Chapter 13
It was Friday. Kiara and her man took a day off from work. Myles was out of school too. And Jazzy was being cared for by Mama Flora.
They were all in Eddison’s car on their way to some much-needed recreation. Eddison drove into the parking lot of the iFLY building, one of several facilities in the Houston area that offered indoor skydiving.
“What is this?” Kiara asked.
“A surprise. I’ve always wanted to skydive.”
“Eddy, you must be out of your mind. There’s no way I’m doing that.”
“C’mon, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
“I can knock it all day long and I still won’t be trying it.”
“Mommy, you’re a scaredy cat. I’m going to do it. I’m not scared.”
“Eddy, please don’t let my baby skydive.”
“We’re all doing it. Including you,” he stubbornly told her.
Kiara continued to protest while Eddy tried to convince her that she needed to do something daring for a change. He pulled on her arm and tried to coax her inside the building, but she remained steadfast in her seat.
“Why are you doing this, Eddy?”
“It’s different. It’s fun. And it helps you to confront your fears.”
“You are a crazy-ass man, and I’ll be waiting in the car while you two fools go and try to get yourselves killed.”
“No one has ever gotten killed from this.”
“That’s because they were smart enough to stay outside and wait in the damn car.”
Eddison laughed and rolled his eyes. “I thought I had a strong Superwoman who could face anything.”
“Oh, that outfit you saw me wearing on Halloween one time is just a costume that looked cute on me. But Superwoman? That’s not really me, Eddy.”
“You are Superwoman even if you don’t think you are.”
She smiled. He smiled back. Then she looked angry. “Nice try, babe. Nope, still not going.”
After a couple more minutes, Eddison gave up begging. He got out of the car along with Myles, and they headed to the front entrance of the building.
“Have it your way, Kiara,” he yelled. “It’s hot as hell outside and you’ll be waiting, oops, I mean melting, for at least an hour.”
“You got AC. I ain’t worried. Hand over your keys.”
He shook his head and tossed her his keys.
While Eddy and Myles went to do their indoor skydiving, Kiara got on the driver’s side of the car, turned on the ignition, and flipped on the air. Then she dialed up her girlfriend Adina Davis.
“What up, my Nubian queen?” Adina said when she saw that Kiara was calling.
“So much has been happening. Sorry I haven’t been calling you back.”
“No problem. I knew you would when you found the time.”
“Yes. Time. It seems I have much less of it. And managing my life has gotten so complex.” She got Adina caught up on the latest happenings of her complicated life.
“Eddy and I are still good. He’s going through some family stuff right now, and all I can do is be there for him.”
“That’s my girl.”
“But, on the other hand, my crazy ex is proving to me that the best decision I ever made was getting away from him.”
Adina laughed. “I could have told you that, girl.”
“He’s a hot mess. He’s married to another woman and still hounding me. Not just hounding me, either. He’s stooped so low that he has outright lied on my man. Ain’t that crazy?”
“That’s Rashad.”
“Yeah, so I gotta be real careful, because, you know, that’s my kids’ father. I have to pretend like he’s a great man even though I want to wring his neck. I’m tempted to not even let the kids see him sometimes.”
“Okay, I can’t stand Rashad, but keeping him from his kids would be dead wrong.”
“I know. You’re right. I’m just so scared, though, that he may plant some weird ideas about Eddy inside Myles’s head. He’s so good with my kids, and I’m afraid that Rashad may scare the man away.”
“I hope Rashad is not that crazy, and I hope you aren’t allowing fear to rule your decisions, Kiara.”
“No, not at all,” Kiara told her and decided not to tell her exactly where she was right then. “I’m going to continue to live my life regardless. And I will do it unafraid,” she said as she stared at the skydiving building. “I’m trying not to be scared of anything.”
“But remember that time you and Rashad had that boat accident?”
Kiara clearly remembered that day. It was a year after she and Rashad had first been married. She hated taking risks, but early that Saturday morning, he begged her to go with him to ride on one of his friend’s boats. They were going to drive down to Kemah Boardwalk and take a sailboat out on the water.
“Rashad, you can’t swim.”
“It’s cool. We’ll be wearing our life jackets. It’ll be fun.”
“I’m shocked you’ve agreed to do this, but if you insist, I’ll tag along.”
“Great. I’ll let Corey know.”
Rashad called up his buddy Corey, and Kiara scrambled to find her bathing suit and packed a light lunch for the two of them. Once she was buckled in their car, she sat back and relaxed. “I’m starting to think this will be fun. It’s kind of romantic. I will do anything as long as we’re together, baby.” Her husband winked at her and sang at the top of his lungs all the way down I-45 toward Galveston. They took the Kemah Boardwalk exit and drove to the parking lot, where they met Corey and his girlfriend at the Seabrook Marina.
Corey allowed the women to step onto the boat and untied the rope that anchored his day sailor.
“Let’s go,” Corey yelled. “You’ll never forget this as long as you live.”
At first Kiara’s shoulders were clenched and tight. But twenty minutes into the ride, she began to laugh and joke and have a good time with the others. The sky boasted a brilliant-looking blue and there wasn’t a cloud in sight.
But thirty minutes later, the fun that they were having had come to a stop.
“Oh shit, water’s coming into the boat,” Corey yelled.
“What does that mean?” asked Kiara.
“Stand up, and hold on.”
She stood up and clutched her life vest against her body. She grabbed her purse. Soon water came over her feet. She was wearing her favorite sandals. It didn’t take long for them to get covered and eventually slide off as the water rose higher and higher. Soon she was up to her thighs in water and it was steadily rising.
Kiara was frightened. She could swim, but it was one thing to be in a six-foot-deep pool. Things felt more harrowing out here in the ocean—an ocean that had sharks.
“Rashad,” she screamed. During the initial panic, she hadn’t noticed that he did not have on his life jacket. Earlier he had complained it was getting in the way of his fun, so he casually took it off and threw it somewhere in the boat.
“Rashad, baby, you can’t swim.”
The color drained from her husband’s face. Corey swam over to Rashad and tried to hold him up. By that time the boat floated on its side. They had all been dumped out of the boat and were treading water in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Sharks,” Kiara shouted as the color drained from her face. “What about sharks?”
“Don’t say that,” screamed Corey’s girlfriend.
Although she wore a life vest, the currents made Kiara go under. She closed her eyes and sucked in her breath. The water rushed over her head. The sound of bubbles filled her ears. She rose back up to the top, breaking the surface. She screamed, “Help,” and hoped someone could hear her.
Corey struggled to hold Rashad up. Corey was only five-feet-six and his skinny arms were getting tired. “Don’t you dare drop him,” Kiara pleaded. She fought hard to stay positive, but it seemed they were doomed.
Thankfully the Coast Guard was nearby and spotted the four people in the water. They were all rescued, Rashad did not come close to drowning, and Kiara felt grateful they made it out alive.
“Now, do you see why I hate taking risks?” she told Rashad once they were safely home. “That whole ordeal scared the shit out of me . . . literally.”
“Aw, babe, I didn’t mean to scare you like that. I just wanted to show you a good time.”
“The best way to show me a good time is to always be safe. I mean it, Rashad. I don’t want to lose you to any foolishness.”
Ever since then, Kiara hated doing anything that involved tremendously scary risks.
“No more little boats,” she’d declared back then. And today during her chat with Adina she wanted to show strength even if it was just in her romantic relationships.
“I’m sure you know how to handle both Eddy and Rashad,” Adina told her.
“Yes, I do. I will try to maintain peace between all of us even if it kills me.”
“Alrighty then. We will talk later. ’Bye, Kiara.”
They hung up.
Waiting in that parking lot of the iFLY building, Kiara continually looked at her watch; she was tempted to run inside the building to make sure Eddison and Myles were alright. But in some ways letting Myles go in there with Eddison was a test. Did she trust her man enough to believe he’d take great care of her son?
“I have to trust this man. I can’t be with him if I don’t trust him.”
* * *
As Kiara continued to wait in her car, her cell phone screen lit up. She picked up. “Hello, Rashad.”
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Wow, are you even authorized to say something like that to me, ex-husband?”
“I can say whatever I want to you. You know you will always be my heart.”
“You know what’s funny, Rashad? When we were married, I was dying for you to say nice romantic things to me. But you rarely had time. And now that you’ve gotten a second wife, it seems you have plenty of time to tell me what you should have told me a long time ago. Why is that?”
“It took losing you to realize how good I had it.”
“Is that right?”
“It’s true, Kiara. You were a damn good wife. I was so proud of you. You were doing your part. I didn’t do mine. And . . . I apologize for failing you.”
Kiara was speechless. He’d never been this honest and vulnerable with her. For a moment she wondered what would have happened if she hadn’t been so hell-bent on countersuing Rashad for divorce. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so stubborn and eager to pay back all the pain he’d given her through his numerous affairs.
“Yeah,” he continued. “I’ve been wanting to say that. To even take you out and have a face-to-face for a while now.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, Kiara. You know what? I miss being a family. Coming home to you and Myles. It was just us against the world. We created something great, Kiara, didn’t we?”
“Actually, I can’t deny that. I can’t imagine life without the babies. That’s one good thing that happened in the midst of a whole lot of bad.”
“Can you ever forget that? Would it be impossible to start over and do things the way you always wanted them to be done? Look, Kiara. I was a major fuckup. Do you know how hard it is for me to admit that? Even over the phone?”
“No,” she murmured. “I cannot imagine. It’s hard to see this side of you, Rashad. When I was busy loving you, you were busy acting a fool. Disrespecting me. Locking me out of your heart and pushing me out of your life and your bed.”
“I know. Don’t remind me.”
“I have to remind you, or else you could keep doing it over and over again.”
“But that’s it. I am not that man anymore. He’s dead. I don’t want to treat you bad ever again, Kiara. You’re my heart. You belong to me, not that lame ass.” He couldn’t finish. He knew by insulting Eddison, he wouldn’t score points with this woman.
“Mrs. Eason. You’ll always be Mrs. Eason to me. Can you please find it in your heart to let it go?”
“Rashad, have you ever heard that expression, ‘Too little, too late’?”
“I have. But for some things it’s never too late to say what’s really important. So, for what it’s worth, I love you, Kiara Eason. I hope you will always be Kiara Eason. Never marry that corny fake dude you got.”
“Leave Eddison out of this.”
“You’re right. This isn’t about him. It’s about me, Rashad, and how I feel about you. I love you. I do.”
“Rashad, please.”
“But it’s the truth. Remember how you would always demand the truth from me? So here I am right now, giving it to you, Kiara.”
“But it’s making me mad.”
“That’s what truth does, though. I got angry at myself for realizing I’d lost a good thing, the best woman I’ve ever known.”
She felt herself getting weak. His voice sounded gravelly, so sincere, like he really wanted her to believe him.
“You know how I feel about you, don’t you? How do you feel about me?”
“Rashad, I’m about to go!”
“Wait a second, please hear me out. What I’ve learned is that people push you to be open and honest and to tell them the truth, and when you do tell them the truth, sometimes they get mad at you for doing it. You should never ask for the truth if you cannot handle the truth.”
“Rashad, don’t you realize the things that you’re saying right now is what I needed three years ago? What can I do with what you’re telling me today? You always seem to forget that you’re a very married man.”
“Does that mean if I wasn’t married you’d think about reconciling with me and let me be the man that I always should have been for you and the kids?”
A gasp flew out of Kiara’s mouth. What was this man doing to her? Why was he pressuring her with his emotional outbursts and forcing her to think about things—awful, painful, complex things that she did not wish to consider?
“Do you still love me, Kiara? Tell the truth.”
She stared at her cell phone screen and glanced at the contact photo of her ex-husband, the man who’d stolen her heart over ten years ago. Kiara had an old picture of him in her phone. Yet she knew that he was still extremely handsome. He always took care of himself physically, which was why women were always attracted to Rashad Eason. And she knew his drive to work hard and make his company something to be proud of would never leave him. That was the man she’d wanted to marry. She had to admit that she’d known what she was getting from day one.
A regretful tear slipped down Kiara’s cheek when memories of their good times flashed in her head. Their laughter, the jokes, the amazing lovemaking, and their mutual enjoyment of Myles as he was growing up. Even though Rashad couldn’t see her or know what she was thinking, Kiara felt embarrassed. She quietly wiped the tear away. She found her voice and told him that she had to hang up the phone. She promised him that she’d answer his question later.
“Just go on and say it now, Kiara. Please tell me you love me.”
“No seriously, I-I have to think about it. I’ll hit you up when I can.”
He finally gave in and told her that he would hold her to it and she’d better not forget. She told him, “Rashad, I promise. I won’t forget. I gotta go.”
They hung up the phone.
Little did Kiara know, it was the last time she’d ever speak to him.