“You still don’t believe me, do you?” Lisa asked as she closed the refrigerator door. She placed a head of lettuce on the cutting board, pulling a knife out of the drawer to start making dinner.
I remained silent as I leaned against the kitchen counter, taking a sip of my beer. I’d been home for a few days, and I couldn’t eat or sleep from wondering if my wife had been the one to tip off the cops. I honestly didn’t know what to think anymore. The whole situation was eating away at me. Lisa had never given me a reason to not believe her before, but that was then and this was now. Before, she never really had a reason to lie, but now she did. She knew that if I found out she’d tried to have Jay captured, it would put a wedge in our marriage, not that there wasn’t already one there.
She started chopping aggressively, seemingly taking her frustration out on the lettuce. “I said I didn’t call the police on your convict friend, but the way Jay is tearing our marriage apart, I can’t say I’d be sorry if they do catch his ass.”
Mad or not, saying stuff like that wasn’t necessary. She’d made her mind up about not helping Jay the minute he went on the run. She didn’t care about his side of the story, nor did she want to hear it. It sure didn’t help that Franklin had become a reoccurring visitor, and my actions only reinforced her belief that I was putting my friendship with Jay before everything and everyone else in my life. Still, I defended him.
“Not cool to say that, Lisa,” I said as I watched her place the lettuce in a metal colander.
She swiftly turned and faced me. “What’s not cool is my husband standing here calling me a liar dead to my face.” She spun back around and began rinsing the lettuce.
“What? Would you rather me do it behind your back?”
Lisa paused, but she didn’t turn and snap back at me. I could tell her feelings were hurt.
Now it was me who was saying unnecessary things. “I’m sorry,” I quickly apologized. “I know you didn’t call the cops on Jay.” Now who was lying? I wanted to believe Lisa, but there was a little part of me that wasn’t so sure.
Lisa had always been like a mother lioness. When she felt someone was endangering her family, she went into protective mode. I hated to say it, but if she felt that turning in Jay was protecting her family, then she’d do it in a heartbeat. And who was I to blame her? That fierce protectiveness was one of the things that had made me fall in love with her in the first place. Still, Jay was like family to me, so I was torn.
“Who knows,” I said with a sigh. “Maybe that chick Ashlee found out where he was and called the cops.” I took another swig of my beer. It made me feel better to redirect my suspicions from my wife to that crazy-ass broad.
Just then, my daughter entered the room, so we halted our conversation.
“Hey, Mom, Dad,” she greeted, making her way over to the fridge.
“I’m making salad and there’s baked chicken in the oven,” Lisa said to her. “I bought some of those Hawaiian rolls that you and your dad like.”
“Oooh, yummy! Call me when it’s ready.” My daughter grabbed a couple grapes from the fridge and popped one in her mouth. She passed by me on her way out of the kitchen, and something caught my eye.
“What’s that on your back?” I said.
She damn near choked on a grape. “Huh? What?”
“What the hell is that on your back, Kiki?” I said in a little-girl-don’t-play-with-me tone.
Lisa stopped what she was doing and turned her attention toward us as I set my beer down on the counter and walked over to my daughter. She was wearing two layers of tank tops, neither of which fully covered the image on her back.
“What the hell?” I said as I looked at the heart tattoo with initials scripted in the middle of it.
“It’s a tattoo, Dad,” she said, sucking her teeth and pulling away from me.
“I know it’s a tattoo, but when… why?” I could hardly get my words out. “You didn’t ask no damn body if you could get a tattoo.”
“Really? I’m twenty years old,” Kiki said. “I’ll be twenty-one soon. Most of my friends have had theirs since senior year of high school.”
“I don’t give a damn about your friends. You are my daughter,” I said. I turned her by the shoulders so my wife could see what had me so upset. “You see this, Lisa? She has the initials T.M. in a heart. Not only did she get a tattoo, but she got that boy’s initials engraved on her body.” Her latest boyfriend, who she’d only known a few months, was named Tyrell Morris.
She jerked away, offended. “I love him, and he loves me.”
“So did he get a tattoo with your initials, since he loves you so much?”
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She stood there looking stupid.
“Mm-hmm. Thought so,” I said.
Even if in that moment she had an epiphany about what a stupid thing she’d done, she wasn’t about to let Daddy know that he was right and she was wrong. So instead, she stormed out of the kitchen.
“Don’t be mad at me!” I yelled. “Be mad at yourself.”
I turned to Lisa and muttered, “That girl,” expecting her to agree with my disapproval. She simply shrugged.
“What do you want me to say?” She went back to preparing salad.
“Nothing. I don’t want you to say nothing about the fact that your twenty-year-old daughter is marking up her body with some dude’s initials who won’t even remember her last name this time next year,” I said, feeling disgusted with the whole situation.
Just then, something hit me. “Oh my God!” I pulled out my cell phone and walked out of the kitchen so Lisa wouldn’t hear my call to Wil.
“Hey, Wil,” I said when he answered, “didn’t that woman in the pictures with Steph have a tattoo?”
“Yeah, a heart with the letters DJ in the middle. Why?”
“If we can find out who DJ is, then maybe we can find the identity of the woman in the picture.”
Wil wasn’t exactly impressed. “Talk about finding a needle in a haystack. But if you think it’s worth looking into, I’ll talk to my cousin and see if there’s anything he can do.”