I smacked his face again. “You’re a liar!” I got in my car and left.
So word got around that Julius called Eva a skank. I wasn’t surprised to find out that she was ready to help me get all of Julius’s money.
“Give me a few days and we can talk, but for the next couple of days I just want some quiet time with my boys. You understand don’t you?” I told her, “I will look for a place and—”
She interrupted. “Say no more. I understand, but we gonna hit him in the head before he can see what’s comin’! Ol’ dog! Ugh! I told you you were too good for that fool!” We laughed, said our good-byes, and hung up the phone.
Julius had been blowing up my cell ever since I left him sitting there wet, and that had been well over four hours ago. I never answered the phone when he called. I hurried home and packed up some of my things and the boys. I knew he wouldn’t come home right away because he’d said on one of his texts how embarrassed and ashamed he was, and how he didn’t wanna face me. I put them in the car and headed toward the freeway. It was over! I had debated leaving him over and over in my head for at least eight months, so the new development was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Besides, all he wanted to do was sit on the phone and manipulate me with his fast talking, double talking, and confusing questions. I wasn’t having it. I was done, finished, through with it and him!
I listened and jammed to Canton Jones “Hater Today” while I zoomed down the freeway. The boys slept in their car seats in the back. I frequently looked at them through the mirror and wished things were different, but they weren’t. Julius had made his choices and that was that. Yes, my heart was broken into tiny pieces but at the moment I couldn’t feel it. All I felt was anger.
I tried to listen to some of my favorite worship music and release the pain, anger, and inability to forgive however, I needed time for this right here. If the truth be told, I wanted him to hurt; hurt like I had been all those years I invested in his raggedy butt! That’s what I wanted.
As soon as I arrived in Columbus, we settled in our new home, the Hyatt at Easton. I picked up my cell to call my grandpa, but Julius was texting me like crazy. One text read: Bring my boys home! Next one: I’ma take ’em away from you!
I looked at the cell, laughed, and began to talk back to his text as if he could hear me. “Please, ain’t no judge in his right mind gonna give you my sons! You wanna fight? That’s what you gonna get!” I picked up the cell and started typing him back, then thought about it. “That’s what he wants: communication. I will not say a word. I’ll just see him in court like I said.”
My text went off again. This time it read: Reese, please come home. I need you. Please don’t do this, babe. I need you.
I sat on the edge of my bed staring at that one for a few moments. I wanted him so bad. I loved that man. He was my one and only true love. Oh, how I wished Julius would have repented before now for the way he treated me. Moreover, as much as I wanted him to be telling the truth, I had no place in my mind that believed him or in him anymore. All Julius would be good for was paying me!
I set the cell on the bed and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed. I was going to turn in and get up early enough to find a daycare for the boys, find us a new home, and go shopping (on Julius) for everything new. Then the pictures started coming. He sent pictures of us getting married, pictures of the boys when they were born, pictures of us in high school at prom, at homecoming, at games, and at interviews. I took my cell and placed it on my heart and cried. I then erased them all. If I wanted to move forward, I couldn’t stay there playing in my past.
Eventually I turned the cell off, realizing I would never get through to Grandpa with this going on. I eventually called Grandpa on the hotel phone. I knew by now Julius had called my grandparents, trying to plead his case and hope one of them would say something to me to make me come to my senses, in his words. Yeah, right, not this time.
Plenty of times he would call them, mostly Grandma, to convince me to let him back in the house. And a lot of times, it worked. Grandma would say, “Forgive him. You were married young and that’s what men do before they grow up.”
I would sit there and look at Grandma like she was out of her mind. I would end up doing what she told me to do, miserably. I knew my grandpa wouldn’t go for it but Grandma believed you stay with a man through hell and high water. I didn’t believe that one. Maybe if it was the fifties I’d have thought differently, but it was 2008 and I was twenty-six years old. I didn’t have time to waste on no man, not even one I was hopelessly in love with.
Grandpa was a wise man of God and I needed him. It was a perfect time to talk to him; the boys had eaten, had their baths, read books, and were tucked away in their bed, sound asleep.
I looked around the beautiful hotel suite, went to the desk, sat down, and called Grandpa. I hoped Grandma wouldn’t answer. I didn’t wanna bother her with this. Her blood pressure would go up; I just knew it would.
“Hello? Who callin’ here this late? It’s nine o’clock!” I smiled and giggled a little when I heard Grandpa fussing. It reminded me of old times when Julius or one of my friends would call the house after eight. They would get told off foolin’ with him.
“Grandpa? Grandpa, it’s me, Reesie-cup!” That’s what he called me.
“Oh, it’s my baby girl on da phone. What a surprise. Where you at anyway? That boy done called here a million times lookin’ fo’ you and them boys!” He fussed again.
“Grandpa, we’re okay. I’m in Columbus.” I took a deep breath then said it. “I left him for good, Grandpa.” I could hear him moving around in his leather recliner. It was almost like I could see him sitting there in it with a Coca-Cola bottle on the side of him, the radio on the other side, with him listening to some sports game on AM radio while at the same time watching every sporting event imaginable on his seventy-inch flat screen with surround sound, which Julius got him for Christmas. He was so funny!
“Left him, hon? What he do? Vonnie, Reesie-cup on da phone.” I could hear him telling Grandma what was going on. “Yeah, she sound okay. Done left him. You was right.”
“Grandpa, I just wanted y’all to know what was going on and where I was,” I told him.
“You need somethin’, Reesie? Grandpa and Grandma will come if you need us. Now what’s goin’ on, ’cause he called here cryin’ and sayin’ somethin’ about a baby. You pregnant?”
Oh no! I can’t believe he told them that. He is such a drama queen. “No, Grandpa, I’m not pregnant! Julius done got another woman pregnant though.” I took in a deep breath and continued. “I just want out of this, Grandpa.” I couldn’t be strong any longer. Who I needed was on the phone: my dad. He was like my father, the only one I ever had. He raised me as if he were my daddy and I loved him as if he were just that.
“Oh, Reesie-cup, I’m so sorry, baby. I told that boy a few years ago to get his act together, that you wasn’t gonna keep stayin’ by him with all that mess he was doin’. Told him, you was too strong to keep puttin’ up wit’ nonsense. I just hate to see this day, and I hate that you in pain.”
I could hear the pain he had for me in his voice. It got raspy and sounded dry, as if he was losing some of his words while they came out his mouth.
“I don’t know what to do, Grandpa. I feel like I lost everything. What am I going to do without him?” I was going into hysterics on the phone. While my grandpa held the phone I could hear him breathing and turning pages; then I figured he was in the Word of God.
“Baby, you are not alone. You ain’t gonna die. You haven’t lost everything. Now Julius, he’s the one who has lost. If he wanna stay bound to his flesh and continue to be married to lust, let him. It is an unfortunate thing but it happens. You, my darling, will pick up and become stronger from this. You are my baby and you have overcome some horrific tragedies in your young life, so you just know, this too shall pass!” Grandpa was preaching and I was listening!
“Trust me, everything that happens has to go by Jesus first. Understand you are safe in His arms and covered under the blood of Jesus! You gonna be all right. It may be a road you have to travel on, Reesie-cup, but believe in your God and know He has you and them boys. Storms come, baby.” He paused before saying, “This will not be the only one you face, but you have to hold on to Jesus while in a storm. Now, if you have made your decision to leave, you have to move on, pray, and forgive. Hold tight to the Lord, baby girl.”
I knew he was right. As he spoke and continued to minister to me the peace of God came over me. I got on my knees and with my grandpa on the other end of the phone we cried, talked, and prayed. And I felt in my spirit that things really would be okay. I mean, God hasn’t brought me this far just to leave me . . . right?
Chapter 6
Jay
Eva invited me to dinner at Brio, a popular upscale restaurant, to celebrate her thirtieth birthday. Plenty of people came and gathered that night for her dinner party. I was a different girl than the one who showed back up in Columbus three years ago. I was no longer a mess, no longer heartbroken, no longer married, and no longer a stay-at-home momma.
I had it going on. I was working in my field as an electrical engineer for the city of Columbus. I had my own home way out in the suburbs that I had purchased with the settlement money I received from my divorce. I worked out constantly, spent time with my boys, and had plenty of money in the bank. We were set financially for life.
I found myself and the boys a nice Holy Ghost–filled church that I loved and that was it for us. That’s what we did: family, school, church, work, and exercise. I didn’t have any time for men in my life. I did go on date here and there to the movies and maybe dinner, but no big deal. I knew I wasn’t ready to be in a new relationship. Julius had hurt me bad, and to tell the truth, a piece of me was still broken from it all. I had been celibate since the divorce and promised God once again I would stay that way until marriage.
I thought I was scared to fall in love. It was safer for me to just pass men by when they tried to get a conversation going. I did pretty well until Eva’s party.
I pulled in front of Brio to valet park my brand-new, shiny black S 550 sedan that Julius brought me a couple of weeks ago for my twenty-ninth birthday. He still showed love and proclaimed his heartbreak with gifts; I took them. I smiled at the attendant and threw him the keys. He smiled at me and watched as I walked across the brick street of the Easton Town shopping center into Brio. I did know I was looking good with my floor-length mink wrapped around me. My hair was weaved into an edgy black bob with Chinese bangs that lay just right on my forehead. My makeup and eyelashes were flawless. I kept myself together, always. I had on some cream wool pants and a cream sweater that overlapped and hung low in the front, with pearls that started as a choker and ended at the top of my waist.
I was clean, entering the place, looking like a million dollars. I looked around the restaurant and saw Eva standing up, telling one of her famous stories about the banks she had worked in. Eva was quite the storyteller, keeping her audience laughing and intrigued, wondering what she would say next out of her mouth. It was her gift. She was the district manager of over five banks in Columbus, and five in Dayton, Ohio.
I noticed her hair was different from the previous day when we celebrated her birthday privately as BFFs at her favorite place, Chicago Pizza. Her hair was weaved with Italian wave Indian Remy, which meant it was very, very expensive. Eva was getting a little heavy in the thighs, but had a small waist that made up for it. That’s what men loved about her.
