I stopped a few feet from the window with my hand resting against my hip. “You lying.”
“You wanna bet?” he asked, and a knot formed in my stomach because Rome lied whenever it benefited him, but he also loved giving little pieces of the truth just to watch me panic.
I reached for the edge of the blinds and pulled them apart enough to look down into the parking lot, scanning every car I could see while trying not to let my breathing change. Nothing looked out of place at first. It was just one of my neighbors’ unloading groceries, two kids were riding scooters along the sidewalk, and a man in scrubs was walking toward the building with his phone to his ear. Then I spotted Rome’s Escalade parked across the street beneath one of the palm trees with the windows tinted dark enough that I couldn’t tell whether he was inside.
“What the fuck are you doing over here?” I asked, dropping the blinds and stepping away from the window.
“I came to see my wife.”
“You don’t have a wife over here,” I snapped, walking back toward my bedroom as anger slowly replaced the fear that had hit me first. “You need to leave before I call the police.”
Rome laughed again, only this time there was something uglier behind it. “Call them and tell them your husband pulled up to check on you.”
“I’ll tell them the same husband beat my ass, stole my money, and followed me to an apartment I never gave him the address to, and has another woman pregnant.”
“Ashley ain’t got shit to do with me and you.”
“She got everything to do with me and you when she carrying your baby motherfucker,” I said, snatching my clutch off the bed and checking the time. Marv would be there soon, and the last thing I needed was him pulling up while Rome was sitting outside acting crazy. “Matter fact, none of this is about us anymore because I’m filing for divorce.”
He got completely quiet, and I could almost picture Rome sitting inside that truck with his face changing as the words settled in. “You filing for what?”
“You heard me.”
“Navy, stop playing with me.”
“I’m not playing. I’ve already spoken to somebody, and I’m filing.”
Rome must’ve called me everything but the child of God before he placed his ear back to the phone. “You really think you gone leave me and live happily ever after in that little ass apartment? You gone end up single and bitter just like Tasha, doing whatever the fuck you gotta do for money because ain’t nobody taking care of you the way I did.”
I slowly turned toward the mirror holding my clutch while staring at myself. “You took care of me?” I repeated, almost laughing because I couldn’t believe he had the nerve. “Rome, you took care of whatever made you look good. You bought me shit, then threw it in my face every time I didn’t do what you wanted. You paid bills, then acted like that gave you the right to control my whole life. You didn’t take care of me. You keptme comfortable enough to stay quiet while you did whatever the fuck you wanted.”
“I was the breadwinner,” he shot back. “You ain’t never have to worry about nothing with me.”
“I worried every damn day,” I said, with my voice getting louder as everything I’d swallowed for years started coming up again. “I worried about what mood you were coming home in, who was calling your phone, whether you were going to embarrass me again, or whether the next argument was going to leave another mark on my face. So keep the money, Rome. Keep the house, the cars, the lies, and Ashley too. I’d rather struggle in peace than live good while being miserable with you.”
Rome stayed quiet for so long I almost thought he’d hung up on me. I welcomed the silence too because for the first time in years, I had finally said exactly what the hell I wanted to say instead of watering it down to keep him from exploding. I walked over to the kitchen island, picked up my clutch, and dropped my lipstick inside before checking the time again. Marv would be there in less than twenty minutes, and if Rome was really sitting outside, I needed him gone before then. Thank God I had a back door that led me sown those set of steps. Since it was on the backside most people who didn’t live here wouldn’t have known that.
When he finally spoke again, his voice had changed. The anger was still there, but he sounded softer. He’d swing from one extreme to the next so fast it’d make your damn head spin. “Nay…” he sighed. I knew that sound because I’d heard it a hundred times before. “Baby, come on now.”
I closed my eyes. “Don’t do that.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“You really gone throw all these years away?”
I laughed to myself while walking back toward the living room windows. “You mean the same years you threw away?”
“Aye, I fucked up.”
“You think?” I replied sarcastically.
“I said I fucked up.”
I pulled the blinds back just enough to peek outside again. The Escalade was still parked across the street exactly where it’d been a minute ago. I couldn’t see inside because of the tint, but I knew him well enough to know he was sitting there with one hand on the steering wheel and the other rubbing across his beard while trying to figure out another angle.
“Navy…” His voice softened even more. “Baby, I’m sorry.”
