TATIYONNA
“A dance studio?” My daddy asked as he drank his coffee.
“Yes, I’ve had it for years now. The only person that knows is…him.”
“It’s been a while now. I’m sure you can tell me who the hellheis by now. You’re back with Kileen’s ass now. Who ishimand why would he know before Casi or me?”
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to think that I wasted your money going to college to only want to be a dance instructor. I didn’t tell Casi because I wanted to tell you first. Casi wouldn’t judge me.”
“And you think I would? You’re successful, Tati. Whatever you put your mind to do, you’ve done it. My paying for you to go to college was a blessing to you. You did it and now it’s time for you to be happy. Don’t worry about little old me.”
“Thank you, daddy,” I hugged his neck.
“You still avoided the question, Tati.”
I knew what he wanted to know, but I wanted to hold Jah as close to my heart as I could.
“It was Jahmir,” I said lowly.
“Grant?” My dad raised his voice.
I nodded my head like I was a kid all over again.
“You picked Kileen over Jahmir Grant?” My dad asked again for clarification.
“Daddy, Kileen is and has always been my husband. Jahmir was a thing.”
“A thing that had you ignoring calls and shit. Yeah, tell that lie to your husband and not me.”
My phone started ringing, and I was actually glad because I didn’t want to keep having this conversation with my dad. It was from the twins’ school.
“I need to take this,” I told my daddy.
I was having breakfast with him at his place, so I excused myself to my old bedroom.
“Hello?”
“Hello, this is the school counselor at Elm Groves. You are on the paperwork for the Reign and Dream Grant as their speech therapist.”
“Yes, but my services ended with them,” I explained.
“I’m aware, but Mr. Grant asked me to reach out to you and see if you could assist me with Dream. Mr. Grant said that Dream works well with you and may open up if he sees you. Is there any way we can schedule you to come in tomorrow? I need as much help as I can get with him. He won’t speak with me.”
“Did you reach out to his aunt, Lonni Grant? I’m not sure what I can help with.”
“Both Mr. Grant and Ms. Lonni said you would be able to get Dream to use his words to himself while in the classroom.”
“And this is strictly for classroom purposes. No one else will be there?”
“Correct,” she replied.
“Okay, I can be there at nine.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you then.”
After I got off the phone, I kissed my daddy and left. Tonight, I planned on telling Kileen about the dance studio and theplans I had for it. I wanted to be a therapist part-time and teach different dance classes. One being sensual dance classes, where they can bring their partner in once they learn the basics. Another class I would love to teach would be aerial dance. I headed to work and tried to focus.
Later that night, I had made it home to cook dinner. Kileen told me he would make it home in enough time to sit and eat dinner. Since I agreed to work on our marriage, he was doing a lot better. He did the random check-ins; he made sure to pay me attention while he was home. He left work at work and focused on working on us. He took notes while in counseling and I appreciated that I gave him another chance.
