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lthough it had been years since my father’s passing, I knew that she hadn’t fully gotten over it.
The two of them shared a similar story to Shrimp and I. They’d known each other since high school. If I didn’t physically see her, I would call her up just to make sure that she was alright. Financially and physically, she was probably at her best, but I needed to make sure that emotionally she was alright too. My two oldest brothers, Raymond and Elvan, had moved away from Miami years ago, so although they didn’t physically see our mom every day either, they would call and check up on her just as much as I did.
When my father died, I think the decision to give me the business was an easy one because neither one of my brothers wanted it. They knew how successful the business was and the money that they could make with it, but they both chose different career paths. Raymond is a successful defense attorney in New Jersey, and he’s living with his wife and their two sons. The oldest brother, Elvan, owned his own car detailing spot out in Tampa, which wasn’t too far away. He was single and living the bachelor life with no damn kids. Each time I talked to him, I let him know how much I envied him. His life was so damn peaceful, which is all I wanted. He was the oldest damn brother, but I can bet my last dollar that my mom wasn’t going around finding strands of gray in his hair.
“That’s stress, ma. That’s all that is,” I said and then put a fork that was filled with white rice into my mouth.
I picked up Pollo Tropical on the way over because it was my mom’s favorite. She’d finished her meal already, and because I was thinking about what I would have to face when I made it home, I was eating slow, like I barely had an appetite. I faced war with my wife and silence. Ever since the night that we were seconds away from having sex, she’d been ignoring me. She’d pretty much moved all her shit out of our bedroom and was now full time sleeping in the guest bedroom.
Each day that went by, I wanted to do some petty shit like call the bank and have them freeze her account or even put her pre-school up for sale, just to teach her ungrateful ass a lesson. Shrimp was a prime example of biting the hand that feeds her. Here I was, taking care of her ass so that she wouldn’t have to go back to the projects, yet she finds herself ignoring me. How does that even work? I wasn’t even trying to imply that she trapped me with the twins, I was just stating how the fuck I felt.
Five years ago, she was supposed to be on the pill, then I find out that she was pregnant. All I was trying to imply was that birth control doesn’t always work. She was the one who caught a guilty mind and started screaming how I was accusing her of pinning a baby on me. I really believed that my wife enjoyed arguing with me. I think she looked for ways to sleep in the guest bedroom so that she wouldn’t have to face me because for that thought to even take up space in her mind was so fuckin’ crazy to me. Then again, her ass was fuckin’ crazy!
“That’s that little wife of yours, I don’t like her. You know what, let me rephrase that. I like Shrimp as a person, but not as a person that I would want as the wife to my youngest son. I remember when you first brought her around, I was cool with it because I honestly thought that the two of you were just going to remain good friends. I told you years ago that whenever you started dating, you needed to make sure that you dated someone who had a similar status, upbringing, and socioeconomic background as yours because it would make the relationship much smoother, but noooo, you just had to go and get you someone fresh out of the projects.
“Don’t get me wrong, your wife is a beautiful woman. She’s smart as hell and a damn good mother, but she’s not what you need. I can tell that she’s weighing you down and stressing you out. You’re losing weight, Jerrod, and you aren’t even forty yet, but I’m finding gray hairs in your head,” she fussed, standing in front of the island, as she packed the leftover food up and placed it in a Tupperware.
I heard everything that my mom was preaching, and I agreed with her to a certain extent.
“I hear you, Ma. I know sometimes I don’t always show it, but I love my wife. I’m not too fond of the person that she’s become lately, but I love her ass. Shrimp used to be the sweetest girl. She would barely curse, now she’s in competition with a sailor because cursing is all she ever does. She be tripping over things so small, and she’s always trying to argue when the kids are right in the damn house. To put the icing on the cake, she’s not even sleeping in the same room with me. She damn near moved all her clothes and shit to the closet in the guest room, which is where she’s sleeping. She goes through Journey to relay messages to me, and that shit is fuckin’ lame.
Some days I want a divorce, and some days I don’t because deep down inside, I know I’ll never find another woman like Takari. I just don’t know what to do, Ma,” I said and pushed the plate away from me because I no longer had an appetite.
I hated that we were even having this discussion right now. I came there to escape the reality of things that take place in my home, and now that we were talking about it, it felt like I was right at home dealing with this shit. My mom was getting ready to say something, but her doorbell rang.
While she went to get the door, I pulled out my phone just to check and see if I had any missed calls or text messages from my wife, but of course, I didn’t. Crazy how I would get annoyed with her texting me and calling me, asking me when I was coming home, but the minute she stopped doing it, I missed it. I guess it showed that she cared, and now that all of it had stopped, it showed that she just simply didn’t give a fuck.
“Come in. Let me introduce you to my youngest son,” I heard my mom say in that phony voice of hers.
I was in no mood to be introduced to anyone, but it was too late because they had already made their way into the kitchen. Just when I felt like I was going to snap on my mom for bringing someone around me when she knew damn well that I wasn’t in the mood, my thought process quickly changed. Damn, she’s beautiful, I thought as I looked at the woman standing before me, who looked mixed with Latina and black.
I was a man who was always working and on the move, so I never really got the time to entertain another woman. I was married, so I didn’t need to be entertaining another woman anyway. This woman right here though…. man, any man with a dick would stop and look at her. Her long, blonde hair was pulled up in a high ponytail and the black sports bra with the matching black tights and sneakers that she was wearing proved to me that she either just left the gym, or she’d just finished running or something. Even with little beads of sweat on her forehead and the little sweat that was on her breast area, it didn’t take away from her beauty.
She had a nice, toned body. Because her stomach was out, I could see the little four pack that she had, which was beyond sexy to me. I just needed her to turn around because I wanted to take a look at her ass, which I knew had to be fat because I could tell from the spread of her hips. She stood about a good 5’6,” and she had some nice, thick lips. Her and Shrimp were like night and day, although they were both beautiful. I was undressing her with my eyes right now, so I really couldn’t tell you who looked better at this point… her or my wife.
“Jerrod, this is my new neighbor. Her name is Valentina. She moved next door about a month ago. Valentina, this is my youngest son, Jerrod,” my mom said, standing between myself and who she just introduced me to as Valentina.
Valentina released a cute smile, and I was able to see that she had a small dimple on her left cheek. She even had some perfect teeth that had me questioning whether they were veneers or not. I felt wrong as hell for staring at this woman the way I was, but each time I saw a different asset of hers, I felt less guilty.
“I’ve been meaning to introduce the two of you for some time now, but Jerrod, you haven’t been as available these days. Valentina just moved here from New York because she was offered a promotion, and she’s now working as a lawyer in downtown Miami. She’s single, with no kids, and as you can see, son, she has a great career,” my mom said with a big smile on her face as she nudged my arm with her elbow.
It then dawned on me what her ass was trying to do, and all I could do was shake my head at her. Granted, I knew she wasn’t that fond of my wife, but damn, I didn’t think that she would stoop so low and try to play matchmaker like I wasn’t a married man.
“That’s good. Congrats on the promotion, Valentina. It was nice meeting you,” I said, standing up from the barstool that I was sitting on and preparing to make my exit.
“Thank you, Jerrod. It was nice meeting you as well,” Valentina responded in a voice that was so sexy it made me do a double take.
As tempting as it was to stay and at least talk with her for a little while longer, I knew that this was wrong, which is why I was on my way out. Before leaving, I made sure to kiss my mom on her cheek, and just that fast, I was out the door. For as long as I’ve been with Takari, I’ve never cheated on her. Even back in high school when we didn’t really have a title on what we were doing, I was still very faithful to her, and no other woman has ever gotten any type of romantic attention from out of me. So, tonight, to even stare at another woman in a way that was identical to the way that I’d been staring at my wife for all of these years said a lot.
I finally made it home, and like always, walking inside the house, it smelled like one of those oils that Takari liked to keep around the house. The shit was a fuckin’ headache to me, but for whatever reason, she loved it. Before I went ahead and retired to bed, I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. In there, I saw that Takari had a plate set aside for me that she had wrapped up. She may not have been fuckin’ with me like that and probably said five words to me at the most each day, but whenever she cooked dinner, she made sure that she fixed my plate and put it up for me.
I was sure that whatever she made tonight was good, but just like how I didn’t have an appetite earlier at my mom’s, I still didn’t have one now. I grabbed the water and headed up the stairs. The first room that I headed to was Jaden’s since his room was closest the stairs. I laughed to myself when I saw that he and Jada were lying in his bed together, and they were both sleeping. Sometimes, I think the two of them believe that they’re still in the womb together.
I walked fully into the room to turn the television off, and I kissed both of their little foreheads before I exited. The next bedroom that I went into was Journey’s. Before I could even walk into the room, I heard light sniffles coming from the other side of the door. A small part of me wanted to pretend that I didn’t even hear her possibly crying, but my father side quickly kicked in, and I had to find out what was going on with my baby girl. Journey was a teenager now, and I felt like as a man, it was hard as hell having to address certain situations with her, which is why my wife was usually the one who handled these types of things.
I slowly opened the door and flicked the light switch on. Her face was red and puffy from crying, and her eyes were bloodshot red. The moment our eyes landed on each other, she pulled the covers over her head, trying to cover her face, but it was too late. I had already witnessed that she was in there crying.
“Daddy, get out, please! I don’t want you to see me crying,” she said, and I could hear her breaking down under the covers.
