by Cydney Rax
Just then the doorbell rang. Shade went to the door and welcomed Gamba. Elyse’s face lit up when she saw him. By then her long, thick hair was half braided; the other half was wild looking, but she didn’t care. She leaped to her feet and flung herself in Gamba’s arms. He hugged her back, then asked her to sit back down.
“How’d you know she was here?” Alita asked. She returned to the couch and started working on another section of Elyse’s hair.
“Elyse FaceTimed me a little while ago. I think you had gone inside of a gas station to pay for gas. That’s when she called and told me where she’d be.”
“Aha. You two must be in love. I just hope you ain’t doing the—”
“We’re good, Ms. Alita. That’s all I can tell you.”
In spite of herself, Alita felt genuinely happy that Gamba had taken Elyse under his wing.
Alita checked her watch. “Well, I better hurry it up, because I know Elyse will be going to work in a bit. She does the hostess thing at the restaurant now. I’m happy for her.”
“How is that going? Has she had any more troubles with Nate?” Shade asked.
“None. He knows better, all I can say.” Alita assured him that at least for Elyse life was going very well.
* * *
But when it came to Coco, life had gotten quite interesting.
It was the first week of May. And she was deeply entrenched in the last preparations for her wedding. They had planned on holding a brief ceremony that Friday. And they’d throw a nice reception later that night.
“Dru Boo, you good?” Coco was asking. She was at her house with all of her sisters.
“I can’t believe you’re finally doing it,” Dru said. “I’m honored you want me to stand next to you. You deserve all the happiness in the world.”
“I do, don’t I?” Coco laughed. “We’ve got to go through all kinds of hell before we end up with the man we want. Lita, don’t you be depressed. Your day is coming.”
“Oh, don’t even worry about me and Shade. We’re good.”
“Where is Calhoun?” Burgundy wanted to know. She had recently deposited two grand in Coco and Calhoun’s joint bank account, a happy marriage gift of some sort.
“He’s probably going to see about his suit he picked out. It’s nice too. Real nice.”
“Well, I know one thing. Y’all sure enough waited long enough. You got the marriage license and the paperwork all in order? You ready for this, Coco? Ain’t no backing out. No changing your mind, nothing.” Alita was adamant that her sister fully realize what she was getting herself into. “Once you say ‘I do,’ That’s it. Do better than I did, all right, Sis? Work out your issues.”
Coco’s eyes misted. “That means a lot coming from you. Sounds like you are finally cosigning on me and Calhoun being together.”
Alita said nothing. What more could she say? Grown-ups were determined to have things their own way. But she did wish her sister the best.
By ten forty-five on Friday morning, the ladies had arrived at the courthouse for the wedding. Coco went ahead and paid the seventy-two-dollar fee and presented her marriage license to the window clerk. They waited another fifteen minutes. Calhoun was nowhere to be found.
“Did you go by Henrietta’s house?” Dru suggested.
“Yes!” Coco snapped. “I went earlier today before I came here. His mother ain’t there. No one is at that house. I called five times already.”
“Maybe they are on their way here.” Burgundy tried to stay upbeat. “It’s Friday mid-morning. Rush hour traffic has kicked in.”
“Rush hour traffic has nothing do to with this. It would never keep my man from answering his phone,” Coco said. “Something else is up.”
A couple of hours later, Coco decided to no longer waste anyone’s time. No refund would be issued. She left the courthouse in humiliation. She decided to go home, decked out in the dress that she’d been so happy to see herself in because it fit her slightly tinier frame.
And later, when she got a text from Calhoun, it included a video message.
“Hey, Ma. I would tell you I’m sorry for not showing up. But you’re the one that should be saying you’re sorry to me. I finally know the truth. That you fucked around with my boy. That you lied and made a fool out of me, all this time. And because of that there’s no way I’m marrying you. Why don’t you hook up with your baby daddy? ’Cause I ain’t trying to be in no fake relationship.”
The video abruptly ended.
And Coco felt totally numb.
“What’s wrong?” Alita asked when she walked into the room. “Did you hear from Calhoun?”
Because Alita was the only other adult still at the house with her, Coco did something she never thought she’d do. She handed her phone to Alita. Opened the text. And she replayed the video for her.
When she was done watching, Alita asked Coco to have a seat.
“Start explaining, Dark Skin. It sounds like he found out info that you been hiding from me, from everybody.”
“All I can say is everything I’ve been banking on the past few years is now all gone. I-I am officially a single mom. With four kids. And no man.”
“Don’t you dare start crying, Coco Chanel Reeves. I mean that.” Alita saw how far Coco had poked out her lips. And she hated to see her distressed.
“I want so bad to say ‘I told you so,’ but I won’t go there. What good will it do? You need to forget that man and start thinking about the future.”
“Are you serious? Who’d want to think about a future that is so fucked up it ain’t even worth thinking about? I know it sounds crazy, but that’s how I feel.”
“Fine. I’ll give you a minute or two to feel sorry for yourself, but after that, Sis, you’re going to have to do better. I mean it. We’re Reeves women. We’re tougher than steel. I know people look at us and laugh at us like we ain’t shit, but we gotta prove ’em wrong, Coco. We’ll show ’em. And I’ll help you.”
“You will?”
“Yeah, dummy.”
“But why would you help me? I thought you feel like if I make bad decisions then I’m on my own.”
“Yeah,” Alita said. “But I know you’re hurting. And I hate when any of my family is in pain. It was real tacky of him to dump you through a videotape. Like who the hell does he think he is acting like he’s Tyrese filming messages on tape? If I could I’d kick Calhoun’s ass up and down the street. But he ain’t worth the jail time.”
“You damn sure right about that.” Coco wiped her nose with some tissue.
Alita went and made a pot of black coffee and poured her sister a cup. They sat at the table and shared stories of how they’d messed up when it came to men.
“When you put all your dreams into the hands of one person, that’s giving ’em way too much power. Trust me. I know.” Alita sounded very mysterious, but Coco decided not to probe.
“You gotta learn from this, baby girl. Can you do that? Promise me you’ll think about it.”
“It’ll be tough, but I’ll give it a try. Thanks, Lita. Love you, girl.”
* * *
A month later, Q asked if he could come by. Coco told him it was fine. When he arrived at her house, he held a plastic bag filled with toys and clothes. Ever since Coco indicated that Chance had a successful blood transfusion, Q had been calling and checking on Chance every day, but this was the first time she let him stop over.
“Q. You didn’t have to buy these things.”
“Yeah, I do. Now that your boy is out of the picture, I feel I should be able to come around my son like I been wanting to.”
“Dammit, Q.” Coco got up and began pacing. Should she open up to him and tell Q that the kid was not his son? No way. There’d be no telling how he’d react.
“What’s the problem, Ma?”
“I just don’t want Chance to get spoiled.”
“What you talkin’ ’bout? He’s a kid. Kids like and need toys. It’s normal.”
“Yeah, but . . . She tho
ught quickly. “I love that you bring him new things, but my girls will get upset. They act jealous. And they play with Chance’s toys and sometimes they break them.” That was the truth, but it wasn’t because of envy.
“No problem. Next time I come by, I’ll bring something for them too. I don’t mind.”
“Quantavius!” Her heart was touched and torn. She decided to keep her mouth closed and let him be a blessing to her children.
But when he visited her again two weeks later, not only did he have a bag filled with goodies for the kids, Q also presented Coco with a large jar of bath bombs and a tall bottle of bubble bath wrapped in a pink ribbon. He even got her a dozen roses.
“Gifts for me? That’s so sweet. But why’d you do this, Q?”
“Well, I just was thinking about you . . . you do so much as a mama . . . and I thought you’d want to know . . . Hold on a sec.” Q fished through his cell phone and let her see a photo. Calhoun Humphries and Samira stood cheek to cheek. She wore a veil that was flipped open and uncovered her smiling face. Calhoun broadly smiled as well, and he wore the very same suit that he’d purchased for his and Coco’s wedding ceremony.
“Did he?” she asked.
He grimly nodded.
“Please, Q,” she wailed and pushed the phone away.
“One of our friends sent this to me. I wasn’t invited. And I see you weren’t either. But you should know the truth.”
“But why show this to me?” she sobbed. “If the truth messes up everything, why tell it?”
“Because lies do the same thing. And both of ’em hurt.”
Coco stood motionless. It seemed like all the memories, decent vivid memories of Calhoun, were something she couldn’t forget. The boisterous joking; the evenings of all of them sitting at the table and eating dinner together as a family. The nights they hung out with their kids and just laughed at every silly thing they did. That’s when she’d had the most fun. Where did those times go, and why did everything have to change? And more important, why did another woman come from nowhere and live out her dream?
“Life is so unfair,” she said.
“Ain’t it, though. It’s something I think about every damned day.” He hated seeing the hurt on her face, but Coco needed a good dose of reality.
“Maybe now you can go on with your life, Ma. That man you was crazy about? He’s gone.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, yeah. My man is gone.”
* * *
The May Sister Day had convened. This time they were gathered at Coco’s. And she wasted no time letting the sisters know how she felt weeks after finding out that Calhoun up and married someone who she didn’t know was still in his life.
“Honestly, I feel like whipping that bitch’s ass.”
“Why, Coco?” Dru asked.
“’Cause she stepped out with a man that she knew already had someone.”
“But you two didn’t officially live together. And you have no idea what Calhoun told the woman. Some men do lie about their real status.”
“True that,” Alita said. “Maybe in this case, your anger needs to be at him, not at her. You don’t even know her, but you fully knew Calhoun’s ways.”
“All I know is that he needed to be loyal to me just like he demanded that I be loyal to him.” Coco thought again about how she hid the truth from him about messing around with Q. Perhaps this was her punishment for keeping shameful secrets.
“It doesn’t matter what you say, Lita,” Coco continued.
“That lady, Samira, is dead wrong. Why mess around with a man that’s in a relationship?”
“Coco, I know you’re heated and pissed off, and I don’t blame you,” Alita told her. “But it took me a long time to learn that a side chick could never exist if the man wasn’t disloyal. She didn’t aim a gun at his dick and tell him ‘if you don’t fuck me I’m going to blow it off.’ Nooo, it did not happen that way. And you already knew he was immature and inexperienced. Did you think he would never be curious about sleeping with another woman?”
“If that man loved me the way he claimed—”
“Love has nothing to do with a man wanting to have sex with a new chick. Even I know that,” Dru claimed. “Tyrique and I discuss this type of thing a lot. And he said that for men, sex is not emotional. That’s why a married man can go sleep with a woman, and when he’s all done, he can leave the girl in her bed and return home to his wife and kiss on her and act like nothing ever happened. He got sexually satisfied and now his mind is focused on that ‘honey do’ list. And he’s ready to resume being a ‘good’ husband until the next opportunity comes along.”
“That’s coldblooded,” Coco said.
“It’s real,” Alita said. “And it happens every single day out here. Next time, if you find yourself a good one, you better hold onto him real tight, because the good old days of men being old-fashioned, decent, and faithful, and holding the door open and pulling out her chair, unless you’re lucky, that shit is long gone.”
“Talk that talk, Lita,” Dru chimed in.
Alita was tired of Coco wallowing in self-pity.
“For this Sister Day meeting, let’s talk about truth again. Something that keeps coming back to bite us in the ass over and over.” Alita wanted Coco to hear her, really understand once and for all. “Calhoun is off the market. You got that?”
Coco nodded.
“Forget him. But don’t try to kill him or his new wife either. If anything, be nice to the lady. That’ll throw her off. Become really good buddies with her, and that’ll scare her more than threats ever could. You getting what I’m saying?”
“Nope, not really, Lita.”
“Put it like this. No matter how hard it is, the truth of your situation is what you need to face. Truth is not something that you believe. It’s something that you accept.”
“I get it,” Dru said in agreement. “That’s how you’re able to move on, because, Coco, at this point there’s nothing left for you to do. And you now can give your beautiful kids lots of love. A lot of women wish they had what you have, even as a single mother.”
Coco knew Dru was referring to the fact that she could not get pregnant and did not know how it felt to give birth.
“I guess I never looked at it that way,” Coco admitted.
“Right. Be thankful for the good things you have,” Dru told her. “You have your life, your kids, a decent house, clothes on your back, you’re a great cook, and you’re loving and funny. You’re pretty. You’ve got your own transportation. You can see, you can walk, talk, hear, and you’re not in prison.”
“Not yet,” Alita said.
“Okay, okay,” Coco said, finally laughing.
“And the most important thing, girl,” Dru said. “You’ve got us. And we’ll be around to help you do whatever you need for the kids. Right, sisters?”
Alita, Burgundy, Dru, and Elyse gathered together in a tight circle, pulling Coco into a much-needed group hug. Alita even gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“Girl, stop it, now, I ain’t playing with you,” Coco said as she tried to duck.
For her sometimes it seemed as though the tears would never stop falling. But this time, she shed happy tears.
“You will be all right,” Alita assured her as she wiped her lipstick off Coco’s cheek. “And instead of looking at things like not marrying Calhoun as the worst day of your life, flip that shit around and see it as the best day of your life.”
“Okay, now you’re stretching it, Lita,” Coco told her. “I loved him and wanted to be his wife till death. But now another woman is living my dream!”
Burgundy added, “Take it from me. Samira may be happy for now, but the grass might not be greener on the other side.”
Then Dru added, “That’s why Tyrique and I are still happily cohabitating. If you’re not a hundred percent ready, then you should never feel pressured, or even try to force your man into getting married. I think you would have eventually left him anyway because you woul
d have gotten tired of handing him all your power. Now, you’ve got your power back. Do something good with it.”
Coco surprisingly drew strength from her sisters’ honest opinions. Not wanting to reject the truth as she’d so often done in the past, she listened and agreed.
She could no longer run from truth.
It was time to face it.
Chapter 7
Sex Ain’t Better Than Love
Nate could not believe what he was seeing. It was late on a Friday evening. He was downstairs in the family room. And a pair of his pajamas, plus several large pillows, had been spread across the sofa. A makeshift bed for husbands in the doghouse.
He went and stood outside their bedroom, pressed his ear against the door.
He heard light voices.
Nate rattled the knob. It was locked.
He banged his fist against the hardwood. “Burg, what the hell is going on? Why is this door locked?”
“You know exactly why.” Nate heard his wife answer him from the other side of the door. She was chatting with Alita on speakerphone while this was going on.
Nate banged the door three more times. “Unlock the door, Burg.”
“Tell him to go fuck himself and swallow his own semen, B.”
“Girl, be quiet. This doesn’t concern you, Lita.”
“Like hell it doesn’t,” Alita snapped back. “As long as you’re still married to that poor excuse of a man, everything y’all do affects me.”
“Burg, if you don’t open up this door right now, you’ll wish you had.” Nate sounded more frustrated than enraged. Nevertheless, she pictured her husband, his height, and how he towered over her. His big hands that, even when he was just playing around, could hurt and bruise.
“No, Nate. It’s better this way. You can stay out there. Sleep on that couch or you can use the guest room on the first floor.”
Her meaning did not go unnoticed. Nate couldn’t believe that his wife thought he’d actually go upstairs and touch his daughters. No way. He adored the girls.
“I don’t like this,” he complained. “I don’t like being locked out of my own room.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “It could be worse. You could be locked up.”
