Page 23 of His First Wife

“Thank you.” Iris smiled and flicked her hair over her shoulders as Milicent looked on in silence. The sharp smile was fading from her face as the other women attended to Iris’s golden locks.

“I wish my hair would perm this straight,” another woman said.

“Please, there isn’t enough lye on this earth to relax your nappy hair that straight,” Piper said to another round of fake laughter. The wineglasses shifted from one hand to the other.

“And Milicent has lovely hair, too,” I said to wash out their well-dated exchange. While Damien had soft, curly hair that begged to be played with, Marcy’s thick, short mane was what Milicent had inherited. I’d watched as Marcy brooded over Milicent’s head when she was a baby, praying it wouldn’t change from its newborn curly state to the tightly curled naps all these women seemed to despise. Marcy even pointed out the dark circles around Milicent’s fingertips and said they were even darker than hers. How could this be? She seemed to be asking. It reminded me of my mother.

These conversations grew along with Milicent and it always annoyed me. She was beautiful and I didn’t want the same pain that separated me from others as a child to befall her.

“There you are, Milicent!” Marcy said, rushing over. “Why didn’t you come find me? I need you to go upstairs to get changed for Daddy’s party.” She tugged at the little curls that had gathered around Milicent’s temples.

“Okay,” Milicent said. She hugged her mother. “Can Iris stay over?”

“Now is not the time,” Marcy hushed her. “You see Daddy is having company.”

Milicent groaned.

“Now go upstairs and clean up and I’ll be up in a while to talk about Iris staying over,” Marcy said.

Milicent tossed her dance bag over her shoulder and headed toward the staircase I’d just walked down.

“And do something to that head,” Marcy said sharply, turning back to us. “So, are you ladies having a great time?”

“Everything is lovely,” Piper said. “And Damien seems to be having a great time.”

We all turned to see Damien laughing it up with a crew of men I recognized from Morehouse. They’d all grown up. Boys who’d become doctors and lawyers and politicians.

“You’re so lucky, Marce,” another woman, Mattie, said, that I knew from Marcy’s baby shower. “The perfect husband and marriage. What more could a girl want?”

They all laughed and gazed at Damien like everyone in the circle didn’t know that Damien was less than loyal to Marcy. Gossip bubbled amongst these women like boiling water. If I knew, they knew. And if they knew, the entire last statement was nothing short of an admission that Damien’s behavior was perfectly acceptable to them. This was where and how I split in opinion with these women. I never expected nor accepted that my husband would cheat. It was not something I ever wanted to deal with. And this little circle they were building was not where I wanted to be.

Marcy looked over to me and smiled.

“He sure is the perfect husband,” she said. “If only I could be the perfect wife!”

They all laughed.

“I know,” Mattie said. “Now, that’s impossible. All they have to do is bring home the money, but we have to work and take care of our homes.”

“And our children,” someone else said.

“And have sex with them!” another woman said who was married to a councilman that had put on about seventy-five pounds during his election.

Even I had to laugh at that one.

“Excuse me, ladies,” I said as this rant went on. “On that note, I need a sip of water.” I backed away and headed toward the standing bartender Marcy had positioned temporarily in the dining room.

“Sex?!” I heard someone say as I walked away. “Who’s having sex with them? I leave that to someone else.”

The day was beginning to wear me down and I was feeling ready to head upstairs to get some sleep. The baby felt heavy in my stomach. He’d gone to sleep and while the night was young, he was taking me down with him.

After chatting with a few of Jamison’s friends, I found myself sipping on a glass of water in the corner of the room. With no one to talk to, I was thinking about Jamison and feeling sad again.

Piper appeared from out of nowhere. It was as if she sensed my tiredness and crept up beside me with ninja-like silence to catch me in a vulnerable state. If I ever forgot why I hated these women, Piper was always there to remind me.

“Drink too much water and your water will break,” Piper said another one of her corny jokes.

“Funny,” I pretended to laugh like most people.

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