Albert nodded. “I never doubted you would.” He paused for a moment. “So, she left you, huh?”
I exhaled shaking my head. “Yep.”
“And what? You gon’ give up?”
I chuckled. “Hell no, I already got a plan.” I pulled the IV out my arm coming to my feet. “I’m going to need your help to pull it off though.”
He didn’t budge out of his chair, just looked up at me with a skeptical look. “You do know I’m trying to get her mother to the altar, right?”
I made my way over to the closet where my clothes had been hung. “Good for you, old man. But what does that have to do with me asking for your help?”
“Don’t give me that sh*t, I didn’t just meet you yesterday. You’re up to some kind of trickery. You damn politicians are as crooked as the letter S and you want to pull me into your f*ckery!”
I laughed as I slid my legs into my pants. “Oh, don’t pretend like you’ve never participated in my shenanigans. Now that you’ve found you a good woman you’re suddenly a saint, huh? If she knew half of the things you’ve done in your miserable life, she’d be on the first thing smoking.”
It was his turn to laugh. “Whatever you say, young buck. Unlike you, I know how to play the game. You let your girl catch another woman on your arm. My Abby Cat know I only got eyes for her.”
Damn his words stung. I couldn’t believe I’d let that dumb sh*t happen. I thought I had time. Chloe was the furthest thing from my mind. She wasn’t even important enough for me to dump as soon as I knew Journey was the one.
But that’s alright. I’m not the kind of man who wallowed in my mistakes. I don’t accept defeat and I never give up. Albert knew me well. I was desperate and not above trickery. What ever it took to get my woman back in my arms I was willing to do. Period!
“The way you going, I’m gon’ end up married to the mama…before you can even get a ring on her daughter’s finger.” He still chuckled at his own relic a** humor.
I shook my head. “Don’t bet on that, pops…Like I said, I have a plan. Get ready to sit back and take notes, I’ll show you how to tuck your tail and plead with your girl to come back like a boss.”
Albert erupted in laughter.
Chapter Thirteen
The Overlay for The Underplay
“Misery won’t touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of.”
-Edwidge Danticat
Journey
They say when depression falls on you, you can feel it all the way down to your bones. My mother says depression is a demonic spirit that’s attracted to your pain. She says that it grabs a hold of you and feed off your grief. And to keep its food supply coming, it continues to feed you lies and doubt so that you can sink further and further into its greedy clutches.
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know when I opened my eyes the next morning, my whole body was in pain. I had to drag myself out of my bed to tend to Ayana. As I fed her my mind raced with thoughts of failure. It was just me and Ayana before Jo came into our lives and I was doing just fine. So now, why does it feel like I’m going to crumble and fall without him?
And what the world did I witness yesterday? I was a hundred percent sure that Jo had a split personality, one that was deadly. What the hell was I supposed to do with that information? And what about all the men that he killed in the restaurant? I’m sure that once the press got wind of it, self-defense or not, his chance for running for office was shot.
I gave Ayana her bowl of cherry puffs and put my head in my hands. Goodness! Everything was a mess. And poor Kyle, when Jo was done with him his face looked like ground beef. Oh! Man!
“Wow, Journey, you look like your best friend has died.” My mother said coming into the kitchen to fix her a cup of coffee.
“I feel like my best friend has died. Well…at least dead to me.” I muttered without taking my face from my hands. It hurt to even hold my head up. I felt like I was drowning. Life without Jo was unthinkable.
“You ready to talk about it?” She asked as she took two mugs out the cabinet. One she prepped for chamomile tea and the other she prepared for her coffee.
I took my hands down sitting back in my chair. “Nothing to talk about. Found out Jo had a fiancée, got embarrassed out of my life, ran and hid in a motel room and cried my eyes out for two days.”
My mother sat a steaming cup of tea in front of me. I leaned over and just inhaled. The smell of chamomile is so very soothing. Yet this morning, it did little to soothe me.
“How do you know it was his fiancée?” She asked sliding down in the chair across from me with a cup of coffee in her hand.
I just stared at her for a minute. What kind of question is that? Did she think I was making this up?
“Because he came into the party with the heffa on his arm, and then the news reporter asked him if they were going to be announcing their engagement soon!” Even though I tried to school it, my words came out a little snappy.
My mother wasn’t fazed one bit. “Soooo… they’re not engaged?”
I looked at her as if she had grown a building out her head.
“Don’t look at
