She slipped off her shoes when she went in the house so she didn’t wake anyone up. If she could put off the drama until morning she would. She knew there would be plenty of it and she just hoped she could get some sleep before it happened. She noticed that she had forgotten to blow out the candles and that would cause another argument, since he hated for candles to burn when they were out. At least he was asleep so she crept into the room.
With shoes in hand, she got into her bedroom but bumped into the chest at the foot of the bed.
“Crap,” she whispered and grabbed her toe.
“If you turn on some mothafuckin’ lights, you wouldn’t be bumping into shit,” Kevin said.
“Why are you standing in the dark? If you were up, then you could have turned on a light,” she whispered.
“My house, I can stand in the dark if I want to. Where in the fuck have you been? It’s after one in the morning.”
“Right where you left me,” she said.
“Left you? You mean where you decided to stay and chat it up with all the men in the club.”
“No I wasn’t. The only reason I was stuck was because you decided that I wasn’t pretty enough to take anywhere. So I decided that I should let you enjoy your night without me,” she said as she walked past him towards her bathroom. “Besides the woman that was hanging all over you, that trick is probably right up your alley.”
“Slow your roll. I don’t think she would appreciate being called a trick,” he said as he walked behind her.
“Well, I will damn well call her whatever I want.”
“You really need to stop. She is a business associate.”
“Oh, is that what they call themselves nowadays?”
“See, that’s your fucking problem, always jumping to conclusions. You need to check yourself.”
“No, you are the one who needs checking.”
“You always are accusing me of sleeping around.” He had cornered her near the closet.
“Cause you are!” she screamed.
“Look, I am not in the mood to hear this shit again. I asked you a goddamn question, where have you been?”
“Well, I am not in the mood to hear your fucking lies again, just don’t expect me to keep putting up with it either.”
“And what the fuck does that mean?” he said as his arm came up to the wall behind her.
“It means, don’t expect me to keep putting up with it. I am well aware that you gotta be sleeping with someone else, because you barely touch me anymore and when you do, you act like you doing me some sort of a favor.”
“You lucky I touch your ass at all, I don’t touch you anymore because you aren’t attractive to me anymore!”
“Oh, like you’re my apple pie,” she half laughed.
“Yeah Cheryl, real mature. You act like you are eighty fucking years old. You walk around here like a fucking raga-muffin. You wear the ass ugliest clothes I have ever seen. You shop at the thrift store like some women shop at Macy’s. You never get your hair done anymore. I am so sick of your hair in a ponytail, I could scream. I am embarrassed for you to even come down to the office because you look like something that the cat dragged in. Just sleeping with you makes my stomach crawl. It just ain’t no reason for this shit! You could do better if you wanted to.”
She slapped him harder than she thought possible and he slapped her back immediately.
She tried moving past him but his hand prevented her from moving away.
“Move Kevin, I’m tired,” she said trying to squeeze by him.
He grabbed her by the arm and shoved her back against the wall. His hand met the side of her face and she saw stars for an instant. She felt as if her face were on fire. He then grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against the wall.
“ Ah no…you want to hit me, you bitch…you did that shit earlier and I should have kicked your fucking ass then, but I didn’t. Now, oh yeah, now I’m going to deal with you properly.” He slapped her twice more.
“Kevin, stop it! I’m sorry. Please just let me go to bed,” she screamed as she struggled against his massive frame.
This time the slap sent her to her knees. He pulled her up to him and shoved her against the wall.
“You want to try again? Now answer my goddamn question. Where the fuck were you?”
He slapped her again and sent her to her knees. He yanked her up by her hair and swung her around to him. “Answer me!”
“I’ve been trying to get home!” she shouted.
“Wrong, if you were, you would have been home hours ago!” He slapped her again, “I am your husband, and don’t forget it! You come in here all hours of the night, in a limo no less, and question me about who I am fucking. The better question should be; who did you fuck tonight to be brought home in a limo?”
She let the tears fall.
“Who was it?”
“Nobody!” She screamed.
“I don’t fucking believe you!” He yanked her dress up and pushed his hand down her into panties.
“Stop it!” she screamed and tried pushing away from him.
“Didn’t I fucking tell you?” He said as he slapped her hard once more. “Answer my fucking question. Who the fuck brought you home?”
“Kevin, please!”
“Wrong answer!” He shoved her to the floor, and then tore at her dress.
“Stop it!”
“Did you tell him to stop?”
“There is no him!”
“Sure there is!”
“Stop Kevin, you’re hurting my arm.” He had pinned her arms above her head.
“Oh, poor thing. You better tell me the truth or so help you, you will regret it.”
“Kevin please stop!” He yanked her panties down.
She struggled against him and continued screaming until he covered her mouth.
Suddenly the phone rang. After three more rings he snatched it from the cradle.
“What!” He stood up and took two steps away from her. “What! Yeah, yeah nigga, they are on top of the desk on top of the purple folder.” He hung up and looked down on her. He came over and knelt down. “You are lucky. You just remember if you ever think about doing that shit you did tonight, you will be sorry. If I ever find out that you slept with someone else, your ass is mine. You’ll be sorry. Do I make myself clear?”
She didn’t answer fast enough, so he yanked her up by the hair and put his hand around her throat.
“I said, do I make myself clear?”
She nodded her head rapidly.
He pushed her away from him and she stood there until he left the room. Suddenly her bladder was full and she rushed into the bathroom. As she sat there, the tears flowed down her face and then the sobs racked her body. She heard the bedroom door open and she grabbed a towel from the rack and covered her mouth. He didn’t’ like to hear her crying. Not because he felt sorry for her, but because “it got on his nerves.” After ten minutes she calmed herself enough to stand and pull the washcloth down and ran the cold water. She placed the cold cloth against her face and thought she let out a soft “ah” as the coolness felt absolutely wonderful against her burning skin. She opened the door and saw him sitting there with a glass in his hand. She walked by him and then stopped.
“Kevin, the bar offered free rides, so I accepted. I’m sorry.”
She knew that the apology was a lie, in her heart and in spirit but she had to get him calm before his business trip the next day. He couldn’t function when he was stressed. She knew he needed to be at his best. “You have an early flight, why don’t you get to bed.”
She pulled the covers of the duvet back and he stood quickly, causing her to react. He unbuckled his pants and started undressing. She left the room and headed downstairs to make sure that he had packed everything and that his coffee was set. He liked two things for his trip: his favorite coffee mug and the strongest coffee possible. She pulled out the mug and went to the pantry and pulled the container of bold roasted coffee beans from the shelf. She readied the pot and set the timer for 5:00 AM. While she did this she continued crying, not for what happened but because of what she was doing. She was still making sure that he had everything he needed and yet he never did the same for her. She continued crying and then he called from upstairs.
“Cheryl, look, I’m sorry. You know I don’t mean to hit you but you know you shouldn’t piss me off, right?”
She got up and started towards the stairs, she saw him in the darkness standing at the top, “I know, I am sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“You know I have to get up early and can’t sleep without something beside me. So come on upstairs and get in bed.”
“I will in a minute.”
“Sorry, didn’t hear you.” He took one step down.
“Sorry, I was in the middle of fixing your coffee for tomorrow. I’ll be up in one minute,” she said meekly.