On the drive in, I couldn’t help but think about everything that had taken place and reminisced on the fact that my marriage was over for good. I never thought that I would be meeting with a divorce attorney in under a year of getting married. I couldn’t help but to feel like a failure in some ways. I was still in shock that I had caught Justin at Shane’s house. I couldn’t believe the betrayal of both of them. Never in mywildest dreams would I have ever guessed that Justin of all people would not only sleep with a man, but my so-called best friend at that. I once heard the saying, “Don’t tell your friends anything about your man’s bedroom skills.” I just never thought I’d have to worry about that with Shane.
When Dawn and I left Shane’s house that day, we went back to my house and waited for Justin to get home. Once nightfall came, I figured he wasn’t going to show up, so Dawn offered for me and Bully to come stay with her until I figured out what I was going to do. I knew that no matter what Justin had to say for himself, I wasn’t going to stay with him in that house for a minute longer. For him to cheat on me that first time was more than enough, but to find out that it was with Shane was just too damn much to deal with. Some things just weren’t forgivable and for me, that was one of those things.
I ended up blocking Justin from calling me because I was so angry and disgusted with his ass. I knew that he was going to try to call to plead his case, but nothing he could say mattered anymore at this point. The truth was finally in the open and the way I saw it, there was no coming back from it. There could never be no me and him ever again. If he preferred to sleep with men, that was his prerogative. I wasn’t going to judge that, but at the same time I didn’t want no parts of it. Then for him to mess with Shane, who kept a flock of different men that he fucked around with, was just nasty to me.
Justin had me questioning everything about our relationship. How could he have had me thinking that he loved me when he preferred to be with a man? It had become too much to deal with and I knew that our relationship was over with for good. At this point, there wasn’t anything in my opinion that he could say that could fix the damage that was done.
Then there was Shane’s disloyal ass. The audacity of him to prance around in my face, phony kicking it when the whole timehe was sleeping with my husband. He was way out of order for that shit. He had been calling me every day since I caught his ass, and even though I wanted to hear him out, I just couldn’t bring myself to talk to him yet. I was too angry, upset, and hurt.
I felt betrayed in the worst way because I had confided in Shane more than I did my own sister about me and Justin and the woes of my relationship. Now, he had me thinking that he was relishing in my pain because how else could he be there to console me then turn around and sleep with my man like that? All the times that I called and vented to him about what was going on in my relationship just for him to turn around and fuck my husband was nothing but a pure disgrace.
I was thankful that my sister let me come and stay with her because the only other option I had was to go to the hotel that I had stayed at when I first left Justin, and it wasn’t cheap. Then another problem with that was they didn’t allow for any dogs to stay at the hotel, and I wasn’t about to leave my Bully with Justin’s sick ass.
My sister helped me pack as much of my belongings as I could the night that I left. I had been staying in her spare room at her house while looking for either an apartment or house to rent. I even called Kevin and told him about what happened. To my surprise, he said since the whole condom debacle, he knew eventually something else would happen. He figured it would only be a matter of time before my husband fucked up again. Kevin was convinced that Justin didn’t value or appreciate me as his woman.
When I told him how I had caught Justin with Shane, he was speechless. Ever since then, not only did we see each other at work every day, but we had been talking to each other almost daily on the phone. Kevin had become a very good friend of mine who stayed encouraging and uplifting me every opportunity he got. Even though he still lightweight flirted with me, herespected the fact that I was still married and never crossed any lines with me. In a way, I appreciated the fact that he would flirt with me because it sort of made me feel good in a way.
Finding out that my husband was cheating on me was one thing. Finding out he was cheating on me with a man really did a number to my self-worth and self-esteem. I started questioning everything about myself; was I not good enough, pretty enough, sexy enough? But Kevin always provided me with the assurance that I was more than enough, and for that I truly appreciated him.
Today, I was scheduled to meet up with a lawyer to finally draw up my divorce papers. I didn’t want anything from Justin but my maiden name and my dog. Even though my sister said I should fight him for my cut of his benefits and retirement from his job, I didn’t think it was worth it. I didn’t want to have any more ties to him once the divorce was final. He could keep his house. I just wanted the rest of my belongings and some of the furniture that was in it because some of it was mine that I had moved in the house.
We had a joint banking account that we paid the bills from, where part of his payroll check and mine was deposited into, the majority of my money went into my own personal account. The day after I left our house, I went to the bank and transferred half of what was in our joint account into my personal account then put in the paperwork to take my name off of the joint account. Like I said, I wanted no ties to Justin. I just wanted to be done entirely and completely with his ass.
Pulling into a parking space, I grabbed my things and headed inside. The sooner I could get my day going, the faster it would be over, and I could get to the lawyer’s office.
“Good morning, beautiful. You look happy and well rested.”
“Good morning, Kevin. I am very well rested. I was able to get some good sleep last night.”
“That’s good to hear. So, today is the big day, huh?”
“Yep, and I can’t wait to get those divorce papers drawn up and for all of this to be over with.”
“I feel you on that, baby girl.”
“I brought us some Cajun pasta that I made last night for lunch.”
“Oh yeah! I’m looking forward to checking out your cooking skills since you say you can burn in the kitchen.” Kevin smiled.
“Well, let me get to work. I have a few things to finish up.”
“Ok, sweetie, I’ll see you at lunchtime.”
Heading inside, I went straight to my office. I had a few reports to write up that I needed to have done today before I left. Lucky for me, the day went fast, just like I prayed for it to do. Lunchtime had approached, and all I had left to do was have lunch with Kevin then I would be on my way to see the lawyer. Woohoo!
Turning my computer off, I headed to the teachers’ lounge so that I could heat up the pasta that I cooked last night. When I was done, I headed back to my office to wait for Kevin. I didn’t want to sit in the teachers’ lounge to eat because I didn’t want anyone to be all up in our business. Sometimes our conversations had a lot of tea and what we discussed needed to stay between us.
As I sat and waited for Kevin to get to my office, my cellphone started ringing. Checking to see who it was, I saw that it was Shane. I really didn’t want to be bothered with him, and even though I wanted to hear him out, I just wasn’t ready to talk to him yet. But, since he was being relentless and calling me multiple times in a day and seeing that he had called me already four times today alone, I went ahead and answered to see what he had to say for himself.
“Oh my God! Honey, thank you so much for answering my call. I’ve been calling and calling?—”
“You can chill on all of that honey shit, Shane. I think it’s pretty obvious why I haven’t been answering your calls. Because of you, my marriage is over, so to be quite frank and honest, I really don’t have shit to say to your ass. You keep blowing my damn phone up that’s the only reason why I even answered.”
“I get that, Ava, and I’m so very sorry for what I did. I promise you that I will explain it all to you.”
“Okay, start explaining,” I replied as I rolled my eyes. I wanted to scream and cuss his ass out, but I had to be mindful of the fact that I was still at work.
“I promise I will. I just think that’s a conversation that we should have face to face.”
