The next morning,I woke up, and Kileen was gone. He left the bed in the guest room undone, so I made it up and went downstairs to make my coffee.
“No, the fuck he didn’t,” I said as I spotted my flowers in the trash.
I’d been lying for months about the flowers and who they came from. I guess today he was being spiteful and threw my shit in the trash. I sent Casi a text to meet me for breakfast. I needed girl talk.
“Bitch, you did what?” Casi spilled a little coffee out of her mouth.
“Stop,” I handed her a napkin. “It just happened, and I promise it won’t happen again.”
“Why are you sitting here lying to me? You’ve got to stop lying to yourself, Tati. You’re in love with another man, and it shows. When are you going to let this damn marriage go and be happy?”
“I am thinking about letting the marriage go, but I will not be getting in another relationship.”
Casi grinned at me as she took a sip of her coffee. “Your man is calling.” She nodded down at my phone.
I snatched the phone up and walked outside for some privacy.
“Jah, you cannot keep texting and calling me.”
“Oh, so we’re back on that? You fuck me and leave me high and dry.”
“It’s not that, Jah. It’s the guilt of me cheating on my husband.”
“I tell you what. I want to play a game with you.”
I shifted my weight to my other foot, “I don’t want to play games, Jah.”
“Shit, me either, but here we are. I’ll send you a text,” he said before hanging up.
Jah: My place. Seven sharp. If you’re late, I’ll show up at your place, and we both know you don’t want that
I stared at the message and wasn’t surprised at his demanding demeanor. He made his ultimatum clear. I knew showing up at his place meant crossing a line I might never be able to uncross again. I wanted to not show up to see if he had the balls to show his ass up at my house.
“From the smile on your face, he said something you liked.”
“He did, but it’s not that. I just thought about how you said I needed to be happy. I’m going to do Kileen just like he did me. I’m not ready to walk away from my marriage, so I’ll have him at home and Jah satisfying my needs.”
“No…no,” Casi put her hand up. “That is not what I said do. I said be happy, but that means you walk away from your marriage, Tati. You can’t drag them both along. Someone is going to get hurt.”
“I’ll be fine, and they will too.”
“Tati, I’m here if you need me, but please be careful.”
We finished breakfast and went our separate ways. I had some stools and chairs being delivered at the studio today, so I headed that way. Kileen might have agreed with my decision, but I didn’t need it. I was doing it all on my own and planned on showing him how successful my dance sessions would be. I had already ordered the paint and all the decorations, including at least four more poles. It didn’t look like much now, but by the time I was done with it, it was going to come to life.
By the time I was done, it was almost six. Jah gave me until seven to make it to his house. I headed home to shower, but I couldn’t even get my foot in the door when I heard a baby crying. Following the sound, it was Kileen struggling to put his daughter to sleep. She was screaming so loud that he didn’t even know I had walked in the house. I went upstairs, took a hot shower, and threw on something sexy.
“Where the hell are you going with that on?”
“Out,” I said with my back turned.
“Like that? A little ass dress on? Why the fuck do you think it’s okay as a married woman to not tell your husband where you’re going?”
“Like it’s okay for my husband to keep bringing his fucking baby in my house after I asked his ass not to.”
“Go ahead and be a whore. That’s you getting your lick back? That shit doesn’t faze me, Tati.”
I put my purse down and walked closer. “Did you call me a whore?”
