“Mad?” I said, placing all of my perfume into my bag and let out a dry laugh. “Tasha, that bitch called me like she was calling from the front desk at Jackson Memorial. Talking all calm and official.‘Hi, Navy, I just felt like woman to woman, you should know I’m pregnant.’Girl, woman to woman, you should’ve known better than to get pregnant by a man with a wife.” I used to think Rome was a prize, but we were high school sweethearts and got married fresh out of high school. Now some years later, things just aren’t the same.
“That’s what she said? She really said woman to woman?” Tasha rambled like she couldn’t believe it.
“Yes and then had the nerve to tell me all the bills here in his name like she had won a prize. Like, okay, baby, since you keeping inventory, let me help you update the list. I had allll that shit turned off… disconnected immediately. If she wanted to play house with my headache, she could play Little House on the Prairie too.”
Tasha burst out laughing then, and for a second I laughed with her because the shit was funny. It wasn’t funny in a happyway, but it was funny in a this is my life and I cannot believe this man had me acting this crazy kind of way. My laugh didn’t last long though, because the second my eyes moved back toward the closet, all I saw was the rest of my life sitting in piles, waiting on me to decide what I was willing to leave behind.
“You petty as hell,” Tasha said.
“No, I’m tired as hell and it’s a difference. Petty is when you got time boo, and tired is you finally realize you been living a life that don’t even love you back.”
She sighed, “Nay, just come here.”
“Tasha.”
“I’m serious, just stop being proud for five minutes. You my best friend, not some random girl from work asking for a favor. If you need somewhere to lay your head, come here.”
“I love you for real, but no. Rome knows where you stay, he knows your car, he even knows your mama house. He knows too damn much, and I’m not about to have him pulling up on you with his bullshit because of me. I’m going to a hotel tonight, and tomorrow I’ll figure out if I’m going to stay there a few days or look for something short-term.”
“With what money? You said you was moving stuff to storage, but hotels add up.”
“I got money.”
The second I said it, something in me told me to check. I didn’t know if it was God, my nerves, or just that little voice women get when something didn’t feel right, but I pulled the phone from my ear and put Tasha on speaker while I opened my banking app. I had been checking that account all week, making sure I had enough for the hotel, gas, food, and anything else I needed until my next direct deposit hit. Rome had access to certain things from when we first got serious, back when I thought sharing meant building and not handing somebody a key to ruin you. I had been meaning to move my money around,but between work, packing, and trying not to look suspicious, I kept telling myself I had time. Yeah, Rome had money, but he was the type to spend it on me before he actually gave it to me so everything I had in my account was literally off of my own muscle.
The app loaded while Tasha kept talking, but her voice started sounding far away the second the balance popped up. I stared at the screen, trying to make the numbers make sense, but they didn’t. I refreshed it, signed out, signed back in, checked the transactions, and each second I stood there looking made my blood boil even hotter. The transfers were there, but not one big amount that would’ve triggered me right away, there was enough little moves to clean me out without making it too obvious before I looked for real. That was Rome all day, just sneaky when he wanted control over the outcome.
“Nay?” Tasha called. “Why you quiet?”
I didn’t answer right away because I was too busy scrolling through the account, reading each transaction. My hotel money was gone and so was my emergency money. The little cushion I had been proud of because I earned every dollar of it was sitting somewhere else and Rome had me messed up. My hands shook from anger, and I wanted to punch something and cry at the same time.
“Navy, what happened?” Tasha asked, in a lower tone.
“He took my money,” I said, and the calmness in my own voice almost scared me because I didn’t feel calm. “That bitch ass Rome took my money.”
“What you mean he took your money?”
“I mean it’s gone, Tash. The money I had put up to leave, it’s gone. He moved it out little by little like I wasn’t gone notice.”
“Call the bank! Call them right now! I’m so sick of Rome’s ass!”
“I am, but that ain’t fixing it tonight.” I said sounding frustrated as hell.
“Then come here.”
“No!”
“Navy, stop saying no to the only person trying to help you!”
“I’m saying no because I know Rome. You think he took that money for no reason? He knows I’m leaving. I don’t know how he know, but he knows. He didn’t just wake up and decide to play accountant with my shit tonight. He did it because he wanted me stuck here.” Every word I spoke was the truth and this is the part that partially made me love his toxic ass, at the same time, toxic wasn’t peaceful and I was tired of the bullshit.
I went back to the messages and the first few were the usual telling me to ‘answer the phone’, ‘stop playing with me’, where you at?’ as if he didn’t already know. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had all kind of hidden cameras in the damn house. Next, he asked why my side of the closet looked different. He asked why the blue tote from the garage was missing. He asked who I thought I was sneaking around on and by the time I got to the last message, I had stopped moving completely as my eyes locked on the screen while my stomach twisted into knots.
‘You really thought you was gone leave while I was gone?’
I read it a few times and each time it got worse because that message told me he hadn’t just guessed, his ass had been watching. With Rome, it could’ve been anything because that man didn’t believe in boundaries unless he was the one demanding them.
“What he say?” Tasha asked.
