CHAPTER 1
BRION
Lips tucked in,I eyed my triplets, Star, Sky, and Serenity. I was teetering between laughing and scolding. After thirty more seconds of them doing everything but what I asked them to do, I cleared my throat.
“If you miss the bus, I’m not taking you to school. I’m waking daddy up to do it.”
Star tossed her baby doll to the side and scrambled off the bed so fast you would have thought I threatened her with an ass whooping. My brows hiked as Sky rammed her feet into her shoes. With a slack jaw, I witnessed Serenity grab her jacket. “I’m ready,” she grinned wide.
“Wow.” That was the only word I could muster. Out of their five years on earth, Corey had probably only ever popped them twice. He didn’t even have to raise his voice at the girls to get them to listen. The fact that all I had to do was mention his name to get them to do what I asked was almost annoying. I could yell at them until my throat hurt, and they paid me no mind. “Little heifers,” I mumbled as I walked out of their bedroom.
Corey, the girls, and I lived in a three-bedroom house. There was no way to let two of the girls share a room without the third feeling left out, so we had them all in one bedroom. Since thebeds took up most of the space and I didn’t want it crowded, the extra bedroom was the playroom. Corey and I were saving for a four bedroom so when they were ready, each girl could have their own room. When he mentioned us getting five bedrooms, so we could have a fourth child, I acted deaf, dumb, and blind.
For the past four years, I’d had an IUD in, and I had no plans on taking it out until the time for it was up. And the one I had was good for eight years. I loved my daughters more than anything. While a son wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world, I was traumatized from not only carrying three babies in my belly all at once. Not to mention I was exhausted from having three kids that were the same age. Corey made good money as a tattoo artist, and he took great care of us, so money wasn’t an issue. He didn’t want me working full-time when the kids were younger because daycare would have ripped us a new one. Since the girls started kindergarten, I worked here and there, but I didn’t have a lot of clients. I was a makeup artist, but I’d been contemplating applying for a work from home job that I could do while the girls were either in school or asleep.
As a tattoo artist, Corey worked late hours. That meant the girls were usually asleep when he got in, and he was asleep when they woke in the mornings to get ready for school. I used to feel like a nag when I complained about him not helping out with the girls or housework. When I mentioned it to my mother, she was no help. Her and my father had been married for almost forty years, and I’d never even seen him wash a dish. My mother was a part of that old school crowd that believed the men paid the bills, and the women did the housework and raised the kids. I almost let her have me thinking that was normal until I saw other women with husbands that providedandwere hands on. It was possible to have both but at this point, I didn’t complain about it anymore. However, it was a big part of the reason that I refused to take my IUD out and push out another kid.
The girls followed me into the kitchen, and I handed them their lunch bags one by one. Luckily, we lived at the end of the street, so the bus stopped directly in front of our house. The girls could either wait outside with their friends or stand at the door and be able to hear and see the bus coming. As we reached the living room, I heard the loud engine of the bus. Multitasking, I opened the door and rushed to give each girl a kiss before they ran outside.
“Have a good day!” I called out to them while waving at the neighbors standing out with their kids.
I ate breakfast, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the girls’ room, grabbed a blanket, and got comfy on the couch to take a nap. Sometimes, I set my alarm to get up and cook Corey lunch, but today, he could eat leftovers. My tired ass didn’t even remember falling asleep until my phone rang and jarred me awake. With a frown, I wiped a trickle of drool off my cheek and sat up. Glancing at my phone screen, I saw that it was 9:45. I had been asleep for almost two hours.
“Hello,” I answered for my best friend in a voice that had me sounding like a nigga that had been smoking Newport’s for years.
“I’m sorry, friend. I was trying to wait your morning nap out.”
Sitting up, I tossed the blanket off my legs. “It’s okay, girl. I need to get my butt up. I have to go to the store. I want to have dinner done before the girls get home. My mom is going to come sit with them later because I have a client. She’s giving a speech tonight, so I’m going to her at 4:30 to start her glam.”
“Can you squeeze me in for lunch before you go to the store or after?”
Alisa was a lawyer, and we’d been friends since we met eight years ago when we joined the same book club. Being friends with Alisa made sense because I admired her in many ways. I didn’tregret my children at all, but I respected how she was adamant about not having children until she achieved certain goals, and she didn’t let her husband or anyone else change her mind. Alisa knew that kids were a lot and while it was possible to have kids and a career, there were milestones that she wanted to reach before taking time off to have a baby. She was intentional about everything she did, and I loved it.
Plus, the fact that I had triplets without using fertility drugs had her scared shitless. I tried to tell her that the odds of her having triplets weren’t high at all, but she was still mortified. When the doctor told me I was having three babies I almost fell off the table. I knew from the day I found out I was pregnant that something wasn’t right. I had never been so exhausted and sick in my life. I thought I was dying. Carrying three children wasn’t for the weak. Every week it was something different. Having to be hospitalized for a few days because I couldn’t keep food down and was severely dehydrated. Crying from the pain of the ligaments in my belly stretching. The uncomfortable feeling of fullness and not being able to breathe because the babies were right on my organs and underneath my ribs. There were probably only a good twenty days of my entire pregnancy that I didn’t cry.
“Sure. Is 11:30 good?”
“Yeap that works for me. Can we meet at the Hibachi place near my office?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Okay. See you then.”
I stood and began folding the blanket I’d been wrapped up in. “Is 11:30 good for what?” Corey asked as he trekked into the living room stretching and yawning.
“I’m meeting Alisa for lunch nosey.”
“Oh.”
Corey walked toward the kitchen. Staring at his back, I tried to recall the last time he kissed me on the forehead, asked me to go out on a date, or stared into my eyes while we had sex. The longer I thought and couldn’t come up with an answer, it felt as if my intestines were twisting. We had both been so caught up in the routine of having kids and running a household that we stopped acting like two people that were in love and damn near like co-workers. The last time we had sex, it was fast, and he barely engaged in any foreplay. I was surprised that I even got as aroused as I did. Yeah, we’d been together for seven years, but when did we get to the point of him just rolling over and sticking it in like sex was a chore for him to cross off his to-do list?
I almost went into the kitchen to ask him if he wanted to go out on Saturday or Sunday but for some reason, I hesitated. The last few times we did something without the kids, it was my idea. Relationships were give and take and not about tit for tat, or who did the most, but I didn’t want to feel like the only one trying. Corey came into the living room with a bowl of cereal in hand. He sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote control.
“You have late clients?” I inquired.
“Um, I think my last one is at seven. I should be done around nine. I’m going to try to get in early enough to catch the girls. What’s up?”
“I have a client, so my mom is coming over. I’ll probably get home before you though. Just wanted to let you know in case you beat me here.”
