Read the Warning Label First

by B. M. Hardin

  I don’t even have to say it!

  *********

  Chapter Six

  “Is there anything else you want me to do?” Tristan asked.

  I simply shook my head and he exited the room.

  Where do I begin?

  So, for starters, I found out the hard way that Tristan was a liar, which now had me questioning everything that he said.

  After showing up at his so-called house that day, only to find out that it wasn’t his house at all anymore, I headed home to wait for him.

  “Where you been?” I’d asked him.

  “I told you I was at my house. I was looking for a few things.”

  As soon as he’d finished his sentence, I threw my shoe at him.

  I told him that I knew the truth and that I’d went by his so-called house and that he wasn’t there…better yet, it was no longer his house at all.

  Real quick, his house was then described as…his storage.

  Tristan told me that the bank took the house a little after he lost his job.

  He said that he’d taken out a second mortgage on it when dealing with his father and his medical bills. He’d explained that he’d tried to keep it but in order to keep it, it would have taken everything that he had in his savings and then some.

  He’d said he couldn’t bring himself to ask me for help so he had no choice. He said that he didn’t know how to tell me because he didn’t want me to think any less of him.

  Pretty much, he had a decent excuse, and had the paperwork from the bank to prove it.

  But still yet, that was no reason to lie.

  You don’t lie under any circumstances, not to people that you say that you love.

  Did I forgive him?

  Unfortunately I did.

  For two reasons.

  One, I could see how the male ego could come into play. He was already feeling down about losing his job and then on top of that he lost his house.

  I get it.

  He was ashamed and embarrassed. Though lying was definitely the wrong way to go about it, I still somewhat understood.

  And number two, well, did I mention that I was six weeks pregnant?

  Yep, I was expecting.

  I’d found out only two days after the whole situation and the lie about the house came out.

  I was so frustrated and undecided about what I was going to do and what was next for us.

  The whole thing really had me stressed out.

  Any other time he would have been dismissed with the quickness, but I was on the fence.

  He had definitely made me soft. For some reason I couldn’t just drop him like I normally do men and keep it moving.

  Hell, where was he going to go?

  He didn’t have a house anymore.

  But lying was one thing that I just couldn’t stand and it bothered me that I couldn’t come up with a solution as fast as I’d wanted to.

  Nevertheless, I wasn’t eating or sleeping and that Monday morning, as I headed for my office, I passed out.

  Next thing I know, I was waking up in a hospital room with Tristan and my sister Cheyanne by my side.

  And that’s when I was hit with the big news.

  I was pregnant.

  Let me explain something to you, this isn’t exactly all going according to my plan.

  I didn’t expect to be having a baby before I was married. But I guess that’s always been my problem.

  I thought that I could plan my entire life instead of just going with the flow.

  And it was past time for me to start just going with life and figuring it out along the way.

  So with the news, Tristan’s lie seemed so small and I wiped his slate clean with the threat that it was definitely a onetime thing and there would be no second, third or fourth time.

  He agreed and vowed not to let his ego get in our way again.

  For now, only Tristan, Cheyanne and myself, knew about the baby.

  I was going to announce it to my mother and the rest of my siblings when the time was right.

  It had only been a week since we’d found out and I’d been instructed to take two or three days off from work but seven sounded so much better.

  It was now Sunday, and I was lying in bed with my feet up, resting while Tristan ran around the house doing everything that I asked him to do.

  He was still on punishment from the na-na, but other than that, I hadn’t been as mean to him as I could have been.

  He was forgiven and I was trying to let it go.

  I couldn’t help but lay there and think about the baby.

  I’d thought about kids before, but I guess in a way, I didn’t think that I would ever really get to have them.

  It seemed as though I was getting everything that I had been lacking and I could only conclude that everything was happening according to plan.

  Somewhere, somehow, I must’ve fallen asleep because the next time I opened my eyes, the room was pitch black.

  “Tristan!”

  I waited to hear the sound of his footsteps coming down the hall, but I heard nothing.

  I could hear him chattering so I called his name again but he still didn’t come.

  Rolling my eyes, I got out of bed and headed up the hall but when I got into the living room, Tristan’s face was buried in the couch and he appeared to be sleeping.

  Huh?

  I know damn well that I’d just heard him talking.

  He didn’t turn around and he was even slightly snoring.

  Maybe I was imagining things, I thought, and I decided that I was going to head to the kitchen for a snack, but just as I turned to walk away I heard a low voice.

  “Hello? Hello?”

  I turned around in a hurry and smacked the back of Tristan’s head.

  “Give me the damn phone,” I said and held out my hand.

  He looked at me as if he had really been asleep.

  Really?

  His phone was in his hand and though the screen wasn’t lit up, the voice was still saying the word hello.

  “Give me the phone or pack your stuff and get out,” I said to him in a tone that told him that I was dead ass serious.

  He darn near threw the phone in my direction.

  I guess maybe threatening to put him out on the street was kind of harsh, but oh well.

  “Hello? Who is this?”

  “Tori? How---where---where is Tristan?” my sister Cheyanne asked.

  “Cheyanne? What are you doing talking to Tristan at this time of night? What were y’all talking about?” I quizzed her.

  “Why?” she said.

  I blacked out for all of two seconds.

  I shook my head and tried to get myself together.

  Why?

  What the hell did she mean why?

  “Um, I would think that I have the right to know why you are talking to my man,” I stated in frustration.

  “Maybe. But not when what we were discussing pertains to me and my relationship. I needed his advice. I got it. Tell him I said thank you. Bye.”

  And with that, she hung up in my face.

  My mouth was hanging wide open.

  I didn’t know whether to call her back and curse her out or to get in my car and drive all the way to her house just to smack the crap out of her.

  “What was that about?” I asked him, throwing his phone on the table and placing my hand on my hip.

  “What did she say?”

  What?

  Is he serious?

  “It doesn’t matter what she said. Why is my sister calling you late at night Tristan?”

  “She needed some advice.”

  Well, at least their answers were the same.

  “Well, if it was all innocent, why try to pretend to be asleep and act as though you weren’t on the phone?”

  Tristan sat there for a second.

  “Because you’re mean lately, and I didn’t want to hear you fuss. Maybe it’s because you’re pregnant but I just wanted to avoid hearing your mout
h.”

  Maybe it’s because I’m pregnant?

  No stupid, it’s because you’re a liar!

  Well, or at least because he told a lie.

  He knew darn well that the pregnancy wasn’t my reason for being a little snappy at him lately but hearing him actually voice that I was mean, sort of made me feel bad.

  At the end of the day, I didn’t want to push him away. Especially not now with me being pregnant and all.

  Of course being a single mother left a bad taste in my mouth and other than that I still loved him to death.

  Maybe I was acting just a little bit mean, but it was his fault.

  Still, I didn’t like the whole sneaking and talking to my sister thing, and then when questioned, they both acted as though what they were talking about was none of my business.

  I didn’t like that at all.

  I didn’t even know that they had each other’s phone numbers, but for now, I was going to let it go.

  But best believe it was only for now.

  “Come on and drive me to somebody’s drive-thru. We’re hungry.” I said to Tristan and he got up to get himself together.

  The next morning came all too soon.

  I definitely didn’t want to go back to work but I knew that I had to.

  Hell, both of us couldn’t be unemployed.

  I hadn’t heard Tristan mention much about the laundromat idea lately, maybe that was because in his words, I had been being mean, but with a baby on the way, he surely had to make a move and he had better do it fast!

  I very well had the financial means to take care of the baby by myself, but I wasn’t going to.

  Nope, I just wasn’t going to do it.

  He was going to do his part and I was going to make sure of it.

  I forced myself out of bed and within the next hour I was out the door and headed to the money.

  I made sure that I made as much noise as possible to wake Tristan.

  If I couldn’t sleep in, neither could he.

  I’d decided not to inform the office of my pregnancy just yet.

  I was still trying to get use to the idea, so I figured that I wouldn’t break the news to them until I was showing and could no longer hide it.

  After parking my car, like every work morning, I walked across the street to get an expresso.

  I’d heard that I was going to have to stop drinking them while pregnant, but that was going to take some time.

  My day just didn’t go right unless I had at least one.

  Even on weekends, I came all the way across town, to this very spot, just to get one.

  The line was longer than usual but I didn’t mind being a few minutes late.

  On these mornings, I did somewhat miss Delilah.

  She would always wait until I arrived to work, to walk over with me.

  Thinking of her, I never did give her a call back so that she could tell me whatever it was that she needed to tell me.

  Maybe I would do that, sooner or later.

  After finally making it to the front of the line, I smiled once I was finally able to feel the cup in my hands.

  I paid for my expresso and turned around…

  “Ahh!”

  I screamed as the entire, hot expresso spilled all over my chest.

  The people around me immediately tried to help me by grabbing napkins and some even tried to wipe it from my chest even though it was extremely inappropriate.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bump into you. I didn’t see you,” she said.

  By the time I followed the voice and looked in her direction, she was heading out the door.

  She glanced back once she was outside, just before she crossed the street.

  It was her!

  That b---

  “Ma’am? Are you okay? Here, we got you another expresso on the house and a gift card,” the young gentleman said from behind the counter but my focus was still trying to see which way the stalker lady had gone, but she was out of sight.

  It was the same woman that had been staring at me at the store way back on Halloween.

  It was obvious that she had followed me there, which made me wonder if she had been watching me the entire time.

  Did she know where I live?

  Obviously she knew where I worked.

  I’d never seen her a day in my life before the time at the store so I was sure that whatever the reason it was that she was following me had nothing to do with me.

  But I was sure it had something to do with somebody.

  Tristan.

  With a wet blouse, I walked out of the coffee shop, with my new expresso and my gift card and headed to the office.

  I was the a top executive, so of course I had a bathroom in my office where I could clean up and I always kept a change of clothes there just in case of some type of emergency.

  Everyone stared as I made my way to my office and shut the door behind me.

  I couldn’t help but smile at the office full of balloons, cards and flowers.

  Everyone must’ve heard about me fainting the week before.

  Another set of red roses, in the same type of vase was sitting on my desk.

  They still didn’t have a card but I was sure that they were from Tristan.

  I headed to the bathroom to get myself together.

  Today just wasn’t a good day…

  “Just ride with me, please.”

  “Tristan, I don’t feel like it. You wouldn’t believe the day that I’ve had. My expresso spilled all over my shirt this morning. I think I lost a client. And I didn’t do half of the work that I was supposed to do. I just want to go to sleep and start all over again tomorrow.”

  I didn’t want to tell him about the strange woman just yet. I had a little investigating of my own to do first.

  “Please.”

  I looked at him and finally nodded my head yes.

  As soon as we got into the car and he started to drive, I dozed off.

  I dreamt of my childhood.

  I thought of how everyone wanted to be us…except us.

  They assumed we had the perfect life.

  My parents appeared to have been the perfect couple.

  We were in the church. We had a fairly nice house and car back in those days.

  Everybody thought that life for us was good.

  But they didn’t see the never ending bible studies or the scripture quizzes that took place instead of allowing us to go out and enjoy a nice spring day or the warmth of the summer sun.

  We never really got the chance just to be kids.

  We all acted as though our childhood hadn’t affected us but it had.

  It molded us into who we were today.

  So, in a way, I guess it hadn’t been a bad thing.

  The next time I opened my eyes, we were at a vineyard.

  It was one that I’d always passed but never seemed to have the time to stop.

  It was around six o’clock in the evening and starting to get dark.

  It was April, but surprisingly it was clear and not as many showers as we usually saw around this time of year.

  Tristan got out of the car and opened my door.

  Feeling as tired as ever, I got out of the car and Tristan grabbed my hand.

  We walked through the entrance way and after turning the corner of the stone wall, I gasped in disbelief.

  My family smiled at the sight of me and I smiled back.

  Everyone was there, except my father of course, but I was used to him not being in attendance.

  Even my sister Lauren and her family were there.

  “What is this?”

  “Well, your birthday is coming up and this is your birthday present,” Tristan said.

  I looked around at all of the decorations.

  It was all decorated in lavender and ivory.

  There were tall vases of lilies, surrounded by candlelight. There was a miniature waterfall, and diamonds and crystals and so much more.

  It was very elega
nt.

  A little too elegant.

  I looked back at Tristan who was looking at my mother.

  I’d just noticed how she was dressed and that she was holding a bible.

  I looked back at Tristan confused.

  He just smiled and then…

  Everyone squealed as he got down on one knee.

  Was he serious?

  Was this was really happening?

  But how?

  Why?

  Tristan went into his pocket and pulled out a beautiful, gorgeous, out of a magazine diamond ring.

  Where in the hell did he get the money to pay for that?

  Tori get it together. The man is trying to propose.

  I chastised myself and then paid attention to the matter at hand.

  “Marry me. Right here. Right now. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. It’s only been about a year but it has been the best year of my life. Say you’ll be my wife. Hopefully your mother didn’t get ordained for nothing,” Tristan joked.

  I glanced at my mother.

  I couldn’t believe that she’d gotten ordained just to be able to marry me.

  How sweet was that?

  Oh, I felt so special!

  But marriage?

  This isn’t exactly the way I imagined it.

  It wasn’t the hundred thousand dollar wedding that I’d always dreamed about.

  Where was my white wedding gown and my oversized wedding party?

  Where was the singing and the hundreds of people in attendance?

  But maybe this wasn’t so bad.

  Maybe this was all that I need.

  My family was here and that was all that really mattered.

  I could always do the wedding of my dreams at a later time, right?

  Was I really considering getting married?

  And was Tristan the right man to be getting married to?

  Before recently, my answer would have been heck yeah, but now…

  Um….

  Well…

  You know what….

  Screw it!

  I’m taking this chance and if it doesn’t work out---

  “Yes!”

  “Yes?”

  “Yes.”

  Everyone cheered and Tristan placed the ring on my finger.

  Everyone moved around as if they were waiting for my response.

  Out of nowhere, a piano started playing and this show was on the road.

  It all happened so fast and it was over in a flash.