I started to panic for a moment then my feelings shifted and I was pissed! Now wait a damn minute...didn't I tell Terrence I would call his ass? He's got me fucked up if he thinks given the argument we just had and him telling me to “stay out of his business” he can just show up here. This is my place. I wrapped my robe around myself tightly,ran my fingers through my hair and marched down the steps towards the door. Janay's eyes were bucked at the state of her roommate.
“ Lord have mercy this bougie ass girl has lost her damn mind!” They better not bring that bullshit in here,shit I'm trying to sleep,Janay thought heading towards the stairs to her bedroom.
I marched over to the sleek,black car and banged on the window. The window slowly rolled down until I was looking to the chocolate brown eyes of my husband.
He grinned at me “ I mean that outfit wasn't really what I was expecting you to wear for our brunch date but do you baby. I'll shut the whole restaurant down for you so you can walk around in your robe and slippers. It ain’t no big ooo-wee to me.”
I wanted to burst out laughing but contained myself. I was mad as hell with Terrence. The last two months hadn't gone as smoothly as I'd thought between arguing with Tamera and just adjusting to being married period. I was not happy. A week ago I'd just made the decision to move back in with Janay for awhile.
I wasn't standing outside in my robe for shits and giggles. I needed Terrence to know he wasn't running shit. At least not with me his ass wasn't. Terrence hadn't been out but a month or so but the other side of his personality was showing itself. If I was honest with myself I found it a little exciting but the rational side of my brain knew I needed to be careful.
“ Look Terrence what are you doing here? I do not appreciate the way you spoke to me last night. You can't just show up here like everything is fine after what you said to me. How the hell did you get my address anyway? I never even gave it to you and when I wrote you letters I used my post office box. So where do you get off just showing up at my home unannounced like you running the damn show? Last night you acted like you didn't even know you were a married man. So what the hell do you want with a wife today?” I asked folding my arms across my chest and cutting my eyes at him.
Terrence sat a little further back in plush seat of the car so Dana wouldn't see the immediate disdain etched over his handsome face. This marriage shit was taking a little longer to get used to than he had imagined. He wasn't used to being loud talked and questioned by a woman. Let alone a from a woman he called his wife. Especially after he'd gone to so much effort to impress her to the tune of $5,000 in designer roses? Some of these basic bitches out here didn't even know black roses actually existed and Dana had a dozen sitting in her home right now courtesy of him.
Women in every borough in New York vied for his attention on a daily basis before he got locked up and in the eight weeks since he'd been released, hadn't shit about that changed. The one time he wanted to settle down and do right by a woman, hadn't made her a “ wifey” but an actual wife and she had the nerve to call herself leaving him?
Terrence opened the door to the car and stepped out. Terrence leaned against the car looking down at her. Dana had come out the house in her robe and slippers and was still fine as hell.
I had to step back real fast for fear of all my resolve dissolving within seconds in regards to Terrence. He had quickly become an addiction to me. These past few nights sleeping without him had began to take it's toll on me. The warm earthy scent of his cologne was making it's quick ascent to my nostrils and I was a sucker for a nice smelling man. Especially this man. Smooth,brown skin...and to top it off, I'd swear he was smiling at me on purpose just to tempt me into going back home with him but I wasn't. I was staying at my old place with Janay until he made up his mind to do right by me.
“ Please accept my apology for being presumptuous...”Terrence started in his rich,deep baritone voice. “ ...I found out where you stayed though Tamera,so it wasn't too hard to get the information. As for the roses,I can see you're different but most women do like roses, I simply sent every color just to make sure one of them was to your liking. I was only trying to do something nice for my wife but it's evident to me you don't appreciate shit. So my apologies. I'll leave you to your day.” Terrence said getting back in his car. Seconds later the car took off down the street.
I stood there looking after the car. Damn! I hadn't necessarily meant to run my husband off. I just wanted him to know he couldn't be doing no drive-bys on me. I walked back in the house to Janay's disapproving stare.
“ I thought you said you were going to lay down?” I said cutting my eyes at her. The last thing I needed right now was a lecture from her. Janay had quickly become a part of Terrence's fan club. Janay thought he could do no wrong especially since two months ago when he came home,he paid her for my portion of the rent. Janay got a years worth of rent out of him. She was happy because for the next year she didn't even have to worry about replacing me as a roommate. Not that she really worried about that anyway. Janay had inherited the apartment when her grandmother who raised her had passed away.
“ Now you went and sent your husband away after all of this...,” Janay said opening her arms up in a sweeping gesture of the room filled with fragrant roses “ ....to sit around and mope? Look you the one who made the choice to get married to a man that was locked up. Y'all are just getting to know each other. I'm no expert but to me at least the man is trying.”
I sat down on the couch and sighed.
“ Janay it's not even about that. I didn't exactly send him away...he left. I did let him know he couldn't just come tracking me down and showing up on my door-step unannounced! He doesn't know me like that. Janay this whole club business has changed him.” I said my voice breaking,tears sliding down my face. As hard as I tried to be optimistic about my situation with Terrence the truth of the matter was it looked bleak. I'd wracked my brain trying to figure out why Terrence had turned. I just thought once he was released he would want to dedicate some time to getting our marriage off the ground but instead it was the exact opposite. Terrence had thrown every ounce of his energy into making his club one of the hottest in the city.
Hell I hadn't even known he owned a club. Not once in all those months did Terrence tell me he owned Club Taboo one of the hottest clubs in the city. Tamera didn't even know. I'd heard of it though because Tamera had tried to get into it several times and hadn't been able to get in. She had been looking for hook-ups into the place for at least six months. Then come to find out her brother owned the place.
“ Whatever is going to happen with Terrence and I is going to happen Janay. I'm tired of worrying about it. I love him but at the rate things are going now, I'm just wondering if our paths are going in two separate directions right now. Terrence is throwing himself into his club right now and I need to do the same. The past two months since graduation I've gone totally off track with my own plans. I need to get back to me.” I said walking towards the stairs before she could reply. I walked into my room and shut the door.
I stood looking in the mirror several moments before walking to my nightstand to grab my cellphone to call Terrence. The phone rang several time before he answered.
“ This is Terrence.”
“ Hey Terrence it's me...,look about earlier.”
“ We don't need to discuss earlier. You ain't feeling me. You don't wanna be married to me anymore I get it. I thought we had something special but I guess I was wrong. You just needed some money, I supplied it for you. It is what it is.”
My heart sank. Why was he trying to make it seem like that's all I was out for?
“ Terrence please don't make it seem like that. You know that's not true. You're the one acting like you don't want to be married. Telling me shit is none of my business. And who the hell was that bitch all over you last night at the club?” I said my voice rising. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to say to him but damn if this conversation wasn't going the wrong way.
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