Authors: Fabiola Joseph
Once eight o’clock hit, she decided to text Jacob. “Where are you, boo? Dinner’s getting cold and so am I.” She waited… nothing. By 8:30, she was texting him every five minutes but still, no answer. She paced her living room floor wondering if something could have happened to him. He never said that he was coming and didn’t show up, he always called or at the very least, texted when he got caught up at work. Frustrated and in fear that Jacob may be laying on the side of the street somewhere, Annabelle turned off the fire under her food and headed out of the door. She went straight to Jacob’s work only to find that all of the lights were out and the building was locked. Again, she texted him, even tried to call him, still, nothing. FUCK IT, she thought. She was going to stop at his house. She thought that maybe he could have fallen asleep, but once she got there, no one answered the door.
Feeling lost and worried, Annabelle hopped in her car and just drove. All kinds of crazy thoughts littered her mind. Car crashes, robberies, murders, anything could have happened to her man. Where could he be? Could he have some side chick that she didn’t know about? Her insides burned at just the thought. He wouldn’t dare. She would kill him and he knew it, or he should know that she wouldn’t tolerate him having another woman. At a red light, Annabelle texted Jacob again. “What in the hell is going on, I’m worried. Call me ASAP!” As she drove, she checked her phone over and over, yet still, no text. She was going to need something stronger than the champagne she had on ice. She drove to her neighborhood liquor store and picked up a bottle of peach Ciroc
.
Annabelle exited the store, got in her car, and popped the bottle open. She knew that she shouldn’t drink and drive, but she just wanted a few swigs. Plus, she wasn’t too far from home. Thinking of Jacob with another woman was making her crazy. Just the thought made her heart race and her hands clammy. With three big gulps of liquor in her, she decided to go home and wait it out. He would have hell to pay once she heard from him. As she backed out of her parking space, a car that looked just like Jacob’s Range Rover pulled up. Annabelle was already in reverse so she pressed the brake. She rolled down her passenger side window and waited to see if Jacob would be the one to step out of the car. A minute later, he emerged, but he wasn’t alone. In the front seat sat a woman. Jacob was only two parking spaces away from her, with two cars keeping them apart, but Annabelle could see everything. Her hands started to tremble as she gripped the steering wheel. Jacob was out of the car but was standing there talking to the woman with his door open.
“You sure you don’t want anything else, baby?” The woman answered no to Jacobs’s question. Annabelle had seen enough. She threw her car into park and unbuckled her seatbelt. As she rolled up the window, another head popped up. It was the head of a little boy.
“Oh, hell no, I know he is not dating a bitch with a kid?” Annabelle asked herself out loud
. As badly as she wanted to jump out of her car and act a fool, something told her to sit in her car and wait. She watched Jacob as he went into the store, bought his poison, and got back in his car. She watched him pull away and pulled out a few seconds behind him. Annabelle was tiptoeing on the very thin line that rested between sanity and blinding rage.
As Annabelle followed Jacob, she wondered where he was driving to. They had passed his apartment building and were leaving the city behind, heading into the suburbs. In that car, she was a wreck and prayed that she didn’t get into one. She was sweating, her body was shaking and every once in a while, she would let out a shriek. How could he do this to her? He said he loved her. Said he couldn’t live without her. Sure, she could be childish, but no one could love him the way she loved him. Over and over again, she kept asking, How could he?
As Jacob's car slowed down, Annabelle made sure to pump her brakes a few houses down. She watched as Jacob stepped out of the car, walked over to the passenger’s side, and opened the door. She watched as he helped the woman out of the car and embraced her. She gripped the wheel tighter as she leaned in to get a better look. After, he opened the back door and took the child out of the car. Together, like one big happy family, they entered the house, leaving Annabelle to her own conclusions.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” Annabelle yelled. For ten minutes, she just sat in her car. Disappointed, hurt, and confused. Who was this person? Was this her house, their house, or did he own this one, too? She had a million questions that wouldn’t
be answered by just sitting in the car. There was only one thing to do. She had to get closer.
Annabelle stepped out of her car and looked around. The street was dark and quiet. The chill in the air warned her of the cold reality that she was about to face. As she walked up to the house, she prayed that she wouldn’t lose it, start breaking windows and kick in his door. Once up close and personal with the house, she looked around. There were a few blinds that were slightly opened. She looked into the first one and almost felt like a peeping Tom. There wasn’t really much to see in that one, just a view into the dining room. The second window showed a bit more. She could see the woman in the kitchen with the little boy. She watched the woman give the child a snack and after, she took a glass to fix a drink. As Annabelle watched the woman, she sized her up. She was cute, but not as cute as her. She must have been in her thirties with short hair and a tight body as far as she could tell. As the boy ate his snack, the woman made her way to another part of the house. “SHIT,” Annabelle said aloud. She looked around hoping that there was a window with a good view.
The front of the house had the perfect view into the living room where Jacob sat watching the basketball game. She watched as the woman sat on his lap and handed him the drink. Annabelle fought the urge to pick up a brick and shatter the window, which to her, almost represented Jacob's picture perfect lifestyle she
wasn’t privy to. As she peered into the window, she could somewhat hear the conversation.
“Daddy, Daddy, I left Samson in the car.”
The little boy had come out of the kitchen and looked upset. “‘Daddy? What the fuck does he mean ‘Daddy’?” Annabelle asked aloud. As Jacob got up, she felt sick to her stomach. Jacob was a father and he had never even brought it up?
She had made up her mind right in that moment. She was going to knock on the door and make sure to huff and puff, and blow his house down. As she made her way to the front door, she heard the garage door opening. She slid to the side of the house and waited. It was Jacob, she could tell by the sound of his footsteps. She was going to wait to see his face and jump out on his ass. She was going to try her hardest to beat his ass. Just when she saw his face, her feet couldn’t move. Her anger was weighing her down. She watched him go into the car, and after, the trunk. That’s when it hit her, she had to move now. Slowly, but as fast as she could without making a sound, she made her way into his garage. She hid on the side of what she presumed was his wife’s car and waited. She was undetected as Jacob walked in, pushed the garage door button, and slipped back into the house.
She lost track of time as she waited for the house to quiet down. Finally, she heard the television go off. With a cracked garage door, she heard the woman speak.
“You owe your wife a bath and a nice body rub, remember?”
There, she heard it with her own ears. That motherfucker Jacob was married. She watched as the couple made their way upstairs. She thought about things for a minute and within seconds, she was leaving the garage and stepping into Jacob's home. The home he shared with his wife and kid.
Bedroom Secrets
Annabelle had learned a lot in the short time she spent in Jacob’s house. Pictures told the story of a family who seemed to love each other very much. There were photos of family vacations, date nights, and family reunions. Envy dripped from every breath Annabelle took. As she let thirty minutes pass before heading upstairs, she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of man Jacob was. How could he have all of this at home, yet live a double life with her? When she heard the giggling and splashing coming from upstairs, she slowly made her way up. With each step she took, the pain of another broken relationship slashed at her heart. She thought that finally, she had found her man. A real man who would never do this to her. She had been down this road of broken hearts before. She thought that the last time would be the last time, but men would be men. First, she came to the little boy’s room. She stuck her head in and he was fast asleep. She couldn’t help how she felt, she wanted to get an up close look at him. As she walked up on him, she held her breath. As soon as she looked into his face, her heart broke a little bit more. He looked just like his father. The night light hit his face perfectly. There it all was, Jacob’s lips, his hair, and his nose. She couldn’t help but want to touch him. She wanted to make sure that he was real. He was everything that she had always wanted with Jacob.
Annabelle leaned in and let her fingers grace his soft little cheek. He was beautiful, he was… Jacob. Standing there, lost in a wishful trance, she heard her voice.
“I’m coming right back, baby. I just want to check on Junior.” Annabelle had to pull herself away from the beautiful creature and had to think quickly. Her eyes darted around the room and the only place she had to hide was the closet. Jacob's mother stuck her head in the room, watched her little man breathe for a short minute, and then sashayed back to her husband. Again, Annabelle waited a little while before exiting the child’s room. She waited, and when she heard the sound of HER MAN making love to his wife, she had to see it for herself. She made her way down the hallway without being detected. She would see them as the light from their master bath cascaded against their bodies. She was on top of him, moving her hips to the beat of Jacob’s thrust. Annabelle watched with every little detail leaving an imprint of insanity in her mind. She watched how his fingers ran up and down his wife’s back, the same way his fingers would run down her own back.
Annabelle heard his moans and his soft whimpers. He sounded just the same when he was with her. As he flipped his wife over and got on top of her, Annabelle heard the very same words HER MAN would say to her.
“Damn, baby; I love you, baby. You feel so fucking good.” Feeling as if she was just shoved into the abyss of mental destruction, Annabelle decided that she had enough. Her legs felt weak as she descended the stairs. Her mouth was open as she silently screamed. She knew she had to get out of the house. She could barely stand the truth that she faced that night. Nothing would ever be the same again. On her way to the car, she checked the mailbox. Inside, she found a bill. She looked at the name on it and finally, she knew the real name of the man who had been sharing her bed for the past few years. Mr. Raymond Mitchell.
Couple’s Therapy
Reverend Bell looked down at his watch. For the first time, she was late. Jacob looked down at his watch and then back at the reverend.
“I can try to call her one more time. If I don’t get an answer, I guess we can just cancel today’s session.”
“Have you heard from her at all today?” The reverend asked.
“I have spoken to her here and there, but for the last few days, it was only through text. She said that she wasn’t feeling well and had a really bad cold.”
“Did you go over to see her?” Reverend Bell asked this to see if Jacob had cared enough to check on his girlfriend.
“No, she told me to stay away so that I wouldn’t catch her cold. If anyone had a cold, I am always the first one to catch it, so I just told her that I would see her today.”
The reverend nodded his head as he wondered where Annabelle was. As Jacob dialed her number and waited as his rings went unanswered, the office door opened. Annabelle walked in, mumbled a low, “Sorry,” and walked over to Jacob. She wasn’t a total mess, but something was a little off with her. Her clothes seemed a little darker and it matched her mood. She wasn’t the playful girl who oozed sexiness on a daily bases, no, that day, she was very bleak. She didn’t sit; instead, she just stood in front of him and looked him dead in the eyes. She wanted to see if anything had changed about him. Would she see him for who he really was? Would she be able to look at him, take off the handsome mask, and see him for the pig that he was? She looked, and looked and looked. Finally, Jacob spoke up.
“You’re almost a half an hour late. I have been calling you. Where have you been?”
Annabelle almost didn’t answer him just to be disrespectful, but six days had passed since she discovered who he really was. She thought that maybe since she had a little cooling off period, she wouldn’t be so upset.
“Just had things to do, is all. How have you been though? Haven’t heard from you much in the last few days? Are you okay?” Her tone did little to hide the discontent she felt.
Reverend Bell sensed something different about her and maybe if Jacob wasn’t so stuck on her being late, he would have felt it, too.
“I’m fine, but you need to call if you are going to run late. You---.”
“What; should I show a little consideration for others? I should make sure to let them know the important things… like being late?”
Her stare was so intense that Jacob had to look away. He finally felt it, the thing that the reverend noticed the minute she walked in. He felt as if her eyes were throwing daggers into his soul and he couldn’t look at her any more.
The session was tense and the reverend felt it. For the first thirty minutes, Annabelle didn’t say much at all. For most of it, she just sent sharp stares at her lover Jacob. For the second half, she spoke here and there. She wasn’t all over the room, touching things, or bouncy. She was stoic and quiet.
“So, Annabelle, anything on your mind, anything bothering you?” the reverend asked. He watched her bite her bottom lip, frown, and after, a sly smile.