by Nicety
“The world may owe me nothing but you surely do. You owe me presents and if I don’t get them then I don’t want to see you anymore.” Nina slammed her hand down on the table. “And this food is disgusting.”
“Nina, you’ve eaten my spaghetti many times—“
“Yeah, when daddy was here. I just did that to be polite.”
“Well, I think you should be polite now and eat your food so you can go to bed.” My patience was wearing thin but I remained collected.
“I don’t have to if I don’t want to and mommy says I don’t even have to listen to you.” Nina crossed her arms and sat back in her chair pouting angrily.
“Nina, eat now,” Key stepped in.
“No. You eat this dog food.” Nina slapped her plate onto the floor painting the floor nearby with meatballs, Prego, and spaghetti.
“Nina,” Key roared.
“Nina, that was totally uncalled for and I’m telling your daddy. Now go to your room, get in the tub and go to bed. You will starve for the evening.” Without even looking at her, I headed for the kitchen and grabbed the broom and dustpan.
“No, I think I’m going to have the ice cream daddy brought for me earlier and then go get in the tub and bed. Yep, that’s what I want. Oh, and don’t even bother telling daddy about that little spill because...” Nina put on her cutest pouty face. “It was an accident.”
Nina skipped to the refrigerator and snatched out a big SpongeBob ice cream cone from the freezer before skipping off to the bathroom. I shook my head fighting back tears as the liquor had me in such a vulnerable state. But all I could think about was having another glass after I finished cleaning up her damn mess. Key looked down at me as I cleaned it up and shook his head also. I knew it was because I was letting her run me, but I had no choice. She was my ticket to the altar. But once I got there, that little bitch was going to the furthest boarding school I could afford.
“Why are we taking shit from a little piss ant like that?” Key asked as he scarfed down a fork full of food.
“For the love of Carter, I guess,” I answered through the frog in my throat. “Is my spaghetti really that bad?”
“Huh? No, baby. Well, maybe it’s just a tad bit dry but it ain’t bad. If you just put some more sauce on there then you’d be in business.”
“Carter likes it that way. Says he never liked when his mother put all that sauce on there.” The tears slowly fell from my eyes as I cleaned the last little bit of food from off the floor.
“And that’s why he got his little ass beat too. It wasn’t about what he didn’t want. It was about what he was going to eat.” Key took a sip from his wine glass. “Shit, back then we didn’t have any food to waste. Every dollar meant something. We didn’t have any government assistance helping us and I’d be damned if I wasted anything.”
“I hear ya. I grew up that way too. But Salina doesn’t discipline her so…what can you do?” I tossed the food in the trash and rinsed the broom and dustpan.
“We could go back there and tag team her ass and then wait for her mother to come and get that bitch too. You know I never like that bimbo chick. He loves those types of women. That’s why I was surprised when he came home with you.”
I had to admit that when he said that it made me think. Why exactly had Carter chosen me? I wasn’t apart of his normal routine of women so I figured that maybe he was trying to turn over a new leaf and settle down. Guessing from his infidelities, that statement was probably only half true. He hadn’t outgrown his whorish ways but he had to be holding onto me for some reason. And, it was that unknown reason that made me feel like I was special to him in some way. I had to mean more to him than any of those others did since I made it to the relationship status and they were just his bed hoppers. My heart was just so tired of fighting with my feelings over him.
Chapter 10
Revelations
It was midnight, which was the latest Key had ever stayed over. I figured he was waiting around for Carter to come home so he could curse him out about his daughter’s antics. Carter wouldn’t be home until 5am, but if he wanted to crash on the couch he was more than welcome. Lord knew I could’ve used the backup once I tried to explain to him that his child was Satan’s spawn.
We laughed, I cried, we joked, and he spat words of wisdom that made me realize how much I missed having the opportunity to have my own father around. Key was truly such a deep down to earth person that it plagued me why Carter ignored him so. He was so preoccupied with things he shouldn’t have been that he forgot to focus on the things he should’ve. The tip of my wine glass sluggishly hit my lips as I stared down at the bottom noticing that it was empty.
“Yeah, I tore Carter’s little ass up that day, boy I swear,” Key laughed, sitting his freshly brewed coffee cup down on the end table.
“And rightfully so. Hell, he had emptied the entire bottle of dishwashing liquid on the floor and thought he was going skating. I would’ve tore his butt up too. How old was he again?”
“Ten. He was more than old enough to know better but he thought he would clean it up before we got home. I guess he didn’t anticipate us getting home early,” he sniggered. “And he always gave the babysitter the flux too. We could never hire the same one back, twice.”
“Mmm…” My head dipped as I drunkenly took another sip from my glass.
“Hey, you might wanna slow down on that wine girl. You don’t wanna end up becoming a lush head. That’s not a good look for a beautiful young lady like yourself,” Key suggested as he gently took away my freshly poured glass of red wine.
“I know. It’s just your son is so…”
“I know sweetie. I know. Hey, if it’s any consolation, you’re not alone in his alienation of affection.” He nudged my chin playfully with his fist before slapping my knee. “You sit tight and try to clear your head of worry. I’ll go check on The Omen for you.”
We laughed as he rose from the sofa headed towards the hall. Staring at my phone, I snatched it up to text Carter a simple message. It wasn’t something that would send him into an attitude like frenzy, but something that I hoped would make him smile and in turn return the favor. I waited for five minutes, twiddling my toes and picking at my nails. I could hear Key moving around in the back of the house making his way to the bathroom. My phone didn’t even bother to light up. I checked it to see if it had mysteriously turned itself off as it did on many malfunctioning occasions, but it hadn’t. I sighed, realizing I was probably digging for oysters waiting on him to tell me that he loved me back.
“Well, the devil is down for the count. I hope she wakes up with a better disposition.” Key returned to the living room as I rose from my seat.
“Yeah, me too,” I said, as I snatched up my phone and darted past him not realizing I had sat there too long without giving the wine the release from me that it needed.
Darting past him, my weak bladder headed towards the bathroom posthaste. My ass hit the toilet seat after the short rain dance I did, feeling relieved once the fluid exited my body. My eyes blankly stared at the message I sent Carter, still impatiently waiting on him to respond. Drunkenly, I tossed the phone on the floor as it made a small clinking sound against the white tile. I wasn’t trying to make any noise and jeopardize waking the demon seed sleeping in the next room but my anger had taken over my control. If I had been Salina, I bet Carter would have texted back nearly immediately.
And then, my cell vibrated uncontrollably. It was so far away from the toilet but I stretched with everything that I had to reach it. My ass was half way off the toilet seat damn near about to fall off, but I held my balance by hanging on to the side of the opaque shell shaped bathroom sink.
“Hello?” I answered after thirstily snatching up the phone and hitting the button.
“Hey baby. We’re out here at a bad fire and we just lost a guy,” Carter spoke over the tumultuous sounds of the background.
“Oh my God. Are you serious?” I placed my hand over my mouth. “I’m so
sorry baby. Who was it?”
“It was new guy trying to be hero. We got the fire down and right now we’re just all standing around waiting on the Chief to give us the word to pack it up,” Carter paused. “Man baby, when I seen your text all I could think about was that I loved you too. I’m just a man, you know? You only live once, right? But I like that you understand me and that you’re willing to stick by me and shit.”
“Yes, I know baby. I’m just hoping you get this shit all out of your system before we walk down that aisle, cause I don’t wanna be in a marriage like this.”
“Naw baby. I got you on that. And, we gon’ set the day next week. We’re just going to sit down and do it. How about that?”
“Yes, baby, yes. That makes me so happy, Carter.”
“Yeah…yeah. That shit was real up in there though. It was a five alarm and even though I’ve done plenty of those before, this one was just so…”
“I know baby. Praise the Lord that you made it out and you are safe and sound and I will pray for the family of the brother who lost his life. Be careful out there baby.” I smiled knowing that I had sent my text at the right time.
“I will. Aye, I might be home later than usual. You know, gotta fill out paperwork and thangs.”
Something inside of me told me he was lying but I couldn’t focus on that. He was slowly trying to open up to me and get me to understand him. And, I appreciated that. All I wanted was for him to leave that bitch alone. He was only so fixated on her more than he used to be the others because he had a baby with her. It was super annoying but I didn’t want to ruin the great moment we were having seeing as though I have to fight to get them to happen.
“Sure babe. No problem. The most important thing is that you’re safe.” The words left my lips even though they wanted to say more.
“Yeah, but it shouldn’t be long though, not long at all.” Carter sucked his teeth. “I love you baby.”
“Okay, baby, I love you too.”
Every time he told me that I felt chills run down my spine. I was so blindly in love with that man that everything he did or said, made me tingle and giggle like a love struck teenager. I couldn’t help it. He had me gone in the head. I flushed the toilet and prepared to wash my hands when I heard a loud thud in my living room. I rushed out the bathroom and into the front to see what the noise was. For some reason, my mind had shifted to the worst-case scenario thinking that Key had fallen over drunk and passed out. But when I got to the living room there wasn’t a soul in sight. He had left the house without a goodbye again. I hated it when he did that but it was understandable. He was further on his last leg with his son than I was perhaps.
Chapter 11
Wednesday Evening
“Hey girl. What’s good with you?” Briana asked as I answered the phone.
“Nothing. I just walked out of this job. Girl you know they’re trying to overwork my ass. What’s good with you?”
“Shit. Sam told me she’s been trying to contact you but you haven’t been answering your phone. I was just calling to see if you were ignoring me too.” Though there was sarcasm in her voice I knew she was really concerned and meant every word.
“Naw, girl it’s just that Sam has a tendency to blab about her successes, which is a good thing but I just can’t hear how Kelly’s idea worked for her when I’m sitting here trying to figure out what the hell happened with my relationship. Besides, you know that the last time we spoke she was trying to get me to believe that Carter was playing me.” It was hard for me to get those words out. “I guess I’m just not feeling being slapped back to reality right now.”
“Well, you know how Sam is. She likes to brag about her happiness. But avoiding her because she tried to give you some advice is cold, babes. We all need each other, especially since one of us has gone AWOL. So, whatever’s going on between you two, please squash it.” Briana paused smacking on her gum.
“Are you still at work?” Quickly I changed the subject.
“Girl, yes. I had to let two girls go because they were falling in too deep with this industry doing dope and shit. You know I don’t play that. They don’t call me The Warden for nothing.”
“So…you and Julian are cool?” I couldn’t help but to ask no matter if it was bad timing or not. I had to know if Sam was the only one who found success with Kelly’s plan.
“Shit, we’ve barely even seen each other, girl. With him always traveling for his job and me hopping on and off a plane for mine, it’s amazing that we are even still married,” she guffawed nervously. “But for the most part I think we’re good though.”
“Don’t you think you ought to maybe set up some time to be with your husband, Bri? You don’t want to look up one day and wonder why he’s serving you divorce papers.” I felt kind of crazy giving her advice when I should have been the one taking it.
“Hmm, he knows what he has at home. He can do it if he wants to and he’ll be the one regretting it, not me. Besides, that shit is a two way street. He’s always doing some top secret undercover work overseas or at an undisclosed location, so how can I compete with that?”
“Girl, I don’t know how you do it.” My voice was solemn as my head shook at the fact that she was married to a ghost. “Having a husband that works for the demanding government? That’s crazy.”
“By making money. You don’t get through life broke. So I bury myself in our money,” Briana joked. “You know what sweetie, I’ve gotta go but call me if you need me okay? Love you.”
Briana pulled one of my moves and hung up abruptly before I could say anything else. I couldn’t be mad at her because I knew what she was feeling. Just as Sam had done for me, I had put into perspective some key problems of Briana’s marriage. She was my friend and I loved her but I would’ve been lying if I said that I wasn’t the least bit happy that I wasn’t alone in the struggle for love. I wasn’t the only one having trouble with my relationship. Before I became too happy, however, my phone rang again.
“Hello?” I asked inquisitively, unable to recognize the number on the caller ID.
“Aye, Carter told me to call you cause he’s at work. Now I didn’t want to do the shit but his ass can’t get off work and Nina needs a hundred fucking dollars for her ballet fees or she can’t go to practice today.” Salina’s voice blared through my phone as my eyes widened.
“And? I missed the part where that’s my problem. You can’t pay for your daughter’s own shit? Damn, how worthless can you be?”
“Look bitch, what we’ve got going on can wait for another day. Right now, I’m trying to get this money so my baby can go to practice. So is you gon’ give it to me or not?”
“The fuck? Not.” I hung up on her ass and tried to calm down before my road rage kicked in as I drove down the street.
Not only did this bitch have me fucked up by thinking it was cool to call my phone but also she and Carter had me fucked up if they thought it was going to be that sweet. I was not in the ass kissing business and for damn sure wasn’t going to drop everything that I had going so that I could run to her every beck and call. Once that started, I would find myself doing it every time so it was best that I nipped that shit in the bud right then. Furthermore, that little devil didn’t like me anyway. She didn’t need my damn money.
“Hello?” I snapped as I answered my phone again.
“Look Liv, whatever you’ve got going on between each other is one thing. But I need you to do this for me and Nina, okay? That little girl ain’t done nothing to you. This ain’t about Salina.” Carter went dead in, growling through the phone.
I had neglected to tell Carter about his daughter and her evil ways but it really didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. He should have been able to notice how cold she had been treating me lately. For him to say that she had done nothing to me was quite the opposite of what I knew to be true. I was at my breaking point with that chick and her raggedy ass mother. But in retrospect, it was my fault too. I kept forgetting to tell him wh
at was really going on when he wasn’t there.
“Carter, why couldn’t you have called me and asked me from jump? Why did you give that bitch my cell phone number?”
“Because, I’m at work. I busy right now and I’ve gotta take time out of what I’m doing to focus on this shit. Now if you’re gonna be my wife, you need to get used to doing shit like this. Salina might not be around but Nina ain’t going nowhere.”
“You still should have called me yourself.”
“But y’all need to start dropping this petty shit and start getting along. We’ve gotta deal with each other for a long fucking time. Get used to it,” he spluttered the words so fast it almost sounded as if one of those TV pimps said it.
“Yeah…whatever. Call her back and tell her I will Western Union that shit to her in five minutes.”
“That’s my girl. Love you.”
“You’d better,” I snarled before hanging up the phone.
Damn. I still forgot to tell him.
Chapter 12
Friday Evening
“Who is this?” My annoyance resounded through my voice as I answered the call of an unknown number.
“It’s Dickie, baby.”
“Who?”
“Dickie, baby. Salina’s cousin. How you doing?” Dickie tried to sound suave but I wasn’t feeling that shit at all.
“Okay and why are you calling my phone?” I asked her slowly.
“Oh right. I almost forgot this wasn’t a booty call,” Dickie groaned into the phone as if she was disappointed by her own words. “Salina’s gotta go and get her little brother out of jail in Waukegan. So she’s gonna need you to pick Nina up from practice and keep her for the weekend.”
“Wh…what? That shit is nearly an hour each way. Why would she wait until the last minute to do some shit like that? What the fuck kind of shit is really going on over there? See, I knew this shit was going to happen. I fucking knew it,” I bawled. “Yeah, alright. Whatever.”
