“Hey.” I looked up at him as I stood between the screen and the pink front door my mother had chosen to give the house a cheery pop. “What’s up?”
“Why the fuck would you have me served with divorce papers?”
I instantly recoiled. For the last eight weeks or so, I’d been in a bubble of warmth. My sisters took care of me, treated me gently, and provided a safe space for me to deal with my grief. Him yelling at me in my extra sensitive state was a shock to mysystem. And there was also the fact that I didn’t know why he was angry. He was the one who demanded the divorce. “What?”
“You heard me, Bailey. When I got home from work today, there was some random white man at the house asking if I was Xander Eckhart. When I told him yeah, he served me with divorce papers. Why’re you playin’ with me?”
“What?” It wasn’t that I didn’t hear what he was saying. I heard him. The fog in my brain was causing me to have a hard time processing and following the conversation. “You asked for a divorce.”
“Right.Iasked for a divorce.” He thumped himself in the chest. “Iasked. So why would you file the papers?” He sucked his teeth. “The shit you’re supposed to do, like grow a healthy fucking baby, you can’t do that. But you can run down to the courthouse and file divorce papers. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“What?” I knew I sounded like a broken record, but what else was there for me to say? I was confused.
Thankfully, Perkins appeared in the doorway. She pushed past me and stepped out onto the front porch. “Bailey, you don’t have to answer his questions. Go in the house, boo.”
I wanted to do just that. I wanted to walk away and put the conversation and Xander’s anger behind me. But there was no way I could leave my sister out on the porch alone with him. We were raised to stick together and to look out for each other. Just like she wouldn’t let Xander talk crazy to me, I wouldn’t leave her to fend for herself when he was acting all unpredictably.
“Why the hell are you yelling at my sister? Get the fuck off my mama’s front porch with your wack ass.”
“Make me.”
“I don’t have to make you, stupid. The police will make you.”
I stepped out onto the porch with them. I didn’t appreciate Xander’s behavior, but I also wasn’t going to have the policecalled on him unless it was absolutely necessary. “Just go, Xander.”
Before he could decide whether to go or to keep arguing with us, the loud cocking of a shot gun rang out. On the porch right next to ours stood our neighbor, Mr. Wallace, his double barreled shot gun pointed toward our porch. “Son, I heard Perkins tell you to leave. It’s in your best interest to listen to her and get your young ass on. Ms. Alisha wouldn’t appreciate you outside her house making a spectacle.”
If looks could kill, both Mr. Wallace and I would’ve been headed to the morgue. Xander was shooting fire from his eyes. He was pissed and it was obvious. “Xander,” I began before he cut me off with an epithet.
“Bitch, fuck you.” He bounded down the stairs.
“Let him go,” Perkins told me before turning to Mr. Wallace. “Thanks, Mr. Wallace.”
I walked away while Mr. Wallace and Perkins exchanged pleasantries. In the house, I found my phone nestled inside my purse. I pulled it out and quickly dialed Xander’s number.
I wasn’t sure if I expected him to answer or not. I wasn’t even sure what I planned to say. All I knew was that I didn’t like the way things went down.
“What?” He answered his phone with his attitude still on one hundred.
“Xander, I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. Why were you on my mama’s porch showing your ass?”
“Why you let your bitch ass neighbor pull a gun on me?”
I huffed out a sigh. “I didn’tlethim do that. How was I supposed to know he was gonna do that?”
“If you were at home, where you’re supposed to be, I wouldn’t even have been at your mom’s crib.”
“Thisismy home.”
“Your home is with me. In case you forgot, I’m your husband.”
“The same husband who told me that he wants a divorce so he can concentrate on his new woman and baby? That’s the husband I’m supposed to live with?”
“Did I file papers on you, Bailey? Did I file divorce papers on you?”
“I filed them on you, Xander.”
“Exactly. So who wants the divorce?”
