His Work Wife (9 page)

Chapter Sixteen: Chase

Time was ticking and I was growing more anxious with each passing day. Ty hadn’t called me since he informed me of his affair. I’d tried to call him a few times just to see if anything new had happened, but he always seemed too damn preoccupied to speak with me. There was no doubt in my mind that he was too busy running up in Kadeema’s old bum-ass.

Nevertheless, if I couldn’t get in touch with my brother, I would have to be a little more direct. I’d call Presley and feel her out a bit. She may or may not speak to me about all of this, but all I could do was try. Presley didn’t care for me because she felt I had too much of an influence on my little brother. Yeah, I had these hoes literally coming and going, but I never persuaded Ty to step out on his wife and jeopardize his family. He did that shit all on his own and I was going to reap the benefit of it.

Honestly, Presley was the total package. Far be it for me to understand such a dumb move on Ty’s end. Yeah, the same could be said about me, but the difference was I always knew I could mind-fuck another woman as soon as I fired another one. Ty, on the other hand, would only get this chance once in his life. The funny thing was, Ty actually possessed all of the qualities of a successful playa and he wasn’t even aware of it. My brother had a great sense of humor. He engaged in conversation and actually listened as if he enjoyed it. He was also free with his pocketbook. Now that is where we were different. I didn’t give a shit about making a chick laugh and I wasn’t shelling out no damn money! My regal looks and long dick were enough to make these women lose themselves in me.

In hindsight, if Ty would take the time to assert himself he’d be blocking panties all day, every day. However, the one thing he lacked was self-confidence. Tyrone wasn’t a bad looking dude. After all, he was my brother. But everything about him screamed regular.
That’s
why he didn’t deserve Presley. She needed to be with someone who complimented her just as much as she did them. I would be that person.

I dialed her number and waited to hear her angelic voice.

“Hello?”

“Hey, sis-in-law. How you doing?”

“Hmph, I could be better all things considered,” she huffed.

“I feel you. Where’s my brother at?” I asked, already knowing the answer to my question. I’d called him moments before I called Presley just so I would know if he was at home or out doing his thang. Like usual, he rushed me off the phone, which worked in my favor. That way I could speak with Presley freely.

“I don’t know where he is,” she fumed. “You tell
me
! Hell, I’m sure he’s somewhere laid up with that bitch!”

Part of me felt sorry for Presley. Here she was pregnant and dealing with unnecessary bullshit from my brother. Again, he didn’t deserve her at all!

“Aww, c’mon. Don’t say that. You know my brother loves you,” I assured her.

“Really, Chase?! Is this how you treat someone you love?” she sobbed. “This baby can come any minute and all Tyrone can think of is how many times he can get his dick wet before the baby comes! From what I hear, Kadeema will open her legs for anyone who flashes a smile.
That’s
the kind of chick he wants though.”

By now, Presley was hysterical. The conversation had taken an unexpected turn. I needed to redirect the conversation.

“Presley, please calm down. This isn’t good for you or the baby,” I reminded her. “Besides, I really don’t think you have much to worry about. Ty’s heart is 60 percent with you and only 40 percent with her. You can get your husband back, trust me.”

“So…is
that
what he told you?! You’ve discussed this shit in that much detail?! I’ve been married to this bastard for nine damn years and all I get is a funky ass sixty percent?? Why the FUCK would you say that to me right now?”

Shit! I should have kept my damn mouth shut! Unintentionally, I had made the situation worse.

“No, no, no! That was just my analogy of how I perceive the situation to be…”

“Well, who gives a damn about how
YOU
perceive the situation to be?! I’m the one over here going through hell day in and day out! Everyone keeps telling me he’s just going through something. Well, what about… OW!” she blurted.

“Presley? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I quizzed.

“Oh my God! I’m bleeding! Chaase… it hurts! Oh my God, my baby!”

Shit! Maybe I shouldn’t have called her with this. I was actually excited about her having this baby. Mainly, because I pretended the baby was mine and she and I would raise him together. The last thing I wanted was to be the reason why she lost him. This was no time to think negative. The opportunity had presented itself for me to gain Presley’s trust and that is exactly what I was going to do.

“Presley, sweetheart, just breathe,” I coached. “I’m gonna call Ty. I’ll call you right back.”

“Okay. Okay,” she breathed through her contractions.

Disconnecting the call, I frantically threw on my Nike sweats, matching Nike Elite socks and my slides. I never had any intentions of calling Ty. He wasn’t concerned any damn way. If he were, he wouldn’t have left her alone in the first place. Everything was all good. Uncle C-Low was going to be there for the delivery while his trifling ass daddy lay somewhere getting a nut.

Presley and I arrived at Memorial Hermann in the Medical Center in just enough time to be escorted to a delivery suite.  During all of the commotion, Presley never thought to call my brother on her own.  That worked in my favor. Otherwise, she may have gotten in touch with him.

My heart sank for her. I knew she was terribly afraid of doing this without Ty. I was vulnerable when it came to her. All I wanted to do was hold her and tell her how much I loved her, but this wasn’t the time for that. I had to play my cards right.

“Presley, I’m gonna give you some privacy and step outside. You don’t need me all up in your business like that,” I joked.

Her eyes filled with terror as she grabbed my hand.

“No! Chase, please don’t leave me. I can’t do this alone,” she pleaded. “I can’t believe he didn’t answer your call. I’m so mad I could scream.”

“Shhh,” I patted her hand. “You can worry about his ass later. Right now, it’s time to tell Harper Happy Birthday.”

Just as Presley was preparing for her first push, Tyrone flew into the room like a bat out of hell.

“Oh my God, Ty!” she whimpered. “What took you so long? Chase tried to call you, I called you, and when you didn’t answer, I left a message.”

My brother’s stare pierced right through me as he realized I had never called him.

“Babe, I told you I had a pressure washing job to do. You know I can’t hear my phone when I’m working,” he reminded her. “But I’m here now. Let’s do this!”

“I’ll be in the waiting room. Don’t worry, I’ll call mom and let her you know what’s going on.”

Not taking the time to lift his head, Ty simply replied, “Yeah, you do that.”

The reddening of Ty’s face, the flaring of his nostrils, and clenched teeth warned me of the storm to come later. He wouldn’t give a damn about the fact that I brought his wife to the hospital before anything tragic could happen; he’d want to know why the hell I lied about calling him. I wasn’t sure of what would happen when he approached me, but I was sure I would worm my way out of it like I did with everything else.

Chapter Seventeen: Kadeema

              Ugh, that damn Presley was always interfering with our time together. That bitch had a knack for knowing just when we were getting into something. Something always conveniently came up… always.

This time she left Ty a message alerting him that Chase was rushing to her to the hospital. Apparently, something was wrong with the baby and she was bleeding or some shit. When I heard that, I became excited! I know it was fucked up, but it would be perfect if she lost the baby. Then Ty could move on and I could play mommy to their two sons.

However, things didn’t go as I wanted them to. When I called Ty’s home number that evening, he told me the baby had been underweight, but healthy nonetheless.  The ache in my stomach brought tears to my eyes. I was so close to having the perfect life within my reach, yet I couldn’t grab it.

Ty had been MIA since Harper’s arrival. Apparently, Presley had some minor complications that required her to stay in the hospital a few days longer. Whatever! My nerves were all over the place. I desperately needed to be reassured that he would not abandon me now that she’d had the baby. He had better not end our relationship because of that ugly ass brat! Yeah, I called it ugly. So what? It didn’t come from me, so it was ugly!

Since Chase somehow managed to escort Presley to the hospital, I just knew I would be hearing from him. His deceitful ass was always lurking around in the cut. But for some reason, I had not heard from him in over a week. That wasn’t like him to not hassle me every damn week. I made a mental note to catch up with his ass later.

Ty took the remainder of the week off from work to take care of Presley and the baby, which made me feel some kind of way, especially since he claimed not to love her anymore. That particular week at work was hell for me. The men weren’t much of a problem because I’d been involved with all of them at one time or another. The petty-ass women were my problem. All day I had to deal with whispers and disapproving stares.

One of the older women who had been there forever had the nerve to approach me. “You know he’s not leaving his wife for you, right?”

“You need to mind your own business!” I twisted my mouth. “You don’t know what the hell you talkin’ bout. He IS going to leave his wife. I just need to wait until the baby is old enough for him to leave!”

“Is that what he told you?” she smirked. “Humph. I thought the excuses would have gotten better with time, but I see they haven’t and you side bitches are still delusional!”

What the hell did SHE know? Not a damn thing! All these hoes up in here hated me because chances were I already had their men. I really was a woman’s worst nightmare because I possessed an “I don’t give a fuck” mentality. Women were never my problem. I left that headache for the men to handle. Hell, as long the men treated me right when they were with ME, their home life was of no concern to me, but Ty was different. He was going to promote me to wife status as soon as he could get his shit situated with Presley.

I bumped into Keisha as she was leaving the ladies room. She’d been acting kind of funny lately.

“Hey, girl. Wassup?” I greeted.

“Oh, nothing. Wassup with you?”

“Nothing, just trying to make it through the rest of this week without my boo thang. You know his wife had that damn baby, huh?”

Keisha shifted her weight to her other foot while placing her hand on her hip.

“Yeah, no thanks to you,” she mumbled.

No this bitch didn’t!

“What the fuck do you mean by that?” I hissed as I approached her.

“C’mon, Kadeema.” She smacked her lips. “You and I have been friends far too long for this. That was you who knocked her down at the Galleria. Oops…allegedly.”

“You don’t know shit! I didn’t knock her down!” I pointed in Keisha’s face. Damn it! I shouldn’t have said anything.

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” she chuckled. “You attempted to knock her down, but she surprised yo’ ass when she stomped the shit out of you. Oh, I notice you have your fist balled up. You already got your ass beat by a pregnant chick, so I would think about my next move if I were you.”

I backed up a little bit. Not because I was afraid, but because I couldn’t afford to lose my job.

“You know what? I’ve always known you had a thing for Ty. Before we even got together, you would invite him to parties and shit. And what better way to have him around you than to hook him up with your BFF?” I countered.

“Bitch, please! You’re so far off the mark ‘til it ain’t even funny. Besides, I could have fucked Ty before and
during
my involvement with Redd…”

“Naw you couldn’t have,” I interrupted. “Ty doesn’t like fat bitches. So yo’ big, grizzly bear looking ass never stood a chance. But you know what? I ain’t got time for this shit with you.”

“You can say what you wanna say about my weight, but baby, I’m thick and so is my pussy. And since you have so much to say, I got proof that was you in the Galleria. Now, what you got to say about that?” she threatened.

“What proof?”

“Humph, wouldn’t you like to know? Don’t worry, I’m not gonna show it to Ty just yet. I’mma hold onto this nugget of information until I
really
need it.” She winked as she brushed past me.

My stomach was in knots as I wondered what proof she could possibly have. This night just kept getting better. I flew into the ladies room and heaved every bit of my lunch from earlier. As angry as I was with Keisha, my feelings were somewhat hurt. How could she turn her back on me like this? We’d been friends since middle school. She was the closest thing I had to a sister. So now, I had to put her in the box with the rest of the bitches I couldn’t stand. My head was about to explode.

Feeling sick to my stomach, I decided to take my sick ass home, but not before cutting Keisha’s brake line on her Toyota Camry. I was the only female that took shop in school. Who knew that shit I learned back then would come in handy later? The cameras in the parking lot were broken and it was dark outside because I worked third shift.  Proceeding to place my work bag in the back seat of my car, I grabbed my cable cutters and voila! I cut the line so that the fluid would leak slowly. Her ass wouldn’t be telling Ty a
damn
thing!

As expected, the next day my phone was ringing off the hook. Not wanting to be bothered, I turned my ringer on silent and poured myself a cup of coffee. After watching a few episodes of Girlfriends, I decided to take a much-needed bubble bath.

Tyrone was sitting at the edge of the bed when I got out of the tub. I must have really been in my own zone because I hadn’t heard him creep up the stairs.

“Hey, bae, I didn’t know you were coming by. I thought you would still be taking care of Presley. Whatchu doing here?” I asked as I patted the water out of my ears. Although, I was sure I knew the reason for his unexpected visit. His dismal expression told it all, but I would still have to appear to be grief-stricken.

“You haven’t heard?”

“Heard what? What are you talking about?”

I dried my moist body with my plum-colored towel while he searched for an easy way to give me the horrible news.

“Keisha’s dead. She had a car accident on her way home from work last night.”

The time had come for me to put on my performance.

“Oh my God! What?! Wha… What happened?” I belted. “Oh my God!”

Ty rushed to embrace my smoldering body as I allowed my towel to fall be the wayside. I wanted… I needed for him to ravage me, but I knew this would be an inappropriate time to initiate sex. Instead, I cried on his shoulders. My body fell into him has he picked me up to carry me to my queen sized bed.

“Shhh, it’s okay, baby. It happened so fast she didn’t feel it.”

Little did he know I wanted her to feel it! Stupid hoe. That’s what her ass gets for trying to threaten me!

Ty placed me on the bed and snuggled behind me as I continued to cry. My performance was so stellar I impressed my damn self.

A small part of me felt a smidgeon of regret for what I had done to Keisha, but then I quickly reminded myself of her words. She’d known me too long. For that reason, she should have known better. She, of all people, knew I didn’t take too kindly to threats. Hell, it was her own fault she was dead. The result is never good when a person talks out the side of their neck. She and I both knew she wasn’t
that
bitch!

Keisha’s motive for threatening me was unclear, but whatever it was, I no longer had to worry. Now that I’d gotten a taste for murder and giving how simple it was, there were a few more loose ends I needed to tie up.

My distraught cries were enough to persuade Ty of my overwhelming grief. Now all I needed to do was get through her memorial service. They’ll want to give me an Oscar when I am done with the waterworks…compliments of theater arts! Ha!