“No, what you said was sex is a biological necessity and what did I expect for withholding it from you?” Earl rolls his eyes, pushing back from the desk and running a grease-stained hand through his thinning hair.
“Jesus, Delilah. Do you always have to be so fucking argumentative? Or is it just because that bitch friend of yours is back in town, spewing her bullshit in your ear again? You know she never liked me.”
Yeah, her and everyone else in my life. I must’ve fallen out of the dumbass tree and hit every branch on the way down
“This isn’t about Ivy or Mindy or being argumentative. I have something important to tell you, Earl.”
“Hey,” he turns, pointing to the embroidered name tag on his coveralls. “It’stheEarl to you. Especially here. Have some goddamn respect.”
“Respect? Are you kidding me? I’m not referring to you as “the” anything anymore, Earl. Expectmaybe “the asshole I used to be married to”.” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. My boobs are tender to the touch, and I fight back a wince. Dammit, how did I go so long without realizing I was knocked up?
“This,” he says, gesticulating wildly around us at the greasy walls of his office. “Is my kingdom. In my kingdom, you call me by my title. Got it?”
“Fine. You want the title? Go to war. Become a tax collector. Own some fucking land and take care of your tenants. I’ll even call you the Earl if you can tell me where Earls lie in the peerage. Better yet, tell me what the word ‘peerage’ refers to and I’ll start calling youtheEarl again. You have to earn it, asshole. You can’t just make people call you a stupid title because it has your name in it.”
Earl works his jaw back and forth, his cheeks reddening with fury (and I hope a little embarrassment) and I know I’ve got him.
That’s right bubble gum brains, I remember you flunked European History in high school.
“Whatever. You wanna call me Earl, do it at home where no one can hear you. Because it is time for you to come home, Delilah. A man needs his wife to stick by his side.” He drops to his knees in front of me, an act of submission that could easily be mistaken asanything but a falsehood to lull me into a false sense of security. Swiping his palms up my thighs, he smirks. “Come home to me, Delilah. No one will ever treat you as good as me, you know that, sweetheart.”
I scrunch up my nose, unable and unwilling to hide my disgust.
“Earl. I’m pregnant.”
The hands on my thighs tense, rough fingertips digging into my jeans and pushing into the flesh beneath until I’m sure he’ll leave bruises behind. I fight the urge to pluck them off one by one like little bugs. The sickly sweet expression on Earl’s face seems to melt like a cartoon witch meeting her fate from a bucket of water, replaced with a look dark enough to haunt a lesser woman. But I know that look of bitter disappointment. It’s the look I have come to associate with my marriage. The look of a man who sees the woman who chose him as less than, revolting, a problem to be dealt with.
“What the fuck does that have to do with me?” He asks between gritted teeth, foamy saliva collecting at the corners of his dry lips. I close my eyes, letting out a humorless laugh before shoving Earl’s hands off my thighs.
“Well, considering you’re the one who knocked me up, I thought you’d like to know.”
“Fuck you, I didn’t do shit. I can’t even rememberthe last time we had sex. You were always so frigid. Even when I felt like fucking your dry, loose hole I was better off taking care of myself. Jerking myself off is ten times better than trying to use you to get off. God, who would even want to fuck you? What did you do, steal some poor unsuspecting dude’s sperm and shove it up your cunt? No way you cheated on me, no one wants you.”
I bite down on my tongue, resisting the urge to reach out and smack Earl across the face. I teach my daughter that violence is never the answer, and even though no one deserves to be bitch-slapped into oblivion more than the man standing in front of me, I will not be a hypocrite. I have thicker skin than that. I can take his words, his hatred, his abuse. I’ve been taking it for years, and at least now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
And besides, Earl is definitely the type to call the police and have me arrested for assault charges. Not worth the risk, no matter how badly my palm is itching.
Earl is pacing back and forth, still mumbling disgusting things about me as I push off from his desk.
“You can say whatever you want, Earl?—”
“It’stheEarl, Delilah. Stop trying to fucking piss me off.”
“But it’s true. I’m pregnant, it’s yours, and I don’t expect anything from you. I only told you because this is a small town. People talk, and as much as I might hate you right now, you deserve to hear the truth from me.”
I start towards the closed door, the image of five mechanics with glasses held up to the door to eavesdrop on this conversation floating through my mind when Earl grabs my wrist and tugs hard.
“I want a fucking paternity test. I’m not paying a penny of fucking child support without it,” he spits.
“Whatever. I’ll do a dozen paternity tests, it doesn’t matter. I’m not asking you for shit. You don’t take care of the daughter you have now, so why the hell would I expect you to step up for this one?” I try to wriggle out of his hold, but he only grips me harder.
“Fuck. You. You better hope this kid isn’t mine, because I’ll make your life a living hell, Delilah. I’ll fight you for custody. You think I don’t know what you’re doing, shacking up with that bitch Ivy? You think I’m gonna let that cunt raise my fucking kids? You’re out of your mind.”
Goddammit, Ivy was right. I never should have come here. I never should have tried to be the bigger person and tell Earl about the pregnancy, especially when I could have predicted this reaction. Tears prickthe corners of my eyes and bile rises in my throat, but I refuse to show this son of a bitch any more weakness. I’m not the scared, fragile, docile little thing he thinks he can push around. Not anymore.
He’s holding my wrist tight, but I twist my hand around, using a self-defense technique that Dad taught me when I was a teenager to break out of his grip. I take a big step back and fumble for the doorknob until it’s wide open, leaving us in view of the entire garage hoping an audience will deter Earl from coming at me again.
“No, Earl. You’re out of your mind. Stay the fuck away from me and my kids, and keep Ivy’s name out of your ugly mouth.”
