Michelle couldn’t believe it. As far as she was concerned, she wasn’t going to believe it, either. Whoever had enough time to play games hadn’t thought her plan all the way through. Michelle was the queen of making someone’s world cave in around her. And whoever this was e-mailing her husband had some nerve.
Hey, Keithe. It was good meeting you and hanging with you. Thanks for all the pep talks and encouragement. Thanks again for dinner. Please forgive me for cutting our dinner short. Oh, and of course I’ll be praying for you and your wife as well. I hope all gets better.
It had been a while since Michelle had participated in the “Seek and Find” game that nosey and untrusting spouses played. As far as she was concerned, there was no time like the present. With months having passed since she last checked her husband’s account, Michelle scolded herself for not keeping better tabs on her husband.
“She just buried herself,” Michelle whispered through clenched teeth.
Knowing that her husband randomly checked his personal e-mail, Michelle went in and rerouted all of the e-mails from Stoney to her own personal account. It didn’t matter that the e-mail was friendly as all get out. Who cared?
After her duty was done, Michelle logged out of her laptop and shut it down. It had been some months since he’d been back home from his little Dallas hiatus and Keithe had yet to have a real conversation worth anything with her. Now she knew why.
“Whoever this Stoney is, he must still have her on his mind,” she announced matter-of-factly. With a hard stand, Michelle just stood, waiting for Keithe to make his exit from their bath quarters. “Should have checked this stupid account weeks ago.” Michelle paced the floor.
Initially, the night Keithe made it home from Dallas, Michelle was so very careful not to show any annoyance about her husband jumping ship. Instead, she started her conversation by asking if he’d had a good getaway.
When he responded, “Sure,” Michelle kept her cool.
“Well, the sheets are fresh if you want to call it a night.” Making herself busy with continuous paperwork, the night that could have been full of hell for both of them wasn’t. Michelle was glad she’d kept it cool. But now, realizing what had transpired during his time away, Michelle reached back and grabbed from the “all the devil’s hell is about to break loose” stored energy.
When the bathroom doorknob twisted, Michelle clenched her fist and was ready to make a scene. It wasn’t until her husband came through the door that she realized she was on the verge of telling on herself. Easing the anger out of her face, Michelle took things slowly.
“So, have you decided where you’d like to go for dinner, Keithe?” Michelle stood in a spot as if she’d planted herself, waiting for her husband to come out of hiding.
Dabbing his face with a hand towel, warding off the sting of his freshly shaved face, Keithe stopped before progressing further into their master suite.
“Uh.” he gave a quick glance at Michelle’s stance. “I’m not really hungry.” his demeanor showed his desire for Michelle to continue doing her own thing, just as she had been doing for years prior.
Not giving him time to rethink anything, Michelle took one step forward, wanting to lunge at her husband for the simple fact that some woman had e-mailed him. And not only that, but he’d e-mailed her back. “You’ve been loafing around here for months, Keithe. It’s a beautiful Friday, and you mean to tell me you don’t want to go to dinner with your wife?”
Telling her inner man that she wouldn’t break her silence about what she thought she knew, Michelle had to hold her breath and count to ten before she opened her mouth once again. Fist rolled tight, she followed her husband toward the closet. When she started again with, “It’s Friday night, Keithe. I haven’t eaten and neither have you,” he interrupted her.
“I ate earlier. I’m good, Michelle.”
As she looked at him, she realized that the man she had found and picked to marry wasn’t going to budge. Michelle went like a casino’s gaming machine when the jackpot was won: she went off.
“Oh, so you good? what was so good in Dallas, Keithe? who did you stay with anyway?” she moved to the side of her towering husband. Not letting on that she had taken her own personal interval with a new steady fling during the time he was away in Dallas, Michelle kept her energy up for the rounds she was about to go. “I’m listening. You leave Houston, go to Dallas, only to do God knows what, and then you can’t even have a meal with me?” Right as she nudged him in his side and landed a punch to his arm, Keithe shut her down.
“Enough. This is enough. I left Houston to get away from this,” he said, referencing her hollering and laying hateful hands on him. “You’re speaking and hitting on me like I’m some child, Michelle. If you must know,” he said as he stared her in the eyes, “I was at Mike’s. It’s not like you didn’t know it. You left several messages on his voice mail.” he started his stride once more.
Still hard on her husband’s heels, Michelle wasn’t ready to let go. Pulling the tail of his shirt, Michelle held on until Keithe was almost dragging her. She shouted, “Where are you going now, Keithe?”
After he roughly withdrew his body from her grasp, Keithe only stopped for a short amount of time in their room to slide his feet into his tennis shoes. “Friday night service at church, Michelle. Do you think that would be justified?” he finished tying his Nikes. Standing and readying his walk out of the room, Keithe stopped when Michelle charged in front of the door. After a beat, Keithe said, “What? Did you want to go?” he knew the answer before she even tried to lie. “I didn’t think so. I’m sure you already have plans with one of your god brothers, play brothers, or somebody’s brother.” he tried again to continue his stride toward the staircase, while Michelle kept forcing her weight against his to no avail.
“Will you please stop, Michelle? Please,” Keithe begged, thinking his wife would cease the circus act. The traveling UniverSoul Circus didn’t have anything on his active and very energized wife.
As Michelle inched closer to her husband with what looked like tears in her eyes, Keithe stood, scratching at his beard, which had filled out within the past weeks. Even with the emotions she tried to pour out, Keithe didn’t think twice about what he wanted to say.
“You know, back in the day I was upset about not having kids, but I’m glad I didn’t have children with you, Michelle. Would you have beaten them like you’re doing to me?” he jumped back as his beautifully aged wife soared in his direction. When her open hand landed across his full and permanently lined lips, all Keithe had energy left to do was close his eyes. The answer must have been yes.
“That…That is exactly what I’m talking about.” he started his tread once he opened his eyes and saw Michelle soften her stance by the door. Covering his mouth with a loose hand, Keithe offered, “And for a moment I was sad when Stoney asked why we didn’t have any children.” he bit his lip and finished. “I’m through. I’m so through,” he yelled with hands held high and blood trickling down his mouth. He’d only been waiting for time: time to make a move out of the marriage. But there was only so much he could take.
“Stoney?” Michelle’s face showed anger creeping back into place, not caring a bit for her husband’s injured mouth. Removing her bangs from her eyes, Michelle couldn’t believe her husband had the audacity to actually say the floozy’s name.
“Who is that, your woman?” she didn’t want him to know she knew the name of the woman he’d spent time with while he was in Dallas. “Your floozy? how dare you share your floozy’s name with me, Keithe?” she followed her husband through the door and down the stairs. Not forgetting the remark he’d made about them rearing no children together, the sting of her past wallowed in her shallow heart.
Waving off her accusations, Keithe figured telling his wife who Stoney was wouldn’t do any good, but hoped the threats wouldn’t start again. “She’s Mike’s friend,” he said, knowing Michelle would never believe it, especially knowing just how serious she felt about Mike’s social life.
“Yeah, right. That—”
“Then why did you ask, Michelle? we are through.” Keithe abruptly stopped on the stairs just as she was about to follow him, but shortly started again once he realized that his declaration of the end of their marriage had made Michelle jolt. “Just stupid. How could I be so stupid to think this woman was going to change just out of the blue,” Keithe chastised himself when he thought about the smoothness of his return home. “I should have known better.” he blew out a breath before jogging down the remainder of the steps.
When Michelle saw he wasn’t going to stop this time, she did what only she knew to do. In her heart of hearts, she didn’t want to lose Keithe. She knew she loved her husband and really didn’t want to be without him. Releasing a short breath, Michelle knew she’d stooped low…again.
Sleeping with another man because of her own insecurities was one awful thing. Having a relationship on the side right out of the box was downright devious. No matter what, Michelle was sinning in a major way, first against God and then herself. Her husband had been caught up in her own corrupted world.
Michelle couldn’t hide behind the excuse of being insecure because of her age. Michelle knew her problem with cheating on her husband was because of a past with no security. With all the power she held, Michelle used it to her own advantage.
“Okay, okay. We can go to church together, Keithe,” Michelle blurted out while holding on to the staircase with either foot on different steps. With eyes squinted and mouth held tight, Michelle let her head drop as hard as she could, trying to hide the fact that her face held no emotion. The Bobbi Brown powder attached to her face was still untouched by tears. Making a noise that resembled that of a whiny cat, Michelle almost forgot how to cry.
“I don’t want you to go. Hmm.” she tried to imitate a cry once again. “I’ll go to church with you, honey. But…” she looked up quickly. “Well, tonight you can go ahead and go and I’ll just go with you on Sunday. Okay? I’ll see you when you get back.”
Looking back, Keithe didn’t give a gesture in any direction; rather, he kept his distance and traveled toward the exit of their home. The only thing he could think was what was next for Michelle and her schemes? Being as sincere as she’d just tried to sound, he knew she was up to something.
Making it a bad habit, Keithe had bypassed doctor’s orders yet again. He had been driving steadily since he’d come back from Dallas. With the way Michelle had just flown off of her handle, there was no way he’d stop now. With no intention of even beckoning his driver, Keithe had no need to wait for someone to rid him of evil.
As soon as he’d gotten into the driver’s side of his Range Rover, Keithe’s cell phone rang. Once the screen displayed Mike’s number, there was no pondering whether he’d answer.
“’Sup, dude?” Keithe started off.
“Hey, bruh. What’s the deal? how’s it going, man?” Mike dove in. With a click of a button, Keithe accessed his cell phone’s speaker.
“I’m good.” with a slight roll of his eyes and shake of his head, Keithe retracted his response. “I’m lying, man. This lady is killing me. Literally killing me.”
Mike wished there was more he could do, but knew nothing was up to him. No matter what, he knew all relationships were different, but seeing his best friend going through the same old same old was getting old. Seeking advice for himself, Mike quickly realized nothing would get solved with one phone call. His purpose in calling his best friend was to be counselled on his own personal affairs, but that would be something he’d deal with later.
“Aw, man. What’s going on now? I haven’t heard much from you. I thought it was all gravy in h-Town.”
“Yep, me too. That is, until I just got popped in the mouth.”
“Ouch.” Mike grimaced on his end of the line and didn’t dare ask for details.
“Exactly. But what’s up with you?” Keithe maneuvered through the subdivision, headed to church service. Licking his lip like a wounded cat, Keithe glanced at his rearview mirror then back at the road in front of him. With a deep breath, Mike blew out some steam and decided on sharing another time. “It’s nothing. I was just going to ask for advice on some dating stuff, but…”
“Mike. Now you know better.” Keithe added his brotherly tone to his voice. “Nothing has changed as far as talking to you about stuff like that. I thought I let that be known years ago. Your dating life is your dating life. I don’t want any part of that.”
Rolling his eyes, Mike did his best to calm his friend down.
“Chill, man. Geez. I know this.” Mike referred to his knowing better than to share his lifestyle with Keithe. “But it’s nothing like that. It’s not like that anymore.”
“Oh?” Keithe questioned, waiting for the assurance from his friend.
“Yes. I meant to talk to you about it when you were down here, but hey, you have a lot going on right now. I’ll just hit you back later in the week.” Mike lost his gusto.
“Look, Mike. I’m sorry, man. I’m just all worked up right now with Michelle and all. If you want to talk, I can pull over and we can talk. I’m here for you.”
“I know, I know. But I’ll let you get to where you’re going,” Mike said.
“Well. Okay. Should I be worried about something?” Keithe was sincere with his question.
With a slight chuckle, Mike reassured his friend. “Actually, it’s something I’m sure you and my mama have been praying about. I’ll catch you later,” Mike answered, and disconnected the call.