Page 79 of The Marriage Rebound

Me: Yeah I’m gonna give it a go

She replied with the celebration and dancing emoji. We messaged about our next get-together, taking that conversation to the group chat to include Denise. She read the texts but didn’t reply. She’d been that way since our last brunch, slow to respond if she did at all. I was the one who had been tag-teamed and read for filth over my behavior, but she was the one who’d apparently walked away with hurt feelings. I didn’t get it and neither did Tanisha, but we both figured she’d come around.

Especially since I wanted more hangouts with both friend groups. After thinking about it, it was strange that we’d kept them separate. Wasn’t intentional, things had just worked out that way, but after Tina’s send-off dinner it was something I wanted to change. And I don’t know, but merging our friend groups made us feel more like a couple.

We were a couple.

Courtney wasn’t going to divorce me.

I stretched out my fingers, the diamonds of my wedding rings glinted in the sun. I was a married woman, and would remain one despite my unintentional best efforts to push her away. It was a second chance, and I wouldn’t blow it. My goal was to be better for her, and for me, so she wouldn’t regret staying.

During the drive home, I made voice notes on ideas for spoiling her. Surprising her with flowers randomly was top of the list. By the time I pulled into the garage I had a pretty good list of things I wanted to do to make sure Courtney always felt my appreciation for how much she did to take care of me, and I couldn’t wait to start.

Walking upstairs, I inhaled deeply as the scent of pine greeted me, which instantly brought a smile to my face. I loved seeing our tree beautifully decorated and taking center stage in the large corner windows of our living room. It was fun having her here to get the house all decorated and create the Christmas magic, even when she grumbled over my pickiness on where things went. In the end, Courtney admitted everything looked great.

Quality time. Real, legit quality time spent together. The holiday being spent in our house, together, with Mya and Big Mama—who hadn’t been as hard to convince as I’d expected—truly was going to be everything I’d hoped, begged, and ultimately thrown tantrums over.

Even though I wanted this to be our normal, I wouldn’t worry about what next year would look like. I was going to enjoy the now and the fact that my wife was just as excited to spend the holidays at home with me.

Next year would be next year.

And I wouldn’t complain too much about it.

I went to let Vuitton out of his crate and grabbed my laptop before heading back downstairs to let him have some outside time. He was back scratching at the door to come in no sooner than he went out. He wasn’t a fan of the cold weather. I gave him a treat before deciding on a small one for myself. Mini charcuterie plate fixed, I paused on the way to the wine fridge. I looked at the bottles and briefly thought about opening one, but I decided on iced tea instead.

I was trying to be more aware of how often I drank, and how much, being more intentional on all fronts as best I could.

Carrying everything over to the couch, I settled in with my laptop and turned on the TV to have Leverage playing in the background. Vuitton jumped up, turned in a circle a few times before settling at the other end. “All right, boy, let’s look over this list again, because I have some questions.”

Neither of us had brought it up in a while, but it had been on my mind. We were having dinner with Khadijah and Shae, which was going to be fun. I liked doing couple things, and I hadn’t seen them since Tina’s send-off dinner. Considering they probably knew everything that was going on, part of me had been a little embarrassed to be around them. If my own friends had read me for filth over my behavior, I could only imagine what Courtney’s had to say. But Khadijah had given us her checklist, so I took that as a sign they were rooting for us to succeed and weren’t completely done with me.

About an hour later, Vuitton’s ears perked up, then he took off down the stairs, signaling Courtney was back from her workout. It was quite funny how he had grown attached to her over these last couple of months with her being home, and as much as she complained about him, it wasn’t lost on me how she spoiled him as much as I did.

“Honey, I’m home,” she said as she entered the kitchen. She had him cradled in one arm, with her gym bag slung over the other. “Your little beast tried to run away.” Court put him down, but he immediately began jumping at her ankles to be picked up again.

I rolled my eyes as I closed the lid on my laptop. “He’s your little beast too, and he wasn’t tryin’ to run away, he was comin’ to greet his other mommy.”

“It looked like he was making an escape since he ran past me down the driveway. His bougie ass is not made for the streets, but if he wanna try it—”

“Why are you always talkin’ about my baby?”

“Because he always doing some shit.”

I got up from the couch and went over to her, stretched up on my toes, and wrapped my arms around her neck. She immediately embraced me, and I had to stop myself from sighing over how much it felt like home in her arms.

“You picked him out, so really, who’s to blame here?”

“The woman who’s been raising him,” she said before leaning down to give me a soft, sweet kiss.

“How was your workout?”

“Fine. I think I need to go soak for a little while, though, because Doc be mean as hell.”

“She’s keepin’ y’all in shape.”

“Yeah, she is, but does she have to be such a hard-ass about it?”

I laughed at the whininess in her tone. “Look at it this way, you won’t have to like dust off the cobwebs come regular season.”