The Wrong Husband

by B. M. Hardin

  After paying for my things, walking out of the grocery store, I noticed a police officer with a dog standing right near the exit.

  At the sight of me, the dog started to bark.

  He acted as though he wanted to eat me for dinner and I hurriedly tried to get away from him, but the policeman started to follow me.

  “Excuse me ma’am, can I talk to you for a minute?”

  I looked at the officer once I’d reached my car.

  “Yes?”

  The dog continued to bark and I wondered why the officer wasn’t trying to calm him down.

  “Do you have any drugs on you ma’am?”

  I looked at him like he was stupid.

  “What? No. I don’t do drugs officer.”

  “My K-9 is trained and a part of the drug task force. He only acts this way when drugs are involved.”

  “Like I said, I don’t do drugs. I don’t have drugs. Maybe your dog is on drugs. I know my rights, and so with that I will say, good day officer,” I said and got into the car.

  I thought that things were going to get out of hand and I surely thought that he was going to try to search me or be nasty about the situation because of my smart comment, but he didn’t do a thing.

  He let me drive off with no problem.

  Once I was home, I sat there to think about the officer and his dog.

  I wouldn’t dare have any drugs.

  I didn’t even drink unless my husband wanted me to have a drink with him; which was very rare.

  My phone started to ring and I opened my huge purse to find it.

  I moved things around and finally I found it.

  But that wasn’t the only thing that I found.

  I lifted up the Ziploc bag and stared at it.

  I opened it to sniff it.

  Yep.

  It was weed alright.

  And a good bit of it.

  What the hell?

  How the hell?

  Huh?

  How did that get in there?

  I’d just switched purses that morning so I was sure that it hadn’t been in there before.

  So how did it get there?

  At Micki’s I’d left my purse in the car.

  The only place that’d I’d carried it was at the grocery store.

  The grocery store.

  Hmmm…

  The woman that almost bumped me to the hospital did come from behind me.

  Could she have dropped it into my purse during the process?

  It seemed a little farfetched but how else would it have gotten there?

  Maybe she’d noticed the officer and dog once she’d come in and tried to get rid of it.

  I wasn’t sure but I was so glad that the officer hadn’t searched me.

  I would have surely gone to jail.

  I got out of the car with my groceries and threw the bag of weed in the big trashcan.

  Polo called my phone just as I entered the house, but I sent him to the voicemail again.

  After wat could have just happened to me, the Man above must still be on my side; so any sinning with Polo was definitely out of the question.

  I needed all of the mercy that I could possibly get.

  ~***~

  “You’re the girl from the video,” she said.

  “Excuse me?”

  She smiled and walked closer.

  “You used to fool around with Polo right? He and I get down every once and a while, and he’d wanted to watch some of his homemade videos to get him in the mood. You were on the one that we watched yesterday,” she said.

  What!

  I know damn well that Polo hadn’t video tapped us having sex!

  “I’m sorry, but you have me confused with someone else,” I said to her.

  “Are you sure? You look a lot like her. Do you even know Polo?”

  “No. I’m afraid I don’t.”

  “Oh, well, my bad,” she said and walked away.

  As soon as I was finished with my lunch, I dialed Polo’s number as I walked out of the café.

  “Why have you been ignoring me Sassi? I miss you.”

  “Miss me my ass! Did you video tape us having sex Polo?”

  I was furious and I waited on him to respond before driving off.

  “No. Who told you that?”

  “Apparently some chick that you were screwing yesterday. She ran into me and said that she watched me on one of your sex tapes. How? I didn’t see any camera. We hadn’t even planned on getting down that day. I swear if you---,”

  “I didn’t tape you Sassi.”

  “You better hope that you didn’t Polo, bye!”

  “No, Sassi, wait.”

  “What? What is it?”

  “You don’t have to act like you hate me just because we fooled around do you?”

  “I don’t hate you Polo. That’s the problem. I don’t hate you at all. I just wish that things could go back to the way that they used to be.”

  “Your wish is my command.”

  Polo hung up and I got out of the car to go back into work.

  Hopefully he would stick to his word…

  Once I was home that day, for some reason all I wanted to do was write.

  It was as though I had to let all of my frustration out and what better place to do it than in my book.

  I wrote as much as I could until I heard the front door open.

  I stopped writing and turned around to greet my family.

  The boys first, and then Eddie.

  “How was your day?”

  “Better now,” I said to him as he kissed my forehead.

  “You were writing?”

  “Yeah, but I’m done. I’ll get dinner started.”

  “No.”

  Eddie held his finger up at me, scrolled up the document a few hundred words and started to read.

  He read for a few minutes and then he grinned at me.

  “Keep writing. I’ll go get pizza.”

  Aww!

  He was finally being supportive.

  It meant so much to me to have him behind me on something that I wanted to do so badly.

  “Thank you Eddie. Thank you.”

  We just might have a shot at this.

  He was really putting forth an effort and I really did appreciate it.

  I wrote until it was time to eat and even after everyone had eaten, Eddie offered to bathe the boys and get them ready for bed.

  He encouraged me to write for another hour or so and said that if he fell asleep before I came to bed, to wake him and say good night.

  But I had other plans for him.

  We hadn’t had sex in a long time.

  Since Eddie was positive that I had changed my panties and that I was having an affair, or at least thinking about it, he hadn’t even tried to touch me.

  There were occasions that it seemed as though we both wanted it, but neither of us made the first move.

  But tonight I was going to.

  I wrote for a while and went to find Eddie.

  He was in the shower, so I went to kiss the boys and then headed to shower in their bathroom.

  After a few minutes, I stepped out of the shower and headed to our bedroom, soak and wet.

  Eddie stared at me once I entered.

  I walked over to him.

  He looked at me with so much love in his eyes that I knew that all along, he was all that I needed.

  No one was ever going to love me the way that he did.

  No one was ever going to value me, and respect me like Eddie did.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  “I didn’t take a pill Sassi.”

  “It’s okay baby. You don’t need one.”

  “What if it happens again?”

  “It won’t.”

  I kissed him.

  Even if it did, I wouldn’t care.

  Tonight was about him.

  Tonight was about making him feel good.

  Tonight was about me showing him
that I was sorry; even if he didn’t know exactly what I was sorry for.

  And although Eddie ended up lasting for only about five minutes, I had never been more satisfied in all of my life.

  Sex was important in a relationship, but it was all about compromise.

  With him snoring beside me, I turned on the TV to watch the news.

  I sat up at the face on the screen.

  No. It couldn’t be.

  It was the woman from earlier that day; the woman that told me that she’d watched me on camera having sex with Polo.

  She was dead.

  She had been involved in a fatal hit and run.

  There were no witnesses and she had been pronounced dead at the scene.

  Coincidence?

  Hmm…

  The more and more I thought about it, I was sure that it was.

  Even Polo wasn’t that crazy.

  I turned the TV off and snuggled under Eddie.

  As he pulled me closer to him, in his arms I’d never felt so complete.

  And I was going to love my wrong, yet so right, husband forever.

  ~***~

  “So, what have I missed?” Patrice asked.

  She was home for a little while and I hadn’t realized how valuable her presence was until she was gone.

  “Nothing much.”

  “Everything good at home?”

  “Oh yes!”

  And I wasn’t lying either.

  Everything was great.

  Things were better than ever between Eddie and I.

  Polo and I weren’t screwing around or even talking behind Eddie’s back anymore, so as far as I was concerned, things couldn’t be better.

  Polo was coming around as usual but he hadn’t been inappropriate with me or even flirted with me in a long while.

  I guess he finally got the hint.

  Eddie and I were fine.

  He was still taking the pills once or twice a week.

  That was enough for me.

  I wouldn’t be greedy.

  I was just trying to stay married.

  “You know, I’ve been thinking that maybe I do need to find a man or something.”

  I knew that eventually she would.

  Hell, no one wanted to be alone forever.

  “Well, whoever the lucky man is, he will be getting a hand full. But he will be one lucky bastard,” I said and Patrice beamed.

  “Well, I have to head home. I have plans tonight,” she said.

  We blew kisses through the air and she was gone.

  I also had to get started cleaning and cooking.

  Polo was coming for dinner so of course I had to prepare to cook extra, not to mention that the house was a mess.

  A few hours later, the house was clean, dinner was done, and Eddie answered the door.

  Polo walked in, but he didn’t walk in alone.

  He walked in with Patrice.

  Eddie and I both somewhat stared at them.

  Eddie wasn’t as fond of Patrice as he was of Micki.

  They had never had any issues or anything, but he too thought that Patrice was a pain in the ass most of the time.

  Polo and I made eye contact for only a second, but we both looked away as Eddie spoke.

  “So, you guys are…”

  “Friends.”

  “Yeah, just friends. For now,” Patrice added.

  I hadn’t told her about Polo and I having sex.

  And now I probably never would.

  I had told her about Polo’s flirting, but that was it.

  “You could have told me all of this earlier,” I said to her.

  “Well, you know me. I like the element of surprise.”

  And the night was about to get interesting.

  The room seemed incredibly tight for some reason and I barely said a word as everyone else chatted over dinner.

  Polo was being disgustingly attentive to Patrice.

  He was flirting with her.

  Finishing her sentences.

  Feeding her and even whispering things in her ear that made her giggle.

  And you damn right I felt some kind of way!

  I know, I know, I probably shouldn’t have.

  And I didn’t have a clue as to why it was bothering me, but it did.

  Eddie and I sat damn near miles apart as we watched them be all close and intimate.

  I couldn’t wait for the night to come to an end and when it finally did, I didn’t even see Polo or Patrice to the door.

  I lied and said that I wasn’t feeling well and Eddie let them out.

  A little while later he joined me in our bedroom.

  “You okay?”

  I nodded.

  But something told me that he kind of knew that I wasn’t.

  “Polo and Patrice? Eww,” Eddie said as he headed to the bathroom.

  That’s right.

  Eww!

  Polo knew just what he was doing and I was going to make sure that he didn’t get away with it.

  ~***~

  I exhaled.

  Polo made himself comfortable beside me.

  Every single time that we had sex, I felt like I wanted to die.

  I hadn’t kept my word.

  That night that he’d shown up with Patrice had me in my feelings and I called him the next day to give him a piece of my mind.

  Somehow I ended up at his house, and the rest was history.

  What was supposed to have happened between us only once had now happened so many times that I’d lost count.

  Of course he’d admitted that he wasn’t really interested in Patrice and that he’d just wanted to piss me off.

  It worked.

  He’d told Patrice that there was simply nothing there that same day after we’d had sex, as I laid right beside of him.

  She didn’t say anything and didn’t really even seem bothered by his words.

  All she said was okay.

  But I should have just left well enough alone because now I was definitely in too deep.

  We had been having sex now, regularly for the past two months, and I was hooked like a fish.

  It was becoming harder and harder to hide it from Eddie and if I douched with vinegar and water, one more time to tighten back up my coochie, I was sure that I was going to start pissing it.

  We had gone too far.

  We were doing too much and now there was an even bigger problem.

  I was definitely falling in love with Polo, and I knew that I was in trouble.

  I couldn’t believe it and I wasn’t proud of it, but I was falling for Polo every single time that he touched me.

  Every time that he held me or told me a joke.

  Every time that he gave me a book idea or gave me his opinions on my work.

  I was falling hard for him but no matter what, I never stopped loving my husband.

  Now, I just loved his best friend too.

  My nerves were shot to shingles and I was so stressed out that I felt like I was going to croak over and die any minute now.

  “I love you,” Polo said.

  I never said it back though I felt it.

  I got up out of Polo’s bed, washed up so that I could head back to work.

  I was supposed to be on lunch; yet Polo had been the only one doing any eating.

  “Give me a kiss,” he said.

  I kissed him.

  “We gotta stop this,” I mumbled.

  “Oh lord, here we go with this again,” Polo groaned.

  “What do you mean? We can’t keep doing this to him Polo,” I said to him pitifully.

  “Hell, it ain’t like he ain’t ever did it to you,” Polo said.

  Immediately his face expression told me that he’d just put his foot in his mouth.

  What?

  What the hell did he mean?

  “What does that mean Polo?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Are you telling me that Eddie has cheated on me?”

  “No.”

  “
Then what did you mean?”

  “Nothing.”

  I let out a deep breath.

  He was lying.

  Polo knew something and he was trying to hide it.

  But that just couldn’t be true.

  Eddie wouldn’t do that to me.

  “When Polo? When? And who?”

  “That came out wrong. He hasn’t cheated on you Sassi,” he recanted but I knew that he was covering for him.

  “Liar!”

  I grabbed my purse and my keys and headed out of his bedroom for the door.

  Naked, Polo chased after me.

  He reached for my arm as I reached for the door, but to my surprise, someone else had beaten me to it.

  Eddie.

  Eddie looked at me and then at Polo.

  Polo was still naked, considering that he hadn’t bothered to put any clothes on.

  Oh no!

  Oh no, no, no, no!

  This could not be happening right now.

  “I just had to see it for myself. You’ve been coming here, twice a week, for a while now. I just had to see it for myself.”

  Polo and I both started talking at the same time, and I started to cry.

  But at the sight of Eddie pulling out the gun, I started to scream.

  “Eddie. Look. Wait.”

  But he wasn’t listening to me.

  He aimed it at Polo’s face and then he lowered it towards his penis and fired.

  He’d actually pulled the trigger.

  Polo attempted to dodge the bullet it but it struck him in the thigh.

  Eddie aimed the gun at him again but I jumped in front of Polo this time.

  “No Eddie, please. You’re not a killer. No. Don’t do this. I’m so sorry baby. I’m so sorry.”

  Eddie looked at me as though he wanted shoot me too.

  Or beat the crap out of me with the gun instead.

  But he didn’t.

  Instead, he spit in my face and yelled to the top of his lungs.

  “Go to hell Sassi!”

  “Bro! Eddie!” Polo screamed out in pain, bleeding and everything but Eddie walked away.

  As he passed by my car, he started to kick it.

  Over and over again.

  He punched out my driver’s side window with his bare hands and it seemed as though he was doing everything to it that he wanted to do to me.

  He fired the gun at two of my tires, causing them to go flat immediately and then he turned around and fired the gun twice at Polo’s house.

  One bullet hit right near my head as I stood in the doorway and the other one flew through the living room window.