Chapter 3
Love Hurts
By the time Valentine’s Day arrived, even though it was cloudy and overcast outside, Coco was jovial and more cheerful. Calhoun had surprised her three days earlier when he let her drive him to the county clerk’s office. They signed up for a marriage license, and he slid a modest ring on her finger. Ever since then she’d been singing around the house and treating her kids with love and patience.
And now it was early evening on the most romantic holiday of the year.
Coco was home speaking with Calhoun on the phone.
“So, what’s the latest about our dinner date?” she asked.
“Say, Ma, I gotta work overtime. But I promise to take you out tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? The day after Valentine’s Day is side chick day. I am not a side chick.”
“Look, plenty of good men can’t take their women out on the actual holiday. So be a sweet woman and wait till tomorrow, Ma.”
“I want to eat out today. What time you think you’ll be getting off?”
“Uh,” he hedged. “Ain’t no telling. Because of the bad weather we got way backed up. We kind of busy. I gotta go.” He made kissing noises, which made Coco feel only slightly better. She hung up the phone, a mournful look etched on her face.
“Oh, well. I guess this is what I signed up for when I said I wanted to be with a truck driver. Better get used to it,” Coco told herself.
She gathered Chloe, Cadee, and Chance, and they all assisted her with baking a few dozen cupcakes topped with white icing and red hearts. But an hour and a half later, once they had finished decorating the dessert, Coco received a phone call.
“Hey, Lita,” she answered as she took a tiny bite from a cupcake.
“You sound like you eating again, huh?” Alita said.
“Yep, I am. But what you want? Aren’t you out with your boo?” Alita was still dating Shade Wilkins, a churchgoing man whom she’d met last year. Coco was surprised her sister hadn’t scared the guy off.
“Yeah, um, we are together at a restaurant. I’m sitting here watching all the other couples in love.”
“Must be nice.”
“Humph! I wouldn’t say all that.”
“What you mean by that, Lita? Which restaurant are you at?”
“First of all, you sitting down?”
“No, I’m not. Now answer the question. What restaurant are y’all at?”
“The same one that Calhoun Humphries is at. And he is with another woman. And no, it’s not his mama or his sister.”
“What you say?”
Alita proceeded to give Coco the address of the restaurant where she and Shade had been posted up during the past hour. The joint was super crowded with all sorts of couples scattered throughout the place.
“Yeah, Sis,” Alita continued. “He’s looking mighty comfy too. Like he is booed the hell up.”
“What the fuck?” Coco began to gather her children and her purse and scooped up her car keys. “What is he doing exactly”?
“Chile, I don’t even wanna tell you, you being pregnant and all. I don’t want you to be upset and affect the baby.” Alita paused. “But whatever, you need to come up here and see this clown for yourself. I need to prove it to you that you never should have messed around with Calhoun the Loser. In fact, I feel like going over there and—”
“No, Lita. Don’t. Let me handle this.” Coco racked her brain trying to find a good excuse for why her man would be out in public on Valentine’s Day with another woman. “For all we know it’s his cousin. You know he comes from a big family.”
“Nah, Sis.”
“Or it might just be a coworker.”
“Really? Mmm hmm. Coco, you’re a big fool. Don’t be so blind and stupid over a man. You better than this.”
“I know I am, Lita. I don’t want to be anybody’s fool. But I have to consider the source. You hate my man first of all, and nothing he does will ever be right or look right in your opinion.”
“Well, you need to see what I’m seeing, and then we can talk! Bye-bye, dumbass.”
“Wait, don’t hang up,” she pleaded. “I want you to stay on the phone.”
Coco got settled in the car and pressed her foot all the way on the gas pedal. It seemed like every light was turning red by the time she got to them. She imagined all kinds of scenarios for Calhoun’s dilemma.
At one point, she even told Alita to hold on while she dialed Calhoun, but the call when straight into voice mail.
The closer she got to the restaurant, the worse she felt. Her voice trembled. “Lita, I don’t know if I want to see this. I mean, I do, yet I don’t.”
“Why not, Sis? You need to see his lying, no-good ass with your own two eyes.”
“How could he do this to me? He told me he had to work.”
“He working all right. Working hard to make another bitch happy.”
“But, Lita, how is it that Calhoun can’t see you . . . or hear you?”
“Because I have on some of those biker glasses with the rearview mirror on them.”
“No, you do not. Girl, are you crazy?”
“Look, check this out. Shade and I made it to the restaurant and got us a booth, right? And we got seated, and were sipping on our drinks, having a good time laughing and talking.”
“I don’t want to hear all, Lita. Get to the point!”
“Okay. So, Shade, you know he loves to ride motorcycles, and so he showed me these new biker glasses he got, and I asked if I could try them on. He said okay. So, I put them on and I stand up and try to test them. And I look in the rearview glasses, and that’s when I saw your man. I could not believe what I was seeing. And I was like, ‘Shade, you sure these things working right because I see my sister’s boyfriend with another woman.’”
“I just can’t believe this shit. Anyway, I’m pulling up now. I need to find a parking place, though. It’s gonna be a minute.”
“Okay, do that and come on in and go to the left side of the restaurant. That’s where your so-called man is posted,” Alita told her.
“When I walk in, am I going to see his face or the back of his head?”
“You will see his face. You know how bitch-ass Negroes do. Always sitting facing the entrance so they can see who’s coming in the spot. All right, Sis. I’m about to hang up. I’ll be watching.”
And moments later, unbeknownst to him, Calhoun’s baby mama stood in the middle of an aisle staring at him. The kids stood quietly beside her. It felt like someone had kicked Coco in her belly. The pain was so severe she wanted to cry and scream. Love hurt. And betrayal from a man whom you loved and thought loved you was one of the worse feelings in the world.
Seated across from Calhoun was a woman who looked nothing like Coco. Whereas Coco was big, round, and wore Afro puffs, this woman had a long, thin neck with silky black hair that hung past her shoulders.
Two servers carrying trays filled with food almost collided with Coco; her very pregnant body practically blocked the aisle where she’d been watching her man.
“Excuse me, miss,” the hostess finally said as she walked over to Coco. “We only accept reservations here, and if you don’t have one, it’s going to be a long wait. Plus, your standing here is a major distraction. I’m afraid you’re making the other customers nervous.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No, I’m not.” The woman was aghast. “In fact, don’t even try and wait for a table. We can refuse service to anybody. We honestly won’t have any available tables. I suggest that you leave and next time make a reservation.”
Coco was furious. She ignored the waitress, who stood there waiting for her to leave. Coco took a few steps forward and continued watching Calhoun smile and converse with the woman whose face and body she could not see.
Coco glanced down at her protruding belly. If she had to do it all over again, she wished she hadn’t started getting pregnant and having child after child for an uncommitted man. Why did she have to be so stupid in love?
Calhoun’s eyes sparkled, and in the dim lights made for romance, Coco knew that she could not allow her man to freely offer his love to another woman. Especially on Valentine’s night.
In Coco’s mind, Calhoun was like Trey Songz, the good-looking bad boy that many women wanted, but Coco was the lucky chick that he picked to come up on stage with him.
She craved him . . . the sexy curled lip, the way he threw back his head when he laughed. The swag. Coco wanted him still.
But how?
Right then Calhoun lifted the woman’s hands and drew them to his lips. Coco watched Calhoun kiss hands that weren’t attached to her own body. Her heart sunk when she saw him continuously smile like he was in love. Coco drew her hand to her heart and clutched invisible pearls that she wished were real.
He leaned across the table and kissed the chick on the lips.
Coco couldn’t take it anymore. She was just about to walk over to Calhoun’s table. But an armed security officer asked her to leave.
She glanced at his gun and said, “Okay, sir. I’ll leave now. Don’t want no trouble.” Coco nodded at the officer, glared at the hostess, then walked out with the kids following behind her.
At his table, Calhoun filled his date’s glass with wine. Samira Idris was an Eritrean from East Africa and had relocated to Louisiana with her family several years ago.
Calhoun was infatuated with Samira’s beauty, elegance, and sophistication. He completely dismissed thoughts of Coco while he was chatting with the woman. But he couldn’t forget her for long. He was nervous and needed to break some difficult news to Samira.
He picked up his glass and told her, “To the most beautiful woman in the world.” He knew he sounded corny, but unexpectedly falling in love could make a man do things he never thought he’d do.
“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you, Miss Lady, and tell you some of what’s been going on with me.” He coughed and cleared his throat. “You know I got a girl. I already peeped you on that situation.”
“Yes, you did,” Samira said in anguish. “And you know how uneasy your situation makes me feel. I don’t want to be associated with a man that already has a woman. And I’d never want any woman to do that to me either.”
“That’s understandable. And that’s why we’re here,” he said. “I know I told you awhile back I would be breaking up with Coco.”
Samira stopped herself from outright laughing. She thought that his girlfriend’s legal first name sounded so ridiculous and unsophisticated. “Yes, you did.”
“And, um, I also wanted to tell you that she went and got a marriage license for us.”
Samira’s eyes grew dark with concern.
“She did? Why?”
“What you mean?”
“She can’t do that without your permission. You two must have made that decision together.” Samira felt miserable and sickly. Suddenly she was no longer hungry.
“I’m just saying, my girl . . . I mean, Coco is real pushy when she wanna be.”
“A woman can’t force a grown man to do anything.”
“That’s the thing,” Calhoun told her. “Sometimes I don’t know what I want.”
“I see. And if what you’re saying is true, then that means you must love her more than you claim that you do.”
Samira’s assessment made Calhoun feel conflicted. He didn’t want to lie to Samira, but he didn’t want to tell her the truth either. Yet something had to give.
“That’s why I wanted to keep it one hundred with you,” he said.
“What?”
“I need to let you know that . . . I owe it to Coco to do right by her.”
Samira’s facial expression was void of emotion.
“And so I-I will marry her. We have like ninety days to do it.”
Samira pushed back from the table and stood up. She quietly grabbed her evening bag and wrapped her shawl around her shoulders.
“Sit down, please.”
“Why, Calhoun?” she asked in a quiet, even tone. “So you may further humiliate me? This is like a breakup dinner.”
“But you and me, we weren’t really together, right?”
That did it. Samira neatly folded the white cloth napkin that had just been covering her lap. She looked beautiful. The multicolored dress she was wearing was an outfit that she’d designed and made herself. In fact, Calhoun had been giving her money since he’d met her, to help her dream of becoming a fashion designer come true.
“I want to thank you, Calhoun, for helping me out all this time and being supportive when you could. It was nice knowing you. And good luck on your marriage.”
“Samira!”
But she walked away. She tried to keep herself from running as she traveled through the crowded restaurant in a slow manner so as not to bring attention to herself. She did not want anyone to know she’d just been dumped by a guy whom she would have never given a second glance to, but who’d captured her heart nonetheless.
Samira looked down to reach inside her handbag to grab her keys; in doing so she nearly bumped into a pregnant woman who was rushing past her. Three young kids ran behind the lady.
Samira wondered if she’d ever be fortunate enough to have a man who wanted her to mother his children.
Coco finally reached Calhoun’s table. She felt relieved that she’d been able to sneak back into the restaurant when the hostess and the security officer became distracted.
Calhoun was draining the last drop of his wine. He looked up and saw his woman and their kids staring at him. Coco glanced around but did not see anyone who resembled Samira.
“Where’d that bitch go?”
“Look, man, we not doing this tonight.”
“Did she go to the ladies’ room? Y’all sit down and wait for me. Go on and have a seat with your daddy. I’ll be right back.”
“Coco, don’t you make a fool of yourself.”
“You think I enjoy this, Calhoun? You think I’m having fun putting you in check and trying to find out who this bitch is that you having dinner with? You make me act like this.”
“I don’t do—”
“Yeah, you do. A good man would not put me through the shit you been putting me through,” Coco said, nearly yelling. At that moment all she could do was question her judgment, her frequent habit of making questionable choices when it came to men. She knew it was true, but she did not know how to fix it.
“Look, Ma, have a seat. Let’s talk.”
“No, I don’t want to talk to you. I want to talk to your side bitch.”
“Ain’t no side bitch.”
Coco left Calhoun alone to go and search the restroom. When she returned to the table with a confused expression on her face, he said to her, “Now will you sit your wild ass down so we can have a grown-up conversation?”
Feeling foolish, she took a seat. “What’s really going on, Calhoun?”
“Look, Ma. You were right. There was someone else here, but she’s gone now.”
“Her name?”
“Why?”
“’Cause I have a right to know.”
“All right then. Her name is Samira Idris. I had to chuck the deuces with her.” Calhoun explained how when he went to Louisiana a few months ago, he’d met a woman in the casino while he was gambling at the slot machines. They kept running into each other that night. Finally, they spoke for a while and exchanged numbers. They stayed in touch; and the more they got to know each other, the more Calhoun caught feelings for her.
“We’ve hung out as friends here and there. But tonight, the only reason I took her out was to break up with her.”
“What the fuck you mean ‘break up’? You can’t break up with her when you in a relationship already. Are you saying you cheated? Is that why you never came home at a decent hour?”
“No,” he admitted. “It never got that far. I didn’t even kiss her.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you want,” he said with a regretful shrug. In reality, Samira never let Calhoun lure her into bed. Not that he hadn’t tried. When she rejected him, it only made him want her even more. Samira was different from his other women: calm, well-spoken, nurturing. And that’s why he became enchanted with her.
“We never did anything, Ma. I swear to God.”
“I saw you kiss her with my own eyes.”
“I did it just one time. A goodbye kiss. That’s it.”
She reached across the table and thumped Calhoun hard across the forehead.
“Lying ass. You think I’m stupid?”
“I know one thing: Unless you willing to get popped too, you better keep your hands to yourself,” he warned her.
Coco could feel a couple of diners staring at them. She didn’t care. Love hurt. Being crazy in love hurt more. How could he do this to her? And what would happen now that she knew?
Calhoun apologized, which made Coco calm down long enough to keep her kids from feeling anxious. They were all staring their mother with wide-eyed, frightened looks on their faces. Coco hated to stress out her family. She decided to lower her voice.
“Thank you for the weak apology. But it better be the last time that you do this shit. Making a fool out of me over some side pussy. I won’t put up with it.”
“I know, Ma. I know. To finish my story. I told the chick that me and you getting married. And that’s what we’ll do. We’ll do it right after this last baby is born. All right?”
“You serious?” Coco asked.
“Yeah. I’m serious, Ma. I’ve been thinking about things, and I think it’ll be cool to get married. Time for me to grow up and do the right thing. And make you Mrs. Humphries.”
It took a while before Coco could firmly grasp what he had told her. And the anger that had been boiling over melted away into calmness. She told him that she hoped that he wasn’t jerking her chain. He assured her that he was on the up-and-up.
“You promise to never contact her again?” Coco asked.
“I promise.”
“If you mean it, I want you to block her right now.” Calhoun instantly found Samira’s info in his address book. He blocked her phone number and texts.
“Now delete all the photos you have of that whore, because I know you got that in your phone too.”
Calhoun hesitated, took a deep breath, and began the process of deleting Samira from his phone and his heart.
Coco watched him and noted the sad look in his eyes. But he continued to do everything she asked him to do, and that was what was important to her.
Mission accomplished, Calhoun apologized again. “I’ve been an asshole.”
“Yes, you have. And a dick!”
“You right, Ma. Forgive me?”
He kissed Coco on the lips. She immediately pushed him away and wiped her lips. He apologized, then ordered a new bottle of wine. The kids were invited to get whatever they wanted off the menu. Calhoun had to make some arrangements with the waiter about adding extra people at his table. But he took care of business, then happily fed his family.
They ate, went home, and enjoyed a nice evening. And every positive action Calhoun took caused Coco to fall that much more in love with him, a love that she prayed would never end.