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“Journey, have some respect for your mother. Shrimp, I got her. Just go and finish doing what you were doing,” my mom said.
“No, Ma! I’m tired of this little girl treating me like I’m some random bum off the street and not her damn mother!” I said. I turned my attention away from my mom, and I placed my eyes on Journey. “I’m getting real sick and tired of your shitty ass attitude! You locked yourself up in that damn room for the whole four hours that we were here celebrating your brother and sister’s birthday. What the hell is so important on that damn phone is what I need to know,” I asked her.
“Mommy, I told you weeks ago that I didn’t care to be around a bunch of five year olds at a birthday party. The only thing that I’m doing upstairs on my phone is listening to music. Don’t tell me I can’t do that either,” she said, looking down at me because she was taller than me by a few inches.
All I did was throw my hands up in defeat and head back in the kitchen to finish straightening up. I was already on edge with her father, and if I were to stand there and continue talking to her, I felt like I would have taken my anger out on her, which is why I chose to walk away. This was only the beginning of my life. There was something new happening just about every other day, and it was only a matter of time before I looked in the mirror and saw gray hair coming in.
2
Jerrod Evans
It was midnight, and I was just now jumping in my Tesla and heading home after having to go into the office on my off day. On the very same day that my kids were celebrating their fifth birthday at that. The stress of the job had long ago shifted once I came down there and fixed the problem, but I felt like the stress from my wife would forever be there. If I wasn’t a good husband, I promise I wouldn’t have even come home tonight because I just didn’t want to hear all of that damn nagging from Shrimp.
I knew she was going to be pissed about me being out so late. Her silence spoke volumes to me. The fact that I hadn’t received one text message or one phone call from her while I was out proved to me that I was going to walk inside the house to World War III. I couldn’t even fault her for being mad at me because I was doing this same thing to her just about every day.
I loved my wife and my children dearly, but at times, I felt like Shrimp and I moved too damn fast. Like, we got married and had the kids too fast. Because I was a father and a husband, it left me to be tied down and have certain boundaries and shit put over my head that a single man wouldn’t have. The business that I was in had the chance of one day becoming a billion dollar company, and that’s all I was trying to do. I was trying to make it so my wife and my kids, kids, kids never had to work a day in their life, but my wife didn’t understand that shit. She wanted that fairytale lifestyle that she saw on the TV, where both the husband and the wife would be home before the sun set along with the kids, while we all sat at the table over dinner discussing our days.
Don’t get me wrong, that was cute and all, but there was money that needed to be made. Growing up, there were nights that my father didn’t come home because he was out working, and I can’t remember a time when my mom bitched about it. She just sat her ass back, kept her mouth closed, raised my two older brothers and me, and spent my father’s money! Those were all the things that I wanted from my wife, but it just wasn’t happening.
The thing is, with the success rate of the business and the ideas that I have for it, I just didn’t know if I would be that man that she wants me to be any time soon. I had the chance to become the first billionaire in my family, and of course, I was jumping on that. Did I see divorce somewhere in my future? No, because my wife wasn’t fuckin stupid. She knew what the fuck she had right in front of her, and she’d be a damn fool to walk away from all this damn money. Besides, I felt like no one was going to want her. Not because she wasn’t beautiful because I have yet to see another woman on this damn earth to even be in the same category as my wife when it came to looks. It was because she was thirty- three years old, with three damn kids, so I knew that her type wasn’t getting cuffed these days.
You might find me to be a little arrogant or maybe even cocky, but my success and the amount of money that I had in my bank account had made me this way. Growing up, my father was the most successful man that I knew, and now I was the most successful person that I knew. My father gave the business to me because he trusted me with it the most, and I’ve damn near quadrupled the revenue. My numbers made my father’s numbers look like pennies if you compared the two. This isn’t to say that when my father was alive, he didn’t know how to run the company. It’s just that I was better at strategizing than him.
At exactly 12:30 a.m., I pulled my car through the gates that led to my circular driveway. Before I even got out the car, I sat there for a few minutes just shaking my head. My wife had a total of four cars, which was one more car more than I had, and she had the nerve to be fuckin complaining! If I show you her damn closet, you’ll have two feelings run through your body. The first one would be jealousy, and the second one would, of course, wonder why the hell would one little ass person need all those damn clothes, shoes, bags, furs, you name it. She was living in a big ass mansion, that her mind wasn’t even big enough to dream of when she was a little girl.
Shrimp was from the hood, so before she got with me and I pretty much upgraded her, I’m sure that her dream house was probably a nice three-bedroom townhouse somewhere in Pembroke Pines. My wife lived a life that many women her age would dream of living, and I felt like she still wasn’t satisfied. She lived a life where she chose to go to work because she knew that no money she made from the profits of that daycare could even pay the damn water bill in this bitch. So, the question is asked, do I think that my w
ife lucked up when she got with me? The answer to that question would be that she won the fuckin lottery twice.
After a long night, all I could do was kick my shoes off by the stairs and take the circular staircase up until I made it to our massive master bedroom. First thing that I noticed was that our bed was still freshly made and that my wife wasn’t in it. Before I went looking for her in this big ass house, I headed to the bathroom to take a quick, much needed shower. The hot water ran down my body as I placed my hands on the gray, marble wall. So many thoughts ran through my mind as I showered. Thoughts that my wife was holding me back from what I really needed to be doing with my company.
I loved Shrimp dearly, but I was nowhere near in love. If anything, I loved her because of the person that she was and because she had my children. I was keeping her around because I’d be silly to give her up. She was basically like my trophy that I got to parade around the office whenever we had big events, like our annual hall, the anniversary of the company, or even on days when she would just pop up on me with lunch.
I closed my eyes as I pictured my wife. She was little as hell, but you couldn’t tell her that she wasn’t the size of a giant. Her personality, confidence, and attitude were all big, and it made up for her size. She always had a full head of thick, long hair. Back in high school, her hair used to be a sandy brown color, and over the years, she’d made little changes, like adding streaks of honey blonde in it, which I actually loved. With all that hair, she usually just went to the salon every other week and had her stylist make it bone straight, which had become my favorite hairstyle on her over the years.
She had some of the biggest, brown eyes that I’d ever seen, making her look similar to the little Bratz dolls that my daughter Jada likes to play with. Although I didn’t give her much of a reason to smile these days, she did have a beautiful one, with two deep ass dimples indented in her cheeks, like the actress Lauren London.
Not only was my wife beautiful on the outside, but she was just as beautiful on the inside. Easily, one of the most caring persons that I’ve ever met in my life. Even now, I’m thinking about the way she is with our kids. I’ve never in my life heard her ask for an off-day from being a mother or even say anything that would make me feel as if she regretted having them because she handled it with ease. Adding on to her list of pros, she was just a woman who wanted her marriage to work since she never got to witness that from her own mother and father.
My shower finally ended, and I stepped out while placing the towel around my body. Like I did every night before I went to bed, I stood over the sink brushing my teeth and rinsing my mouth out with mouthwash. Once I was in a pair of pajama bottoms, I left the room to go and check on my kids and my wife.
I went inside Journey’s room first and made sure I creeped in slowly because I wanted to see if I would catch her on that damn phone. Surprisingly, her phone was on the nightstand charging, and she was in bed under the covers, laid on her back, and lightly snoring. I kissed her on her forehead before I left her room.
Next, I went down the hall to go and check on Jada, my actress out of all of my children. Jada was the one who kept giving Shrimp and I a run for our money. On the physical side, she was every bit of me, but personality and attitude, along with everything else, she was just like her damn mama. So much person inside that little ass body. Looking at her now, I laughed to myself because she even slept like a little diva, with her head propped up on her hand, as if her life was so damn perfect and she didn’t have the slightest care in the world. I kissed her too, and then I made my way to Jaden’s room, which is where I found my wife.
A smile came to my face when I saw the two of them sleeping in his little bed that was made to look like a race car. My wife fit right in the bed perfectly as she lay on her back, and our son, who was indeed a mama’s boy and swore up and down that my wife was his wife too, lay with his head on her chest. I looked at them for a few minutes because honestly, it was the perfect sight to see.
Feeling like my wife should have been in bed with me, I gently moved Jaden over, kissed his forehead, and then I reached for my wife, carrying her in my arms bridal style. Halfway to our bedroom, her eyes fluttered open, and she tried to get out of the hold that I had her in, but I wouldn’t budge. If anything, I didn’t put her down until I pulled back the covers on my side of the bed and got in, putting her on top of me. Her long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she was wearing one of her silk pajama sets.
I held her by her waist as her entire body rested on top of mine, just taking this feeling all the way in because I couldn’t remember the last time that she and I had done this. The last time that we had been so close to each other. The whole time, she was squirming, trying to get away. The same thing I just mentioned about not being in love, I knew that she was the furthest thing from being in love with me too. I could tell from the way her body was tensed when I touched her.
“What’s wrong with you? Why you acting like I can’t hold you?” I asked, looking down at her.
“That’s the thing, Jerrod. I’m not acting. You haven’t held me in months, so don’t all of a sudden try to do it now. Look how out of sync my body is with yours. I’m uncomfortable as hell right now being this close to you. Just let me up,” she said.
Although it was dark in the room, I was still able to see her face. I looked for any signs of her just joking with me, but I didn’t see one. Feeling like she’d just shot me down, I sucked my teeth and shoved her off me. She shoved my ass right back, although she really didn’t move shit.
“I don’t know why you thought that I would jump at the feeling of you holding me! Keep the same energy that you’ve been giving me for months now. Let me know what it is that you want to do, and I’ll do it,” she said.
